SU Protest / WOODWORK .

Unable to continue with blogging as usual { my internet is failing me } I had to conduct 2 posts in a day!

So today, I briefly attended a Student Unions gathering – opposing the raising of University fees.
The government does not plan to only double the current expenses – they plan to triple it. Of course the students aren’t too happy about this and so in aid of this movement I signed a petition. I couldn’t stay long however because of my digital arts class . . .

{ I will be elaborating on this topic. Hopefully. }

// The wood workshop induction began quite dull – not because I’m a bad student that enjoys lessons in which bizarre things happen and things go wrong. But just because it’s an introductory lesson and they’re never really much fun, there’s health and safety talks and students had to be acquainted with each machine individually – but once all that was over – I discovered something that I thoroughly enjoyed ; Pyrography !
Burning images into wood with a pen-like tool that holds flaming wires at the end!
They weren’t literally flaming, they were just ablaze – like the flame that slowly glows on the end of cigarettes. I should’ve taken a photo – however right now your imagination will just have to fill you in.

For now, I present you with a dinosaur I made, and my name plaque – made with pyrography.

Take care, humans and prehistoric beings alike.

give us a toile ! / Ma Ke`s WUYONG.

Finally being able to do something fashion-related made me very happy. Our tutors lead us to a room for a brief lesson on toiling, {Though this was all I did during A levels!} However, there was a twist – and that was that we were only allowed to toile with shirts/T-shirts that we bought in. In using what was already there, the seams, stitching detail and such we were asked to create a completely new way of wearing that garment, at first by just draping and pinning on mannequin, then eventually starting to cut the garment and experimenting with more new ways of using that garment. The aim of this project was primarily considering possibilities of recycling – which is actually quite a large issue with the world.I could argue that recycling is a whole new form of art itself – In giving something that was old and unwanted – a new use, we are helping the world, towards a greener future, and giving purpose to useless things – addressing a deeper issue at hand.

Reflecting upon this, I recently continued my contextual studies with a fashion designer named Ma Ke.
Ma Ke is a fashion designer, based in China who created a line named “Wu Yong” directly translated meaning worthless/useless. And the aim of this collection was to present a series of clothing that was created purely from unused materials at home, such as bedsheets and curtains.  This collection was described as ‘Political’ in a sense since it targeted the way the world wasted perfectly re-usable materials and this itself is slowly snowballing into a much larger issue, as the human population are creating more waste than the world is capable of disposing in the time given.

I personally loved the fact that Ma Ke created fashion for purposes outside of aesthetics, the line is actually very powerful and it is this kind of fashion that sits on the line that separates art, fashion and politics.
In my response to this, I created a neckpiece of pleats and ruffles out of old calico and a dress that I hardly wore anymore. I found myself a stunning model {KuriPurii} and conducted my own reflection of Ma Ke’s work.
The backgrounds are photoshopped and I wanted to send the same message as her line did – the “abandoned fashion”. In which there is a deeper meaning and hidden beauty. I was quite pleased with the outcomes and think that they responded appropriately.

The contextual study I did for Ma Ke is here.

Credits;

Model : KuriPurii
Images Used : one, two, three

the third dimension.

After exploring with standard drawing materials ; ink, charcoal, pencils etc. in both black and white and colour – it was time to move onto 3D work. Utilizing wires and masking tape or any media at my dispense.
At first I tried to accurately capture the objects before me, using several different mediums and I was semi-pleased with the outcome.
I weaved a wicker basket out of magazine strips, made a gourd out of newspaper and masking tape, made a pot out of newspaper and string and a mug out of a promotional catalogue. Productive day! {Even though I was late to the studio.}

I quite liked exploring with 3D materials – Fashion & Textiles is quite different from what I’d imagined so far, I am expecting/hoping to be doing things more fashion related – later on in the coming months and what not. I do miss it, quite a lot – having said that, I retrieved my old A level project today and will be uploading the contents of it shortly, it’s been months since I’ve seen it and I’ve missed it quite a lot. It’s very noticable how my work thins out towards the end, I find I run out of time and just try to do everything at once in a flurry of extreme panic – but I pulled through, it was all fine.

& Here’s what I did today :

& This was life drawing from last week – the angle and proportioning was awkward but I found digging out the lighter areas with a rubber really effective. For this life drawing session I attempted to use a view finder but after vaguely positioning it on the model I became frustrated that I couldn’t put it back into the same position after moving slightly . . . so I just {knowing that I shouldn’t} freehanded the rest of the drawing.
It did however turn out pretty decent.

copy & paste. / London

Following the completion of the placing of the installation, students were asked to draw the still life they had set up. First of all we were only allowed to record the image in black and white – so I used the typical materials, pencils, pens, fine liner markers, ink, black acrylics and white pen. {I hate black and white presonally, Colour is more of my thing.} Eventually we moved onto colour experimentation and here are snippets of my work so far . . .

Essentially – I dislike drawing still life. Why not just take a photograph? or photocopy something? Aikes, I prefer work from the mind. But I guess the course requires it ~ Oh well.
{Random order.}

 

There was also a trip to London that I attended and we were supposed to sketch & record {photograph} art in museums and around museums that corresponded to our project . I basically just took photos of everything and anything . . . and drew nothing. { Oh dear }

I did however manage to achieve this photo – which i thought was quite nice. {I’ll probably do a blog with just these photos – later.

 

On another note – LANVIN FOR H&M HAS BEEN RELEASED TODAY! This makes me happy.

the installation.

Following the guidelines given for the brief “Urban Velvet” me – and fellow fashion/textiles students managed to compile an installation in which we combined our items in attempt to create a mini-set from which we would draw from.
And that we did, but we were only allowed to use black & white. I made a few pen/pencil sketches and then progressed to ink – which turned out pretty atrocious but it wasn’t anything a little white pen couldn’t fix. So I penned in the detail – it didn’t turn out too badly despite our mind numbingly dull palette – it definitely fit the brief, despite not being colourful & pretty.
I do have several more photos that are in a better quality and view, however, being the intelligent genius that I am I left my SD reader in the studio so this post shall have to be updated another time.
I would also usually write more but I literally had just completed my personal statement (4th draft and still not content) so I feel pretty depleted. I’m also going London tomorrow {Technically today!} so expect photo spams & whatnot.

For now I bid you adieu. With the only picture I was able to savour from my phone with a very bad camera.

EDIT : Detailed photos added.

chop & change . / URBAN VELVET

As planned, the studio switching has happened and I’m in a different place now, with different people – And I hate it.

I’m hardly near anyone I know and everyone that I do know is with someone that they know – this is hardly fair. Being in a new place that I disliked, with new people that I didn’t know repulsed me so much that I actually for a moment considered switching pathways to viscom {Visual Communication} – But I couldn’t betray my true passion for any amount of dislike that I had for my new surroundings. Of course it’s all very childish, I know to be moaning about not being in a familiar place with people you know but it’s only a given that one should desire to be where they were happy.

I’m normally very open to change anyway. & On Monday, we will all be moving places again – so I shan’t get too frustrated over this.

To kick off the new pathway – all the fashion/textile students have been given a new brief in which they must correspond to and present their ideas. The theme is : Collection {OBJECTS} and every student picks a different brief at random and I got Urban Velvet. I really wanted something else but I wasn’t allowed to change. & According to this brief, Urban Velvet consists of : Thistles, Pumpkins, Gourds, Stones, Door Knobs, Rusty Metal Objects, Jewelry, Coins, Metal Watering Cans, Hinges – Just to name a few.

& I’m supposed to search in Sheds & Garages for these objects? Both of which I do not have.
A wardrobe – I don’t have one of those either!
& Several unconventional, inconvenient places.

Here’s a brief look at the palette I have to work with :

Yes, I know – violently bright and colourful isn’t it?

Regardless – I promised myself that I’d try my best for this project and that I will. Things can only improve & I’m hoping my drive won’t let me down this time.

introducing – me// & jewelry workshop .

You could argue that this blog is severely overdue since I started this foundation course in late august/early september.
But the pathway choices are only just beginning. Desiring so strongly to pursue a career in the fashion industry, it wouldn’t be odd of me to have chosen the fashion/textiles pathway.

Before attending Demontfort U. I was advised at college to apply for a foundation before pursuing any career in the creative arts – and rightly so as many universities will quite happily issue the benefit of the doubt to foundation students and trust them – some university courses give foundation students the privilege of an unconditional interview whereas normal students would have had to have their grades, personal statements & such reviewed before even being granted an interview.

I feel that the experience and extra UCAS points will be extremely helpful when I apply for my choices in the coming weeks.

Today I participated in a Jewelry workshop @ DMU. The Jewelry workshop is connected to the metal workshop and they work closely together and share equipment. The workshop is fairly flexible and there was a fair amount of tools and materials available, Jewelry was actually a lot more difficult to make than I thought, the tools aren’t as easy to manipulate as I’d assumed and no matter how badly I wanted to make a ring – the tutor explained that it simply couldn’t be done in one lesson! However he’d taught us to make earrings – that didn’t pique my interest so I thundered on – determined to make a ring.
Sadly, the best I could do was make wire rings. That was still fun. I guess the best part of jewelry making is soldering. The solder is immensely strong  and holds the different pieces of metal together very well too.

What annoyed me was the damn metal saw-thing it snapped at least 4 times during my metal cutting and I also succeeded in bashing in my fingers a few times. All in a days work.
Regardless, I was only after outcomes and I achieved just that.

Arguably my most frustrating workshop yet, but I can see myself spending a lot of time here.
And no rings? Pah! I made TWO. 🙂