Flowers

I recieved flowers from Danny some time ago and I wasn’t sure how to preserve them. I had pressed some flower before but they would always be kept hidden away in a flower press and I really wanted to have them on show to remind me of how beautiful and  happy they made me feel.

 

I managed to hang just a few of the origional flowers in an empty warm cubboard for almost two months, i really wasn’t sure how long they needed but I felt the longer the better! The results look  amazing, fragile, gorgeous and  ghostly.

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Our Future?

I have recently been researching into consumption and the impacts this has on the environment. It’s scary to think that our planet will reach a global collapse by 2025 due to the rate of population growth; our population has quadrupled over the past 100 years. In just 13 years time the state of the world could be totally different to what it is now.

“All we’re doing is what all other creatures have ever done to survive, expanding into whatever territory is available and using up whatever resources are available, just like a bacterial culture growing in a Petri dish till all the nutrients are used up. What happens then, of course, is that the bugs then die in a sea of their own waste”  www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-consumerism-is-eating-the-future.html?full=true

Perhaps a pandemic of some sort is waiting for us to alleviate and slow our growing population, to limit our resource consumption, and change our ways of living in a finite world.

Annie Leonard – Story of Stuff Enlightened me about the way we consume and the impacts that it’s having on our environments. If everyone knew more about the things they buy and the processes involved perhaps we could be more responsible and make better decision.

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Samples

Taking my experimentation further I started designing digitally using Adobe Illustrator, firstly creating design to be laser cut onto PPE fabrics and recycled materials. This design created great results but the design should perhaps be made larger due to delicate cuts making the design fragile, however this technique was very effective and is something I will take forward.

I later designed digitally additionally to create accurate designs for screen printing using drawn imagery of studied structures and visuals from research.

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Experimenting with Materials and Techniques

For this part of my project I was experimenting with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as high-visibility fabrics, polo shirts and more. Challenging what can be done with this material when used and no long fit for purpose, discarded in the bin. Using these materials and experimenting with modern and traditional techniques for instance smocking along with digital stitch embellishments and decoration.

 

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New Term New Brief….Civil Engineering and Textiles

‘The explore aspects of welsh cultures through Craft & Industry. Consider ethical and Ecological issues whilst also considering innovative responses to materials and processes.  Contemplate the role of an engineer within society including safety and sustainability. With this study the limitations that civil engineers have with their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). How can this be improved inorder to meet their needs efficiently whilst also considering the materials impacts on the environment?’

Research

Cardiff Bay –

Charity Shops –

The people that voluunteered at the charity shops helped alot with giving us information on how they recieve their goods and dispose of unwanted items.  Giving to charity in my mind a  wonderful thing, One mans waste is another mans treasure.

PreFab Clothing PreFab processes and reconditions donated pre-loved clothing and accessories of good quality for re-sale at affordable prices at our shop at 73 Albany Road. Monies raised and generated by PreFab is directly reinvested into the project and into services for homeless people at the Cardiff YMCA Housing Association. This shops stand out from any other charity based shop becasue time and effort is put into the unwanted products to make them more desirable, upcycling is the way forward!

RE-Create- Scrap Store-

Re-create is a play resource centre and scrap store, mostly schools and children centers visiting here to find wierd and wonderful things! Donations of unwanted materials from local busines and industries are sold to public for a small donation to the charity. I have a similar scrap store at home and ofter buy materials here to aid my activities at university.

The Big Pit –

A National coal museum in Wales that still retains many traits of its former role as a coal mine, standing high on the heather-clad moors of Blaenafon. Unfortunately we were unable to take our cameras into the mine itself because of health & safety regulations. Nether the less this has had to been the greatest research day yet, seeing the conditions that miners were in and being told first-hand what it was like working long hours under poor conditions only 50 years ago. A couple of days previousto our visit Jedward had been filming for a children’s program! How exciting!

Cardiff Castle-

Indoor Market-

indoor market isn’t somewhere i visit that often but when visiting i couldn’t help but notice the intricate inspirational architecture found on the arches supporting the roof of the Victorian structure. This building is at the heart of the city, allowing customers to many products such as foods, pots and pans and even pets! People have been trading here hundreds of years preserving a great tradition of trade and culture. I was most astonished by the atmosphere created by passing crowds of people interacting with each other, perhaps bartering over a bargain.



The

National Museum of Wales –

Some interesting Ceramics found at the National Museumcreated by Welsh aritsts and industries.

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A Few Summer Activities

Sunny Turkey!

The hottest place I’ve ever been!

An amazing holiday spent surrounded by great people in a spectacular landscape.

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Discovering good quality Fabrics from my local Childrens scrapstore in Bristol.

Grabbed a  great bargain at a jumble sales for only £2, I used my scrap store fabrics to create an interesting lining with pockets  to bring this bag up to date and make it more desirable.

^ measuring the bag to create pattern pieces for lining.

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Distorting Patterned Fabric with the use of pin tucks. I used old floral curtain fabric obtained from the scrap store.

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Aquarium Visit

Marine live and species have always intrigued me and I was drawn to the jelly fish the greatest but very disappointed as there were no octopuses on show; I expected a lot more but in all it was a great day out with the family.

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Weekend away to Bournemouth ‘late Sept

Trip to the Sea Side! Unfortunately didn’t win anything at the Amusements  but had a lovely few days with the boyfriend and evenn managed to nab some shells and textured rocks for my desk at University.

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The Printed Surface Exhibition – Craft in the Bay 22nd March 2011

Craft in the Bay is a place I love to visit to keep up to date with my artist research and is a great resource for inspiration. The current exhibition was called The Printed Surface, featuring work of artists and designers who had chosen a medium such as glass, metal, ceramics and textiles to develop along with a printing techniques to incorporate into their work for this exhibition.

Rebecca Gouldson
Jackie Field – Beyond The Window Syon Park

 

Nicole Thoss – Ceramic Picture Box
 
Dawn Dupree – It’s Never Black & White
Kimberley Scott – Everyday Encounters
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Current Work

My current work has allowed me to bring together my skills and techniques learnt from workshop to create a final piece influenced from studying my three objects.

 

 

 

I studied and sketched my objects throughout the term, initially only drawing what I saw and not really knowing what the objects meant to me. I later began to look at my objects more in-dept, I wanted to know why I value them, why did I choose them. I sat down one night and analysed my objects thoroughly and it all became clear and I began drawing in different ways, connecting my emotion to my drawings.

The camera captures time and reminds me of the photograph I have of my past, remembering the good times we’ve had and the places we’ve been. This made me wonder why we need photographs to trigger happy memories and why we don’t need any to think about the bad ones, they are easily prompted by everyday occurrences.

 My pocket watch tells the time and made me think about the time I have had, what have I done with my time, how would I change it and when did time begin? These are all questions I asked my self when analysing my objects.

 The binoculars are used to see time from a distance, perhaps wanting to be somebody else or even somewhere else. Seeing something from a distance and not realising how well you life really is.

 

This project has taken me on an emotional rollercoaster, remembering the highs and lows of my life experiences, helping me to express my emotions and feelings within my final piece of work. I’ve always been told to write down my feeling and worries but have never pursued it; my final piece explores my feelings that relate to my objects, combining stitch and printing techniques that I had been experimenting with.

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I used Bondaweb for my first set of experimentations within this workshop. I painted directly onto Bondaweb with acrylic to paint to transfer a drawn image onto a fabric using the iron. This technique proved interesting and my results look impressive.

I also used Bondaweb as it traditional use for appliqué, to hold fabric into place allowing me to add decorative stitching without the fabric moving.

Trapunto, also known as stuffed quilting. This technique used the appliqué method with stitching around the design and a slit made in the backing fabric. This was then packed with stuffing and stitch by hand to seal it.

 Tyvek is a strong durable waxy paper using in the building industry predominantly and is recyclable. I didn’t like working with Tyvek as it isn’t a texture I like to touch before or after it is heated with the heat gun.

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