Longing……For……For……For……

Any new progress on my degree show?

Mmm… I would say that right now I need a long good break lol… but anyway my new progress since my last post was about mounting up the panels so that it looks more of a wall and not some half built construction. I had the chipboard panels ordered to the right scale of my room which would be 8Ft high and 4Ft width and all three of them managed to fit on each side of the walls nicely with no excess board hanging out. I was very pleased with this outcome of mounting them nicely.

The main cross beams go along from one side of the wall to the other wall and are fitted with metal brackets so that they are screwed down either side. The beams pull each side of the walls together which making the room more secure and would also help more with making the beginnings of a ceiling. This was my general idea as I have all of my sketch drawing ideas in my book of how my room should look so all of this was carefully planned early in the year.

Next plan of action?

I will try working on painting white around the outside of the room once all the panels are successfully mounted up and also try to paint black on the inside to give it the dark room feel to it. I will also attempt to try mounting at least my English roof within the next few days so it will give me confidence of my room coming together quicker and make me work harder. Once I have done all of these tasks then I can think about mounting the Chinese roof and try making the support beams to go underneath so that it would not fall down.

Two days of progress in a days work?

Yeah… I would say I have worked my socks off today to do as much as possible and have reached my limitations of how much work I can handle. From the last post showing my progress, I have managed to make all of the frame walls now after having my wood delivery coming today successfully. I ordered some more wood the day before in the afternoon to make the remainder of my last two frame walls and was nice to get the next day delivery.

This meant that I could finally finish off the walls and start putting them together and I really think that the installation room is taking shape a lot more now.  I also managed to complete the walling next to the Entrance doorway by attaching the last panel to the other two panels of chipboard and then using brackets and screws to help mount them together securely so they do not fall down.

What about the holes in the plinth and in the walls around the room?

Yeah… I knew I had to think of a way to fill in the holes of my plinth and the walls around the room to display my prints on. I thought about getting some decent polyfilla or crack filler but I chose to use polyfilla as it was a good brand and should fill in the holes and cracks for a much smoother finish to my degree show :D

Next plan of action?

Now… I will keep going with great focus and try to work on mounting my chipboard panels up against my installation structure to complete the walls properly. I will mount them all up by using 1 and half inch screws which should secure all 12 of them nicely to the structure and the room should also be more reinforced. Also now that I have filled the holes in with polyfilla, I will try to sand my plinth down making it smoother to paint on.

Latest photoshop drawings/plans for installation room?

I wanted to do some more planning by creating some more drawings on photoshop and seeing how I can carefully get the measurements just right for the ground and ceiling. I wanted to be more precise in making even gaps between the side beams and corner beams so that there is a more reinforced balanced structure for my room.

I wanted to work on a new entrance doorway and decided to move it to the left now as I have to have a projector in the middle of each of the walls so I cannot have a doorway there. My teacher david Baldry said to move the new entrance to the left anyway so that it does not look like a house but an installation room instead. I can just move the English roof and Chinese roof over to the left a little more because it is only acting as a porch anyway so it will still look great even if it is not in the middle of the room.

Next plan of action?

Will keep on developing more planning ideas of drawings in photoshop to try workout better methods in building my installation room to become better. I will use these plans that I already have to use towards my latest building and will make more drawings if I become confused about something or find something difficult to do.

What is the latest progress for my degree show?

Well… I can say that it has been a very nice smooth start to the week having made already made a small wall to go near the entrance so that the viewers get a more element of surprise when they walk in. When viewers walk past in the corridor, they do not get to see my degree show yet until they actually walk inside and then they will feel more surprised to see it rather than seeing it already when viewers are walking towards the entrance door.

What was it like starting the dark space room?

I also managed to build two frame walls already and to be honest it was easy putting together the beams of wood to make my wall and I had to do a 4 foot measurement between all the beams of the wood to make up the frame wall. This way, my walls have a more reinforced structure for my room so that the room does not become an unbalanced structure.

Once I have marked out 4 foot between the beams, I can drill in 3 inch screws that would make it strong enough for it to not collapsed. I have manage to complete around two frame walls already which was a nice achievement for me and made me feel more confident to do a lot more work than I could actually manage.  But there was a but…

Was there a problem that I had?

I would say it was not too much of a problem but i was really worried about where I could go to get some more wood when I need some more. I had done some wrong measurements for 3 other long beams because I was gonna make two more wall frames but the longest beams that I wanted to use were shorter than the ones I already used! This did worry me that my room would be distorted with two sides smaller than the two other sides and I did not want this at all so I had to take action fast!!!

Did I get a positive outcome in the end?

I was very lucky… Lucky enough to find a close by wood merchants called Coastal Wood Merchants that is not too far from my university and was also a cheap price too! Yes quite cheaper than I thought when I arrived there that same day when I realised I needed some more wood. I looked around and said to them I need 6 of the 2 by 3s plank of woods and I bought them all for £40.00! and also next day delivery for the afternoon! I was like yes!!! a great deal and no worries with trying to build my installation room…

Next plan of action?

Now I wait until the wood arrives in the afternoon but until then… I will go to B&Q in the morning to buy some bits and pieces that I must need for building other things for my degree. Will buy a paint brush for touching up big stains on the walls and elsewhere. Will buy 4 more shelf bracket adjusters for my projectors to rest on more securely because each projector must have two of them to balance better on the wall. Will keep you updated.

What is the latest with making my website as part of my assessment?

I have been successfully making my website to look the way I want but with some obstacles along the way. This Website that I have to make is part of my Professional practice 2 module where we can either make a website or a catalogue but I have chosen to do both for my assessment.

I basically have to make a website that is clear enough for the viewers to see, treating like a kind of white wall gallery with some information about myself as well. The catalogue is pretty much the same thing but not as technical as the website and I wanted to do the catalogue just for my printing and nothing else.

Good points about making this website?

The best thing about making a website mean that you can display all your work on their for people all over the world to see. I also like the designing and custom setups of making pages and putting in buttons and widgets. I never thought I would have to create a website for this course but in the end I had to make one as I have already done a catalogue in my previous year.

This website has also allowed me to link my website to my blog just by putting in my A-N blog URL address into the main menu button settings and I felt quite happy about this that it worked very well. This module has certainly tested my capabilities out of using technical computing software and had taught me a lot.

Bad Points about making a website?

I would say that the worst thing about making a website is trying to look for the best website company that would give all the essentials you need to customise everything the way you want it to look. In the end I did choose Godaddy.com where it does actually supply everything you could possibly need to customise pages, writing, buttons and videos, anything you can think of is there.

Another bad thing that did take up most of my time was making my menu page in the Gallery of work page. The part that took a lot of time was the menu where you have printing, Lens based media, sculpture, drawings and collaborations. Everytime you click on printing page you then have to make another menu to go on that page so that when you click on the different menu buttons you can see its the same.

Next plan of action?

I will just keep on trying to perfect my website now until the degree show is finished and if I am not sure, I will ask some of my teachers what they think of it and they can tell me if I need to add anything more. For now I will just try my best to make the layouts look spot on and work more on my about me and my artwork page to try make that story better.

My website address – http://www.alexanderwoolcock.com/