18 Dec- new music

heard a beautiful song on the radio by a young artist  http://www.myspace.com/jamesblakeproduction. haunting piano echoes and smooth vocals, "there's a limit to your love". connections to maternal love from my  memories of the day before. is there a limit to motherly love. A book I read many years ago called "we need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver tells the tale of a mother whose love knows no bounds for her killer son.
Fragile love and also strong as a light house in a storm....

Birthdays -17 Dec

wonderful day of learning the art of receiving, among the beautiful jewelery and perfumes I was bestowed, a origami home made card and a stiched bag , being the prized possesions. Isat for a moment the night before looking at all the things I had collected for my children since they were babies and statreted to think about their relevance. Why did I keep those things, were they dear to me? it made me think of all babies and motherhood. Mimentos and what we define as our most prized possession. Mine are the 2 baby grows that my children were laid in after their birth.
they still hold a smell and an everlasting image in my mind, bringing back that strong feeling of maternal  love, at one glance. The memory is 3 dimensional..

Post Term and Renewal

I have been licking my wounds and cursing my Arrogance at thinking that I would pass the first unit of 1ST year with flying colours. Valuable lesson for me. I still feel that I do not really know where I went wrong and hope that I am able to ask and also to realise myself where I need to improve.

But on to the next project. Now that my studio is clean and my inspiration board is begging for more ideas. I read the course handbook on the requirements for next term's unit. Still not any closer to understanding.
What I am to understand is that we will be looking at lines, shiny things and antiques for our intro to weaving. I have thought about time lines, history lines and lines on our face.Train lines...journeys!

So I am in the library at uni looking at the WGSN website. Researching trends for the next year. I hit on Macrame, something I did at school and loved.It will be what we are all wearing this summer and I can see it is making tentative moves already in this season's knitware.

Timelines - journeys, stories and lines on old faces.... where have they been , what have their hands touched, much loved items and the stories of those items.. all come together and make our stories today to be passed on to our children. Recycle and re use. We have the time now. The recession has made us slow down and what an exciting time and opportunity for Design.

I am looking forward to going to London this weekend to visit some Museums and drink in some culture.
Plan is to look up some designers with regards to Weaving... Paul Smith( for the lines!!) and Missoni ... watch this space.

christmas and lesson learnt

 So the first term is over and all my work handed in.What have I learnt? I know that there must be shortcuts and I need to learn and discover them. As I was doing my preparations for my hand in I realised that ,as I do my sketches, I need to be collating ideas and samples ready to go . Not put them to the side, for later assembly.
I now have the confidence to put them all together and know that that is my representation.

I have changed immeasurably and I am proud of my journey so far. I never thought I could be so focused. There have been sacrifices and my kids have sacrifised alot for me to be here , so in honour of this I work to my full capabilities.

Snow, ice and Christmas is upon us and a new year.

The pupil

So many wonderful things have happened to me in the last couple of weeks. Our "Materials -Industrialisation" project got under way and I was very excited about my idea of knitting some copper wire and then pinning it to a bit of fabric . Two hand embroidery work shops helped me change my mind.

The first one was with Alison Willoughby ,an extremely wonderful and whole textile designer who came to teach us how to hand embroider and interpret lines from our drawings. She loved my photos of Brooklands Hotel and gave me some good advice on keeping all my sewing lines clean and strong.
She was a wonderful and open person and I do hope that I am able to work with her one day.

So after this workshop the knitted copper became bashed copper with copper pins and some crushed silk.My knowledge of this is growing as is my confidence. The second workshop was with my course tutor Grainne who showed us the use of colour with a colour wheel. We used Gouche which I have not used for a
while since my jours francaises. It helped me break out of this black process I have with seeing things , I am quite pleased to say.

A wonderful Lecture by Ray         on Bel Geddes, was relevant to my research on my project. His vision of the future and how he was always organised and meticulous was inspiring.
As was a trip to the Fitzswilliam museum in Cambridge. I waqs taken aback by the exactitude of the architecture among the weavving bicycles.
The grandiose columns of the museum welcome you and for reason, some of the greats are housed there. I could not choose which room to paint in but decided to FOCUS and settled for the pre raphaelites which we studied in Contextual studies this term.

I am now hurtling towards my deadline and as I assemble my work I am aware of how far I have come and how much I know I can change next term. The sacrifices I have made to do this degree.

Bibelot

Found a word I liked many years ago when I lived in France - Bibelot! It means "tat" bought in poundshops. Not sure where I am going to go with this but thought I would put it down.

I spent most part of the afternoon in a workshop with our tutor Les, learning that our personal development plan is essential to our work. I feel I am on the right track but after some thought maybe i need to work on conclusions ie where are my questions and findings taking me

I liked the word "Hybrid " today. Pig and toothpaste = pig shaped toothpaste and bacon tasting toothpaste for dogs. I really loved doing this as idea brain storming is where I excel. My brain could go on for hours.... how about suspended shopping and Holograph mirrors so that you dont have to try the clothes on but see them on an image of you. Or no currency but pens to draw money with. You have to earn credits to buy the pens...

On the way home today,I noticed orange spray paint leaves on the pavement all the way down my street. I followed them and started wondering was it a treasure hunt or a trail like Hansel and Gretel. Was it a sos cry for help???. I think I prefer the treasure hunt idea.

I have finished my drawing and 100 word for my submission to "Oh Comely" magazine and am quite excited to see if my drawing gets published.

I am also looking at the use of colour and how our eye perceives colours. I am happy to learn that we have workshop on Friday....

Industrialisation/Manmade

New assignment at the beginning of the week . It looks interesting. We have to make observational drawings of the above subject and then source fabrics and materials and make the connection.

At the weekend, I was lucky enough to go to Surrey and visit friends. I think, what struck me, was how little I looked at everything before I came to Norwich... it makes me feel really emotional because it feels like I have been asleep for 38 years and have finally woken up.

Brooklands Museum and home to Mercedes World and test track, I have visited many a time and never looked at the landscapes and it struck me how the landscape awkwardly sits against the green and blue  skyline.
I was treated to breakfast at the Brooklands Hotel (never noticed before either!!!). The decor is sumptuous, opulent and true to the 1930's era of the Motor Sports hey day. When it was all the rage to be seen at these motor events.

I happily snapped away and sketched for 2 hours and feasted on the best Eggs Benedict I have ever tasted. These photos are going to be the base of my exploration into manmade materials for my project.
Bright modern lights against steel chrome propellors and smooth undulant lines gracing every corner of the hotel. Plush leather seats adorning all tables of red glass.
Height and grace were perfectly matched in this building and it was an absolute delight to be there.

Dennis Black Bottom

I met a  deliciously wrinkly old chap this week called Dennis Blackbottom aka Dennis the Menace! He meandered over to me as I was looking at a 1946 Fighter Pilots Log Book and offered to show me some original ration books. And as I studied his face I noticed a twinkle in his face and a glow in his eyes. Only time can etch those lines. The clothes he wore were testiment of his generation  save for his peak cap pulled over his white hair.
I bought a lovely book on Norwich's waterways many years ago for a fiver and got a peck on the cheek for my money too.

I thought about Dennis and all the people that come into my life and how our  journeys cross and intermingle. Each encounter changes me and my direction.We are like the water that covers the world, we are made of water, we are fluid. Shadows cross the water and change the colour of the surface
I would like to explore this link further through the emotional conection we have with water.

The first element we interact with in the womb
The sound connects us to this early memory
Different water surfaces evoke reactions

CHALLENGE AND EXPLORE ALL CONCEPTS.....

Just when you think....

Its all over, you realise that it has no ending. Life goes on in many ways and you choose to ignore it or embrace it. We are all molecules...components

Autumn

Should I stay or should I go? I have questioned my motivation this week and seen my strengths and weaknesses. I know from experience that the weaknesses are intrinsic to my progress and thus, become strengths. I have learnt that I have limitations but they only apply for 24hrs at a time. What space do I occupy in this world ? Or am I limiting myself if I occupy only a space?

What if I were without limits in ceratin aspects of my life? I know that spiritually one can only seek to give, if one chooses the path of Serenity. For it is in giving that I find myself. Giving should have no limitations.Creativity has no end, as I have learnt too..

I had a sense of who I was at the beginning of the week and felt an integral part of the process but became self obsessed  by the end of the week... I am ill. I am tired ... BLAH BLAH!!It is limiting to only think of oneself. Life would be lonely and boring with just me in it.

The reality is I get to learn and interact with some wonderful people and learn to express myself in so many ways. I think we all occupy important roles and remembering that makes us efficient and useful.

I crossed a bridge this week and a man was sitting on a chair, with a bucket over his head. He was tied to the chair. I, like many people , had a giggle at first, then questioned what he was doing. I concluded that the question was not what he was doing but what my response to his action was.
I felt like that man , on a crossing from one side to the other, not being able to see the other side. Did the lack of sight bother him. I think not as he could see in the space around his feet.
And maybe I interpreted this incorrectly but it does not matter for the lesson I learnt is it made me engage my thought process and provoked a reaction.