IVY WOOD – A childrenswear collection looking at the 1940’s evacuee children and their exploration from the closed city to the open countryside. Some of the children would have never spent so much time around nature before, so I wanted to capture the feeling of excitement and freedom, exactly what I felt on my research trips coming from the city. I explored a wildlife-rich woodland in Mid-Wales, inspiring much of the imagery and the shapes throughout my work.
Focusing on key shapes and fabrics from the era with a modernised twist, I played around with textures to represent the nature that surrounded the children. Using traditional tweed, boiled wool and hessian helps to replicate the rough terrain and were also softened with lace, and digitally printed crepe. I created a hand rendered stamp design that was then digitally printed to really incorporate the 1940’s, using elements of the identity tags worn by the children on their journey as well as the stamps used to send letters to and from the children and their parents.
IVY WOOD – Casgliad dillad plant sy’n edrych ar blant faciwî o’r 1940au ac yn ymchwilio iddynt o’r ddinas gaeedig i’r cefn gwlad agored. Ni fyddai rhai o’r plant erioed wedi treulio cymaint o amser o gwmpas natur o’r blaen, felly roeddwn am gofnodi’r teimlad o gyffro a rhyddid, yr un peth yn union y teimlais i ar fy nheithiau ymchwil o’r ddinas. Fforiais goetir â chyfoeth o fywyd gwyllt yng Nghanolbarth Cymru, a ysbrydolodd lawer o’r ddelweddaeth a’r siapiau ar draws fy ngwaith.
Gan ganolbwyntio ar siapiau a ffabrigau allweddol o’r oes honno a chan ychwanegu tinc fodern, chwaraeais gyda gweadau i gynrychioli’r natur fu’n amgylchynu’r plant. Bu defnyddio brethyn caerog, gwlân wedi’i ferwi a hesian traddodiadol yn help wrth efelychu’r dirwedd arw ac fe’u meddalwyd hefyd gan ddefnyddio sider, a chrêp a brintiwyd yn ddigidol. Creais ddyluniad stamp a rendrwyd â llaw a gafodd ei argraffu’n ddigidol wedyn i ymgorffori’r 1940au o ddifri, gan ddefnyddio elfennau’r tagiau adnabod a wisgwyd gan y plant ar eu teithiau yn ogystal â’r stampiau a ddefnyddiwyd i anfon llythyrau rhwng y plant a’u rhieni.
