By Tatyana Antoun

Tatyana Antoun is a fashion designer from Beirut, Lebanon. Tatyana’s collection ‘Vamata’ was featured in the fashion film Museum Leila. Tatyana’s work explores the social restrictions force-fed to the youth in Lebanon in a string of illogical narrow ideals. Her work is heavily influenced by 80’s power dressing and the Club Kids of New York during the 90’s. Research for her collection takes place in bold and dynamic pop up sketchbooks and experiments with materials. Read on to explore Tatyana’s sketchbooks and the process behind her colourful collection. This post may be of interest to students in secondary school with an interest in pursuing a career in fashion, or could be inspiration for anybody wanting to explore the boundaries of what a sketchbook can be.

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AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.

What We Like About This Resource….

“The research phase of a creative project can be presented in many different ways, and can even be an art form in itself. Here, Tatyana demonstrates how her sketchbooks became a medium through which she expressed her thoughts, refined her ideas and explored materials. We believe sketchbooks to be a powerful tool for children to take ownership of their ideas and travel on their own creative journey, without necessarily knowing the destination. Take a look at our sketchbook journey for more sketchbook inspiration” – Rachel, AccessArt.

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What We Love About This Resource…

So often, we hear talk of the distinction between science and art, and no more so when teenagers proceed through their education and they are encouraged to choose one route or another. In reality, creative thinking helps scientific understanding and a scientific approach can inform and inspire art.

It’s so refreshing to read and see Merlin’s experience and understand how she works between these two areas – in her words “mixing subjects, and seeing how they work and intersect is where inventions take place!“

We also love the way her work embraces the felt world of being human, as well as the known world. We’re sure many young people will find Merlin’s work of interest and reassuring when they are pressured to choose “art or science“. 

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What We Like About This Resource…

“This is a great activity for really tuning into colour and shape. The process is ultimately quite a refined one (ie making a pattern balanced and repeated ‘correctly’) – but there’s plenty of scope for exploring pattern in a more experiential way prior to the refinement page. Try one of the recommended resources below to introduce pattern and begin with some open ended activities to build skill and confidence.” – Andrea, AccessArt

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What We Like About This Resource….

Working collaboratively towards a shared aim provides an alternative experience to working on individual projects. Creating together encourages listening, peer feedback and creative problem solving – all of which are hugely valuable in all areas of education” – Rachel, AccessArt

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“The life of Madge Gill that Sophie Dutton recounts here gives us real insight into the challenges that Madge Gill experienced, and how these challenges would have been common among women at the time. When we study the work of Artists, it adds a rich context to our experience of their work to consider their personal history, and helps us ask questions like ‘why do you think the Artist painted in this way or was inspired by this subject matter?’ If you introduce your class to Madge Gill, begin with looking back over her younger life to try and better understand her motivations as an Artist” – Rachel, AccessArt

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Transforming Materials into Sculpture

This pathway shares how teachers might take inspiration from El Anatsui and encourage pupils to think how they might disassemble objects around them to transform them into sculptural pieces. Read More. 

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Artist Andrea Butler shows how to explore simple design and construction using cardboard and jewellery. Read More

What We Like About This Resource….

“This activity is a great example of how we can use paper as the focus of creativity. Often we use paper purely for drawing or painting on, but here, it is central to the activity itself. While these particular folded sculptures have their roots in Turkish culture, you could still deliver the activity if looking at things like Origami too, thus linking it across different cultures” – Rachel, AccessArt

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What We Like About This Resource….

“It’s really interesting to hear how the interest Liz has in the quality of light comes from a personal place and is something she has responded to since childhood. Seeing how her work has developed over the years is therefore a really positive re enforcement that individual creative journeys, where nurtured, are so central to a rich arts education. We also love hearing Liz is always on the ‘quest for knowledge’ – meaning she is open to her ideas constantly evolving and the process of gathering new information and inspiration never stops!” – Rachel, AccessArt

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using sketchbooks to make visual notes

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