Personal Practice - My starting point

The starting point in a new project is always the most challenging thing for me, as I sometimes dont no where to start, embroidery was my first area and weave my last, I want to make my work bright, vibrant and very eye catching, something that would make other people really turn there heads, just how I had been inspired and drawn into all the archives that I have been too. Designing a mood board of both primary and secondary research was a great starting point, from the photographs I have taken from all the different archives I have been involved with, with the choice of images from the internet I was able to gather together my ideas on how my samples are going to pull together, dark hints, with splashes of colour in a range of different ways and places were going to be the main subject through out the project as this shows a clear link from my photos to my samples themselves.
I started off this task by doing a range of ink and bleach drawings, this gave me something to work from as I was able to focus on proportion, where exactly should have dark tones and where should have light, it also gave me a chance to make my own colours and have a little go at some kinds of dying in the dying lab.

I explored the City of Manchester and bought a range of tassels, cords, ribbons and windings that were a perfect match to my colour pallet along with a various amount of materials, such as organza, cotton, silk, lace and polyester. 

I want to create a range of different kinds of samples that are fit for the style of neck pieces and cuffs, but ones that are different shapes and sizes is important to me, all linking perfectly to my research. 

I want to make sure there is a good amount of detail in each piece and they are showing off a good balance of my favorite techniques and proportion control.