Laser Cutting Induction

This week we were inducted into the 3D CAD room, where Adan the technician demonstrated the 3D printer and laser cutting services. We got an overview of the machines and were told what programmes to use to digitally render our creations, like Solid-Works, CAD and Illustrator. We learned that when using illustrator to prepare for the laser cutter that red lines would be processed as a cut and blue lines would be processed as an engraving. Today we got a chance to practice the laser cutting on some 15x15cm plywood tiles. The session was very informative and I know now to perhaps develop and push my 3D thinking a bit more and also practice on my Adobe Illustrator skills. 

Ch..ch..changes.. My Transition from Fashion to Textiles

To most, changing course is a scary and risky move, and thats usually in your first year of uni; so the shock and concern on some peoples faces when I said I was switching course in second year made me feel like a bit of a mad man. To me however the transition from Fashion to Textiles has been a fluid one, reassuring that I am the right track, or more so 'a' right track. Something that I've come to learn is that there isn't one smooth go; there's bumps and turns in the road something you just have to embrace instead of sitting in auto-pilot all your life. So I made the wrong decision, so I wasn't enjoying my course. Do I look at the past year with regret and disappointment, or do I take it in my stride and simply accept that it was a year in which I learned a lot about myself. Looking back at my work from Foundation in college my I can see my work was a lot more about generating fabrics and materials aimed towards fashion, opposed to fashion work for fashion. I can also see a lot more passion and joy in what I was doing opposed to feeling the need to tailor my work to fit a Fashion Design syllabus. Textiles in Practice is such a broad and open-ended course, offering teaching for skills that lend to a variety of fields. Textiles for the body is definitely something I've always had an interest in, but I have not yet fully explored textiles applied to an installation context, which is something which interests me a lot. Im excited to embark on this new chapter of my life.