What Next?

A bit of quiet time on the blog recently as things are starting to slow down a bit.  Still making a few more sea wreckage brooches like the ones I previously posted about, will be having them photographed properly next week!  I've also been able to make a dent in the large pile of books stacked up beside my bed that I've bought over the past few months, but haven't had time to read yet.  Should keep me pretty busy, I think...

These are all part of the new research,  I've started looking at people and their relationship with objects they collect, what they hope to tell people by displaying them and the decisions we make to hold onto one thing and throw away another - memories/stories/reminders.  Also still looking for new places to explore, reading 'Edgelands' is giving me ideas about places that are not nessecarily abandoned, just out of the way/overlooked in day to day life.  Still early days yet mind you, vague outlines will sort themselves out into some sort of order over the summer.

While that happens, take a look at this man Jorge Castanon
He rescues found objects from the hidden spaces he explores and uses them in his work, not as a response to what is there, but what is not...

Opening Night

Been a busy couple of weeks, but the making is done and the exhibition is up!  Here are some photos of the finished pieces up in their spaces and the private view, more to follow...


Private View



Katie Owen Jewellery

Sally Rogers Ceramics

Olwen Thomas Ceramics

Lindy Martin Ceramics



Hilary Coole ceramics





Carol Griffiths Ceramics

David Stirrup Ceramics



Neill Curran Ceramics

 
 

New bits!

Now that things have quietened down at the end of this year, I've been able to give more time to my new plastic powders. 

Mixing them altogether has given me a lot of different colours and so I'm now assembling and re-assembling componants together into some smaller pieces ready for the exhibition happening in July.  Here's some photos of how they're looking at the moment, tweaking a few things as I'm still undecided about whether they'll be neck pieces or brooches, but getting there...

Sketchbook work

Something that I come to love more and more each year is my sketchbook.  After loathing it upon first coming to college for foundation, I eventually learned a way of drawing and documenting ideas that worked for me.  Exploring mark making features a lot in my sketchbooks, as does collage, layering textures and photos of my assemblages that I can then work into again. 

Here are some of my sketchbook pages from my last project which show the development of my ideas into the final pieces that I've posted on here previously

 

Projections

What I often find when I make things is that I tend to work very small scale whether I'm aware I'm doing it or not!  This term, I set myself the challenge of breaking out of this comfort zone and in order to help me with this, I started doing projection work.  I took some photos of the things that inspired me, printed them onto acetate, combined them with 3D pieces I'd made on the overhead projecter and then projected them onto myself.

I think this way of visualising pieces of work really freed me up, it allowed me to think of the form and how I would need to make something and fit it all together before I started.  It's also a lot of fun to do and because the combinations and placement of images are so instant, you walk away with loads of ideas.  Jewellers, I recommend it! 

Collaboration

During this year, I've had the chance to collaborate with a student on the fashion course.  For his final year project based on Victorian mourning wear, I cast some very old keys in ceramics to make into a neckpiece.  We had a lot of fun with it and the photos below are all the keys and the variations of surface decoration put onto them and one of the final finished neckpiece,

Flotsam and Jetsam...

... Another two of my sea wreckage inspired neck pieces.  Getting them photographed properly tomorrow morning.  They're both made from steel and iron wire, porcelain and Egyptian paste.

They're the last of my larger neck pieces, moving on to creating smaller versions now ready for the exhibition in July