Fashioning Veneer Wood

It’s the beginning of the new semester and most school children will be looking forward to having a week off of school! Sadly though I do get the time off as well, I won’t be going to any adventure parks but will be staying in writing my dissertation and working out what I’m going to do for my Final Major Project! So a trip to London was in order.

At the end of last semester I came to the conclusion that what I had been working on since before Christmas, I no longer liked and didn’t want to do this for my final project. This was a bit of a spanner in my works! I had loved the beginning of it when I started it and thought I had done a really good job, but now looking back I think I could have done a lot better. But I am also hoping this is a trait of a good designer-being a perfectionist and never being content with what you have done!

So…… what did I do last semester? (No it’s not a horror film!)

I started with using where I had grown up in Spain as a base. Torrevieja in the region of Alicante started as a little fishing village many years ago and from fishing and importing salt from the sea has now become a well known town. It also has many salt lakes around this area which are also used for their salt. Within the town is a museum based around this, Museo del Mar y de la Sal, which was where I visited to get my primary research.

Salt structures from the Museum of Sea and Salt.

After I took pictures in the museum of their sculptures made from salt I also went down to the salt lake near where I had lived and picked slabs of salt off of the bed of the lake. The clumps of salt were hard and quite sculptural and linked in well with me wanting to include alternative materials like plastics and P.V.C’s.

So after looking at designers such as Thierry Mugler, Gareth Pugh and John Galliano, I knew I wanted a heavily sculptural collection that including the plastics and metals. After talking to tutors and developing my ideas, I also ended up including wood as well-veneer wood. I thought this was the most amazing idea ever! But as I now know I tend to love the design and the illustration more than the actual making and completion of the dress. Nevertheless, I am proud to say that I did sample my veneer, found out how it bends and works. It can be sewn on an industrial machine if using a larger needle and a Teflon foot; it can also be glued; as I glued it to leather. It is a really fun material to use and I enjoyed defining everyone and using it, although it is very temperamental. You have to be aware of how it spits and splinters, to sometimes give it extra support in either facings or tapes but I am glad I did it.

 

Veneer wood sewn onto fabric.

 

The end result of these last months has been a made toile-a version of what the finished garment would hopefully look like, a messy sketchbook and a portfolio showing my 6 outfit collection.

My toile with the veneer wood, pvc and leather.