Fashion Project

paper mock up of original design

two seperate wire structures - just doing the top one now!

This week I have been working on my final design which seems to have changed about 20 million times!! I was originally going to do one big body piece and then changed to do two smaller pieces as the wire didnt have enough support. Now I've changed it again and am only doing one of the two pieces due to the timescale we have. I've decided to make it wearable on various parts of the body including the belly, nipple and face. It is a simple wire structure, a moon shape and I am going to add lots of beading and wire detail. The piece can be attacted to various body piercings making it wearable in loads of different ways. The beading is driving me a bit mad but I hope it will all be worth it in the end!

some sketchbook stuff

some samples - beading, flocking, dying, felting, gold leaf

Catwalk Project

Well our first project of the year was a FASHION PROJECT and I have LOVED it! Lots of people in the class have seemed to be a bit uncertain about it but I have had a great time researching and making my sketchbook!

We were to look at a particular culture or period in history and I chose to study China. I went on to look at Chinese textiles, writing, patterns and architecture. I became particuarly interesed in Chinese Buddhism and the beautiful temples and shrines. I then went on to research the Phuket Vegetarian Festival which is a celebration led by Chinese Buddhists. During the festival they invite the Gods to descend down on them and enter the bodies of a selected group who are known as th Ma Song. The Ma Song perform self torture tasks such as extreme body piercing, walking up bladed ladders and over hot coals in order to cleanse thier spirit and bring good luck to their community. During the festival they wear all white and are only permitted to eat vegetarian food. The Ma Song pierce themselves with anything from swords to bicycles to arrows usually through the cheeks and face. They seem to be in a trance and feel no pain whilst performing these rituals as they believe the Gods have entered their bodies thus preventing this.

Ouch!

For my final piece I wanted to make some form of piercing. I looked into body piercing and the unusual places people can be pierced. Some of the pics I found gave me the heebie jeebies! They were the kind of pictures you didn't want to look at but you just had to! I took inspiration from the Chinese patterns and shapes of the temples and made a few sketches of pieces made for piercings such as belly buttons, eyebrows and noses. I then went on to look at connecting different piercings together and came up with some almost full body outfits all connected by piercings. The design I went for at first was connected through the face, nipple and belly button, I wanted to make the structure out of wire and possibly fabric with a pattern flocked on to it. (We did flocking in one of our workshops and it was sooo much fun!) I then thought about a wire pattern with bits flocked to bring in the vibrant colours of the Chinese culture. However when I started making my design I realised the wire I had was not thick enough to hold the structure up and altered my design slightly to make two seperate body pieces. I also had to change the way it fastened as it was not strong enough to hold. In the end I ended up with quite a different final design to when I started out but I find this is the way I work... changing constantly as I go along. I never start out to make something and it ends up exactly as it was on my page to begin with!

just a few piercing pics

I wanted to introduce something other then metal to my piece so have decided to do alot of beading. I did some over the summer and some of the things I made reminded me of the intricate Chinese patterns plus with the beads I can bring in the bright colours widely used in traditional Chinese textiles and architecture.

Seems I have alot of work to do if it's to be finished by Friday! More pics of sketchbook work, samples and designs to come.

Photo Swap

For our first assignment we were asked to take in pictures of ourselves growing up and swap them with someone we didn't know very well. We were then asked to analyse our partners photographs and report back to them on what we discovered. I swapped with textiles student Judith who gave me 5 photos of her and her friends. I looked at each picture in turn and wrote down my thoughts about her influences, tastes and situations.

The first was a picture of her sitting on a step with ice cream all over her face aged about 1. She looked happy and was smiling so it seemed to me she had a very happy childhood. She looking away from the camera and I thought this may have been an indication that she was a bit shy but when I met up with her she told me she was actually a bit of a poser! She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt so I thought this could have been taken in the summertime and later came up with the idea she might have been on holiday as her top said 'Florida' on it. She was also busy playing with a Minnie Mouse purse and didn't seem very aware of the camera so I thought this might mean she was focused and not easily distracted.

Awwww aint she cute?!

The second photo was a picture of her with a girl who I thought could have been her friend or sister in a backgarden. (Judith later told me it was her neighbour in her backgarden.) She looked like she was all dressed up for a party in a pretty dress and had obviously been told she wasn't allowed to play in the sandpit! The other girl was sitting in shorts and t-shirt in the sandpit having a great time and Judith was outside pointing and looking upset. I think she thought it was unfair and I think she would have remembered that feeling and has grown up with a good sense of fairness and likes to treat everyone equally.

The next photo was of her outside with some friends. I thought it could have been taken in a school or nursary playground at some kind of event. It reminded me of my sports day at nursary where we all got an apple and our parents came along. Although I could tell this wasn't sports day as the girls were dressed in dresses. Her and one of the other girls had a packet of golden wonder crisps and seemed to be standing in a line which was what made me think it was an event and not just break time. Again she was smiling and surrounded by friends which made me think she was a happy and sociable person but she was hiding behind one of her friends and that indicated to me that she could be quite shy. But then again maybe she was just standing in a line! When I met up with her she said she was never really shy but infact chatty and could be quite bossy - so I got that all wrong! She said it was taken at nursary at an event or fundraiser but she couldn't remember what for!

The forth photo was of her and 2 friends at some kind of music festival - possibly T in the Park? They were on the campsite so had obviously stayed for the weekend. This made me think that Judith wasn't too into her looks, that she was confident and fun loving. She had her hair back and probably hadn't showered for days! And she was still having a great time. She was really into her music and had a similar dress sense to her friends which made me think she was close to them and they were quite heavily influenced by each other.

The last picture I thought was taken in school and shows Judith with a group of friends. I assumed these were her best friends from school and recognised another girl Paula who also does textiles. They had obviously known each other a long time and were friends before coming to uni. I assumed it was St Andrews day as they were all wearing tartan and it was taken in school as the wall behind looked as if it had a history timeline on it. Her and her friends all had a very similar dress sense which made me think they were all very alike and influenced by one another.


Sorry the pictures are a bit fuzzy but I'm useless with technology and couldnt figure out how to work the scanner! ha

When I met up with Judith to hear her analysis of me she was spot on with what she said. She mentioned that she thought I was a girly girl who had gone through a tomboy phase as I had short hair and was wearing trackie bottoms! She also thought I was an animal lover which I am - and I'm a vegetarian. She thought I had quite a large family with lots of cousins but I don't think it's particuarly big - I have 5 cousins altogether. She also managed to recognise my best friend Mel from a picture when we were wee and a picture taken just last year. I don't think there was any big revelation about myself but I realised its quite amazing how much someone can tell about your life from a few snapshots.

Assignment 4

For our last assignment of the semester we were to write an essay about our chosen subject. I was looking at computer games and the health benefits and problems associated with game playing. I had a bit of a problem uploading it onto my blog as my internet kept crashing but I have emailed my essay and bibliography to Lisa instead.

The two texts I read were 'Don't bother me Mom - I'm learning!' by Marc Prensky and 'Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the labratory and in life' by Craig Anderson and Karen Dill. If I were to investigate further into this topic I would look at more papers and experiments conducted by Anderson and the sources of information he has used. I would also look into more evidence of bad health problems and aggressive behaviour associated with playing these games. I could also research into the benefits these games provide for children and studies that have shown computer games can improve a persons skills. In order to become more involved I would play a variety of games myself and see if they may benefit me in any way. I would also like to look further into games for learning and training purposes such as Americas Army. I feel this is the section I have researched the least and would like to find out more about it.

Youtube

In a previous assignment we were asked to list our top 5 general websites. I put youtube down for one of mine because I feel it contains alot of interesting and informative videos about art and different creative disciplines aswell as being relevant to the world today. Over the summer I became particuarly interested in making beaded jewellery, I learnt alot of techniques through magazines and my own experimentation but there were also lots of tutorials on youtube! I found most of these videos particuarly useful in helping develop my beading skills. I also became interested in Sand Animation. This is a video from Ukraines Got Talent showing a sand animation artist tell a story - have a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

Wire Project

This week we have been working with photoshop and illustator to produce design boards for our wire project. I wasn't particuarly looking forward to it as I'm not very good with photoshop and computers in general but surprisingly I found this week quite enjoyable. Using these programs really helped me in coming up with my final design and in the end I was stuck for choice about which one to use! Can't wait to start making it next week.

Tweenagers

Yesterday we had a lecture and Johnathan showed us a video on 'Tweenagers'. I thought it was ridiculous the power these kids had over their parents, they were like spoilt brats and didn't seem to appreciate anything their parents did for them. I could identify with their need to feel accepted and to fit in amoungst their peers as when I was at school kids could be really cruel if you stood out to be different. I think most teenagers feel pressure to follow the crowd and be 'cool'. Their demand for brands and designer labels was sickening. One of the girls said she wouldn't hang out with one of her friends if her friend didnt wear branded clothing! I thought that was absolutely ridiculous! She also went on the explain that kids that didnt wear branded clothing tended to get bullied and that was one of the reasons for school uniform. Personally I don't believe in school uniform. I think more money and effort should be concentrated into teaching children it's unacceptable to put anyone down no matter what they wear - its the person that really counts. I think those kids will look back on that video and be ashamed of what they said and how they behaved. However its all a part of growing up and I think most kids go through this stage before they realise that designer labels aren't everything.