Developing Laminate Pieces

I am planning on using the laminate technique to create the head dress - however some of the pieces are proving to be to large to fit in the laminator. This has meant i will have to iron or heat press them.



At first i wanted to create laminate pieces with no backing card in the heat press, this would give a see through effect with collage trapped inside - however after tryin out this effect it is clear that not only will the see through effect not work due to the inside construction of the head dress but the heat press needs the backing card to keep the laminate in a flat smooth shape.

Although the crinkle effect does work to create a under water, sea feel because of the neck piece that runs up behind the sea horse head these pieces need to be smooth to allow for accurate construction

example of laminate with and with out backing card

Prototype - Dye

Tie-Dye - A simple, quick and effect way of creating pattern of masses of fabric and clothing. This makes it a brilliant activity to use in schools as the children learn the techniques of tying to great patterns as as well as the excitement of revealing there final dyed pieces. The Two uses of tie dye in the costume mean i will be able to spend a full day session on the subject of "creating pattern with tie dye!"- Teaching different tying techniques as well as the how to use dyes, how they work and health and safety behind dyeing.

The Two techniques used in the schools will be a ring and a line technique. Line for the stripes of the t-shirt and ring for the fins as this will almost resemble the shape of the scales. 

Ring technique - Tied in schools, they will be dyed at uni as a kemtex dysperse dye will have to be used for the synthetic fabric. the dye used will be "royal blue" on a green fabric for 5 mins at boiling point, this will darken the green enough with out turning it blue. a green dye will not give the correct level of colour change to make the rings noticeable from a distance.

Line Technique - Tied and Dyed in school, this will be done with a cold water dye. This has been done in two sections. first the green dye was applied and left as long as possible to create the strongest colour possible. once these were washed and untied the t-shirts were dunked in a mix of blue dye to add extra tones through out the t-shirt.

Lesson Plans

I have a new found respect for every tutor, teacher, lecturer that has ever taught me! Lesson plans are tricky!
Listing things to do in a classroom just isn't enough, especially in artistic workshops. Planning every second counts; your intro, the main activity, how it is broken down and explained, how it is looked at in the end, when to tidy, how to be prepared for the following session. creating the lesson plans in moving tides was a lot of guessing until the prototype was finished, knowing exact orders of construction and decorating allows accurate timings for activities and prep.

OH MY BLOG!

so i've completely neglected my blog , LUCKILY i have everything noted down and my little note book is ready to catch yall up!

Dye Room Session - Cable Ties

Its offical, Im crazy in love with cable ties! They doo so much in the construction of a carnival piece and on top of that they can be dyed THE most amazing colours. Using kemtex dysperse dyes designed for synthetic materials amazing colours can be achieved and cable ties give great height and movement to a costume!

4 Colours I will be using with the children. Bottle Green, Royal Blue, Lincoln Green, Lemon Yellow. 

Cable ties in kemtex will absorb the colour with in approx. 20second (remember to add salt). When I was dyeing a my 200 cable ties for the school I found it useful to have all the dyes in pans, this meant I could mix and match if and when I wanted to create dip dyed cable ties containing 2 or more colours. This also meant I had a large range of different colour effects among the cable ties.

Every Penny Counts!

Maths has never been a strong point, and who'd have thought there would be so much math in costume! Budgeting for moving tides has been one of the trickiest and most daunting tasks ive had to do for moving tides. Creating multiples of one costume means having exactly the right materials and measurments, there is no guessing allowed, and then on top of that getting it for the cheapest prices so hunting through suppliers for deals and discounts always helps. This is definatly and area that could not be done last minute, and things will always be moving around. VAT and delivery are another tricky aspect, which suppliers include it, which dont, who ships for free, who charges per iteam. this ius where a lot of my last minute expense came from, forgetting to include VAT and delivery when pricing materials meant i had to revisit ever supplier and price list to get my total value; and at the end of the day this isnt my money, if i mess up this full costume could go bad!

Moving Tides: School Workshops Materials List

Student Artists Name	ANDREW LAYTON
School Name	WESTFIELD
Project Name and basic Description	SEAHORSE COSTUME DESIGN
Number of costumes to be made	13 CHILDREN 3 DANCE LEADERS
Material	Proposed Supplier	Quantity	Cost per item/ sheet	Total per item INCULDING VAT AND DELIVERY	Purchased by Moving Tides (MT) by Student Artist (SA) (to be completed by Sarah)
A2 LAMINATE POCKETS – 50 PER PACK	BINDINGBAZAAR.COM	2 PACKS	£16.95	£52.38	SA
STRYROFOAM BALLS (PACK OF 20)	LITTLE CRAFTY BUGS	10 PACKS	1.49	£17.86	SA
FLESH COLOURED ELASTIC	EBAY	2 ROLLS	£3.99	£8.78	SA
LINGING FABRIC	CHEAPFABRICS.CO.UK	18 METERS	£1.25 PER METER	£24.49	MT
STRING	WILKINSONS	1	£0.68	£0.68	SA
DYE	WILKINSONS	1	£4.99	£4.99	SA
SALT	WILKINSON	1	£0.48	£0.48	SA
ADULT T-SHIRTS	CHEAPPOLO-SHIRTS.CO.UK	3	£1.79	£6.27	MT
CABLE TIES PACK OF 100	TOOL STATION	2 1/2	£9.48	£23.70	SA
LAMINATE ROLL	EBAY	1	£9.99	£13.98	SA
TOTAL				£153.61