Textile Workshop

Mostly photos today as I am really tired after the assessment today. All went well though an exhausting process and I didn’t feel too ashamed of my drawing which I have really worked hard on over the last two weeks. I passed at level 3 (that’s good).
Yesterday I went into the textile department and had the opportunity to do a small amount of weaving on a Countermatch loom. This was my first ever attempt and I enjoyed it, although it is physically quite demanding. I did two kinds of weave; one was hopsack, the other I forget the name of. The facilities at Farnham are excellent, as you can see from the view of just one of the weaving rooms.

We also had a short experiment with indigo; you can see the indigo vats and the pieces drying. I haven’t got as far as seeing the end result.

Workshops

Last week we had the chance of short workshops in the 3DD department. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so you have no chance of seeing me gathering glass from the furnace or trying to shape the blob produced. It was incredibly hot and a bit frightening really. Ceramics was more manageable and in a few weeks time we will get the fired clay back and see what colours the slip decoration actually produces.
On Friday afternoon we worked on flat steel and wire to make a self portrait! So there I was hammering away at the forge, and only noticed how much my shoulder ached when I got home. The ear protectors, gloves and goggles made it so different from my usual crafting environment. I think I prefer a needle and the sewing machine, but all in all new experiences I would not have missed.
If you go over to Saras blog you can read an interview with me which she has featured this week and lots of interesting items related to texture.

Drawing

Last week we had an exercise called drawing with colour. To be honest it took me the whole session to work out that what I was being asked to do was abstract an image from the white objects I had brought in to draw. I think the problem was that I am totally intimidated by the prospect of drawing ,particularly when I see the large scale work people can produce; the other problem is that we are a really big group and there is not much time for individual input.

I have been working hard at writing about ten artists and designers for my ‘Top Ten’ assignment; having completed that and a 1000 word report on one artist, I am starting to think about the other assessment items, and my plan is to try to spend some time actually drawing and to get myself to try and work on a larger scale.
Here is a really interesting link to a video of the paper crumpling guru Vincent Floderer. If you have not heard of him before, take a look, it is fascinating. I found it courtesy of Me Jade; you can find a link on the sidebar to her blog and her interesting work.