ARTISTS TALKING

# 7 [3 January 2010]

I am now nearing my first assessment for my Independant Study 1 module.

I have looked at various ways of using glass in ways relating to body modification of various types. I have tested some new methods and looked more closely at some I have explored previously.

I have used hot forming, blowing and hot casting to achieve the results.

Typically the one I want to explore further is the most expensive one; hot casting. This requires blown pieces which are sandblasted, coldworked and re-heated before being added mid-pour to the main piece.

I have tried carving in to the clay which I made a mould with and liked the effects I can achieve with this although they need some refining.

I aim to persure this line of thought for the time being whilst also looking at wayd of combining glass and leather. I did a few tests with leather (because I wanted a material that responded as our skin does when we put it under pressure to modify it) and found that I like the justaposing of the qualities from both materials.

Im not really sure where this project is going to take me but Im excited for the possibilities!

# 6 [21 October 2009]

Huzzah!

I am officialy  inducted in the important places and have made some new glass work! If nothing has cracked in the lehr I should have 12 test pieces out by now! :)

I need to spend more time in the hotshop because my skills have somewhat dwindled over my year out. I cant wait to get stuck in there again! Hopefully I should pick things up relatively quickly again, for example; plates, I made so many plates at the end of my third year, I could do them almost perfectly, now I cant do one without screwing it up. I need more practice as plates will probably feature heavily in my new work.

As far as my project goes I have settled upon the main theme of body modification. I am looking at all its forms from common things such as hair dye and make-up, ranging to the lesser known practies such as scarification and eyeball tattooing. I am also going to look at the way in which we use clothing to modify our shape/look/silhouette. At this point the project may or may not lead to a glass-boned corset, I am happy to let the development lead me.

# 5 [1 October 2009]

I have been at uni (technically) for three weeks and am going nuts because I missed the Health and Safety induction on the hotshop (because I didnt know when in was) so Im stuck unable to do anything. I can coldwork but thats boring.... I did a little today but its cold and wet and I didnt want to.

Least Im settling in a bit now, get on well with a few of the people around me which is nice! :)

# 4 [14 September 2009]

First day of Uni today, went ok, I have a desk now. I plan to start filling it up tomorrow. A tad frustrated that I can't start any glass until next week though.

# 3 [26 July 2009]

Ok, I have done some (very rough) sketches of the sort of things I am hoping to have a go at making. I dont have access to a scanner at the moment so I only have photos of the drawings. They are done with markers because that is what I happened to have to hand at the time. I really need to practice my figure drawing. Obviously these are just a few rough ideas of what I will base my work on, I hope for the glass bones to run the entire length of the corset but if that proves to difficult then I will have to make 'pockets' near the top for them to fit in to. I may have to create a seperate piece to fit around the top of the corset to get the desired effect.

Some of the sketches are based on sections of armour and one is a kind of bustle idea (yellowish one) which would be amazing if it can be pulled off without breaking the glass. Highly unlikely but I can give it a go cant I? It wouldn't actually be yellow, it would be clear with speckles or trails of colour runing through it so it distorts the fabric underneath.

# 2 [26 June 2009]

Two posts in one day may happen a lot on this blog, the 500 words may limit me a tad when I'm putting my test pieces on here.

My intentions when I begin my next project are to focus initially upon wearable art. In short, my first project will be based solely around making corsets with glass bones. The idea is that the bones will be curved 'poles' of glass with some kind of reasonably durable fabric woven around them to hold them in place.

I plan to initially try a small waist-cincher then, if I can make it work, move on to full and under-bust corsets. I have a friend who is doing a corset-making internship so I shall be stealing her help for this. Maybe combine the glass with leather later and mould it around the bones. i have so many ideas swimming around in my head and I have no idea if I can make any of them work! If I understood the textile side of it then I would be fine, for example I know that I can make the glass sections to the right shape and size (albeit with a bit of practice first) and I can strengthen them with ribs if need be. I just cant conceive a way of putting it all together yet. The whole prospect of exploring a completely new area is hugely exciting! As far as I'm aware this has not been attempted before, we have had glass dresses and clothing before but they were pretty un-wearable.

I need to do some concept sketches so some of this stuff gets out of my head!  I will scan and post them when I do some.

I plan to base some of these loosely on Victorian-Gothic dress, I want to base one on cupcakes and sweets, I want to do one inspired by Tim Burton with spiral-striped bones, there are so many possibilities!

# 1 [26 June 2009]

 OK, now I know I can post fine on here I can begin!

I am almost at the end of a year-out, I decided to take some time to reflect on what I wanted to do with myself after my BA. I wanted to do a Masters Degree but was strongly advised by several  BA students, ex students and PHD students that it wasnt a good idea to just leap straight in to another course, especially at Sunderland University, which was where I studied my BA.

It was around the end of my BA that my Grandmother became quite ill so that cemented my decision to take a year out in order to help care for her.

With reflection it has been one of my better decisions. I have had time to reflect on things that went wrong with my previous course (unfortunately there were many) and the direction I would like my new work to go in. I have also had time to miss artistic education, none of my friends/family are hugely arty so it feels like I have been almost completely excluded from the artistic world for a year. I mention this because by the end of my BA I hated being there, I felt excluded, not taken seriously and felt very alone. My third year was a very difficult time for me and I did not receive the guidance and mentor-ship I needed, although I specifically asked for it on more than one occasion. My work suffered as a result and I was not at all happy with my final pieces. Despite the small number of people in my year (13 compared to the usual 20-30ish) our Degree Show - Made It, went very well. A few people sold work and  some (including myself) got interest from a well-known gallery in the North-East called The Biscuit Factory. I went on to sell my first (and best) piece there a few months later. We also took our work to the New Designers show in London where I received lots of encouragement and interest, in particular from a guy called Peter Layton who runs London Glassblowing. He asked me about the technique and said he was impressed as he had never seen anyone else use it. His encouragement was all I needed to be on an amazing high for the rest of the show! I hope to meet him again and maybe see if he would accept me for work experience in London for a week or two.

I now have my other pieces of work back which didnt sell in the biscuit factory, I'm not entirely surprised as they werent finished to the best of standards but it was all I had time to do in the final stages of their preperation. At least I get to finish them now, I have some etching and engraving planned, along with some more polishing when I have the facilities available again.

500 word limit on here is a tad annoying. Picture inclusion is useful though.