I missed my blog time last week, things got a little hectic at Uni and my car broke down twice once the Friday before last and Monday last week! It seems to be fixed now although I am a little poorer now!
The slumped glass over the tiles went really well, I took them into school last week and they seemed to be rally pleased with them. it was my last week with the school, I am really going to miss our Thursday mornings together. However I think the most valuable lesson I have learned from my experience is that I definitely would like to work with Creative Partnerships going forward and I would urge anyone who is thinking of doing a student placement to do it! My placement was excellent. On Thursday last week I attended the first Craft Council Rally in Chelsea, I must say I was rather disappointed with the meeting, having spent £40 to attend and more to travel there, I found it to be quite a negative meeting which degenerated into a discussion about what the word craft meant, I didn’t find this discussion very useful or helpful to my overall requirements as an emerging maker. In actual fact, I left feeling more depressed about my future as a maker than I did when I had arrived. The meeting tried to cover too many things in too shorter time. The day was not completely lost as I visited the Henry Moore exhibition at Tate Britain – a little pricey at £11.00 for students, but well worth it! Wow his sculputures, paintings and sketches – amazing!
I am now on my Easter break, although I am not sure I have much time to relax! I have 6 weeks and counting left to complete all my work and hand it in for assessment! The practical work seems to be on tack although I have quite a lot of cold working to do. However my portfolio is where I need to put some massive effort and work in, if I am going to achieve a good grade, or even pass at this rate! I have a daily plan so hopefully this should help me achieve everything I need to before returning to Uni!
Eight weeks and counting until the end of my time at Wolverhampton. At the moment I am making some glass handles with internal textures inside them, like hands holding the handles. They seem to be going well but not too clear on how I am going to attach the blade of the knife to them? Any ideas would be greatly received!
I went to Cambridge at the weekend and went into the Contemporary Art Gallery it seemed like the sort of gallery I could see myself exhibiting in. Quite intimate but at the same time professional. They exhibit all mediums, including, metal, glass, wood, ceramics and print. Every week I attend a school in Wolverhampton to help support them with a Creative Partnerships project they are running, I work with 23 children aged 9 and 10. Creative Partnerships is a government funded scheme which has been set up to increase creativity in schools. We are making 12 ceramic tiles which will hopefully be put together so that I can slump glass over it – the piece should go in the kiln this week, so I will report back on how it has come out in next weeks post!
Nine weeks and counting until I have to hand in all my work, then a further month of organisng and planning for the degree show. Not sure where the time has gone. Things at the moment seem to be going to plan with my making, however I am no so confident about my portfolio module, I seem to be really struggling with photoshop and creating something which is professional and original – wthout spending an absolute fortune. Money seems to be flowing out of my hands like sand at the moment, I think it maybe because I know it is the last time I will be able to experiment and have use of so many great facilities that I want to try them all before I go. Still very worried about the future and what I am going to do, I really don’t want to give up the creative process but I am not sure how I am going to make ends meet. Where there’s a will there surely is a way!
This is my first ever blog, so I am a little nervous but looking forward to any comments I receive. Also I think it will be a great forum for me to assimilate and discuss my progress running up to my degree show. I am now half way through my last semester and I am not sure where this year has gone! Over the weekend I have really focused my mind and made some decisions about my work. I am creating a table with tableware and separately I going to make some glass bags.
I also received some great news from the Contemporary Glass Society who have published one of my pieces in their online exhibition ‘Surface Pattern’ which I was really pleased about. This has given me confidence that my work is interesting and worthy of publishing. You have to be in it to win it and I need to make more of the opportunities that are presented to me.
This week I am hoping to hold a workshop for a group of school children, which I am thoroughly looking forward to it. I will let you know how I get on next week!
