Fish

We have been encouraged to join in an exhibition which calls for artwork on a yellow post-it note. As it was small I thought I would make an attempt. I’m not sure it counts as art but at least I had a go. I have been working on an image of a three-headed fish to link with the Dungeness project and the fact that a fisherman there told me he would eat what he caught unless it had ‘three heads’. It sort of fits in with some of the contrasts in the area; a nice place to relax with a days fishing, but with the nuclear power station casting its shadow in the background.
The theme is linked with Reuse, so this is embossed on a piece of tomato puree tube.



We have also been experimenting with linocuts and monoprinting with watercolour inks.

3DD

Last week we had a day loosely based on three dimensional modelling. Really more about cardboard modelling. I wasn’t looking forward to it as I imagined it revolving around measuring and cutting, not really something I am accurate at, however it was more related to looking at what material can do and the general aesthetic of design. The first session was looking at ways of joining without using glue, cellotape.
Weaving, folding, slitting etc... Later we were able to use paperclips and tags.
The final project was to package an egg and then to post to oneself. I must say there were some really elegant solutions. I was just pleased to be able to make a folded box and sent it off with a bit of a prayer. People started to get theirs back at the start of the week but no sign of mine. Finally it arrived this morning, late due to the postal strike; it was battered but not broken! I can’t tell you what pleasure it gave me to see it in one piece, perhaps more of a credit to the postal service than to me, but I did complete the task successfully. It was a useful exercise in spending more time working with ones material as part of the design process.

Artist Books

Thank you for the comments on the bowl. I will post more about it when I get as far as decorating the top edge; I am planning to use paper beads.
Last week I was completely exhausted, we had two main projects, a day on Collage and one on Graphic Design. The Collage experiments were interrupted by workshop induction, and I found myself using a range of saws, hot wire cutters and a spot welding machine for the first time. I was pleased that I had completed the set tasks but my efforts looked pretty grim compared to some of the others.
The Graphic Design topic was artists’ books and altered books, which I was really interesting and I could get completely distracted but I have so much else to do that I had better restrain myself at this stage. We were asked to find 20 words from newspapers and magazines and arrange these into a random sentence. Using photocopies of found items we then constructed a basic fold book.

Some excitement on Saturday as I was pleased to find that someone in California has bought one of my embroidered bags, which was a nice surprise.