Hand & Lock Internship: Days 14 & 15

Day 14 was a half day as it was New Year's Eve, so I finished Mr. / Mrs. Dawg from the previous day; filling in the remaining gaps with satin stitch (by hand), re-stitching some black detail over the top and then unpicking and trimming the excess grey area:

Finished dawg

And here's the back of him... I always find the back of embroidery works interesting, plus you can see more clearly the areas that I hand stitched (along the bottom):

I was really happy with how he turned out and so was Laura, plus I really enjoyed working on it so this was a success in every way! After that I helped with trimming threads and folding some shirts that had been machine embroidered and then it was home time.

On day 15 I was asked to make some small beading samples, my brief was that I could use whatever I liked and to be creative, so that was very exciting! Having not done much in the way of bead work I think I may have had an advantage in that I wasn't constricted by any 'rules' as such; on the other hand having no experience perhaps left me a little under-confident. I chose materials that I had colours and shapes I liked and went from there. These were two of my favourite samples:

Oversized cup sequins with bugle beads stitched inside all piled and layered up

And more 'drop' shaped beads with bugle beads all piled up. I think these were slightly inspired by my recent uni work that included one heavily embellished sample featuring broken mirrors and laser-cut shapes:

So I really enjoyed being free and creative and being able to develop an idea I had already planted some seeds for. Another job of the day was to hem a beading sample that had just been finished:

Design by Hand & Lock, London

At first I wasn't convinced that my sewing skills were up to scratch enough to make straight lines but it turns out that they are! So it was a little confidence boost to do this quickly and to a high standard, especially as it was a meshy, slippery fabric and I couldn't use pins because the holes would show up and spoil the finish. It was also important to trim it well, with all the sides being even, straight and not cut too close so as to overwhelm the design.
I was pleased with my Day 15 work and happy to end the week on a high!

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