Jumbles and bootys

Drawing all sorts of collections for my final project this year. I was originally focusing on interior surroundings and drawing rooms as scenes... e.g. Calke Abbey doodles below! Left me desperate for a home of my own more than ever, I've started picking up things in prep... I'm quickly running out space on my shelves and starting to look like a crazy hoarder. I've moved onto looking at the objects themselves, taking them out of context so I can hopefully have more to work with when turning drawings into designs.

Sneak peek of what i'm planning to produce.. I'm working on combining print with ceramics, screen-printing my illustrations onto transfer paper and creating my own decals... I tried inlay and scraffito last project which worked well as surface decoration BUT I realised i'm just too clumsy for building in clay (this is why there's no updates, broken work isn't nice to look at!) With this in mind i'm testing out putting my designs onto 'vintage' (I hate using that word, people use it to describe anything that wasn't made last month, but I can't think of another which best describes!) ceramics... my idea is to take relatively plainly decorated plates, mugs etc and combine the old aesthetic with my own.

I'm looking at this project as a print project, which is why I don't see recycling and working onto already made forms as 'cheating'. Just the way I'd print onto a fabric and sew it together to make a cushion... I'm printing onto transfer paper and gluing it to make a forgotten about object admirable again!...it's also occurred to me that I worked to a similar aim with my commission project, remember? I wanted to get the boarded up buildings of nottingham noticed again and planned to do so by creating designs which could decorate the architecture and make it more admirable... maybe I've (without knowing) found my passion, recycling to renew?!

Here are some photos I've taken of the type of collections I'm drawing inspiration from... a few from The Hopkinson Gallery jumble sale over easter, and the rest I took this morning at a Nottingham Racecourse Carboot.. it was lovely and sunny + me and Rosie bought just about the whole wardrobe of a recently deceased grandma! (I never thought I'd end a blog post with that..!)

Calke Abbey sketches

Pikaland: The Illustrated Life

My homepage has been stuck on Pikaland for a good few months now and I thought I'd share it with you. Amy Ng (an Illustrator from Malaysia) updates Pikaland almost daily with inspirations and wonderful finds she thinks the world should hear about.

Amy aims to help connect illustrators + artists with their audience by pointing readers in the direction of their online stores and projects. I think this is a great idea.. us emerging makers need all the help we can get and I love learning about the work of others around the globe - reminds me that there is a future in the handmade even if Ikea can sell a mug for 50 pence.. millions of people still want the beautifully made!

A recent post bought a photo project by Jennifer Causey to my attention. The Makers Project seeks out handmade and artisan-produced products and the people behind them, documenting their studios, workplaces and the hard work which goes into making a success of a creative adventure. Beautiful photos and mini interviews + the project is still growing!

SHABD the designer

LENA CORWIN the printer

MAST BROTHERS the chocolate makers

REVERIE the jeweller

SAIPUA the florist

blog backdating

so much to show & tell.. so little time!

MARIMEKKO..

..teams up with Converse and strikes again. Just realised they were founded in 1951 too, no wonder I love the prints so much.

+ photos from my Stockholm trip, taken in a real life Marimekko store. I bought a purse and a little mug as treats. If you ever have a spare weekend/cash visit Sweden, it's such a perfect place.. beautiful design, food and people. I wish I'd grown up there. I could write a separate post on my trip, but this is meant to be a quickie! photos can speak for themselves HERE.

FIFTIES..

Last weekend I spent my Sunday in London. I bought a ticket for 'Designing the Decades: The 1950s'... a day of lectures at the V&A, just £5 for students!

The first lecture, 'The Festival of Britain' was taken by Lily Crowther - researcher for 'British Design 1948-2012', which will be the V&A's headline exhibition for the Olympic season. She spoke about how the festival came about, who was involved and the impact it had on society after the effects of World War 2 - design to boost morale. This year it's the 60th anniversary of the festival and the Southbank is holding a summer of events to commemorate, including exhibitions by Tracy Emin and food by Heston Blumenthal. More HERE. The fourth lecture, 'Robin and Lucienne Day' by Lesley Jackson - Author of Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers in Modern Deisgn was joint favourite. Again, I could write for hours about what I learnt. A description of the fifties aesthetic as 'modernity, with warmth' stuck with me, this sums up for me what I love about the decade - quality design without being elitist.

+ I pottered to Portabello market in Notting Hill. I could only squeeze in an hour between lectures which was nowhere near enough but I managed to pick up some lettered stamps I'm going to use to initial my ceramics with from one stall. I only made it half way around and will surely be going back when I have more time on my hands.

a doodle a day

If I had the money I'd dress head to toe in Marimekko! They always seem to come up with the most creative ways of showing off latest fabrics too, watch out for the wobbly chinese cyclist...Browse Marimekko products & find out about their designers HERE .. I'm quite fond of Maija Louekari myself.

better late than never?

..continuing from the last post, 2 weeks ago... my new year's resolution is to be a better blogger.

Having chosen a location I then went about researching into the buildings history for inspiration. Googling and rummaging through directories at the records office I found out it had once been home to a number of electrical engineering companies but most successfully ran as a restaurant by a couple in the 80's... the wife had once been an air hostess and husband still a pilot who bought back food from local markets around the world to cook with.. mmm. With this in mind I went about observing social situations, people eating, drinking and talking as they once would have at Rhinegold.

Some initial drawings...

p.s. .. abit difficult to get people to stay still when they don't know your drawing them, hence the lack of faces! I also took alot sneaky photos.. i'd upload the funnies but would probably be breaking quite a few laws and go to jail.

5:33 am

..yawn. I put myself to bed extra early last night to be fresh for a big day at the studio, back-fired and I'm now sat awake 3 hours too soon. Wanting something productive to do without having to move from the comfort of my duve I remembered how badly I'd been treating my blog.. so here's the latest..

Back to DARTS..

Besides an ongoing drawing project we have only been given one brief this term, a commission project focusing on design for a specific location and client - the public. Given the option of a location around the university campus or to find our own, I choose to look for a place myself.. thinking the audience would be too obvious and difficult to come up with anything particularly new if I stuck to uni grounds. Walking around Nottingham I always notice how many buildings and shops are boarded up, I think it's such a shame and a waste of space and good architecture! With this in mind I decided to design artwork to fill boarded up windows and bring attention back to an area or particular building which I thought needed noticing again.

Chosen location

Rhinegold Resturant, 10 King Johns Chambers, Bridlesmith Gate

to be continued... this evening.. maybe..

The Debenhams music get's a little cringey after 12 minutes but worth a watch..

Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne & Robin Day from Design Onscreen on Vimeo.

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