Heida Jonsdottir

Student creative

Heida Jonsdottir was one of three Student Creatives in the academic year 2018 / 2019. The aim of the initiative was to offer all students at the AUB an opportunity to create work inspired by the MoDiP collection. This could be in any discipline with any creative outcome from physical art work to film or acting production. The MoDiP collection and / or the museum's practices had to be at the heart of the project and the work needed to be displayed either physically or digitally after a period of 20 weeks. A small bursary was provided to assist with material costs during the project and the remainder was paid on completion.

The resident was expected to keep the MoDiP team updated with progress reports on a regular basis either through email or face-to-face. They were also expected to write three blog posts during the process which follow below. The project not only helped MoDiP work closely with an AUB student, it gave the student a live brief and an opportunity to demonstrate their professional practice beyond their academic requirements.

 

Heida's first blog post

Jelly Plate
Jelly Plate AIBDC: 006877

As I walked into the MoDiP museum, one particular thing caught my eye. A beautifully crafted, semi-transparent bowl with flowing features and a blueish hue. I returned a few times to the museum, but I was always drawn to this bowl. The pattern of the bowl and its blue colour reminds me of water, with one exception: water is chaotic, unpredictable and irregular while the pattern of the bowl is consistent and systematic. Maybe, the reason I am drawn to it is that I relate to it, a highly organised and systematic person studying something as chaotic as art. It made me wonder if I could achieve the same flowing shapes in my work, in garments as the shapes in the bowl, so I decided to try to make a pattern that would make the fabric behave similarly.

 

My Design ideas - taken from the Jelly plate
My Design ideas - taken from the Jelly plate

I wanted to capture the 3D effect of the bowl, so I started by drawing a distorted version of the flowing shapes of the bowl on fabric and sewing it together to achieve a 3D-like quality. That led me to the idea of taking it further and making a big, expanded skirt out of stiff fabric that would hold the shapes when the pieces of the pattern have been sewn together. The skirt will be made from two main shapes, waives and circles. When the circles are sewn together with the waves, they form a 3D diamond shape, which strongly resembles the shape of the bowl - and the consistent shape of water. To make this pattern I am going to use Lectra. Lectra is a digital pattern cutting system. First I am going to draw style lines on a basic skirt block and work my way from there.

 

Style lines on a basic skirt block
Style lines on a basic skirt block

Another aspect of the bowl that fascinated me was how the light reflected off the shapes and curves, transferring the colours from dark blue to light blue and white. To capture this aspect, I want to make the wave patterns from dark blue fabric and the circles from a lighter blue.

 

Heida's second blog post

When making a pattern it can be interesting to use shapes from real life. The bowl that I used as my inspiration had a lovely bubbly shape to it. 

At first, for my Final Major Project, I was going to use Lectra - a pattern cutting software - to make the skirt. Then I started playing around with another pattern cutting software called Clo3d. I realised that the 3D virtual avatar in Clo3D, is much more realistic than the Lectra avatar. 

 

Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir

Out came the shape I was looking for, and I am happy with how it moves when I make the Avatar move. 

 

Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir
Image credit: Adalheidur Agusta Jonsdottir

Since this is a virtual reality project, I want to make not only the skirt, but a top to go with it. For my final outcome I am going to have an outfit on virtual reality, that represents the inspiration I got from the MoDiP museum. 

 

Heida's final blog post

This project started out from the inspiration I got from a blue bowl that is in the MoDiP collection. The idea was to take the shapes from the bowl and make garments that would represent the feel and movement of the pattern in the bowl. I used Clo3D to make my final outcome for this project. Clo3D is a pattern cutting and virtual prototyping system that allows you to get the closest final outcome before manufacture begins. It reduces the waste of production since tests and fittings are done within the system instead of wasting paper and fabric to do so. After a lot of fabric testing for my garments I decided to use a printed fabric. The print came from the bowl that was my starting point for this project.  To see how my garments move around the body I made an animated video of models walking in them. This project was a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge in my field of interest and the feeling of seeing your work presented in a gallery is great. 

 

Display panel
Display panel
Display panel
Display panel
Display panel
Display panel
Exhibition
Exhibition