'City' Project

I'm just finishing my second term of my first year as a Textile Design student and we haven't yet quite sunk our teeth into a hearty topic as we are currently flying through all the stitch, dye and print techniques. Starting in January we were put into 'field' groups basically mixed with all the other art & design hill billies for a 2 week research project. I don't know if you've ever had to work with people you are just lumped with but it doesn't always go to plan, we started off with a brief looking at the 'city' Cardiff. As a group we chose to look at Cardiff Castle the oldest part of the city, dating back to the Romans in 55-400 AD later followed by gothic fairytale update we see today, by the Bute family in 1766 - 1947 AD.

My second city site was also chosen for me, Llandaff Cathedral, 10 minutes walk from my halls, its full of art history and remains the centre of the community even after being rebuilt after the Cardiff blitz. 

I some how needed to link these two places into textiles, I found common ground in the surface textures around the exteriors. Concentrating of the pavings and floorings around these two historic sites, looking back this idea wasn't very adventurous but this image of the cobbled flooring by the castle grounds reminded me of this print by Sonia Delaunay and I knew I could work these surface textures into my work inspired by her style. 

Some sketches

Some more prints