I finished my placement with Wallace#Sewell around mid August. It was a great place to work and both Emma and Harriet are real inspirations. They have managed to create a sucessful business from weaving..this gives me hope!
At the beginning of September I started a 4 week placement with Elle Decoration magazine as a styling assistant. I was helping with the November and December issues. It was pretty stressful but it was really interesting to learn how a magazine works. What I loved about the placement was seeing inspiring new design everyday. It gave me itchy feet to get designing and making again.
As part of the London Design Festival in September, my bags were exhibited at Junction - a week long exhibition in Camden. The fashion and textiles evening was called Juncture and it was a really great experience to show my work outside of Uni. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures (I don't have a camera!). I've been looking online and found a few on the Junction website.
I also exhibited two of my bags at the Ethical Fashion Forum at the begining of October and I've been trawling the internet for images from there too.
I finished my placement with Elle at the end of September and I was asked to stay an extra 2 weeks working as a freelance styling assistant to help with closing the December issue. It was nice not to be considered an intern anymore..and to get paid a little money (although still under minimum wage..).
By mid October as I had been interning for free for most of the summer I had completely run out of money. I was working part time but this only just paid my rent. I decided to move back to Canterbury for the winter and try to continue to make fabrics in the hope I could produce more bags.
So at the begining of November I left my flat in London and moved back home with my parents for a while. I'm really missing London and as soon as I can I'm going to try and get back there.
I've recently bought a loom from the loom exchange. It's a basic 4 shaft counterbalance loom, but it's wide so I should be able to weave a fair amount of fabric. I have also managed to find a studio space in Faversham, Kent at Creek Creative. The space just about fits the loom but it's a reasonable price..there's no way I could afford a studio space in London. I'm quite excited that I'll be among other artists and designers. I've really missed that inspiring atmosphere since leaving Uni.
I'm going to try and document my progress in further posts. I will try and keep it up to date....
