Festival Season

Its the time of year when I allow myself my a 'holiday', in the form of a few Rock festivals over the summer. This year Rock and Bike Fest and High Voltage are in my list of achievements so far, and Bloodstock is still to look forward to.

To my surprise at High Voltage festival I met an artist whose work has inspired me from the time I could pick up a book, and changed my life in many ways. Rodney Matthews's work has always fascinated me, and continues to do so. Talking to him was an utter pleasure.

If youve never seen Rodney's work, check him out at:
http://www.rodneymatthews.com/main.htm

Summer Project

Upon recieving my grades from University I was also given the summer project to complete during the holidays.
The project is rather specific and asks each student to create a floral sketchbook using specific techniques and media. Here are the critera our designs must meet:

* 5 pages of flowers in continuous line in ink
* 5 pages of flowers in continuous line in soft pencil
* 5 pages of ink blobs turned into flowers
* 5 pages of flowers drawn from straight lines
* 5 pages of flowers created using tape
* 5 pages of flowers from ink runs
* 5 pages of flowers in red
* 5 pages of flowers painted in gouache
* 5 pages of flowers in Tippex
* 3 studies which work over 2 pages

We were also instructed to buy a specific sketchbook to work in; a Kraft cream square notebook from Paperchase.

So summer is likely to be spent keeping my eyes peeled for lots of wild flowers and watching the garden intently, as well as lots of drawing!

A British Summer!

As summer has progressed so too has my summer project. Ive taken the time to regularly focus hard on what I think sums up Britishness and elements which I feel make me personally a Brit. So with a lot of attempting to embrace my heritage Ive been looking everywhere for quintessentially British things.
For the first part of the summer holiday I focused largely on existing products and market research, looking at fabrics, graphics, home and fashion goods and virtually anything I felt a personal appeal towards which revolved around the given topics and around britishness in general. I found many on trend prints and items, especially during the world cup (it seems the patriotic market was anticipated and cornered) and high end home furnishings seemed a wealthy resource of British textiles.

With a great glut of Strawberries and cream (largely due to picking a vast quantity at a PYO field in Derbyshire) and a hoard of papers, stamps, tickets and packaging ready to recycle in my collages. The project was forcing me to embrace my eclectic British nature somewhat this summer!

And heres a summer snap of me 'Picking my Own':

The results are in ...

Thats right! Year one is over! Im a second year textiles student! Scary stuff! And I am thoroughly happy with my results! All A-'s in Practical, written and visual studies modules! So a year of hard work and dedication has paid off! And all looks thoroughly promising on the print front, as my lecturers agree with my choices and support me with them :)

Rule Britannia!

Well the new project has arrived! What an exciting new project it is! The title of Summer project is 'Precious Paper' and is all about collage. As someone who rather enjoys working onto collaged surfaces and involving recycling within my work, this element interested me. The topic of the collages are 'The British Empire' and we have been asked to select from 3 specific areas (one or more can be chosen): 1. Cups, Saucers, Cake Stands. 2. Medals and Medal Ribbons. 3. Fish and Birds. All of the themes set my mind in motion and as a follower of print trends I began to form detailed ideas for each topic. With a sketchbook to start and several large pieces to complete I am working hard at market research and developing my own unique view of the project already!