As the third year of university rolled around, I had quickly started to envision a major project that was formed of primarily traditional textile printing using a variety of screenprinting methods.
Through a live brief for the Society of Dyers and Colourists in the early months of the academic year, my love for this way of working grew as I felt myself re-gain the work ethic I had before my time at University.
I had always known myself to be someone with a strong work ethic and clear idea of what I wanted to do, but found that in my first and second year in University I had lost this part of myself. I became unknowingly obsessed with finding a 'style', presumably due to a higher consumption of social media and seeing other creatives who appeared to have developed this for themselves, finding myself lost in the crowd in comparison to my time at school and college where I had gained high grades in creative subjects and felt sure of myself.
I quickly found that the work I enjoyed consuming, being illustration and emotive and expressive fine art pieces, were different to the work I enjoyed making which was often why I was disappointed with what I produced or confused at what I enjoyed, unable to put any form of creative label on myself.
I focused on what I loved in all forms of art - a strong concept, colour and texture alongside physical materiality.
In an effort to achieve more natural tone in my work whilst using traditional print, I delved into using reactive print pastes and quickly fell in love with them - I think this is where I began to feel my previous 'creative self' re-emerge, as I was eager to create more, experiment more and importantly - let myself fail.
My desk quickly became an overflow of materials, 80% of which were print failures - they had the odd splodge of paint on them, a process hadn't worked as I'd liked or the whole thing was a complete mishap. But, I can also say that I learnt from these failures and continued to develop my work to create an outcome that I was happy with.
I'd allowed myself to experiment in the print room with a number of processes without being too fearful of the outcome, letting go of my need for a style of work and instead developed a style of working. In an odd turn of events, all of my failures had made me more confident in my ability to create work I was happy with.
So, when news came around that we wouldn't be able to complete our final major project using the university facilities I was upset that I couldn't complete my project as I'd intended, but knew I had the versatility within myself and willingness to explore other avenues that I may not have been able to do if I had confined myself to a particular style of working.
I bought new paints and inks, studied focal points for my project I had already gathered and carved a new path for myself. I experimented with new medias and manipulated them digitally to create a collection of fabrics.
Although my project had not gone the way I'd hoped for, I'm thankful that I was able to create a digital collection - I'm unsure that I'd have done this on my own accord, and it's a strong element of my portfolio as I'm aware that digitally is how most studios and print designers work.
I also count myself lucky that I'd already decided to stay for the MDes element of my course and fingers crossed, I'll be able to carry out all of the print room experimentation I hope to next year, accompanied by a new appreciation for work I'm able to produce digitally!