Model Making

We started creating models from our drawings out of paper to represent what kind of ideas we had and to help us create new ideas. I found this very useful as I can see which ideas will work the most effectively. I think a good material for me to use to soften the walls and add more colour would be felt. I have thought about manipulating this into different shapes. 

I thought this shape worked very well as the curls soften the wall but the spaces between the shapes create long vertical lines which would look very effective on long walls as it would appear to lengthen it even further.

I thought this worked quite effectively apart from the shapes would need to be on a much bigger scale in a building to have any effect. I want something more detailed for my pieces like an intricate birds nest.

I think this 3D weave would work really effectively on a large scale as I could weave different colours through. In felt the springs would be soft and boingey so people especially art students would be attracted to its surface and would like to touch it.

Photography

When I started taking photos of birds and nests at Yorkshire Sculpture Park I found it hard getting close ups so I decided to take photos through binoculars which worked really effectively and look interesting with the circular shape around the image from the eyeholes in the binoculars. Heres a few of my photos of nests, birds and places I thought birds would create nests.

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Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The main exhibit at YSP was Joan Miro' which wasn't particularly useful for my project, but I did like some of the surfaces he creates with bronze, sometimes adding paint ontop to create more texture. I also liked the surfaces he creates under his paintings using patterns underneath blocks of paint. Other artists/ designers exhibiting their work were Isamu Noguchi who created a wooden sculpture, I really liked this piece becasue of its ubscure shape, straight smooth lines on one side and rough rugged texture on the other side.

I also liked the work of Lubna Chowdhary and Margo Selby who create patterened interiors, I like there use of colour and shapes.

Fashion Fringe Road Show

Fashion Fringe is an annual award show thats supports up and coming designers through mentoring, studio space, financial support and a catwalk show at London Fashion week. Leading up to the fashion shows Colin McDowell organised different talks with designers in the major UK cities. Matthew Williamson came to Mnachester to do an interview with Colin. A lot of the interview was about how he became a designer, including a placement with Zandra Rhodes, and worked for Monsoon where he got to go traveling to many different cities; his inspiration for all his work a long with nature. Some things that he said I found quite useful like when he said about adapting your work for the country it is aimed at, and dont be temip with anything you do, the greatest designers do what they want and believe in. He also spoke about the Butterfly Home Collection he is now designing for Debenhams which I didn't know about before, these are clearly inspired by eastern countries. They were interesting but did not inspire my project.

Nigel O'Donnell exhibit

My friend took me to exhibit that we knew nothing about and was impossible to find in Manchester, even google maps couldn't find it! Finally through word of mouth on the street we managed to find it. It was advertised on leaflets but didn't actually give any clues about what it would be exhibiting, when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised. He creates his work using spray paints, stencils and traditional painting. Some even involved wallpaper which I really liked. He gets his inspiration from urban architecture and fashion, including beauty of the human form and the darker side of city life.

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I loved this collection of pieces, he made the body look like a work of art, the lines and shapes so beautiful and calm. I also liked these pieces using print, I thought they worked really effectively with the mix of feminine floral colours and shapes with the harshness of a skull.

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Infra_MANC exhibit- Emma Senior

This exhibition was about the infrastructure of Manchester after the war era, giving us information on the guardian underground telephone exchange, the picc- vic tunnel which was a proposed route underneath the city linking the Picadilly and Victoria stations, and also the rooftop heliport which was aspired to be the ultimate mobility for the masses when the helicopter was created in the middle of the 20th century.  Although this exhibit was quite interesting I didn't find it particualarly relevant to my project, maybe it would give someone elses project more inspiration.

Initial Ideas

For my initial ideas I thought about when I moved to Manchester and how nervous I was and thought that other future students will also feel like this. You want the community areas in the new building to feel comforting and somewhere the students can relax. This then made me think of being snuggled in my bed, nice and warm, I want to design a place like this for students, to make the concrete area somewhere softer and warmer. I take a lot of inspiration from nature as it has been around me my whole life and I think it is so beautiful. It reminded me of chicks being in a nest, huddled up warm together. I want to take inspiration for my designs from birds to create somewhere comforting and relaxing for students. I started my initial research in the Special Collections, where I found a book of bird paintings by Brian Wildsmith. I like the colours he uses in his work so I would like to take inspiration from this, I think I will choose one of his paintings and do a colour scheme for my project from that.

Also found other books with interesting facts on birds, and also some just on information on different types of birds nests and materials they use to build them. I have now started to do research in books and journals, looking at everything from interiors, garden, jewellery, sculpture and architecture to textiles.

I liked this piece someone has been working on in hotspur house, I imagined lining it with thick wadding and then decorating the outside and in like a natural haven.

Andrew Brooks talk

This talk was very interesting as he spoke about how important it is to get connected with Manchester and as an artist/ designer to get your work and ideas seen by the public. He told us about the companies such as Crowdfunder and Kickstarter that help fund unknown artists to get exhibition space. Also different artists studios such as

• Islington Mill Studios
• Rogue Studios
• Hot Bed Press- these concentraite on printing
• Black Media

He also told us about the Skyliner blog that he works on with another artist.

Special Collection Visit- Emma Senior

This visit was very useful and gave me lots of ideas for the project, such as

• old sketchbooks of students journeys, which made me think of small stories we see everyday such as a way a human or animal does a certain thing. A journey for a bird from one tree to another and the things that influence this.
• I was also interested in the way the students from the early 20th century learnt and the different processes in art they would have used, and how this differs to the students now.
• I found the artists books interesting as it gave me ideas of different ways for me to present my work

Arriving Task- Kynance Cove, Cornwall

My window is wound down in the car, country air blowing through my hair brushing against my sun warmed skin. All I can see around me is greenery. The car turns off down a gravel path, the bush fences give way to a large field filled with busy bodies and cars. Families start unloading their cars. I see the ocean on my left, calm and still, nearly blending with the blue sky, clear of all clouds. I step out of the car grabbing my bag, following the other tourists down the steep declining pathway, dusty mud whips up in the air by the movement of peoples eager feet. We finally get to a platform where you can view over the whole cove. This feels like no where else in Britain, the air clean, no stench of rotting fish and seaweed; the water and sand so clean, the sun shining so strongly it warms your body right through. I continue down the pathway toward the sand, large boulders start to appear so we have to clamber over them. I finally reach  the sand and take my sandals off to feel the warm, soft dry sand envelope my feet. 

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These were paintings I did of the landscape of Kynance Cove as what I remember the most is the beautiful exotic looking landscape you can see when you stand on the platform. I also wanted to do a painting of the cove from above as I find the shapes of the rocks very interesting.

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I find rocks very interesting to I decided to paint and draw a rock surface, I mixed my paint with different types of salt to create a rougher surface. 

Manchester Art Gallery Visits

I visited Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery for research and inspiration. I didn't find the work at Manchester Art Gallery that inspiring as there wasn't that much contemporary and innovative work. But I did see a piece by Ingo Maurer who creates unusual interior and installation pieces, you can find a lot of information of his work on www.ingo-maurer.com/ . I also liked the work of Jurgen Bey who creates objects and furniture, these are two of his pieces:

I also liked the work of Tord Boonjte who uses his patterns and images on a number of different surfaces, this is what I like about his work, that it can be transcribed onto many different things and it still has the same feminine fragile look.

But the work that inspired e the most was the glass plates created by Catherine Carr, she creates these by crocheting or knitting with glass. I like the idea of using a material that wouldn't normally be used when doing a certain process, such as machine knitting, printing.