Friday, 26 June 2009

Boy Oh Boy!!!

I have seriously been neglecting my blog recently but in my defence I have very good reasons for my absent! With the Westend Festival in the middle of June, which unfortunately this year didn't do as well as I expected! The credit crunch really has hit home :(. But hopefully the next craft sale will do better :).

And the second and main reason for my absent was because on June 23rd I became an Aunt! A beautiful baby born on a beautiful day! Little baby Nathan Reid made a surprise arrival almost 2 weeks early (definitely not a trate he got from his mum) weighing a tiny 6 pounds 8 ounce, but boy does he have the longest finger and legs. Both Mummy Sharon and Nathan are doing well and Daddy Stuart has a constant smile on his face. And the rest of the family are all completely smitten by him...especially me :). Auntie Nic intends to spoil him rotten no matter what mummy says :). So I intend to try and travel down home a bit more to spend time with Nathan and my sister...but it feels like iv been working non-stop since finishing up for the summer.






I have been feeling very unproductive in the dissertation department too :(.Really, Really, REALLY need to get my finger out and get on with it! Anyone fancy giving me a shake lol. It also doesn't help when you seem to have no time management skills. So if anyone has any tips, please share...Any help would be good.

Off to work at T in the Park on the 10th...That feed my new habbit....spoiling Nathan :)

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Etsy and babies....its been a busy week!

My Etsy Banner.....




Over the last few days I have been setting up my Etsy page. Since things at the Hannah Zakari website didn't exactly take off....I'm thinking now it just wasn't the write place for my designs. But I'm hoping this might be little more successful. I have a couple of friends already on Etsy who have giving me some useful info on selling and tips on how to promote yourself. So ill cross my fingers!

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Baby reid at 5 1/2 months......




Iv been back down home at my parents for the last few days and its been lovely catching up with everyone! Went for a nice wee lunch with my friend Sam on Monday and the rest of my time iv been spending with my huge (well huge bump) sister....shes and baby have been growing lots since I last saw them. Got my first feel of the baby kicking tonight and i got such a lump in my throat! I now just cant wait till baby Reid is here! Just another few months to go! I'm betting on it being a girl :)

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Heading back home to Dundee tomorrow, fully loaded with food....i think my mother thinks us students don't eat enough....but I'm not complaining. I will need get my head down once I'm home. With lots of deadlines on the horizon there will be no Easter fun for me! We can do that once 3rd year is over :)

Night all

x

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

Saturday, 28 February 2009

All work and lots of play...



I hope everyone has had as much fun on pancake day as me and a couple of my friends did! As we are all pretty inexperienced in the pancake making department which resulted in lots of mess but lots of fun. We had all the ingredients but no idea how to mix them, but with a quick phone call to my mother (who i must say is an amazing baker) we got there in the end :D! But the aftermath did make my poor little kitchen look as though a bomb had hit it!

I have been in the design department all this week getting on with my Narrative project. Iv started to collect inspiration from Victorian Mourning Jewellery.....looking at the way they used 'keepsake' to remember the dead. Some of the piece iv seen are very pretty crossed with being a bit creepy, as they tended to use a lot of human hair. A contemporary take on the uses of mourning jewellery is shown by Julia Deville, who uses gold and silver, as well as materials which were once living, like jet and taxidermist animals



Meliane Bilenker is a designer who uses small pieces of hair to create line drawing in her brooches.



Both these designer have really made me think about using a mixture of different materials in my piece, altho....i cant see myself using dead animal!

This month is going to be a very busy one at university! Lots of hand-ins due as well as dissertation proposals :(....but i hope to get a move on with my designs for the Westend Festival. As soon as I do I'll get some pictures up :)

Off to enjoy the rest of my lazy night

xxx