The dragonfly is an important part of the collection being a focal point in the flat sheet pattern design. I decided for the texture of them I have explored the texture of the wings before and gone up close on parts of their body, so I thought about the way that they move in the air, the idea that because they are able to hover and rotate in the air, I wanted to explore this. I watched some nature documentaries and watched how the dragonflies flew, I thought the patterns that they would leave in the air behind them could be an interesting texture point for the background.
I want to use the flight paths behind the rest of the motifs in the background as a texture on an otherwise flat surface. I thought about working it in with the patterns and making sure that nothing overlaps it but I think that this would show the repeat a lot more obviously.
With the flight patterns in the background, I used a range of my motifs to create this tile. I like the dragonflies now, I think the simple element but also using my pattern work and avoiding black has worked well here. I like the range of lily pads here too which I think helps to add to the pattern and make it busy. I think the repeat is nice but I think the tile should be a lot bigger and fuller if I wanted to use the simple tile repeat method. I did however then work on a half drop, I found it can be quite easy to transfer the block repeat to a half drop using the same motifs and then just editing the edges of the tile.
I think the half drop repeat has worked better here, in the repeat it is harder to see where the repeat happens and even when you do see it especially with the dark pink motifs it is more pleasing because it does drop before it repeats again. I think learning how to do one of these was definitely worth the time and the right choice for my patterns.
Tahlia Paige 