Pencil case
"The first pencil pouch was invented by Lothar von Faber in about 1880. Verona Pearl Amoth invented the first cloth pencil pouch in 1946. The first pencil pouch was invented in the mid 1800's. Back then it was called a Pencil Case, and the shape was cylindrical mainly made of sterling silver or other metals."(1)Its purpose was to carry small tools such as pencils and other art supplies.
My initial inspiration for the design was the notion of 1880 being the turn of the century with industrialism around the corner. I wanted a contrast to my natural image pieces of the handkerchief and cards so I took the Bauhaus movement as my inspiration. Wassily Kandinski's "Several Circles" - 1926 inspired me with its use of interesting colour and how overlaying coloured circles changed the colour of the initial circle. I instantly saw each suspended circle as a balloon, symbolising a party and thus joy; but the black colour contradicted this so I decided to trade the dark connotations of black with a more pure, crisp white.
My initial concept featured a dark blue background with circles heavily resembling that of Kandinski's design. this also featured a clown. after consulting friends I decided to remove the clown from the design as many, to my dismay, found the clown unattractive and scary. Modern pop culture has depicted clowns to be scary and I wanted my design to be more universal. A modern minimalist approach with the inspiration of an artist who popularised modernism. I decided to make some test on Calico.
I used fabric pens for speed and calculated it took me exactly 5 minuets per circle to embroider the edges. I wanted to use black to really make the colours pop and tried to keep a nice contact between all. In the future my test should be done on the material I shall be using as the finished product as the fabric pens bled slightly on the cotton I used for the final piece. the contrast is also why I chose to change the exterior colour to white; however I did want to keep blue in my design so the lining was Calico dyed the same blue as the zip, achieved by mixing blue and green and left to soak overnight.
My pouch was made significantly smaller than others to keep the minimalist feel I was going for.
Once all pieces were prepared I began to sew the pieces together. The lining and outer piece sandwiched the zip and were sewn good side to good side, then flipped and repeated.
After the pouch was sewn shut from the inside and then flipped, the excess removed and then flipped right side out. Here was my result.
​
Product shots were taken and here is the finished result. I called it "Clowns best friend" as a nod to the initial clown design that never was. over all I am happy with the design and the construction of it. Next time I think I would make sure my work space was more clean (due to some red ink being spilt on the inside the dying process) and possibly fill the blank space. It would be worth next time making another piece with a different structure so its able to sit on its own but over all I am happy with the outcome. Link to the product listing here.