Tuesday 28 October 2008

This design was from a drawing at the Eden Project whilst waiting for friends by the cafe ,If they hadn't been late it would never have existed . The birds there are incredibly friendly probably because they know they are safe and they have an endless supply of food from the veg beds which surround the cafe and the tourists who probably feed them crumbs.The Holly hocks takes me back to being 4 or 5 to our house at Ilkley . My father had a greenhouse in the back garden and grew hollyhocks next to the door . I was fascinated by them for at that timer they grew taller than I did they seemed a beautiful yet almost impossible flower in my young mind. The rest of the design are nasturtiums
Perhaps the lone bird is significant.Every picture tells a story!

Sunday 26 October 2008

An Inconvenient Truth

If you haven't seen this film by Al Gore " An Inconvenient Truth"on climate change then I would encourage you to do so . It is certainly going to influence my design process and the way I live my life.

Saturday 25 October 2008

Interesting links and thoughts on future work.

Having missed Simons lecture Sue and I were priviledged to have a re run on wednesday and afterwards I had a tutorial which led to the discovery of the following links and thoughts on the developments of my work .
Shona Quenby and Ed Forster are both ex UCF students now working for Liberty ,both address environmantel issues through their designs rather than the fabrics.Do I feel the need to incorporate other images/ text into my work that can highlight my environmental/ spiritual concerns?

Grayson Perry is collaborating with Libertys also to produce a range of fabrics . I once interviewd him for my dissertation during my degree and was fascinated by his work and his personal history , He again is using his imagery to appear benign but includes images that eare quite shocking at times . Looks like Liberty is on the change .

Paul Morrison does the most delightful large scale sculptures and paintings of plants with a dark side.

Bruce Mau and ethical issues

Following the video link presentation by Bruce on Wednesday I vow to pay more attention to my designs and products being aware of them from "cradle to grave.' I had never thought of this as an entire process . I have thought about where my materials come from increasingly so having heard about the plight of the Aral Sea which has completely dried up through over demand for irrigation of cotton crops ( it seems that even organic cotton production is fraught with dangers to the environment as well ) but had not really considered how they are disposed of . At least with natural fibres , which I have always used , recycling is possible. One solution in my own work for sourcing fabrics is to use recycled cottons for example continuing on the damask tablecloth theme .Also to start to order and try out greener fibres in terms of dyeing and printing .
Discussing these matters over lunch on friday with Ed I discovered there is a fashion sportswear company called Patagonia who donate 1% of profits to the planet , incorporate recycling of their garments and also source cottons from mills that are closing down , ie recycling at source.A true example of eco design .
I found the Bruce Mau manifesto fascinating whilst remaining slightly cynical that this is just words and ideals that are hard to manifest but he does have a positive spin on things and believes we are not helpless we have the tools , possibilities and wealth to make changes !! It is up to each of us to do our bit. A few of my favorite bits in no particular order.
  1. Allow events to change you.You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
  2. Process is more important than outcome.When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
  3. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
  4. Drift.Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
  5. Begin anywhere.John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Origin

Being in London gave me a chance to go to Origin week 1 , the London Crafts Show .

Makeba (our illustrious
weave tutor ) had a stall
there with beautiful woven scarves beautifully and very professionally presented .I had considered the possibility of exhibiting there next year but since visiting have realised that it is more likely to be the following year as it not only needs to be well thought out but you also need a lot of stock .


I also had a chat to Margo Selby and her advice at this moment in time for me was to make , make make . She has been in business for the last 5 years and has a London shop . Again weave beautiful colours and designs with a avariety of products . Presentation is all important as well as having a very marketable range of products from small to large .


There were many other stalls but these birds appealed to me , by Cathy Miles ,and were proving very popular , in fact all the smaller ones had sold .
She will be at the Christmas exhibition at Contemporary Applied Arts , Percy Street.

The knit and Stitch Show

The touring Schiffley Exhibition "Mechanical Drawing " was a great success at the Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace in London . I helped to man this for two days and received very favorable comments on my piece (seen left)
"Endangered". "It maintains the sense od drawing even though it is in repeat through the lively use of color and the use of different threads and fabrics."
I also heard from one lady who is into psychology that the human psyche loves repetetive images , order and color which I was not aware or when I made the piece. I also sold quite a few of my wildflower tea-towels so all in all a good confidence builder and a chance to catch up with old friends.




Thought for the day

"Its not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain."