fashion textiles

A few of the wide ranging things we did in f-t. another exercise involved cutting to make images come to life, like a pop-up book. I REALLY enjoyed that.

(guess who's excited they've clearly learned (finally) to upload pictures! and it was so embarassingly simple!!!)

i had fun messing around with found objects in Fine Art; i made the spaceship below, it may not be the most flattering angle but to be honest, it's not the most photogenic ship, on account of how light goes straight through it etc. It's quite stunning in person, you'll have to meet it someday. :) The elephant is a trinket from home wrapped in an old necklace.

WOW CHER'S AMAZING!!!!!!!

this shakespeare's sister song has always been a favourite of mine :)

INTERVAL

how much are halls?

creative juices...

the six wives of Henry VIII done plug-style. Mad, but SOO fun!! (First project of vis comm)

i really enjoyed the outcomes...

i bled whilst making this model for 3d spatial. I sprained my wrists and threw it across the room twice. I cried.
But i was willing to stay up till 3am theh night before last, the night before the crit for it. What could that mean?

Done. Typical.

 Of course, the process of doing that has made me feel that I probably will do vis com... something to think about. but still.... whenever i think of fashion textiles i hanker after that too, so i guess we'll see. I'm going to try and post some pictures that support my post.

At A Crossroads...

500-759 word thing

     I never thought it would be easy to decide which pathway I would be best suited to. But I never thought it would be this problematic. The trouble is I found each pathway as attractive/unattractive as the others, with none coming out the clear winner over all. I had initially thought I might go into Fashion/Textiles, but I found that I didn’t enjoy the pathway as much as I thought I would. I didn’t feel like I could make an overall assessment based on my experiences within the two weeks. Then I thought I would enjoy Fine Art, because I enjoy the skills of painting and drawing, but then I didn’t because the emphasis was not at all on skill. In Visual Communication, I learned that perhaps my discomfort with Fine Art was that there was no brief. I enjoyed working with a brief, and I found that in Vis-Com my creative juices began to flow, and I enjoyed the pathway despite not thinking anything of it in the beginning. As regards 3D Spatial, I expected to like it a lot more than I did; I found it very time-consuming and frustrating. That being said, I found the most inspiration for doing my work in the 3D Spatial area, and I really liked the results, no matter how often I found myself internally kicking and screaming at the process.

      Approaching the end of the rotations, my mind was between Vis-Com and Fashion Textiles, although I had thought I may have been interested in a more 3D Spatial career, such as theatre design. I expected the area talks to clarify that; I wanted to leave on Wednesday knowing more or less exactly what I wanted to do. Instead my indecision got worse, as I was attracted greatly by fashion/textiles and the overall inspiring area was Media, which I have never even thought about, much less attempted to do. This left me very confused, and that is the state I now find myself in. When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a writer, which is something I still want to do most, maybe even more now. I had thought that Vis-Com fitted in with this plan of mine because it stimulated my imagination, covers illustration AND media, and offers more chance for creative narrative and skill-based drawing, all things which I enjoy. But, being a person who cares about fashion, I was very attracted to the work within the Fashion/Textiles area, which would have more job opportunities as well. And I did also want to make hats/clothes for women and children. I do have dressmaking experience, with normal dresses and costume design. Then again, I also wanted to be a portrait artist, probably working from commission. One exhibition that has fostered this desire recently was the Miniatures at the Mall Galleries.

      In short, my decision is nonexistent. I don’t think I’ll be doing Fine Art, although I really did admire the media work produced by Fine Art students. Vis Com offers more, I think, plus it has the added benefit of being next to the Fashion/Textiles studio so I can see and hear whether I want to change my mind in that crucial first two weeks. I find it very hard to decide because I don’t feel like I’ve experienced at all what most pathways have to offer. I do not know if I would like certain things because I have not tried them, such as media, for example. Do I choose Vis-Com/Fine Art because I liked the media work, without ever having tried to do it? What if I hated it? I could not know, without trying. The same thing applies to things like jewellery/theatre/automobile design in 3D Spatial. I dreamed of being a toymaker. Would I realistically enjoy that? How could I know? Maybe I’ve been over- thinking, but I have always had a tendency to do that.

    In conclusion, whilst I have found the Foundation process very enjoyable so far, I have been well and truly confused by it. I face the decision of whether to do the thing I enjoyed or the thing I could enjoy maybe. I hope the assessment will assist me further.

750!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the DOT

I'm putting it up now, i'm not even gonna read it again(, save this one last time)

DAMN ITS STILL OVER LIMIT!!!!

tee heee hee

I'm going to post the deleted sentence that i got rid of in favour of my better 20word sentence here!
genius...:

(in between ' the state I now find myself in.' and 'Vis-Com fitted in with this plan of mine ')

When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a writer, which is something I still want to do most, maybe even more now. I had thought that ....

there. now you can read it as it was too!

I NEED TO HAVE MY 20WORD EXTRA SENTENCE IN THERE!!!!!!!

SERIOUSLY DOES WHY DOES IT MATTER???!!!!! it's the hell i went with with my history coursewrok all over again!!! It was fantastic to start with, then I butchered it at the examiner's insistence. There is a SERIOUS problem with modern education.

oh damn now its 777.

i've always hated word counts with a vengeance.

At A Crossroads...

...is soon coming. Now 746 words.

768 words last I counted

prepare for word thing. It may not be all that invigorating to read, but it needs to be posted so here it is.

Now it's 699.

long time no blog

It's been a while. where to begin, my old friend?
my ear hurts. A  LOT. And it itches as wel which is both frustrating and worrying, as it probably means I have some sort of infection; as a precaution I haven't been wearing earphones for a couple days and won't until it's done with its irritatingness.
   I finished 'Murder Most Royal' by Jean Plaidy, on my way to drop off a letter (via bus, not having any music ;)) which had me in tears for ages! It sounds silly, because of  course I knew what would happen at the end (it was about Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard) but I still cried buckets for poor sweet Catherine, whose story was so tragically sad, romantic, happy and beautiful. And I find similarities between me and her that maybe I would not quite like to find...not that the said qualities are necessarily bad...just not great, for example the tendency to want to please others that I think I have (and have demonstrated a LOT in the past), and to feel sorry even for monsters when they show human weakness. The latter is of course the more worrying trait. I cried for about half an hour for a girl my age who died waaaay backk in 1542. It's ridiculous cos of course she'd be dead now anyway!!!!! But it's just so unfair....she wasn't even given a trial, unlike Anne, who was, although it was utterly farcical.
     This isn't what this blog is meant to be about though, is it? It's supposed to be about college. I had my first cheer game yesterday! Basketball... a game of which i knew nothing. I now know it lasts a quite long time and is only very interesting when your team have the ball. It was UAL vs Kingston, and Kingston won, 41 to 35, I think. The UAL team did play well though; number 9 made many great goals, but I guess the opposition was just better. Cheering was very fun, although at the end I was painfully hoarse from screaming for two hours straight! :) Didn't go to Holbron/Social last night or uniform talk thing tonight cos I'm inundated with work, for tomorrow and assessment next tuesday.
    which brings me nicely to posting about 3D Spatial. It's been a funny old mixed bag, this one. I enjoy the outcomes- working in 3d and imagining all these possibilities for odd little products; I quite wish I could make one! But the making has been very frustrating...I'm covered in cuts, bruises and callouses; this would be the part of Gone With The Wind where Rhett finds out Scarlet's no longer such a high-bred lady because her hands have been ruined by having to do things without her slaves/servants.
----------------OOOH I'M ABOUT TO WATCH HORRIBLE HISTORIES DESPITE IT BEING 23:26pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---------------------------------------------------------------------

here's how i have fun. this show is so great. I fully recommend it.

yeah, so i have enjoyed the outcomes of 3d spatial
------------------------LOL THE STUARTS JUST TRIED 'TEA' FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!
   "ooooOOOOOOOhH that IS NICE!!------------------------------------------------------------------

but not so much the process. I think so far I've enjoyed vis comm the most, but i can't remember why, i just know i liked it as the time. THis is so confusing.
-------------------whoa stuarts were crap at medicine----------------------------------------------------
i want me a berserka!

The area talks weren't much help. i came in with a choice of 2 nad left with a choice of 3/4, including media, the process of which confuses me. And I've never done it before but it looks so good. Fashion textiles made my heart beat faster...possibly even fastest, even more than vis comm, but vis comm made me laugh.  But media made my heart stop it looked so great. WHAT TO DO????!!!!!!!
will post that 'decision' thing next. You'll know it cos there'll be no rambling about interesting things, only art-decision(or-lack-of)talk. :)
---------------------------STUPID DEATHS TIME!!!!!!let's see. A businessman from london from the blitz. One night on train during black out. train halted. got off train and fell 30 feet to death..turns out train was jusst waiting on a railway bridge. HE THOUGHT IT WAS A PLATFORM!!------------------------lol the evacuee child is scared of  the cow!!!!!
   

dom-wilc

here's the link. i can't get the vid up.
http://variationsonnormal.com/2010/09/16/day-15-football-smoothie-maker/

it's the end of vis comm!!!

Sob! I really quite enjoyed this rotation. I found that I worked best doing the firsst project cos i work best like that- i was given a word that i otherwise would not have chosen, and the pace of the task, the energy and the vitality of it, forced me to think in a looser way. The fortnight was pretty much summed up by a statement I wrote at the beginning of the first two weeks, fashion and textiles, saying 'I've learned to let go', which tutor Michelle liked so much she asked me to write it bigger and pose with it for a photo  to use in the rotation talks, if she chooses to display that way. Since then I've learned even more to let go. This process has been really good for my creativity on the whole.
     Vis comm was very good. I was astounded by the quality of others' work! My team alone had some fantastic ideas, ones that really inspired me. I also peeked around at the current fashion/textiles peeps, they'd done AMAZING work!!! It was all very inspiring, but I really wish I'd utilised that rotation more. I thought I was working well at the time; I guess I wasn't open enough yet. The more rotations you do the more used to get to thinking diiferently, in a less a-level way, in a more foundation/higher way. Hence their work was better than ours cos they'd had more experience in thinking. I wish we'd had fine art first really, cos I don't think timing/experience would've affected my work as much as it did fashion textiles.
   I really need to stop assuming. I assumed vis comm was going to be graphics. Everyone said it would be. Hence I did not look forward to it. But I really enjoyed it! And the tutors were really nice, and you could tell that most of them were  really speaking from the heart and with meaning, even if it did takes ages longer than we may have wished it to- go away spyware update-.
   Watching jamie. Tis great! I didn't watch it last monday cos of cheerleading...which i've started doing! I am glad i signed up. I got a rather worrying text, mind you, on wednesday from Charlotte (one feels she deserves a capital C) about the first rugby game to cheer at. Que?????!!!!!!! I didn't think we'd learned a routine yet, we don't have uniforms yet to the best of my knowledge...I texted back to say I couldn't make it, it was wednesday so i had the usual appointment and a lecture, which was fine, i can come next time. I need to speak to someone though on  monday, cos i can't commit if games are gonna be on wednesdays...I know it's my only definately 'off'' day, but it's my lecture/seminar day, which are always in the middle of the day :/ :/ :/  I really want to keep/start cheerleading..Also I hope nothing's too late, my mum already had a mini  fit (understandably) when I got home (at fastest speed possible) at 20 to midnight. From now on I'm to stay with my Grandma, who lives nearer. But more than one nigiht a week??
      It's really nice being with her though. i have a great relationship with my grandma. She's just got a new/first computer, and is painstakingly learning how to use it. Just taught her to use internet, got her sorted with ancestry.co.uk which she's been wanting to use, like, forever. Life is good. Looking forward to 3d spatial. :)

just because

...i felt like writing today about the RIDICULOUSNESS of daytime tv. (I am actually doing a LOT of vis comm work in time for tomorrow, the tv is just a soundtrack) (that i'm thinking of muting.) (Well not any more, cos Voyager's just come on lol) A minute ago I was forced to watch Jeremy Kyle, which is all that is on apart from Dickinson's real deal/ commonwealth games/ crap music videos. THAT was the worst. I can't believe people can be so stupid when they're clearly in the wrong.
    AND...
I have to get this out of my system- have you seen a recent Boots advert? The one with the irritating stupid, very scripted female voice which says:
   "They say women tolerate pain better. The (')truth(') is, we just remember to buy painkillers!"
..
...
OH REALLY? I hate for this to sound like a rant, but i was so mad when i first saw this that my blood ran cold. I wish i could tell Mr Boots (cos it must be a man) that their painkillers don't even WORK! Without codeine i find there is no difference between Boots paracetamol and Smarties. And with codeine they only just about numb the pain, and only for about an  hour. Boots are reeeeaaally clocking up enemies; i know I'm not the only one who's boycotted the shop since 'Here Come The Girls'. I'm NEVER going in there again, now. And you- oh go away Spyware update- can hold me to that.
               Well I more than enjoyed that.
   Went to listen to Dominic Wilcox giving a lecture yesterday; he was fantastic. In recounting my visual-audio adventure to mine Grandmother i dithered when trying to describe what he was. I settled on the vague 'artist-designer', what i really should have said was Utter. Genius. He's got an INCREDIBLE brain. I love his brain.
once i figure out how to post other things like pictures and videos I'm going to put up his video of the football-smoothie maker, which had me in uncontrollable stitches. I'm not sure why.
      Found out in a couple weeks I have to write some kind of statement thing about my decision. Which irks me greatly cos i still have no idea!!!!! I like parts of all of them so far!!!! I wish there was more time. I'm not a person that thrives on choices. I have to have all or nothing. Preferably nothing, but on occasion a little bit of all can help inspire me. Such as last week's Plug exercise. That was great. I am really enjoying vis comm. I may choose it. But then what degree would that let me choose?? Graphic design? I really don't see myself doing graphics. Illustration? I would like to maybe, but it's hard to get a job from that; i know a reallly good illustrator, she went to CSM. Now the only thing she's been able to do is one little book for an accountancy firm, so not even big images, more like little page graphics. That scared me off illustration a bit, if I'm honest. And I wouldn't really want to illustrate someone else's fiction book; i would feel like i was wasting myself and my time not writing my own. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing that now. The longer I work at this arty side of my creativity, the more i feel I should be a writer. Which is of course what I always wanted to do until those evil English teachers of mine that I had in secondary school (not Yr 7, she was so lovely) ruined my ambition.
    And I miss studying history. Should I even be writing all this? What exactly was this blog supposed to be about again? What was the point of the whole exercise? But i really miss history. I'm getting things I always knew confused and i DON'T like it. What did I confuse the other day? Thomas and Oliver Cromwell. I got them confused. I used to be expert on Tudor history; I should've known it was Thomas cromwell, not the evil Oliver of the 17th century. I don't want my brain to melt.
 But yeah we have to write 500-750 words on our decision, which hopefully by 28th I'll be clearer about. The only problem is I know my trouble with word limits. My histroy coursework last year had a limit of 3500 (4000 tops) and without meaning to, thinking I was writing minimalistically, I wrote 8900. Cutting it down took months and sacrificed the feeling and scholarliness of it. I've been writing for half an  hour. This is like my new diary.

:)

continued...

oh, and watch  Rabbit, by Run Wrake. Enjoy.

stardate 13004.1 Vis Comm

Ok, wow. I REALLY enjoyed today. I learned a whole lot, in fact, i'll have to put my notes of the tutors' speaking up on this blog. I'm watching Jamie's American Revolution right now, hence I guess I'm not too focused. But the fact that I bothered to turn on the internet (which is tricky iin my house with dodgy connection) to write just this shows just how thrilled I am with this pathway. I just HAD to share a snippet of my excitement with you all. I may have found my kitten. :)

Following an eventful crit....

Yay i figured out finally how to write another one of these!! :)
well...just finished the fine art  pathway...that went ridiculously quickly. On the whole i quite enjoyed it, i would like to do fine art, although i don't think it will end up that way. I could be wrong. Today's crit was very interessting. I have to be honest, i was more than dreading it. The FT (not financial times ;)) crit went well but it was scary in a...new way. I've never been the first to volunteer for public speaking with people i barely know. But of course today i do know people a LOT better...and besides, the crit was entirely different.
     I knew already that the style of crits depends largely on the style of the tutor handling it. I've been reading 'Seven Days In The Art World' by Sarah Thornton, which is a ruddy FANTASTIC book, and gave me a good insight into the workings of...well, of the art world. I particularly enjoyed reading about the crits at CalArts, MA department to be specific, which are 'handled' by an artist....Asher, I think? Can't quite remember, not going to get up to find book... But i guess this isn't about his crit, it's about mine. So you'll have to read it yourself. ;)
      I think the tutors (Richard and... :/ sorry, other guy) handled it brilliantly. We didn't just talk banally about our own stuff, like a gcse presentation, rather, we used the work as a starting point to have an interpretative, intellectual discussion on such subjects as 'What is sculpture?', and 'why is a fashion show not fine art?' (I'd say it's 'cos fine art is a mirror held up to society, it watches it before it creates...whereas a fashion show takes a much more active role, often driving society, consumerism and commercialism.) Overall, it was great! I only wish my work was discussed...Asher's crit went on until 12am and still only 3 people had been critted. I wish we had that kind of time; it was really fun! :)
      I still learned a lot though, such as the idea that by focusing on detail, you lose the point  of why you're working, you don't see the bigger picture, if you gaze too intently at the minute features of an image. Which explains why we've been encouraged to loosen up and paint like 3 year olds in this class. (Another nice lesson: 3 year olds paint naively, they see without language and without social biases that we see without even thinking. hence, maybe it would be good to try and emulate them.) I really liked this, as i;ve been continually wondering why i'm 'not allowed' to draw beautiful detai. I still miss that, but i guess art has changed. There's no need for that now...we have cameras.