Narrative project final piece..

Very nearly forgot! Here is my final piece for the narrative project, I have never made a piece of jewellery which has such a deep meaning or story behind it so it was a challenge, but Im pleased with the outcome :)

Based on Pre-Raphaelite paintings and William Morris patterns, my 'compact mirror' is beautiful on the outside, but broken on the inside...

Made with Brass, contains resin in the centre and shards of broken mirror set inside.

Colourful, resin jewellery

I think our new project which is 'Colour' based on architecture and using resin/acrlyic and embelishing with metal where ever we see fit....will be awesome. I'll probably get stressed out anyway on choosing a final design as usual but I lOVE using a mixture of materials in addition to metal and without.

I was also thinking that I really enjoyed using ceramics in college, maybe I could use it in this project? I'm unsure as to if it specifically has to be plastics though, we'll find out tomorrow.

Here are some looovely images I've found, using colour in jewellery:

Cristina Aucone


Tracy Page Smith


Nicole Collins

Thoughts on a not-far-off dissertation..

Having not blogged as much as I probably should be, I feel like I should keep up with it because I do really do do work! I just don't post it up here..it hasn't become an automatic reflex yet. Plus I really want to pimpmyblog :( I can be pretty bad with computers (just ask those who've seen me use photoshop, illustrator, you name it) but I'd like to show my work more and get it out there.

Anyway, I've started a mind map on subjects I think I'd really enjoy writing about/care about/am interested in, if it's not going to be interesting, and I don't enjoy writing it, it's not going to be a good read!
In second year I really enjoyed writing about Eastern Design, it was a sort of 'Western vs East' in way about cultural differences, and how Japanese technology is so advanced, how borrowing from different cultures can benefit our own. I think I would like to take this further but at the moment it's somewhat vague.
I'm also worrying that Primary Research is very important, and as I've never been to Asia or the far East before I'd be worried I'd end up writing about a country/continent I don't entirely understand? However there are other ways such as interviewing someone from Japan etc, but I'm not sure if that would be enough?

However I did get a wealth of knowledge and a great perspective on life in China from the assignment in second year, analysing photos. I spoke to a girl from Graphics who is from China, we talked for over two hours and could not have had a more different home life from each other. It was fascinating to find out more about a culture which i've never experienced straight from a person from there rather than looking through a book, watching a film, which may not be entirely accurate.

This also leads me on to the lecture 'Made in China' which we had before the reading week. I was so excited about this lecture. I thought yes, this is exactly what I want to know more about, this could help me so much to decide what I want to write about.

I knew China had a massive historical background, I'm still very unaware of the details. But because we were told this was literally skimming the surface of it's history, it made me wonder if I could research into Chinese Design without getting too bogged down in all the details. I tend to go off on a tangent when I do research and need to go back and think you need to focus on the most important points, but what's interesting about it without the details?
I thought this lecture as a whole had a huge effect on me. I had heard of Tiananmen Square...it was a place in China. That is it. I didn't know of the politics, the protests, the open fire on their own people. The way of life there as a mostly Capitalist country also worries me. The huge difference between the rich and the poor ways of life. Then we come to the factories...I know look at my ipod, with disgust, a lot of the time, and then think why did i not go for another mp3 player...which would also have probably said on the back, made in china. So why should i worry? It's a vicious cycle...the products are made there because it's cheaper, if we stop buying the products it puts people out of jobs..so what can you do?? Can design help? I was seriously overwhelmed and a little bit depressed after this lecture because it seemed all doom and gloom..I did wonder what the Chinese people in our year thought of the lecture? Considering that China no longer talk of the Tiananmen Square protests too. I found a lot of the things I saw strange (such as the fake English town) or to do with the overworked underpaid factory workers.
What good comes out of China/is in China? What makes people happy there, and is a normal day just going off to the empty, fake English village to get a post-marriage photoshoot done?

I want to go! I want to experience China for myself, the cities, the countryside and take in the culture.

However that lecture made me slightly scared and that I might feel like 'the idiot abroad'..

Look, the great wall doesn't seem that big..:|

Design studies group, 2nd meeting

So, our group decided to pass up Air bar for the grass on the campus green. We met up to see how was everyone was getting along with their research and how writing the Wiki was coming along, I think everyone agreed that there were few problems along the way but each of our subjects were so broad in information that you could carry on and on researching about them! For example Culture, there are 164 different definitions of (according to Claire's book, which I need to get the name of) and so she was having to cut it down a lot and focus on a certain area she wished to write about. Anyway, we enjoyed the chat and hopefully we're all getting on fine with our topics!

Design Studies :Assignment 1.

For this assignment I thought carefully about the topic I wanted to choose before we met up with our study groups. Crime and Design instantly jumped out at me from the list of Wiki topics but I had written about that for my level 2 essays so much last year I thought it's time to move on.
I googled and researched topics if I weren't too sure what they were, for example I had no idea what 'Green Wash' was before I looked it up, I had no idea that companies did this! Was pretty shocked and thought people are just so crafty! Of course saying 'this is a green product' is going to sell much more than those who aren't but faking it is awful...
Ecoliteracy is the topic I chose, luckily no one else in my group wanted to write about this, however we did find some common ground discussing it! Ecoliteracy is teaching sustainability and 'How to be green' in schools, which I think is an amazing subject, very important for future generations and has so much potential for design ideas!
Peter from our group suggested I visit the Student plot up at the Botanic Gardens, he does a lot of work up there and was telling me about some possible designs.
We were also discussing 'natural graffiti' which is using moss, as it grows really well up walls and buildings, mixing it with glue in a blender and 'graffiti-ing' public places! Technically you can't really get into any major trouble with this, it might not be as colourful or as personal as using spray paint, but its natural, and very green as it will continue to grow :)
We did go slightly off subjects at times but I think it was altogether a very useful meeting, getting to know each other and swapping ideas!

Transparency

I've been thinking about the reasons for liking the particular themes that appear in my work. With third year approaching I'd like to look more into subjects and understand the materials I love to use much better. Obvious loves of mine are the sea, sea creatures, fish, Japanese and Eastern culture, but a tutor asked me during the stone setting project what particular element do I like about these themes? Had I ever thought about looking further into it. I told him that I loved looking at transparent objects, multiples, stones that contain many colours such as Opals, I use layering in a lot of my pieces and sketchbooks.
I'd love to continue looking further into these ideas. However I'd never dismiss anything new that I come across..
During college in Glasgow when I was doing a portfolio course, I got really into looking at cells, bacteria, animals, the way nature works behind all the leaves and trees. If I look into a particular subject like an animal I think is just really interesting (usually reptiles, sea animals..) I HAVE to know everything about it and the way it works. Sort of like if I watch a film in a way, I have to know the workings behind it.
Some of the images I came up with for the Mixed Media project in that course weren't pretty, but they were full of detail, intricacy, and just lots of information!

A few hits of transparency into Google gave me some images that I really like..

Stone Setting..

Very late posting this since the year is officially over and it's onward to third year (!) but here is my little glass vial creation from the stone setting project. It's a bit wonky if I'm honest but I'll get better at the making, and designing! :)