Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Following three interviews in the last two weeks, I have been offered placements from them all. A paid internship one day a week for the whole year at Lavenham Jackets in Sudbury, voluntary work pattern cutting at People Tree in 2-3 days a week in Brick Lane, London (Travel expenses paid), and 2 days a week (flexible) at the Warner Textile Archive for the summer (5 mins drive from my house).

Although it was amazing to be offered a paid internship, if I accepted, it would have meant a commitment to Lavenham Jackets for the whole year - not just through the summer, but throughout my final year - and I just felt that it would be too difficult to balance it with my studies and my family.

During my interview at People Tree, it was really interesting to learn how, because of their commitment to ethical fashion, the relatively 'low-tech' way they communicate with their manufacturers abroad. The placement would be unpaid, but they would pay for an off-peak ticket from Braintree to Liverpool, which is more than most companies offer, but they do want me for 3 days a week, which might be difficult to balance.

Finally, my interview at the Warner Textile Archive went really well too. They were impressed by my cad skills in my portfolio, and were interested on how I could develop their product range for the archive gift shop, as well as working as an archive assistant which is really exciting! Although the position will be unpaid, the archive is only about 5 minutes drive from my home, and they have said that I can stick at two days per week and work the hours that fit in with Ella, which is great news.

I think I have decided to accept the placement at the Warner Textile Archive, as it is more flexible and closest to home, so makes it more achievable to work there for the whole summer. Also the WTA is a place I have wanted to work at since I moved to Braintree, so it is wear my heart lies.

Work Experience and Internships

Deimante Meilune

I am currently working as an intern for Deimante Meilune one day a week, which I am really enjoying. My duties have included so far hand-embroidery, pattern cutting, toile construction and alterations, manipulating prints on photoshop, visual research, and helping out on photo shoots.

Lavenham Jackets       Orla Kiely for People Tree     Collectif

I have an interview for a paid internship once week at Lavenham Jackets this wednesday, and I am in the process of arranging work experience over the summer break: pattern cutting at People Tree and archive work at The Warner Textiles Archive. I am also in communication with Collectif with regards to some possible work experience.

Warner Textile Archive

So I hopefully am on my way to having an interesting summer-break, gaining some valuable work experience in both textiles and fashion. I hope it will also help me to narrow down what I would like to do after yr 3, as I am still not clear on what career path I want to pursue in the near future.

A Day in Rob Ryan's Studio

 As I'm sure that I've mentioned before, my little sister Libby works for the papercut artist Rob Ryan. So back in april, whilst my little girl was away on a brownie camp for the week I managed to escape to London's east end for a day working with her in his studio. I've already met Rob Ryan himself on a few occasions, but on this particular day he was off on his holidays, so it was a bit of an 'odd-job quite day' as Libby put it.

As you can probably imagine, it's a bit odd having your little sister boss you around, a bit of a role reversal, but the bossy Wright woman gene has not by-passed her and she did a grand job.

It didn't stop me having a bit of fun behind her back (literally) tee hee!

I wasn't just playing with sticky dots though. My task was to layout mini Rob Ryan logos on photoshop so that when they are printed onto the sticky dot sheet, they are all in the middle of a dot. So I had to peel off all the dots on one sheet and scan it, then use it as a guide so I knew where to place each logo perfectly. Simple but clever, I'll remember that one!

Amongst other jobs like shopping for, and cooking lunch for everyone, and then washing up. Libby let me loose on putting some water slide decals on mugs, which was really tricky. It is all slippy and you have to get all the bubbles out of it, by being quite firm with your smoothing, but not so firm that you stretch or break the decal and it has to line up when you get to the end, or it creases when you try to line it up. By my fourth one I'd finally got the hang of it, but by that time Libby had got fed up with helping me with my mistakes, so she got me wrapping tiles and moving a load of these kitty cats  round to the other studio instead.