Developing Structures!

Well I've not updated my blog in a while, shame on me!

I have been working on my last project of this year and loving been in the workshops and experimenting with materials once again.

My concept for this project is Structures and comparing buildings to the human structure.

I've been focusing on the features of each and selecting my own  photos and using anatomy books for inspiration. 

Looking into our Skeleton and using this as a starting point for my samples to develop.

Here are some of my samples so far and my bay!

Right now I'm at the development stage of my project so I need to finalize my concept and start designing!

Final Piece, First Hand-in of My Second Year.

Well It's been a crazy few weeks, with deadlines and the New Year.
My project for my Second year in my Applied Arts degree has went down quite well
over-coming a lot of design flaws and I have loved every minute of experimenting with many techniques and playing in the workshops.
This is my final piece; I etched the handle and oxidized it and the main piece is layered copper, rose tinted acrylic and oxidized copper, it's riveted to the handle and slips into it for a more portable object.
You can interact with the piece and move each element, I wanted the collector of this object to feel an escape from their day and to feel nostalgic of a place and time.

By the way I upload a lot of my work to 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xcosmiclovex/

I find Flickr a brilliant way to store photo's and creative work and it's a great community.

Young Enterprise.

This week in professional, in our groups we had to make some prototypes for our Young Enterprise project.

It's been very difficult this year staying on top of everything but I'm excited to hand-in Contextual early this year and have more time concentrating on my studio modules and professional.

I think the Young Enterprise opportunity will be great for my future and give me confidence selling my own work when I'm self employed.

We have a lot of work ahead of us but I think we're managing everything very well.

I've learnt a lot about buyer behavior and the process we go through when purchasing a product.

Here are just some of the prototype rings I made last week.

This week we have to make a buyer behavior profile of the kind of person that would buy our products.

We're wanting to settle in the hand-made/craft fair and new designers market

we also have to link some of our products to trends if we can.

What kind of trends do you like that are happening right now and which ones do you really hate? 

Here is the young enterprise website:

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/

Here is Jenni-Lou's website a member of my young enterprise group!

http://jennilouappliedarts.blogspot.co.uk/

Project update; point of field.

Hey guys so the last 2 weeks I've been in the Jewellery workshop whipping up some samples and breaking lots of saw blades.
I'm really excited what I've been making and I've been really enjoying my theme and using plastics.

I've also being making some ceramic decal tiles and playing around with plaster bats, painting colored slip on them then covering them in normal porcelain slip to create a colorful tile.

From Hand To Heart.

So far this project has been quite challenging, from taking something that's in my head and making it visual, forgetting what looks right and what looks pretty and just going along with my subconscious mind has been interesting to dip into. Down below are a few of the samples I've created this week, after Easter break(2 weeks) I will have 4 weeks to complete this project and a final piece.

In the holidays I'm going to start sketching ideas, collaging and being ready to get into the studios and make something amazing(: Talking with my tutors we came up with the concept of contrasting something real along side my work that's surreal and different.

This week..

So this week has been very busy with my contextual project due on the 25th March, also in my main project on my course I've started to feel more comfortable with where my project is going. Last week I filled a few A3 sheets of paper with drawings for my mind but the twist was, I wasn't looking, I drawn whatever popped into my head, I did these in the car on the way home from Uni.My tutor thought it would be a good idea if I photocopied these markings and enlarged them, I found some interesting shapes and she suggested I should make them out of wire.

I also flattered some of the wire using a hammer and flat plate where the pencil gets blunt or I'm applying pressure. I really like the idea of this, I also got a book from the library called ''N3W RINGS by Nicolas Estrada.'' It's has some beautiful forms and ideas inside, very inspiring and reminds me of the standard of designers around.

Here I used a mixture of colours and did this sitting down on the ground with the TV  in the background  

and it took me 10 minutes.

(The Big Bang Theory to be exact)

This one took me 5 minutes with the same environment.

 I created this one in 10 minutes and standing up with music on in the background. I only selected a few colours and I thought the black cancelled all the others so I picked yellow, green, red and blue. It was nice to see the lines overlapping and imagining it in a 3D form.

I'm finding this project challenging so far because I'm used to having control over my drawings and content in my sketchbook, this is very mind boggling and there's so many ways of expressing different sides of 'surrealism', it's very hard to minimize it down for a few month project.  There's so many meanings to symbols and no one is right, it's interesting to hear what others think certain markings look like and seeing their perspective.

In other news.. I have been enjoying blowing bubbles in my room whilst it's raining outside :')

Lately..

So this week I saw my glazed tiles, considering this is the first time I had mono printed onto clay and glazed anything, I was pretty happy with the turnout, there were a few things I would have done differently but I'm glad I had quite a few samples to try out.

Here we used commercial (ready made) molds and porcelain slip, after the box had got leather hard I painted the outside with green slip. Next I mono printed a clown blowing into a trumpet and was quite happy with the turnout. After bisquing the box I glazed it with a gloss and put it in the kiln to be fired, I've actually re-fired my bottom of the box with platinum luster on the bottom, lets hope it works.

Yep, Thought I'd make my way to the scariest clown.

And here I also scratched away some words from my clay tiles, I filled some of the words with commercial stains mixed with water, I like the effect of them bleeding into the clay.

In Jewellery I also made a ring, I pre-made the embossed lace on the copper, but I wanted to make something out of the scraps, the lines reminded me of a lions maine or some kind of animals furr, so it was nicely fitting.

 I've also been experimenting with alot of layers in textiles so I wanted to express the same technique in metal, I tried wrapping very thin wire around a thicker piece to create a scribbily caterpillar shape, I really liked the effect and enjoyed making them but I thought they were very chunky so I decided to thin them down with first a mallet then a metal thinner. I find then quite interesting when I look close, may take these samples further.

 

Dream-like world update

So on Tuesday we were encouraged to decorate our bays. We had a sneaky look at Textiles', their bays were a lot larger than ours but I do find I like to work in one spot and have grown to love the size and layout of my bay. I wanted to mix my inspiration up and try and create a space I go to for ideas, so this is what it currently looks like.

I really love this project and I'm trying to mix the Circus theme with my dreams, I want to create a TV-like box and create scenes, mixing objects or feelings with symbols and think about the meanings.

I have a few samples so far but I've been busy with doing Contextual work. I think this idea links in with Surrealism and the paintings I have in my research. 

Here I embroidered a Lion with a very colourful maine, the idea behind this came when I was looking into the old circus animals and I wanted to combine the clowns essence with the animals. This piece took a very long time, a few sittings but I was excited to see the turnout.

Here I thinned out copper and using pliers I manipulated it into a rose shape- this sample links in with a dream I had about elaborate makeup and the design on my face was huge roses with swirls but being late for work and thinking I couldn't go in like this so in the end I didn't go, ironically I was speaking a few days earlier about wanting to quit my job and not being able to wait until I can work in something I really love.I believe the meaning behind this was trying to standout and wanting to quit my  job because it doesn't satisfy my creative needs.

I will update with the ceramics pieces soon,  I glazed some mono prints earlier this week and can't wait to see how they turned out. It's the first time I  have mono-printed or glazed anything!