SEWING

After the wax and layering, I began to experiment with both hand stitching and using the sewing machine. It is something I very much enjoy and find relaxing. I sewed two chess pieces by hand, just the out-line of the pawn and the horse in more detail.


The images below are of pieces I made on the sewing machine, I programmed each letter in in order to spell out the phrase I wanted. However on the lower pieces, so that I had a series of the symbols on playing cards, I changed the stitch for each one, hence some have more space between them. I especially like the pattern and will incorporate stitch into my work.

CAKE CARD

Yet another 18th Birthday card! When will be end? Anyway, for this one I sewed into a vintage recipe and used scrabble letters to spell out '18'. I really like this card, I used tiny beads to embellish the cake and I made a bow in the ribbon, just to make it more interesting. I also remembered composition, and left that all important white space! I hope she likes, if not, I might just keep it!

NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND ART COMPETITION

Over the summer, the National Trust for Scotland ran an art competition of students, emerging artists and established artists. You could win £1000, so I though why not! Below is my entry, I sewed an image of Culzean Castle, however I changed the flowers on the left of the image to be Scottish Thistle's, as I thought they were more fitting. I enjoyed sewing the image, I found it very therapeutic and relaxing and am going to have the piece framed for my Aunt, as she likes sewing came with us to visit the castle.
I think the piece looks better in real life, the photo's don't flatter it, but I find that the camera often doesn't show sewn pieces as well as I would like. Well done to all the winners, who can be found the link below, some of them are truly amazing and deserve recognizing! I really like the emerging artists winner, as well as Hazel Vellocott's work (bottom of shortlisted artists) and John Dalon's Gladstone's Place. Enjoy!

http://www.nts.org.uk/artcomp/winners.php

LAYERING-UP IN MIXED MEDIA

After the wax expreiments, I decided to look at layering images up with fabrics and cards. I sewed into the cards to embelish them, however, the cads below are too new and clean, I will either tea-stain them or find some vintage cards in a charity shop to use.


In the piece above, I used a teabag and wax to trap one of my own photos of a domino in wax and then layered cards and fabric behind. The background is an assotone print of my photo of dominoes which I printed onto Scrabble instructions. I quite like this piece, especially sewing into the cards and this is something I could look at in more depth.


Although I did not hand stitch this piece, I used the sewing machine to sew the cards together, mixing playing cards with monopoly cards. I like how the loose ends of the thread hangs down, like Debbie Smyth (see Evacuation Project) I find leaving loose ends on work can be very effective.

WORKING WITH WAX

After having worked into my work inspired by Jen Gotch in thread, I began to experiment with trapping the images in wax. Rather than using an iron, I used a wax pot and poured the wax on in order for it to thicken on the image and form droplets, whereas an iron would smooth the wax completely and is better for using on dress (pieces inspired by Jennifer Collier, see WW2 and Evacuation Project) and teabags. Although I enjoy using wax and it is effective for using when considering games, it is not a particually origional technique and I would prefer to look at other techniques, such as collaging and using fabric and threads in my work. Hence, I have moved on from thick technique.

EARRINGS

Althought it's a Sunday and I was meant to be doing college work (namely reading Measure For Measure, which is actually quite entertaining) I spent part of the day experimenting with making jewellery. In this instance, I used buttons to make earrings. I think they are very cute. I found that the embellished button (above, if you can see the detail) work best. This has, yet again, noting to do with my Theme at college of Games, but it's fun and I enjoyed it!

RECENT EXHIBITION

I recently showed some of my Evacuation and Fruit projects at my old High School. It was great to be able to display my work from over the past year and show what I had spent four lessons a week doing! The only downside was that one of my pieces was upside down (why, I don't know as it actually said 'evacuation' on it) and by the work it said my sisters name and not mine (if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself)! Never mind, it was still a great evening and a fabulous opportunity to get feedback and comments on my work. Many people, for instance, commented that the upside-down piece was 'intriguing' as being forced from home and your family literally turned your world upside-down. If I ever return to this (or a similar) theme, I will consider this idea in my work.

PHOTOS OF MONOPOLY

As well as work inspired by Jen Gotch, I worked into the photos using sellotape prints and thread. I used needle and thread to highlight certain areas of the image, as well as emphasise the perspective. I also acetone printed some of my own photographs, as it creates as old, grungy effect and makes the image rougher and more tactile.

JEN GOTCH INSPIRED WORK

As shown below, I have been using Jen Gotch, the photographer, as a contextual Link for my project with the theme of Games. I focused mainly on her photographs of objects on plain backgrounds, as I wanted the toys and game pieces to stand out. I developed my own work based on the piece below:

Once I had edited my own images on Photo shop, I wrote over them in permanent marker. My aim was to evoke memories and nostalgia in the viewer through both the imagery (of the classic games) and the words. I especially like the bottom right hand corner, 'The Best Street to Own', however, ironically it it Old Kent Road and not Mayfair that is behind the image. I did this both as ironic and as a comment on the way we, even in childrens games, place emphasis on monetary value, money is valued above all else. And this, perhaps, is a bad lesson to teach via a childrens game.

BIRTHDAY CARD

Hello! More cards, again for an 18th Birthday. This time I sewed around the image with beads to embellish it, as well as highlighting the '18' on the tape. I really like it, it's more simple than my previous cards but is still effective. Plus it is more colourful and I think that is a definite improvement.

JULIE ROBERTS

After a recent trip up to Edinburgh, I found an artist that I really love (but has nothing to do with my project), I visited the Talbot Rice Gallery, which is the Uni Gallery and they had on an exhibition on by an artist called Julie Roberts. All the works were of children, in pastel colours but all the lines were very clean and painted in block colour- nothing was blended together. I loved her pieces; I think they are so original and intriguing. If you want to find out more about her exhibition, follow the link below. I would definitely recommend visiting the Talbot Rice Gallery, it's at the top of a few flights of stairs and you begin to think that it's going to be a tiny gallery, hidden away at the top of some flats. But when you get there and step into the Georgian Gallery, you just cannot believe that such a beautiful room could be at the top! It is a truly great feeling when you see it.

http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/10-festival-programme/talbot-rice-child-julie-roberts/

http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_On-Julie-Roberts-Child-Talbot-Rice-Gallery/blog/2552821/126249.html?b

Enjoy!

CARDS

Since my last post, earlier today, I have made some 18th Birthday cards (to go with the bags). I used teabags and wax to trap a photo (of our D of E expedition) and then embellished each card with buttons, stitch and so on.

GIFT BAGS

As family and friends Birthdays draw nearer I took this opportunity to use up some old craft paper and bits'n'bats to make some cute gift bags, for earrings and such. I hope you like them! I certianly think they are very cute- lets hope they think so too!

WORK INSPIRED BY JEN GOTCH

These are some pieces inspired by Jen Gotch, hope you like then! The one with the monopoly cards in it is my favourite! I like the composition- I think the white background works well in all of them, it makes the game pieces stand out. Any thoughts?

Please visit http://www.jengotch.com/mainpage.html to see work straight from the artist and see the pieces that inspired my own.

NEW PROJECT TIME!

Hello!

New term, new project! Rather than doing the very broad theme of childhood, I have focused my theme down to Toy and Games, mainly looking at the classic games such as Scrabble, Cards, Dominoes and so on.

I started off with my first photoshoot, just photographing the games on their own (below).

I then edited these photos and those like then on Adobe Photoshop, creating work inspired by the Photographer Jen Gotch.

http://www.jengotch.com/mainpage.html

I altered the colours of the images slightly and placed them on a background I made to create the effect of using a Polaroid camera, even though I don't own one.

That's all for now guys!