Mirjam Rouden Internship pt. 2

I have had a very mixed bag of thoughts and emotions while completing this internship while I still have some time left, and I seek to enter new business and opportunities overall I have to say this was I an under whelming experience for me. It was a very slow most of the time I however got to the company prepare for Premier vision Paris 2016, and the work did get very intense around this time. The saving grace of the whole experience was the designers that worked there being in such a small space, I got to meet some really great people very well. I can only hope my next internship is a good one.

Mirjam Rouden Internship - Summer 2016 Pt. 1

After successfully finishing my degree I was lucky enough to find an internship with a printed textile design studio located in east London, Bethanal Green. I had originally planned to stay for 3 months but, after a week I had decided that is internship is certainly not right for me. The studio itself is located right under a railway bridge, which means that you can hear the trains running over the studio all throughout the day. This is a full time internship which meant that I was required to be there from 10-6 pm everyday. With paid travel expenses up to £10 a day, (which I needed a receipt to get the money beck) I admit that this did sound pretty reasonable, until I arrived on the first day. As quoted the task I would carry out where as follows:-

- Illustration for print design
- Studio preparation for screen printing
- Fabric washing & final product preparation
- Digital print composition (if CAD skills)
- Screen printing (if suitable)
- Help to keep the studio tidy

Now notice how I highlighted, the first line? Well for last 2 weeks that is all I have been doing...From 10 -6 pm everyday. The theme of the illustration was floral designs, using images from a small collection of books to draw and paint from. I should mention that I am not the most brilliant fine artist around and I don't care much for detailed drawings and now I realize how much I don't like drawing. I struggled with those paintings and in the end the 'overseer' designer that was there decided it was best for me to do very simple floral patterns which made me feel a little more comfortable.

Now I should mention that the studio was filled to the brim with lots of textile fabrics, prints and long rolls pilled high on shelves. And I haven't got a chance to interact with any of the textiles around me. I have to say that has to be the worst part, for the last 3 years I have been training a refining my skills as a hand weaver and dyer, and I love working with fabrics and it was horrible not being able to interact with them. Not to mention the lack of direction I was getting, on my first day I arrived and had a quick interview with the owner and one other designer a was then quickly seated around a table with 12 other interns which was a little shocking because the space was far too small to hold that many people. I later then realized that we weren't allowed to speak to each other, headphones were allowed, both I learned from observation and I had silently ask was time lunch was as I wasn't told that either.

I didn't feel like I was learning anything and I wasn't receiving much direction, i.e why am I drawing?, what is it for? Is this design being used in a collection? Are all questions I had to ask but got little inkling to how this internship was supposed to be layed out. I understood that I was cheap labor and the designs were to made and used for almost free in the company collection, but I knew I was being exploited, and I am disappointed that I didn't even learn anything from the time that I have spent there, and I have no intention of staying there any longer than July. I am now desperately trying to find other places for more experience but, I would never recommend this internship to anyone who didn't absolutely love to draw and paint all day. The only task I was given was to cut up some fabric to be mounted on card, in the 2 weeks I have been there...

UCA Farnham Graduation Show 2016

I have visited the exhibition with my today, it was the only day she had off to come and look around. It was also the first time I was seeing the space fully open and for public view. We live in London so the journey there did take a bit of time and I we decided to make a day of it because of the nice weather. It was a pleasure to see everyone's work together all professionally displayed in such a great space, the exhibition is open from 26th-4th of June 2016, so come and have a look if you have the time and see for yourself!

Grad show set up! UCA Farnham

The day has officially come for us to start putting our Graduation show together and it was really nice seeing some of my classmates to together again but It has not been an easy task getting everyone's work up, we were lucky enough to have our work presented in the James Hockey Gallery as we are by far the largest graduating year of 2016. When I arrived at the studio on Monday some my work was already layed out on the wall of the studio, and I was told that my work had already been selected for me which upset a little bit as I thought I would have a say in which work would be displayed, this frustration only grew throughout the day.

Although this was a very fun and rewarding experience I would not want to go through that again so soon. I understood that working and collaborating with others is a very difficult task, as the space was not evenly spaced out between our group and I personally found that there was a certain degree of favoritism among some of my peers. None the less here are some shots of the exhibition coming together.

Finishing off!

I spent the day finishing the warp I have currently on the loom as well as some cone and skein winding, which I finally got some images and even a video. I really enjoyed weaving this warp and have had a fun time learning and refining my skills as a weaver, but I do believe its time to move on and gets some industry experience and employment.

Final weaving

After hand-in there is one final week of studio use before the end of our term. I took this time to weave some more experiments for my portfolio. I used a very soft merino wool on the warp, weaving with unusual and fancy yarns I hadn't had a chance to use yet and a had some very successful results. I also tried to use some of my previously dyed yarns to reduce the collection I have at home. As this is the last warp I will weave for a while. I wanted to make full use of everything I had left over.

Collective Portfolio

Now I have a few days off, I have been working on building a portfolio and gather all of my best work together displaying over my degree and also some work from my A-levels as well. I admit I was quite good with photoshop and Illustrator before coming to university and I havent used it very much again until recently. Its caused me to go back and have a look at all my work and understand how its developed over time and I hope to start illustrating again as I really enjoyed graphics at my a-levels (I also got an A).

The final hand-in!

Today I handed in my all of my work for the final major project. It has been a very long journey and I did try as hard as I could to really produce the best work I could and I have learned a lot about myself in the process the critical reflection assignment really got me thinking about why I do things a certain way and what I actually like doing, what do I need to improve on and what I am good at. I still have a long way to go in this journey of mine.. and not sure what shape its going to take but, university has been the most interesting, scary and wonderful experience of my life... and I cant wait to see whats next.

Final sketches

With hand-in less than a week away I decided to do some drawing and illustration work to add to my work as I feel like I haven't done this in a while and I had a lot of doddles lying around indifferent note books and such I wanted to finalize those ideas in to complete drawings which I am quite pleased with. I have one more illustration and large scale drawing to finish but its nice to be so relaxed while pushing forward with my last bit of coursework.

Presentation and moodboards

I went to the studio for the last time before hand-in to print and complete any missing stages in my work ready for hand-in as I would only return on the 2nd when we handed in, during this time I collected a printed all my images I have ready and just had a good look at what I was handing in as well as what needed to improved or yet to be completed. The images of my display boards just below.

Final collection context photos

Now that I finally in finished weaving I have had the chance to photograph my fabrics for my display boards to be shown in the exhibition coming next month. It took me quite a while to pin them all on the mannequin model but I think I've got some really good images and I also I got some really good feedback from my peers around the studio aswell. I am really proud of my work and I feel much more confident in presenting it for the deadline on the 2nd of May.