Over Easter.....

The work I set myself for over Easter was to have all my tentacles ready to tie dye at my first workshop. This meant I needed to draw on all the tentacles onto doubled up calico, cut them out, sew them together and turn them through. This whole process was very VERY time consuming.
I found when drawing on the tentacles it was better to draw on all the tentacles free hand rather than have a paper pattern for them. By doing it this way I could fit more tentacles on the fabric as I could work them around each other and they would be all different shapes and sizes which is what I wanted. Cutting the tentacles out and sewing them together was actually the least time consuming part of the whole process. Turning them through was the worst as it just took so long because obviously they were all curvy and I wanted to pull all the curves through before tie dying them so no parts were missed out.
Even though this whole process was really long and really tedious when it was finished I was so SO happy! I know it took me a lot longer than I anticipated but when I counted 160 tentacles words can not describe...

Meeting with Teachers from Wyke Regis

I went to Weymouth to have a group meeting with the carnival co-ordinators and to meet with the teacher from the school I will be working with. We watched a video from a previous carnival and received general information about what would happen on the day of the carnival including what route the procession would take and when and were to meet on the day.
The main reason for us to be at the meeting was that it would finally be a chance for us to meet the teachers we will be working with and to get there opinion on our lesson plans and designs.

I was quite nervous about meeting with my teacher but it went very well. We discussed what we would do in each workshop and what materials the school would supply and what I would have to provide. I had to change my first two workshops slightly as the school wanted to get involved in the tie dying as the class I will be working with are 'tie dye experts'. So in the first lesson the children will tie dye all the tentacles and collars and in the second lesson they will stuff them and start attaching the fabrics to the collars. Luckily the school will be able to provide paints ect so I do not need to worry about trying to purchase these items within my budget. This meeting has given me more confidence about going into the schools and working with the children. The only thing I am worried about now is preparing everything in time and being able to buy everything I need within my budget. We also decided to do the lessons the one day a week as this gives me a chance to prepare for the next lesson and it also gives the school time to catch up on anything we did not get done in the workshop. We also discussed the fact that there is 3 year 5 classes in the school and if I would mind splitting the workshops between the 3. I think this is a better way of doing it because, as we discussed, the children will not get a chance to get to precious about there work. 

Design Development - Post Meeting

Design Development

After my tutorial with Adele started drawing up a new design, taking into account how the costume will be proportioned against a child's body.....

I also started to consider how to decorate the costume.....

These are the two drawings I will take into the meeting with Sarah Colwell, Jo Gardener, Adele Keeley and the rest of the students working on Moving Tides. I decided to take these two designs as I thought they would be able to visualize the proportions of the costume, as well as see in detail what type of items I was thinking of using to decorate the costume.

I am pleased with the way my designs are developing and I am excited about constructing them. I will need to sell this design to the carnival co-ordinators and take on board any suggestions/changes they want me to make.