'Sealife' project final textiles piece

The purpose of this project was to experiment with a variety of textiles and print techniques and processes; expanding my knowledge and confidence in this. The final piece created was based on the theme of sealife - with prints used on the 'garment' taken directly from some of my drawings and the piece as a whole reflecting this subject.  I wanted to created a contemporary, stand alone piece although I wanted the shape and form to be simple to allow time to be spent on the surface and experimentation, as I felt this was important for my own personal development in this project. 
Colour was used sparingly as I felt the focal point of this project was the surface and textures and therefore only a small amount of colour was used through thread trapped in the french seams. I feel the range of different fabrics and their properties are brought to light when there is a lack of colour. 
Cotton organdie was a material I discovered through this project - it is effective in creating structure and transparency. Part of the brief set was a 'meeting of materials' and I personally wanted this to be a subtle composition and not using materials that did not feel natural together. Therefore I created organic and individually shaped ceramic buttons to fasten the piece. Some wire was also sewn into the french seams in the shoulder  to give shape. 
The final outcome of the piece was not technically perfect - however the process as a whole allowed me to be experimental, whilst learning a great deal about materials, processes and techniques - most of which I had never used before and through this project are things I would like to take further and revisit in later projects. 
 

Details of final piece (above). Experimental textiles piece based on 'sealife' drawings,
using a variety of techniques and processes including puff binder,
the embellisher, pleating, hand stitching and french seams with ceramic buttons.
The piece is all white to allow the surface to be the focal point, using
a variety of fabrics again to add to the structure and surface of the piece,
with small amounts of colour added through threads trapped in the french seams.