Tribal Messages

My book is finished now and I am busy trying to complete all the assessment paperwork. This week we set up the studio for the end of year exhibition and next week will have the stage three assessment, before the exhibition opens with the private view on 12th May between 6-8pm..
The paperwork is mind-boggling and I sometimes think is it worth it, but I suppose it is about wanting to finish the course properly at this point. Some people will be going on to do degrees and I do envy them but I know it’s not for me at this point in my life.
Someone called the book a' modern relic’ and that was the idea I was trying to convey, so that if an archaeologist in the future found it he would be faced with trying to work out what our society was like from some of the signs and symbols which are about everywhere , even if we rarely notice them. On the front are supposed to be talismans, which in Africa used to contain writings thought to have magical powers, in mine I have put signs for 'corrosive','biohazard' ,'keep dry' and 'don't litter'.

Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=40412





This is a link to an Etsy treasury that I am in .

Many thanks to Liz Plummer of Dreaming Spirals:
http://lizplummer.com/blog/

I have not done much with my shop recently but will be updating it once the course is finished.

Tribal Messages

On a programme we have in the UK called University Challenge there was a question last night about signs and symbols and I got them all right being more aware of them at the moment; they included the sign for ‘compostable’ and the one for ‘antivivisection’. Do you know what they are? Here are two of the pages for my artists’ book.

This page is worked on a piece of cotton which I dyed with Potassium Permanganate and discharged with lemon juice. Over it I have stitched signs for ‘corrosive materials’ and ‘biohazard’. I have made some paper and also dyed the pulp in the same way, adding bits of bay leaf to give some texture.
This page is stitched onto handmade paper and is overlaid with a piece of organza on which I managed to print. I tried various ways of doing this and settled on spraying a piece of card with 505 spray and attaching the material. I printed out the messages in the same way.

Tribal Messages

I have decided to call my piece ,in the form of an artist’s book, Tribal Messages. It will juxtapose contemporary signs and symbols with traditional Adinkra symbols from Ghana.

I have been working on the cover which I wanted to look like an ancient relic, and with a bit of paint and use of the hot air gun a piece of chamois leather now gets somewhere near to the effect I wanted. I had the Deka paint as a free gift from Fibercrafts, I think not many people wanted muddy brown, but it came in very useful .It looks like Elephant skin to me.

The inside of the cover brings together various Adinkra and contemporary saying. I sprayed material with 505 spray and put it onto card which then went through the computer fairly easily. I used scrim and pieces of silk carrier rods dyed with tea to get the ethnic look I wanted.

Printing Workshop

Over Easter I did a four day workshop in printing; as usual it was exhausting but really interesting. Fortunately there were a range of different presses to use, and as I have a problem with my back the easey peasey electric one was made for me - just press a button and away you go. This really is the way to make monoprints, so much better than by hand. After the first impression you use a weight to hold down the paper and then you can move the masks, lace whatever to a new area. The oil based inks give a really clear colour. I also had a go at collograph and an etching using a leaf to make marks in the soft ground. The leaf was hard work as it took lots of patience to get it away from the ground and still leave enough to be etched away in the acid bath. I am going to use some of the prints in my book about signs and symbols and will show you those as I go along. See my current header for one of the prints using an Adinkra symbol.

Adinkra symbols

For the final project I am going to be working with images from packaging. I started by scanning in lots of bits of packaging I had saved, one of which was an elaborate wrapper from a bar of Fair-trade chocolate. When I looked at it in detail I found that the symbols were called Adinkra and were traditional allegorical symbols used on the robes of chiefs in Ghana. I really had not noticed them on the wrapper but just thought it was a nice piece of paper. The symbols tended to be used on mourning robes and only by people of special standing. Now they are used on many types of festive occasions and also as logos on a variety of items. I have made some printing blocks from cord and also a couple of lino prints.
The bird symbol is called ‘return and get it’ and is the symbol of the importance of learning from the past.

The ‘Siamese Crocodile’ is about the animals sharing one stomach but still fighting over food. As I understand it the message is that infighting and tribalism is harmful to everyone.
My plan is to juxtapose these symbols which carry a thoughtful message with those which are on nearly every piece of packaging we throw away but are hardly ever noticed.

Skaters

I did a number of pieces for the assessment for Part 2 of my course. I had to decide on a final piece and this was the one the other students thought appropriate.

I enjoyed the process as I have never stitched figures before but I felt technique wise it was rather derivative, based on the work of artists whom I had researched. I took photos and then traced the figures on the computer. Printed out the shapes and used silk organza like tracing paper to copy the figures with erasable marker prior to free machining.

It’s much easier to machine back and side views, it gets really difficult when you get to faces. I suppose it calls for more practise. I like the technique of leaving the loose threads and layering the pieces. You can't really see the layers in the photos, but I played around with the effect of putting some figures at the back and getting a layered effect to give some depth.

Reconstructed book.

Reconstructed

In the library at University College for the Creative Arts there is a really interesting display of reconstructed books which have been made by the Foundation students. I think the difference from ‘altered’ books is this seems to be mainly about restructuring the book in some way, rather than decorating or painting. Some of you may know more about this than I do. We did a project where we took in an object which had some meaning to us and then were asked to take it apart and reconstruct it in a meaningful way. I took photos as I didn’t really want to cut up clothing or furniture. Back to the books; I really liked the tactile look of them and had to have a go. I bought my paperback from a charity shop, but it was still a bit hard to start folding the pages. This is my first effort, with some thread and wax added.

Circles

One of the ideas I had for the Space project was to work on the idea of a circle, a shape ‘which separates the space it surrounds from the space surrounding it’. I took some photos of round objects and played around with printing from bottle caps and lids for a while but that’s as far as I got. I can recommend Koh-I-Nor water based dyes which are brilliant colours and work well on paper when discharged with bleach. I have also sprinkled salt in places. In the UK I got a small palette of them from Art Van Go.

I used discharge paste to try to replicate the result on procion dyed fabric.

I have also been playing around with the settings on my camera which I have not used before; Sepia, Vivid Colours and trying to get less depth of field. As you can see this is a cotton reel which I used in my printing and discharging experiments.

Animation

Last Sunday, quite by chance, I saw an exhibition of ‘Out of the Ordinary’ craft work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Anne Wilson, an American artist, had some amazing pieces made from bits and pieces of lace and crochet. The main piece, set out on a white table, was called Topology and was a kind of black and white landscape made out of black lace and pins. You had to get down to eye level to take in all the fascinating detail.
By coincidence she also showed a series of videos of bits of thread and pins with some co-ordinated music which made it really funny; the coincidence was that we have been learning how to make the most basic animation at college. So I went home and had a go with bits of wool- so here is my basic attempt. Unfortunately I can't get it to loop here so you will need to keep pressing the play button.
I recommend you visit Anne Wilson’s web site to see her great animations and inspiring work.

Space 2008

Amongst other things, i.e. learning how to use a SLR camera and a life drawing class, I have continued with the pieces related to the theme of personal space. I will spare you my life drawings out of respect for the models, and because they were really best kept to myself. It was daunting as it is the first time I have done life drawing but a good experience and I would certainly like to have the opportunity to improve. We were all at different stages, and of course some people’s work was excellent - which is good as you can see what to aim for.
I have worked on the shadow images by stencilling onto silk noile and then onto silk organza; I have also machined the outlines onto organza. I have then been playing about with the layering effect. Nothing is stitched down as yet, and I can imagine the pieces hanging freely, so that you really get the effect of the layers and transparency
The piece about personal space and the ‘aura’ between people began to look more successful as I went over the seeding with markal oil stick, and put in some thicker threads. Still work in progress.

New Year 2008

Happy New Year to those of you who visit my blog. I hope that 2008 will go forward in a healthier way than over the last few days when I have had a nasty stomach virus, which according to the headlines in my newspaper today is sweeping the country. Thank goodness for the internet - you can’t catch it! I decided it was not safe to go to work today as you are supposed to be reclusive for a couple of days after the worst has passed. I must be loosing some weight, which has got to be good. It is pm on the fourth day now, and I have just felt like doing some work; sorry to say I have wasted some time I needed for course work but it has been quite exciting to start thinking about the new theme and to appreciated how precious ones health is.
This terms theme is Space; you can take that in any direction and at the moment my idea is to think in terms of personal space. I have been using photographs of shadows which I took on a course visit to some galleries in London before Christmas, and also some photographs taken during the holidays. By the way my son is smiling in the actual photo, we were acting, honest. I have been researching work and also stencilling and spraying. These are a few of the bits and pieces I have started on; I am putting all the course work photos in the Access Set on Flickr and there are sometimes photos there that are not on the blog.

For any of you who are thinking of doing a course such as the one I started in September, at this stage I would certainly say have a go; I had my doubts at times during the first term but certainly the amount of work covered and the new ideas I picked up during the first term make it well worth the effort.

Christmas 2007

The Skeleton

Here is a picture of the completed recycled bowl. I show it for you to see the beads rolled from colour supplement paper and coated with acrylic wax and also to boast that I sold it and it is now on its way to Australia as a Christmas present!


On Friday we had a day of drawing the skeleton. It was quite exhausting, with lots of intense concentration. I don’t take to the idea of measuring and proportions easily.
For some reason my best effort was the one done with both left and right hands at the same time using different media, i.e. graphite and pen. I think this was easier because I knew that it was difficult; I didn’t have to judge myself against those who are more experienced at drawing.

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.

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.