Rich Begany Still Life Photography

All images are taken off from Rich Begany's (http://richbeganyphoto.com/) Website, I do not own them.

He has a way of recreating the way people see the products, making the unobserved observed. The images he captures are creative and dynamic, and are truly a piece of artwork, beyond just selling the product. 

Rich Begany's third portfolio (http://richbeganyphoto.com/Portfolio3.html) has food shots which I find are really interesting and worth a look as well.

These two were my favourite shots from there:

Bird of Unparadise

Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.  - Roger Tory Peterson

Man has displayed it's unappreciation for nature, and it's being manifested in the very place we call our home; where we once had luscious forests we now see barren, cold land, where the water flowed and played in the sun to sparkle we now see unclear, clouded, dead water bodies. It is - and should be - of much concern to most in the world, and we've yet to truly be taking action. Even in the fashion world, pervasive to all mankind in the 21st century, so much more can still be done to change our environment. 

In this photography series 'Bird of Unparadise', it basically places a pun on the plant named Bird of Paradise as well as the subject matter aimed at being a representation of a bird. The bird has truly turned into a representative subject matter of nature itself, placing the idea of a dying and struggling environment in a new perspective - artistically and visually. Feast your eyes on the (un)paradise!

This is the bird at the very beginning: determined and like a silent watcher from the trees, fully aware of its surroundings. It is undisturbed yet on guard.

It senses a change - trees being felled and it's home (no, our home) is being destroyed. It spreads its wings, displaying itself from beyond the shadows of the fallen branches.

It mourns for its home. A white cloth draped over as if a funeral is being held.
The body looks like it is supposed to be part of the tree of which the branch had once been part of, but rather no, it is part of the tree itself as a bird.

Angered by its helplessness and Man's tactlessness, it ruffles its feathers in fury.

It wants to escape the predicament set ahead of it by another's irresponsibility, yet it faces confinement for it has nowhere to go to. 

It's home has already been broken.

Bird of Unparadise Series, Jubilee Tai, photography 2012

Yup so that's the end for this photography series, but wait! I have a few artistic shots captured from the rest of the shoot as well which I filtered out initially from the final piece.

I actually think it's(below) quite Vogue worthy :)))

Hindered, Jubilee Tai, photography 2012

A concealed facial shot.

Ethereally unreal, Jubilee Tai, photography 2012

Dead Bird, Jubilee Tai, photography 2012

Camouflage, Jubilee Tai, photography 2012

 Thanks for reading! :)

Inspirations: My Sister

My sister is currently studying fashion design in Central Saint Martin's in London and she has actually become one of my biggest inspirations, and I really have become more inspired as I see the way she grows in her design style from the normal regular beauty of draping to the minimalist forms. What really inspired me was the minimalist forms she created and designed, as I myself really love the idea of minimalism and the beauty of simplicity.

Above are a few pictures of the project she did two years ago in 2010. It is really the unconventional elements that sparked something in me that fashion was no longer just limited to what I saw on the runway or just big poofy skirts or tight bandage dresses; fashion is an art form in itself. Fashion is much more than that. The very fact that it is art means it has a life of its own: it can develop and it can change, even with the few basics retained. It takes on different forms and unconventionality and open-ness is welcome. It can be strange and still be accepted. It doesn't have to be terribly elaborate yet can still make a statement.

That was what had inspired me. It makes me think bigger, bolder and more out of the box in my own fashion design. There are many more possibilities to the cloth than just threads hanging together in a traditional cloth pattern. Perhaps, maybe one day not even cloth will be the absolute medium in fashion.

Artwork 10: Coursework Final Piece

Due to time constraints, I decided to just dive straight into the final piece first. 

Here is my write up for the piece and see for yourself how it links! :)

Jubilee Tai Yi Xuan, 412, White Hope/Warrior, White Cotton, 2012

The strength women possess inside may not be forceful. We need not be steel strong or hardcore. But rather, the soft power we have inside cannot be discounted, and it cannot be neglected either.

White cotton. How ordinary can it be? Seemingly boring even. However, it is somewhat like us; perhaps ordinary as we are, we still have the potential of being an extraordinary warrior with a greater destiny. And why white hope? White hope is defined as someone expected to achieve great success in a given field.

So let us be the silent strong warriors of our time. Let us be white hopes of our generation.

1st Outfit:

 The front view

 Front view with collar

 Side view without collar

 Back view without collar

2nd Outfit:

 Front view

 Side View

Back view

Behind the Scenes: Coursework Part 1

Final Piece Part 1: Patterns and Pre-sewing Work

In my series of blog posts I will be jumping straight into the final piece and its process as I find that if I were to introduce my coursework from an absolute scratch I would only be repeating myself for a third time, and frankly speaking, it can get boring. So instead I have decided to document the process in the making of the garments.

Before I could sew anything, I started by cutting out all the cloth patterns according to intricate and precise calculations and measurements, and it also gave me a rough and clearer idea of which piece should be paired with which, and the way I planned it was in a visual manner as shown above where I drew out diagrams and labelled them with the measurements, ensuring that each connection between the cloth pieces would be practical and feasible. I did not just jump straight into cutting the cloth as I knew I could not make mistakes in doing so and it would be virtually irreversible.

 

One thing that came in handy to avoid the mistake of cutting the wrong pattern would be the use of chalk, and especially for symmetrical patterns which are predominant in my design, I could simply fold the cloth over and give the chalked line a press and it would be "photocopied"as a slightly fainter line over onto another portion of the cloth and this ensured that the design would stay symmetrical, especially with the extensive use of curvatures in my design which would be frustrating to replicate from scratch.

 

Certainly, the use of a measuring tape was useful, if not essential.

Also to ensure that the zip fit for this particular top, I also took out the actual zip to measure against the lines where I would be sewing the zip on.

By the end of the day, I finally managed to cut out all the patterns, and they were ready for sewing, which I would proceed with the next day! This was all except for one of the patterns for my second design as some of the pieces and position of the curvature depended on the other element, which I would have to sew together before crafting the piece to complement it.

Lastly, I also tried to cut a little of the workload for the next day by pinning as much as I could for sewing. However my collection of pins only allowed for the pinning of one skirt as this skirt had many slits that I had cut along the edge so that they could be folded in to be sewed and tapered in, and also because of the large surface area...

Inspirations: Alexis Mabille

Personally I've always taken an interest in fashion design, and Alexis Mabille is one of my biggest inspirations.

Below are some of the designs for Couture Spring and Summer 2011 by Alexis Mabille

I absolutely enjoy the beauty of the silhouettes which Mabille has incorporated and used. What also impresses me is the simplicity of his design where he uses the same concepts time and again, yet it is not boring, but rather never fail to impress with his use of theatrics in terms of shapes. The clothes he designs are signaturely dynamic and feminine, while employing some of the old, he also merges it with the new. What I really love is that Mabille never fails to bring across sensuality in his designs, but not outrightly or explicitly sexy, but rather he does it decently and with a certain beauty and class, such that the models can show off what they have in their physique without having to dress (pardon my words) trashily.

I think that although these are not thing I may have designed myself, but I am truly inspired by the elements I have just pointed out which Mabille uses with precision and wonderful accuracy and appropriacy, and I feel that that is something I also want to be able to put across in my own fashion designs.

Artwork 06: Class Tee 412'12

So this year, for my class tee, I really wanted to design something that the class would be able to appreciate much more than last year's design, and I also wanted to motivate my classmates more, so I decided to add a few motivational messages! But I did try to make improvements to my design this year based on last year's response, and one of them was to include everyone's names on the back of the tee. I came up with three draft designs, and my main idea behind them was that they would make use of the idea of positive and negative space, and it would like a stamp on the tee, so it would be a simpler one compared to last year. 

This is my first design, and i didn't really think it would be very popular with my classmates but I just did it anyway...

The purpose of the face behind would kind of be like a Mulan motif, and making use of the idea of heroism, (female) strength and courage to encourage my classmates. The reason why I had this phrase "we don't give up easy; we will, we will, breakthrough", was because from last year, it seemed as if a few teachers had given up on us because my class was rather different from the other classes in the sense that my class was more relaxed and we didn't seem to work as hard. I think somewhere in the back of the minds of some, we were considered as "failures", also because we were notorious for our ridiculously high Mean Subject Grade for Chemistry at 6++. This is year, however, I choose to believe for change in my class, and I know that we will breakthrough. 

But yes, anyway my class didn't really fancy this design as much as the others. My second design was simple:

Above was the original, but upon request by my classmates, I added in the names at the back and this was surprisingly quite popular.

My third design is as follows:

It was my personal favourite design as I liked the scratched quality of the design and it made it more interesting and more textured. However, my class was torn between the second and third designs and to appease both sides, I decided to take suggestions for the changes I should make that the whole class would be able to come to consensus. My classmates then suggested female silhouettes, and I was rather stumped as the only female silhouettes that I saw when I searched on Google were highly inappropriate, and I decided to go with a fashion theme. The silhouettes would then be of a model walking the runway, and I felt that it would give a pinch of an attitude to the design, and it also suited the unique and differing style of my class compared to other classes.

The design was as follows: 

The photos I used in the design were from somewhere on the Internet but I lost the links to it... will update this ASAP!