BETH LUNDBERG

Self-Directed Design: I have always been inspired by the artwork of Gustav Klimt, since I painted my own version of 'The Kiss' in 2001 (which, at the time, I thought was amazing!), and I loved it. The self-directed brief was a chance to chose a theme of personal interest and design a mini capsule collection. The first task was to write a statement of intent. I looked into two different themes which interested me to decide between: Klimts artwork as a starting point for inspiration, or the theme of Kintsugi, which I was inspired by watching this video: TED Julie Burstein 4 lessons in creativity (watch to the end!).

I realised these themes linked together perfectly, as I was inspired by the philosophy behind Kintsugi, of mending something broken with gold to illuminate the cracks and increase its beauty. Looking closer at Klimt's 'Golden Phase', my favourite, he used gold leaf to improve the beauty and strength of the female figures in the paintings, and he was inspired by mosaics in Ravenna and Venice. The mosaic influence is evident in the paintings, linking to the 'mosaic' pieces of broken ceramic repaired with gold in Kintsugi. This leads to my philosophy for this design project: designing garments for strong female figures which use gold for beauty and strength and are influenced by mosaic style and pieced together geometrics.