Friday 27 March 2009

The start of my 4th year journey!:S

Today i had a meeting with my main tutor for my 3rd year projects. As we have pretty much finished for the summer, the tutors thought it would be a good idea for us to start thinking about where we would like to go with forth year, which will ultimately lead to our degree show (scary thought). After out last Narrative project (which i really enjoyed) I think i would like to create a collection of piece withing the 'Narrative Theme' and looking into incorporating some kinda of textiles. I would also like to research the idea of jewellery which evokes the sense...looking into touch and smell.

In my meeting my tutor suggested that i would be better starting with an idea and developing through making, which i totally agree with as i was just drawing from source and getting nowhere. So my next step will be to start a selection of samples that will hopefully develop into pieces i will use in 4th year. I have been playing around with stitching recently and i will hopefully be getting the use of one the free hand sewing machines from the textiles department...thanks to ash :D.

me and ash...


So a little more development throughout the weekend but for tonight, I'm off to ash's for dinner...yum yum :D

x

Friday 20 March 2009

Done and dusted!








All my hard work is finally over and has paid off. We presented our Narrative project yesterday and it was really nice going round every ones pieces and seeing how other people had interpreted there theme. Everyone piece looked really good....you can really see where some people might be going for forth year...where as me, I'm still baffled. Its really scary to think that forth year is coming in so quickly. Hopefully ill be able to pull it out the bag like i have done for third your. Above is the brooche i made for this project and this is my artist statement...

Nicola Wyllie – Life after death

My three brooches have been hugely influenced by the theme of ‘Life after death’ where I focused on using mainly Victorian mourning jewellery as my source material, as well as looking into the sense of touch.

I wanted to create a piece that kept the traditional style and theme of Victorian jewellery but also incorporate a form or texture that could enhance the wearers sense of touch. I focused on using the traditional shape and form of Victorian jewellery by using the oval, which is widely seen in Victorian jewellery, and including layers of fine chain. To create the wearers sense of touch I developed the idea of the skins reaction to touch, which led me to try and create a texture that represented Goosebumps. I did this by centre punching a design on very thin silver sheet, which gave the silver an almost brail affect. I wanted to make these designs very fragile looking, so I kept the white finish on the silver, instead of polished finish. I also wanted to create a soft texture, which would tickle the skin and in theory give the wearer Goosebumps. To achieve this I used thin, soft gold thread, which I loosely stitched into the silver. I liked the look and feel of the stitching so much that I decide to combine my layers of silver sheet by stitching them together, rather than just riveting them.


.....this piece is the one that i got picked to be presented, with 5 other girls pieces, to a retiring lecturer as a gift. We find out on Tuesday who's piece he picked and whoever wins a nice little bungle of cash (well £50, that buys a few drinks lol). And below is two other brooches that are slightly simpler.






It was also Sally, one of our part-time tutors, last day. I think all the girls are really gonna miss the big help that she has been this year. But she off to do bigger, brighter things :)

Had a bit of bad news this week with my job. I thought that because I'm a student the recession wouldn't affected me...but i was wrong. My hours at work are being cut, so iv been on the job hunt the past week, but I'm thinking i should put my craft into practice and take the scary decision to create my Etsy page. Iv been putting it off for the past year and i don't know why. So I'm gonna make a start on some new piece and see how it goes down and if it doesn't work, i haven't really lost anything.

Off for a well deserved lazy night :D x

Friday 13 March 2009

A very productive day indeed :)

Wooohoo! Managed to finish my Narrative brooch today. I think this is a first for me, finishing a project almost a week early. Who'd of thunk it lol. No picture of my piece as such yet, but will try to get a few on during the weekend. I think i might use next weeks spare time to make a similar locket version of my brooch and maybe even knock up a little something for my mum....since its nearly Mothers Day!



My friend Sandra Cassidy has just launched her new website, Ruby Loves Red, where you can see her latest work as well as order custom made Birds, Cats or Rabbits....the bunnies are my favourite :D!

Thursday 5 March 2009

Oooh!

Had a bit of a lazy morning today... but my excuse for it was i was waiting in for the postman. I ordered some lovely fine chain from Cooksons, which ill be using in my Narrative piece, and thankfully it came this morning, meaning....tomorrow I can get my head down in the workshop.





These are a couple of pages out of my narrative sketch book. First off is a quick line drawing i did, taking inspiration from my mind map. Another image is trying to represent this idea of capturing memories as well as trying to find a way to give the wearer a sense of something spooky almost. I was once told by a clairvoyant , that when you have a sense of something tickling your skin, almost like walking into cobwebs, which gives you goosebumps, can mean a spirit is close by. So I'm going to try and incorporate a way to create this in my piece.

Today I also visited the Visual Research Centre at the DCA, where they have a lovely collection of artists books...it has giving me some really good ideas on how to present my drawing and sketch books in a more unique way.

Off to do more work :D