Ashley’s work was considered for exhibition with a selection of exemplary Textile and Design projects from the 2021 Higher School Certificate.
“My Major Textiles Project is a long sleeve dress that has a fitted column structure with a sheer overskirt,” said Ashley.
“The dress features hand-dyed silk organza flowers with beading, cut using the laser cutter that are placed on the sheer overskirt.
“My dress also has a hand-dyed purple centre front panel which features gold beaded feather-like leaves. The fabrics that were used to create the garment belonging to the focus area of apparel were created using silk organza for the flowers, polyester organza for the sheer layers, and a thick satin for the main dress.
“I was inspired by Claude Monet and his beautiful paintings Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge, including Water Lilies, Harmony in Blue (1917) and Nympheas Water Lilies (1907) from which I derived my colour palette of stone blue, mint green, teal blue, baby pink, orchid purple, sky blue, cadet blue and peacock green and heather purple.
“My final inspiration was nature and flora from Centennial Parklands which has been enhanced by the use of gold beading to implement my Montezuma cypress leaves in the middle section of the garment. Bee blossoms and Australian bluebell flowers have inspired the flower shapes on the sheer overskirt.”
The best part of making my Major Textiles Project (MTP) was being able to bring my designs to life and seeing what I had envisaged actually coming together. I also really enjoyed being able to watch everyone else in the class make their MTPs and seeing everyone’s individual designs and inspirations.
What I found most challenging was definitely completing the portfolio as I have never fully finished one before, but after spending many hours working on it, it was definitely very satisfying to have completed.