The Piano photo shoot.

Jamie, one of my course tutors brought me in part of a piano from home and said ‘do what you wish with it’. Looking at it from never seeing something like this before was quite over facing and daunting because its so beautiful and so complex that you couldn't really take bits apart without other bits coming apart as well, so I wanted to show case it. 

I like playing with the idea of light dancing through objects and casting beautiful shadows beyond it. I wanted to showcase the beauty, the age and the complexity of the object itself and not really change or distort the original object too much. 

I started by setting it up in the studio with light shining through it and looking at how shadows moved through it. I'm not a pro at photography and camera fiddling but I had a go and was blissfully pleased with the outcome, the light dancing didn't happen much but the way the dust shon of the pedals and the different woods that where highlighted with this light made a quite sinister photo shoot look like a ballet of light and beauty. 

 I have thought  about releasing these photos as a single piece of work because there are many ways I could play around with them and show their abandonment before casting it as a whole new use and purpose. 

I think that some of the photos can be quite taunting and sinister being so delicate and dark with dust drooped on them creates a feeling of dispare, of disfunction and and eary sense of what used to be before the iPad and iPod. 

The fact we don't really need or use these anymore gives the object and lure of antique and quality and of grandness. These things need to be cherished, to be showcased and to be revived into the 20th century with a kickass designer…. Que. cough and attention to me, I take that challenge. 

Bots

Recently I have been applying for university, I have been looking at courses dug has sculpture and 3D design, yes I have done some design pieces I wanted to try making something than just function furniture. I wanted to make something sculptural and ascetic ally pleasing but still keeping in my field of up cycling. I came across these Gizmobots at Bury museum and absolutely loved them, I loved the recycled aspect, they playful characters and the different personalities each one held, I was inspired and wanted to mirror all the qualities that caught my eye and made me smile. 

I have good connections with the college estates (like the college janaters, who preserve and look after all the college buildings and envronment), Ian who works for them is a good friend and heps me out time to time when college is developing and closing down a building to build a new one he will allow access to come and go whatever has been left, this is like the other side of me (bring a woman) like bring let loose in tiffanys or... Something as good as that! It's so inspiring to get the strangest of objects that you find and sontimes just the ordinary. ANYWAY, they were closing down the machanics bulidings so I contacted him and started collecting stuff, now that was a visit! The stuff in there was amazing and super inspiring. 

Theses are the bots I made from old car parts, some parts from a spot welder and some prsure gages. I tried to make a character and personality for each of them and match the materials to create a whole object instead of something that looks like an onsomble of things. 

Katrien De Blauwer

I spotted this off the app pinterest and thought it resembled some of the collages, phot montages i hve been experimenting with. I use discarded film photographs because black and white photos give a quite sober and serious mood, its like my alter ego, where aswel as having quite a cheery jokey aspect to my art, i can also persure down a very dark and serious road.

Katriens work is expressed through silmilar emotions, she gets facinated with the black and white emotions, such as sadness, loss, and pain.
Her her collages, montages can be simple but can create a dialogue of a story, emotion and reaction to her work. I feel alomost conjoined by her simplicity to create and atmostphere and connection to her audience and want to simulate the same activity in my own work.
Her work provides a shallow medium but a deep meaning, she persues with everyday language and surrounds it with an unatural emotion that draws us as the viewer and the protagonist to take the role and feel her concept.

     

Collage.

I absolutely loev collaging, from doing my GCSE sketcbook covers to now. I have like three HUGE boxes of magazine rip outs and paper smaples, tea bags, and different textures. Opening them boxes is like opening pandoras box, bloody love a good day to root through that and college. I collect everuthing old, smelly, fells nice, looks twee and just the weird and wonderful. Got some plug ins to a car amp or something out of a bilding rain last week, have no clue what they say or mean but just took a liking to them.

I get excited about new college materials as the fashion police do about a new range of fingerless gloves! Cant wait to get home and make make make!
Ive been studying emotions through college, drawing public into college and a range of feelings that provoke from the individuals personality.

So everybody loves a little controversy...I picked up a vogue magazine and they were doing an artcle in africa with these sombre faces and then on the opposite page would mirror the exact opposite, the advertisement for a Ralf Lauren bag... It sparked interest and i wanted to make it a more close, controversial affair. I have done two like this and maybe want to do some more with other pats of poverty.

I have also done some standard, run of the mill ones i like to do, that are just about placement and subject matter. I Do my colleges based on texture and placement.
To make sure they look ok when i come back to them, i take a photo and look at that and see of pits looks like a finished piece.

Boris Bally.

Boris Bally is an american artists who grew up studying metal for many years, dabbleing in goldsmith and getting into the machinal side of it.
His main material is signs, round sighns information signs any maetal sigh you can think of has misshaped. He is like the lord of the road when it comes to molding the signs into what he wants, he makes functional furniture such as chairs and table and experimental stuff.
I ove love love his work, some is a little too masculin, like i wouldnt hae my whole house furnished with his stuff but keep a minimal and humble few peices of work to showcase his works.
The finish on hiswor is second to none withe his work be functional enough to sit in.
I think he has made use of soe of the most boring and ugly things we would chuck away but mass produce and will never run out of materials or ideas by the looks of it. I think you would need to know a friend of a friend or someone in the road surfaceing and route road business to be able to get these babys but once you know you know and have those favours for life.
Borris has crceated a high standard of work fro such a low grade product and is someone i would love to learn from and try and have a go myself in the future.

Fan Chair.

Im actually astonished myself at the overall design of this chair...These pictures are breathtaking and really show off the design qualities of the chair. They dont make it look silly or homemade, they make it look strong, powerfull and stand tall with some of my previous designs.
I feel i made a wise choice upholstering it in leather, i debated between suade and leather as they are both strong materials which would match the breif of the char but leather looks more proffesional, strong and priceless. Thechair legs were debatable because while making it i noticed it became to resemble a bar stool in some sleezy club so i panicked a little as this is not what i wanted the fianl outcome to look like but once  added these legs i thought the wideness the legs stretch gives it a more humble home furnashing look. Someone said it looks a little like a hair dresser chair like this? I dont see it...do you? Feedback would help.

 I had the enitial idea when i took this fa cage from the abandoned building Blakey Moor o got permision to go i into. Once i started thinking a famous design that ive loved inspired me to collberate the design of theirs and the upcycling of mine togther. 'The marshmeelow Chair' is renound for its start up to the 60s pop art. Designed by George Nelson and Irving Harper it was a smash hit in the design world and set a pathway for futher desghers to walk down and look up to.

I had styles set in my head when starting to make this product, such as the leather seating and knwoing that we had a big sheet of insulationa and knowing from previous projects that it makes great padding. I started by collecting a cable reel from this abandoned college building i went in the week before with Ian and Helen and cut it to size knwoing that the padding would take up room, two layers of it so i needed to fit iside the fan cage and furter down that the rim so the padding wouldnt be pouing over the sides too high.
 I strted cutting the wood and then mmoved onto the insulation cutting four cicles out then i noticed i didnt have an extensive amount of leather, i had cutb offs and pre used peices so had to make very little stretch so far. Im not the best at upholstering and litterally ra into Sophie who is on my corse but because theres like a thousand fit into one room, you dont get around everyone..Her mum upsolsters chair for a livinga nd she had learnt some skill of her and shehelped me strech and stple the leather. She was so lush and streched the leather while i took near-misses to her fingers with the stapler.

Once we had coverd both circles i moved onto how i would keep it all togther as i hadnt actaully planned this out. I wonderd over to consruction with my two halves and puppy face and asked them hoping they would help me, then plumming and plumming gave me some shelf brackets. Tried and tested, they didnt seem strong enough so Bill (my hommie wood technition and 'will be') business partner took an old textiles braket which would typically hold up the material for a photoshoot, it was like a steel L and is deffinately strong enough to hold anybody....(but don't push it).

No it was coming togther...this was the point were i freaked out a little, thinking it resembled a bar stool. I cut leather circles out to gcover all the stell and the back of the cable real and decided to use a nail gun becuase it looks so proffesional to just have the one pin instead of staples and stretched it out across the wood. then i couldnt get the fan cage on straight because the steal bar was sticking out so had to cut the cage to fit around it so it was snug against the leather.

The chair legs i was at a dilemma for because i dint knwo what to use, i hadnt collecte anything and hadnt seen any id liked, none were as nice as these ones id seen in college....attacted to one of Jamies chairs in the classroom, i debated asking him but thought if hed saw it first he might agree that they look amazing with it, i gently unscrewed the legs, and if he wanted it restordered i only had to screw the back on. So i unscrewed.. and attacted to min by using nuts and bolts and a washer on each one so the bolt didnt slip through the fan cage. Then i had to show him... and this wasnt one of jamies best days...felling a little rough from a cold and jo being off his was a tad tetchy... so i just said softly 'Jamie ive almost finished th chair but i needed some legs and the ones of these chairs match perfectly' and he reacted by 'Youve taking the fucking legs of my chair??'.....I quiely wishpered 'yes but...' and he interuupted and said'well ive got to say it does look good'.
The next day i had my group crit were i wanted to present my chair and ask and few questions such as 'would it look better as a bar stool' and 'should i keep the fan cage on' and 'does it look structerally sound as a cinsumer' they all agreed it looked better not as a bar stoola nd i got some good feedback. Then Jamies hand poppped up, i was thinking 'oh shit, here we go' (pubic diplay of humiliation)...he gave me a proposition, that i could keep the chair legs as long as i did something with the chair base....so that will be featured in a fiuture design oncce ive ponderd.

I decied to kepp it wuite loose, it all pretty much comes apart, the fan cages come off, the legs come off by unsccrewing them and the seat comes off, i kept it tis way because i like the kind of flat pack feel to it and ease of manuvering. I

Ian.

Ian works for the college as maintenance, but on the occasion he will help me ot with finding a few materials to use for my work. I got to know him through asking people around college about the skips and then hearing about this abandonned building called Blakey Moor, college used to use that building until they built The Beacon Centre. It huge! Even has a pool but it had some great finds inside! He lets me and Bill into the buildings to take whatever we wannts because they are no longer needed or in use. Theres another Ian i needed to contact before i went to ask if i could allow Ian to escort me and if it was safe.
So this time around i heard about two buildings that have been unused since summer because they were rebuilding them.
I contacted Ian and set a date, he told me they wee both mechanic buildings and then ideas just started spinninng round in my mind. But i never get too excited incase the place is bare or doesnt have anything ive thought of. Ian has been a big helping the past and someone i would love to keep in contact with in the future.
TOP BLOKE.

George Nelson.

The influence and inspiration for my Fan Char came from George Nelsons famous 'Marshmallow Chair' designed in 1956.

Nelsons design firm had been approached by an inventor who had made this plastic that was cheap to make and would be durable, called injection plastic. As they were from in discs, the designers had to work with a disc form and arranged them into the design we see today. The plastic invention didn't work but looced the onsomble to put the design forward anyway.












George Nelson is such an inspiration to me is because his work is seamless, effortless and so sharp, his designs are incredibly well made and well thought out. The Marshmellow Chair is design and executed in a way only to marvell at at and to look up to. The polished finish and they careful positioning of each individual circle and how he stop stopped at eighteen which made up just enough room and comfort.

Future Plans...

I plan to (at some point) have a go at making a light, or chandelier out of tea bags and wax. Ive made a dress from using this technique in my first year of Level 3 Art and Design and want a challenge.
I think the light would look incredible huging arounf the object i fill the teabags with and piecing through the ones i havent but would have a soft mellow light because of the thickness of the wax i will put on.
Inpired by jenifer colliers lamp shapes from paper i want to do the same learning to technqice i learnt from her and my mum to create something buetiful but upcycled and beutiful.

Gizmobots.

I saw these Gizmobots in Bury museum and fell in love with the playful and comic personalities of these characters. I can only find out that the guy who made them is called Mark. He is a qualified electrician so makes some, aswel as having a personality, have a purpose, either a radio, i pod dock or desk light.
These Gizmobots are so quirky, they hold age, stories and personalities, all which make you want to adopt one of these quirky characters. He sells them as characters and instead of 'seeling' he says 'adopt'...with a price tag of around £100 and up. He markets them with there characters, you also get their story, their likes, dislikes and hobbies.
This is a hard business as i now, half of the time spent is days on ebay, car boots sales and auction lots. And can wither some months due to lack of stock to use.
These playful 'bots' remind me of the minions off despicable me, funny, playful and cheeky. These Gizmobots are well made, marketed and functioned.
I plan to have a go at making my own! Try and meet the standard and quality of Marks, but with my own individual style and creativity. I would want them to have their own each individuality and funkiness.
Wish me luck!
http://www.gizmobots.co.uk/ Link to Marks Webpage if you want a dabble.

Cosmo Sarson.

Cosmo Sarson is as cool as a cucumber when it comes to delivering a lecture. Cosmo sarson was our visiting artist and told us about his career and how its blosoming and how he never thought he would be in the job he is in now and kept reminding us its 'whatever pays the bills'.
Cosmo is a street paint artists and does a lot of commissions for famous brands and has actually paired over one of Banksey famous works.
Cosmo has moved directions and had to learn new skill to apply on the way. He has self taught to use computer design to build staircase designs for movie sets.
Cosmo has had numerous jobs and hasn't always got to do what he wants 'to pay the bill'.
Cosmo is now working with famous directors on movie sets such as mamma mia and (name dropping) Tim Burtons Sweeny Todd.
Did you know that the mamma mia wasn't actually filmed in greece?? They took a photo and built the set and cosmo painted the background! COOL.

Cosmo got the chance to paint a murial, (legally) and chose to do 'breakdancing Jesus', this went viral and made cosmo a public figure and gave his his breakthrough. 

Cosmo also did an 'Interactive mural'. Cosmo has painted various portraits and then has used a mobile phone app to make his mural come alive.
Alink to his page to view interactive mural: http://www.cosmosarson.com/index.php?/newworks/interactive-mural/

Cotton Reel Lamp.

When i saw the cotton reels i new they would be some sort of ligt fitting, because of the different holes i new i would get a great shadow of them and the light would dance through the holes of these objects and would look beuatiful. I orginionally started out making a candelier out of these cable reel my friend, luke donated to me.
The design was going to be simple, a ring to create the form of a layer of the chandelier and then several rings that the reels would sit in to make them sit of the outside, and facing them in to a poin. Three layers, and all with the same angle decending into a point.
 But  once i had made the first layer and placedthe reel in it seemed, fragile and the harshness of the wire didnt look right againt the softness of the pastel coloured plastic.

Another idea of how the rings could hold, but wasn't sturdy enough. 

This is what i used to form the rings to hold the reels.

The rings kept slipping off when we were spot welding so we hammered a flat space onto the big wire and the rings to hold the two when sot welding and create a stronger weld.

Final look to the top tier. I dint like how flexible it was and how bouncy the reels were so i scrapped the whole idea.

 So i redesigned, the came up with liek a decending chandelier, where they decend, in a single line, coiling round and down. so i just grabbed two peices of wire and started attactching the reels, making sure i moved them up or down through the holes in the reel to create the decending look. But the  wire was a little ridged and strted making these harsh bends in the wire and bumps that would create a block for it to be a smooth circular decend down. then we were just movin them arond, up and down of one another and came to the idea of them interchanging, so oen facing up, one facing down because the reels would have a fattening gradient towards the bottom to the top, so then they would lock ito the slopes of one another, this helped with the second desing idea, but it didnt look as smooth as i waned it to look beacsue once they were placedbeside each other, upside down and the rihht way round, and they locked into one another, that then created a ridgedness and a staight line for the reels.

Then when you tried to feed them in different ways it would creat this step look, where there was a clear decend and it wasnt smooth, nor looked nice.

I took the idea of the decending row of reels and decided that just to have them circled into a lampshade.

So i ponderd... I messed around with creating maybe just a straight circle, three tier chandelier and then once doing that, thought a lamp would look better. So i alwats move them around in different designs and different shapes, sizes and structures, then it just clicks, and it did with this one, yes, its not a straightt standard circle but as the light dances through the holes of thses reels anyway it wont be just so. So i made the lamp shade, but felt t could be made as a whole by using the reels as a stand as well, I experimented, with different colours, stayles and sizes and found the perfect structure for the shade to sit with. I chose to use cable ties because they are small, easy to use, strong and colorful. All i had to do was connect one with another using the same holes on either reel and pull tight and snip off the remains. Then when fitting it out, it turned out to be a happy accident when the cable for the light was more or less the same size, just with a little widening, as the holes on the bottom layer.

Using a exhibition light we were able to see the potential of having it as a lamp. 

I played around with loads of options on how short, long, fat, thin, stable to have the legs and came up  with the final design.

Shelved... but i might come back to them and have another go.