My 1st week of work placement was with the lovely Laura Spring in mid July. Laura is an independent maker/designer who specialises in bespoke printed design. Her current range contains vibrant, colourful prints inspired by the great British weather, which she turns into unique textile products, clothing and luggage. Whilst I was working with her I fell in love with her over sized duffel bag and cute retro rucksack, as well as everything else she creates. http://www.lauraspring.co.uk/lauraspring/products.html
I was helping Laura out at her inspiring studio in a converted Victorian house on a leafy Glasgow street, where she designs with the help of her whippet puppy dog called Chips. At the door I was always greeted by Izzy the adopted cat and a freshly made cuppa and the tea kept on coming through out the day much to my delight. Laura is the biggest tea jenny i know! As this was 1st placement with a professional designer maker, I didn't really know what to expect from the week but I left with a much greater insight and knowledge of running a small, successful textile business and the wish that it was in fact my actual job! Success!
Throughout the course of the week Laura had me pattern cutting, sewing bag linings, helping with new product development and a wee bit of dye mixing and screen printing too. Everything went quite well, much to my relief, that was until the screen sliding disaster! We were printing one length of fabric for a final bag, this also being the final piece of fabric. No room for mistakes then! It was all going well until when passing the squeegee to Laura I lent too far and shunted the screen down the fabric and smudged the whole thing! I felt terrible and skulked off back to pinning together pencil cases, but after calming down with a cup of tea the print was saved and the bag completed. I however stepped down from printing that particular project so as not to temp fate.
I am so glad I got the chance to work with Laura Spring this summer, as at the end of the day I had a really good week, full of cake and laughs! On a more serious note though, the week gave me an invaluable insight into what could on the other side of this final year and what is possible with hard work and determination. It was great to hear about setting up a textile business and the challenges and triumphs of the journey from someone who has done just that and the experience has definitely thrown another possibility into the mix when thinking about a where I want textile design to take me.
All in all an inspiring week and I'm sure I will call upon what I learnt from the experience, during the coming year. But if there is one thing I learnt from Laura Spring that I will never forget, its to keep an eye out for screens over hanging the table. I am certain I will never screen slide again!
