Final Brooch Designs...

Trying to create a background for this one... didn't look right as white space.

Some initial drawings...'Cute'

I've started to do some painting with this 'cute' theme loosely in mind, but also incorpertated my own taste of image into them, in preperation to take to Simon at 'On The Wall' and see how he feels about them. The idea of me designing these images/poster is that he had to much graphicy and 'male' images in the shop being sold, he would like some illustration and more 'girly' images to sell.

Initial drawings for jewelry ideas...

Some painting and drawing I've been doing this week, to perhaps be made into brooches? I've had a lot of fun putting these images together, and love the way the thiness and thickness of the ink layer up to create tone. They also dry nicely, creating their own crisp outline as they dry...

Wood.

Went and spoke to Matt, down in the woodwork department today. I wanted to book the laser cutter for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week, but also to ask him a few questions, we spoke for a while, about what kinds of wood are good to make jewelry from and where to get it from. He said I could use various off-cuts which they had already, as my jewelry pieces would be small, and I think we came to the decision that I'm going to try different kinds of wood. I'm going in on Monday to prepare the wood, I need to get it to the thickness I want and sand it all down.

From speaking to Matt, I've chosen to use a thickness of 4mm, as any thinner and the wood may warp with the heat when the laser cutter is on it - any thicker and it will be a hefty brooch, where as I want them to be elegant and light! As I'm using off-cuts aswell, its free, what a bargain, 0 spent on materials!

It seems at the moment I will just need to pay for the brooch backs which I will buy on Monday from the Merrion art market.

From artists I've been looking at, that use wood in their work, I want to rasterise (when the laser kind of scratches away at the surface in straight lines), some bits of the image. This means I need to produce 2 laser cutting files, one saved as a jpeg and one as paths, Matt explained how to do it, and said it's very important that both images are the same size, so they allign properly when cutting.

'On The Wall 2' Devloping the Images...

Been working in my sketchbook the last couple of days putting together images in inks and pencil/pen of 1950s ladies and this idea of the fashion back then. All the sketches I do are going towards the jewelry idea, but also heavily thinking about the work I need to produce for Simon as well at the shop.

I've had trouble in imagining my images as posters which look finished and could be sold... They almost need something little to finish them off and so I have been re-searching into the idea of 'the vintage poster' looking at old posters on the internet and looking for inspiration...Came across this lovely website, which sells a massive range of posters, one specific collection it sells is titled 'Fashion - Vintage Art', so this is where I've been looking...

The thing I got from the most, was the idea of using colour in my images and also spacing/framing an image you already have, or it could be as simple as grouping objects I've painted and concentrating on arranging.

Self-Promotion.

'Creating a memory point'...

With the craft fair 'ReetSweet' coming up very soon, I'm frantically trying to pull my jewelry idea together, but also thinking about my promotion and how to package my work to sell.

Lauren was telling me about the art shop in the merrion market making stamps onto acrylic if you supply them with an image, for a good price.

Over the last couple of days, I've been thinking about what should be on a 'business card' and starting to design some sort of image and type to stamp onto a sticker I may seal my images with. Trying to get your style of illustration and personality down onto a tiny sticker space with one little image and a tiny bit of type is proving to be more of a task then I'd first thought.

Ultimately it is something that is memorable...

On it I want:

- An Image, which most sums up the subject I base most of my work around.

- 'Made you something'

- My Name

- What I do

- Website/Tumblr

- Contact details/email address

On the Front I'm planning to have a black circle with made you something written in it. turn to the back and my details are there.

Packaging:

Been researching into packaging ideas for my jewellery. There's many ways to do it, boxes or paper backing, but I think I will have to stick to a very cost effective way of doing it.

Tina Berning...

I came across this artists work on a blog -

A major influence in the painting I've been doing over the last week has been Tina Berning. A german painter/illustrator. One exhibition and body of work she's done is: '100 girls on cheap paper'. As well as the beautiful paints strokes and the way she works with the ink to create shadows and 'form' a body shape, I also love the concept, of 100 paintings of girls and this idea of painting them on loads of cheap paper. It communicates this idea of simplicity and also the ink sits so nicely and differently on each bit of paper.

This is what I've been trying to do through my image making, keeping simplicity with the movements of the ink, but also this idea of clearly seeing what the image and giving the work/person a personality and some sort of feeling.

From these images and also from painting from reference in the illustration workshop matt gave us, it's rekindled my love for old photographs and the style and appearance of the 1950's woman!

I've begun to look into these images and draw from them, to generate some ideas for jewelry I want to make and prints also...

The silouette is also something that intrigues me, so much detail in such a simple 'cut/drawing' of a simple outline created by light. I might try to create my own silouettes but, I want to capture the 1050's woman through this technique.

The 'look' of a 1950's women is also that of a very recognisable body shape, pronounced more by the clothes they wore...body image is what I've been concentrating on and this seems like a natural step forward, as the body image will be key in producing 'pretty' and recognisable jewelry. Also looking at female body image today was beginning to grate on me a bit...

So now I've been looking at as many vintage fashion and beauty blogs as I can! The one below, is particularly good and I have been using lots of it as reference material:

http://glamourdaze.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

Residency Showcase...

Yesterday was the last day of my residency and in the evening from six onwards it was the showcase of what we had done throughout the week. It was a real success! There was a steady flow of people around all night, but it got really busy at some points!

People used the space and interacted with the space in the way we wanted them to and so our message must have been communicated well by the way we structured the space. There were also some lovely comments in the comment book which were left by visitors...

The brief we set ourselves was to create a space unlike a normal exhibition space, somewhere to view work, but also relax and get involved with the work themselves... through creating a living room/kitchen/games environment, we gave people a chance to relax and socialise and also add their own artwork to the walls/furniture... people commented on the lovely atmosphere, with the record player and snacks/cakes. We even found people were entering the space and leaving to get food and come back to eat it in the space!

Having a summary of what the exhibition was about as people walked in, not only told them what it was about but how they can use the space. Someone commented saying that a speech of a brief summary could have been spoken to explain the space and what we had created. But reflecting on this comment, it would have been hard to have addressed everyone in the room, as people were in and out all night, from 6-11.30. Not only that but it wasn't the 'feel' we wanted for the exhibition experience, it was a place of peace and relaxation, someone standing up and addressing everyone there in silence would have given a more formal feel to the evening for people there at the time and that's not what we wanted.

Here are a few photos...

Residency: Progress...

Tonight I've been working on initial ideas for the wallpaper I'm producing for the living area, which is then being projected onto a bit of one of the walls...

With the theme of vintage from the group and the ultimate feel of our space being a quirky and vintage scene, I began looking into areas of the subject 'vintage' on the internet. But also my love for the womens' fashion and trend in the 50's took over a little bit - but hey, I guess that's what makes it 'me' and the style I work in.

The hat and idea of a headpiece screamed out to me and the fierce hairstyles which were worn in those days.

I liked the idea of using a side-profile and I've been looking at body image and this idea of beauty within my dissertation and image making recently, making it easy to place a mirror round the women image I put I wanted in the middle...

Residency: Andrea Zapp...

http://www.azapp.de/world/index.html

When I was doing a bit of research for our residency, I thought about what we were trying to do and wondered if anyone else had done anything similar. It seems that Andrea Zapp, an

has done a project pretty similar... 'The World Is My Imagination'. Over the past decade she had been creating artworks which investigate the term of a: 'Networked Narrative Environment', to explore the digital network as a fictitious, communal and active audience space.

From our initial discussions about what we wanted to do as a group with the space, it seems that this is pretty much what are trying to do ourselves, on a lower budget and in a smaller space and time.

It's interesting because Andrea Zapps exhibition itself, 'The World Is My Imagination', was put together by Zapp, but with many contributing artists, much like the brief we have been given by SLICE - a group of student artists specialising in different practices, each producing some sort of artwork to go into/add to the space.

Andreas' outlook for the exhibition she put on was this idea of 'Analogue becoming the new Digital and her research at current tries to capture the digital and it's inherent nomadic narratives and identities in low-tech aesthetics and more decorative design approaches to establish an emotional link between audience and media art work. She describes it as the virtual space being looked at as the other place of memory, by freezing a digital moment in time and by inventing digital/analogue paraphernalia.

We are trying also, in some way to challenge this idea of 'the digital age', for instance the idea of the play-station games being there to play, the television, digital window and oven. These appliances seem to have a calming effect on people, not only because people entering our space could then be familiar with everything around them and know how to use the space, but also it showed how the world seems so absorbed and reliant on technology nowadays - to the point of how relaxed a person can be and 'understanding'. This idea of imaginary idea is also communicated through the use of the digital and projections.

50's Repeat Pattern and Women...

Some inspiration for the 50s print I'm putting together, which will projected on the wall somewhere. I don't think I want that many colours, maybe black and a pink, as the space will have a lot in and anything to dominating could be distracting from everything else or create the wrong atmosphere.

Feartured on 'Reetsweet' blog...

http://reetsweet.blogspot.com/

...take a peek.

Today Lauren posted a link to the 'Reetsweet' blog to show me that my 'interview' had been put up. You can see some screenshots below, it's pretty much what I sent the girl running it, but she's called it an interview and said that I'm there at the craft fair with exciting stuff. It's nice to have work on a blog which people look at and hopefully people will be more aware of myself and what I do. The nice thing about having to write a description about yourself, is it's nice to explain fully what you do and where your interests lye in producing your own work. It was also important for me to mention to my audience, that each piece I produce is just a tiny bit different, due to the print methods I use, which means that each piece is specially made just for that one person who buys it - they have something unique. Thats where I got the 'Made you something' slogan for my work...

Visiting Simon 12th October...

Today I went to see Simon, we spoke about things I've been up to and we also discussed a new brief. Simon wants more girly images and illustrations for the shop, most of the image work he gets are from boys and are very photoshop based, there isn't much real 'illustration' in the poster range...I've started to think about 'cute'/'girly' things to produce, but I'm going to let it come from the 50's women fashion subject that I'm working on at current! One image I want to print is the repeat of lipsticks, but in fun 'girly' colours, pinks, purples and golds...I already have some drawings for this, so I'm going to do some more and then start to create the files ready for screenprint, thats all I have planned so far though...

We also discussed the wrapping paper collection he wanted to put together, but he said they just don't have the money to do it at the moment and so he said to start producing all these things, likes card, wrapping/wallpaper design and then at least they will have the design work and can leap quickly into action when the time comes and they are able to do it.

At the end of producing this body of work for Simon, he said that I could put my own work down in the exhibition space If I wanted to, so this is in the back of my mind as I work...

Planning for my 'residency'

As saturday the 16th fast approaches I'm trying to loosely plan some work to do whilst I'm there, there is a possibility that I could be just collaborating with the other artists there, but I won't know whether people are getting on with their own work, all working under one theme to all produce our own work, or possibly to collaboratively come together with one piece or way of using the shop.

I won't know until I meet these people on saturday, but it can't help to be prepared if everyone decides they all want to do their own thing!

I've set myself a theme: 'Perfection' and started looking into the idea of Lipstick and how it's a strong symbol of 'beauty'''sg'eg''eg'. I've been reading up on the project which Banksy did about the women who were given lipstick in war camps.

In correlation with this idea of 'perfection' - I've decided to go down the same tangent as I have in the work I did last week for Handmade III and want to show this idea of 'going against this idea of perfection' and the 'norm'.

Translating this into the idea of wallpaper, which is normally all perfectly aligned and designed to be perfectly measured with perfect gaps and the repeat pattern being repeated digitally. From this I would take the idea of the 'norm' and instead produce hand drawn wallpapers.

But I've also been thinking of interesting ways to produce the work, or suit the style in which I work. Wallpaper's are normally always digitally produced and printed, I would like to do an embordied repeat pattern or 'cut out' wallpaper.

Plans for this week:

- Gather possible materials to work with:

Long bit of material to hang as wallpaper, in paper/card and also a long bit of fabric to sew into.

Get some nice fabrics together.

- Draw up ideas for my work/possibly something collaborative to take to the group.

- Make little mock ups of ideas...

I'm going to be very busy on Saturday evening, once I've met the people I'm sharing the shop with and then taking all the ideas people had and once decided work out how I'm going to approach it.

Jewellery.

Been looking at a few jewelry sties and that also specialise in this idea of 'vintage' and also to help me with my 'cute' images for Simon I have been looking at the way all their jewellery is presented and what imagery they use on their website pages. This gives me some inspiration and the chance to look at what is already out there!

Been looking into this idea of mixing jewellery and wood also, some of the below brooches use particularly nice styles which I like and would like to incorporate into my work...These have been a good inspiration, it's out there and I just want to do it better and in a different way!

Handmade III

Today Lauren, Amber and I had a stall at Handmade III, many people asked if we were a collective and when we said no commented saying that our work works well and looks nice together! This has made us think about possible things we could do in the future...

Although I only sold a couple of prints today, I found today really useful for many reasons!

I have realised that all I went with are prints, I had plans for business cards, but they are really very important, which is why as I work towards my next craft fair I want to put a card together and also stickers to seal work and prints. I'm begining to research into it...

The main thing was, in realsising that not many of prints sold, it seems I need to commercialise my subject a bit more, things which sold really well were bits of jewelry, prints which were packaged and 3D objects...

People like to purchase things they can use, and wear, this had spurred me to want to create some jewelry and I feel that I want to use wood, for the purpose that each piece of wood is different and wood feels special and it is, there is a story behind each piece you find.

It was a great place to be, to learn how people go about promoting themselves and selling their work. Observing Lauren who I was sharing a stall with, taught me a lot, she was fully prepared, with bags to put her necklaces in when sold, stickers to seal the bag with and a business card inside, with all the necessary details on them. Also she sold a lot and it's because the antique items she sells as jewellery and necklaces are quirky and also can be worn all the time anytime - very commercial.

It's shown me what I need to get on and do, in order to achieve this professional standard of working...

Also got talking to Becki, a girl who was putting on her own craft fair on Novemeber 7th at the Corn Exchange, she explained how she had tables left and asked if we'd be up for getting a table, it's £20 a table, but we're going to share it between 4 of us

I've been speaking to Lauren today and she's said that she's booked the table but Becki asked for a few images of each of our work and also a description of what we do, so that she can feature us each separately on the blog for the event. It's all pretty exciting! I've started putting it some images together and started to write about my work to email her, but I've also had a cheek look at the blog and artists on there already, to give me some sort of idea of what to include in my description.

I'm going to make sure I try to promote it lots for everyone to! Posting up the blog and event weekly to get as many people there as possible!