Friday 28th November

Today I carried on with my enamel samples and Cerys also shown me how to create a hinge but she did warn me using soldered pieces in the kiln, even when using enamelling solder can always break because of the heat so if I used this technique I may have to think of a way around using one or the other or attaching the pieces using cold connections and be very careful.

This was Cerys' hinge example, I'm excited to create mine next week! 

Thursday 27th November

Today I had my final lecture with Adam all about post-modernism which made me think about what era we are in right now and how it is to reflect at an era that has changed society. We all are free to speak our minds and these days we question everything put in front of us and people get involved whether that's expression through music, art or design. I believe this lecture left the module on a very good ending because it geared us towards the present and future and what mark we want to leave within society.

This afternoon I carried on with some enamelling, trying to reproduce a block colour using the water packing technique, I sanded the bumps down once fired and cooled and then popped samples back into the kiln, this created an even surface. I really enjoyed using yellow as it stood out and it worked great for the effect I was trying to achieve.

Week beginning 17th November, 2014

This week I went home for a week as I had some health issues so I didn't get much work done during this period.

Tuesday 11th November, 2014

Today Julie shown me how to use the enamelling kilns and wet packing enamel and also how to apply dry enamel. For the outcome I wanted I think wet packing the enamel onto my pieces would be the most effective for blocks of colour. I tried this technique and struggled estimating how long my pieces should be in for but I realised the kiln was temperamental, so I will have to practice knowing if or when the enamel on my pieces has set.

I prepped some white based pieces to see if I can get an opaque colour pay off after layering another colour on top, I'm not sure how it will work so I'm going to experiment on more pieces to find an interesting colour, I'm sticking to warm colours to reflect my research on monarch butterflies.

Monday 10th November, 2014

I carried on using the milling machine today, I struggled using it today but Julie showed me how to use the band saw so I could cut some some blocks up for my pieces as the vibrations from the machine moved my metal when I was trying to score a straight line.

 I also cut some pieces of copper up for the following tests to use enamel the following day.

Sunday 9th November, 2014

Today I played around with paper, making some machettes and then drawing designs ready to play around with in the workshop and to show Cerys or Julie what I was trying to achieve.

I coloured in parts of the paper forms using orange fine liner to represent enamelled parts.

Friday 7th November, 2014

We recieved the second half of our brief today, Cerys explained to us what was expected and the dates we are going to be assessed. I worked on using structure today and playing around with wire
for rough ideas. I carried on using the milling machine today and speaking with Julie about enamelling for the following week so I could plan ahead what techniques I want to practice with.

Thursday 6th November, 2014

Today I had a go at using the milling machine, I cut a piece of wood to attach my metal to using masking tape then changing the machine to adjust to my angle I wanted to achieve.

I marked the metal both sides as accurate as possible and then began the process, I found it very difficult to keep the measurements accurate and this lead to difficulty when it came to folding the scores after anealing the piece.

I found the shape interesting in the end because when i flipped the piece of changed it's position the appearance would change completely.

Tuesday 4th November

Today I laid all my work out ready for Assessment with Cerys and Jenny, I was very nervous about talking them through my work as this was my first assessment for this project and I'd only been speaking to Julie about my work. I was excited to show them what I had been making and my thought process so far. Both Jenny and Cerys gave me brilliant advice which I was very pleased with.
They suggested instead of focusing on pattern and texture I should focus on the structure and pops of colour, Jenny also mentioned looking into introducing pops of colour into the structures and using wire to outline a skeleton of the butterfly.

After my assessment I looked around in the scrap boxes and found a piece of brass angled rod, it was shaped as a right angle and triggered my imagination, I cut pieces up and soldered wire to them before using pliers to shape a flying pattern inspired by the butterflies movement this created a contrast between block metal and wire that I found really interesting.

In my assessment Cerys advised me to use the milling machine to score my metal instead of doing it by hand which I agree'd would be faster once I had experimented. I shadowed Sarah on the milling machine and watched how she used it, it scared me less watching her use the dials and being careful not to go to deep into the metal straight away and instead make it gradual.

I have marked some metal out ready to experiment Thursday.

Monday 3rd October, 2014

Today I made my sample catalog, taking photo's of my work and thinking of how I would like to display my work, I written an evaluation for my assessment and notes on how I'd like to explain my work to Cerys and Jenny.

I printed off work in the library and organised my files as well as finishing off any sketchbook work to explain my ideas and thought process.

Friday 31st October, 2014

Today I decided to make paper machetes, playing with arrangement again, this allowed me to see ideas 3D visually.

Thursday 30th October, 2014

Today I played around with arranging my forms together, I think this was helpful as I could see the idea coming together, when the pieces are in clusters they do abstractly appear as butterflies.

Wednesday 29th October, 2014

Today I dedicated my time to writing up any technical notes and carrying on with sketchbook development. I printed work off in the library and stuck photos in my sketchbook with annotations.

I researched more into Monarch butterflies and collected images.

Tuesday 28th October, 2014

Today we had a seminar with Cerys and each explained what 'Our Manifesto' would be.

I found this task confusing at first as we had to find images of designers work or something that would allow us to explain our thoughts and opinions. I found this a really helpful and interesting task as we all had quite similar ideas of what our class should be known for in years to come.

In the workshop today I carried on making triangle forms using the rolling mill and textured hammers to experiment on the metal and see what the turn out would be, I also used needle files to texture the edges of my objects.

Monday 27th October, 2014

Tonight I played with some porcelain making forms to stick my aluminium forms into inspired by photos of monarch butterflies clustering on trees.