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.

Mixing it up.

This week I have thought long and hard about what I want to make after taking considerations into order, such as time, materials and my concept.

I have decided to stray away my shoulder/brooch piece.

I want the main part of my design to highlight my circular layered piece that shows the point of field perception I have developed from the start, I've decided to go along with making a collectors item, something that you could display, collect and exhibit. 

I want people to look at this object and feel the same emotions you have when looking at a scenic view, or a nostalgic thought for a place or time in their life.

Here's my bay, I've arranged it and narrowed it down to samples I find interesting and that can relate to eachother, although I will be sticking to the circular shaped piece as the main feature I'm still working on what materials I'm wanting to use for the handle, I've researched into magnify glasses and vintage glasses with handles and believe I could do something quite unique with this object.

Here are a couple of the maquettes I've made this week using card and polypropylene.

Update.

I've been thinking about the whole learner agreement part of this project this week.

I think this is the hardest part considering all the other weeks have been fun with experimenting with materials and finding out new techniques.

I have a lot of samples to choose from and this week we also had a group crit.

The rest of my group picked out samples they really liked and how I could make products from them and what I could do next.

I really love getting a second opinion or more on my work because when you look at it for too long you start to over think what other people would find interesting.

I'm still not 100% sure what I want to make but I'm thinking about a decoration object and then accessories

focusing more on jewellery and ceramics.

A lot of people liked the cylinder shape so I've been working with that, my tutor suggested I work with a sphere shaped moulds to try it out and experiment so that's my plan for Monday, I really like the idea of sticking with the rounded shape because it was successful in jewellery and I want my pieces to look like a collection in the end.

In my own time I'm trying to get back into painting, I'd love to take some photos of my own and paint them later on so they're more personal but at the moment I was just browsing the internet and came across this.

 I really love the style of Francoise Neilly and expressionist painting

I did this using acrylic paint with pallette knifes and black ink with brushes on a plain while canvas.

Into The Swing of Things

This week has been much more relaxing than any other week and I think that's because the weeks of experimentation are winding down but I've been more organised in textiles because it's not my strongest subject so I had an idea of drawing a mini design for a sample down in my sketchbook ready for my workshop days, then going ahead and making it or just playing and improvising.

I've enjoyed working as a group in textiles on our mini brief and also looking at textiles in a new light. Last year I struggled thinking about what I could make in textiles because it was difficult to make it 3D and something different and contemporary.

I've been using polypropylene and wire as structural bases then think materials such as stretchy plastics, elastic, fishing wire and slightly transparent cotton materials.

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.

Finding Inspiration: Visits part l

Hey guys so I've been collecting lots of inspiration this past week.

I went to The Biscuits Factory on Friday night and took a few photo's below for inspiration.

I only took images of objects that inspired me during my current project but there's some fantastic paintings there and beautiful larger sculptures.

http://www.thebiscuitfactory.com/