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.

Roundabouts. Manutex printing and tie dye tryouts.

Manutex printing is were you can draw your design straight onto the printing screen and then wait for the ink to dry. Once dry the pattern disappears. Then you put the screen face down onto the table or newspaper, and pour a spoonful of the manutext liquid onto the concave part to the screen. You get a rubber squijy ands pull the mixer over your ink (if you can remember where you put it). Then the print SHOULD show on the paper or material you have chose to print on, but mine didn't and my best one is dead watery.
i didn't really like doing this at all, just didn't enjoy how messy it was and the prints didn't show that clearly.
I also got the chance to try tie die! No such a big fan of that either...
So yo get a plain piece of muslin, Tie rubber band all over it and dip it into different dies, the dies i dipped it into just ran and spread everywhere and it was just purple at the end.
(Don't try this at home kids).

Roundabouts.

Roundabouts are like small taster session of different types of art we had: Fine Art, Media, Photography, 3D, Printing and textiles.
I onlygot to do a few as i was a late comer after trying out a business corse for a few weeks and switched back to FAD after my creativity being crushed by dull dull dull..
As a new comer in a class of like one hudred creatives, you dont want to be the new kind you want to ake yourself know and your style to be recognised, so i got stuck into it making a new product within the first week and putting it up for crit.
After good reviews i started designing another and did a project propsal to jamie with clear outlines and a final outcome and needed time to source the materials, he said that i could do some of thre roundabouts and if it was getting in the way, start of this project of mine.
I set up meeting wit Ian and asked for permittion to go into buildings to source amaterial, aswel as skip hunting and asking around. So i sadly missed some of the roundabouts.

3D Roundabout.

Finished piece.

One of our roundabout tasks was to create an object from wire, using different sizes or wire and a spot welder. For me the wire was quite unispiring as it was new material, no backgroud and wasnt really a whole..
I saw a chicken made from wire on the breif page and thought i would have a go at that. I struggle with imagining things from a 2D form and shaping them into 3D sometimes so it was quite a challenge for me. I guess it would of been easier to think of something in my head and start it that way because i get stuff done better then.
Strange ar'nt i?

 I used a stencil technique and stenciled around the beak of the chicken on the beif because i couldnt just make it out in my head or recognise it..
Rapping the wire around the legs was to add a different texture and stregth to the wire legs. I saw my mum amke a rose like this once and thought it create a lifelike texture.

 It was quite threputic watching the wire taking from and shaping it. I like the imperfections in wire and that there isnt really chance for straight lines as it comes in this reel. The challenge with wire it that it is weak, flimsay and cant hold itself up like some of the things i chose to work with. I know my main frame of work is sculpture and furniture but I instantly dismissed that, didnt feel like it had enough character for me to work with and massge into a form of furniture.

It was challnging to let go of what you do and change to a different chapter of sculpture and find your not so great at something. It was theraputic and gave you didfferent perspectives of design you could use. I did find this useful and enjoyed this pathway. 

It wasnt so new to me as i have done some spot welding in the past maing a self portrait in my first year at college. So it wasnt such a shock or a difference but nice to relive hat aspect of 3D and step out of my 'everyday'.

Dolphin home.

Dolphin home was a great opportunity for experimenting with some natural resources, big wide open spaces, and freedom with our work. I went with an open mind, complete experimental attitude and wanted to just see what was there and what I could do with my work.

The Team. This was when we had just met
 and didn't even know each others name.

So when we got there, for me, it was quite an overwhelming, big space. The expectations of my peers and tutors and the material, I haven't got mounds to use, just raw, wet, slimy, hard materials.  I'm used to using plastic, metal and wood and things you can change the appearance pretty easily but this stuff was hard work with. Usually it can take me an age to think up an idea, from collecting that individual item to pairing it with another or making a design concept.
I sat for a while, listening to the river, looking at the sunlight dancing through the trees, tiptoeing across the river, snaking through the rocks, it made me reflect I'm Andy Goldsworthy's work.
I designed a piece that would hang over the river like some out-of body experience, like a lifted reflection, made from the wicker sticks and the wire the wicker sticks would be the current of the river and the wire would be the sunlight peeping through the current.
But after seriously analysing it, the current was too fast, the river was too deep and the tree was too tall the hang it from.
I next  sat beside the river thinking again, looking at the wicker and thinking that I could create that beside the river on the banking, weaving the wicker through the trees and into the river, but once done, it just looked like a big mess and they kept plucking up and wouldn't stay bent over.
Felt a little low and this point..
Thinking of Goldsworthy again and then taking inspiration from his dry stone walling sculptures. I was little thinking I could just do it after being with my dad a few times and trying to remember how to do it.

I showed my dad my shocking attempt of 'Dry stone walling' ...and after chuckling said 'its more stone stacking but good effort'. I borrowed the farmers chizzle because you have to shape the stone into a kind of brick shape but keeping natural elements also to make things a little easier, but its a lot harder than I thought, but then...

After a days work and it were getting cold, we all lit our wood burners and the smoke from the burners sank into this linear hovering over the grass and when everyone saw we all ran straight into it like it had brainwashed us all to do it and people creativity started flowing, people started sketching, filming and brought a strange sensation to the whole experience, a strange but comforting one. Like we had all connected on the same level.....weird.

Its weird...i actually had to listen to Karima, like shes the soundtrack of the whole experience, listening brought back all of these moments and experiences we all shared. Amazing singer and kind of a little inspiring. 

Favourite song she performed. 

Creepy matt...

So we are sat in this barn...on hay-bales, beer and this live singer singing so well, setting tingles down everyone's spine...it was so great, such a weird surreal feeling and lucky feeling, a feeling i will never get the chance to have this experience again. I absolutely loved it. And goats in the background made it even more weird.

After the live performance we had a viewing of the wicker man film in the barn...it was FREEZING. And maybe the weirdest film I have ever watched...Thought it was a porno at first and then at the end....HUH?? But being in the barn in the middle of nowhere watching this weird film.....surreal.

Honestly, highly recommended any FAD joiners in further years to not worry about what happens when your there, how muddy its going to be or the camping element. I've never bonded so quickly with complete strangers as i have on this trip, its totally worth the no makeup and straighteners ladies. Such an amazing time, so many laughs and so many memories I will take with me into my future.