Thursday 12th February, 2015

Today I played around with different shapes using square copper wire.

I really liked the chunky brass ring I made except from the fact it was tougher to solder completely without gaps.

Thursday 5th February, 2015

Today I played around with a idea I'd drawn in my sketchbook, I worked with wire creating structures.

Wednesday 21st January 2015

Today I carried on drawing pine cones and thinking of ideas and concepts I could pursue.

I carried on with research and pinning things to a pinterest board to collect images and inspiration.

Monday 19th January 2015

After having a think about what I seen last Thursday I had some ideas of the things I could start experimenting with, I found some bits I collected from the grounds of Erddig to draw and began my sketchbook.

I first started with drawing a spider diagram/s to branch off ideas and concepts.

Next I started drawing some pine cones I found on the grounds near the trees.

I also found the trees had small metal numbers nailed to them, I assume this indicates the specimen of tree or maybe how old it is.

I found this interesting and it sparked my imagination.

Thursday 15th - Friday 16th January 2015

We arranged to look around the grounds, of which we could access walking from Felin to the house itself, on the way passing the cup and saucer and other landscapes. As Sian new Sue the director at Erddig she asked if we could access the gardens, fortunately we could and got some lovely shots!

On both of these days I started researching Erddig, Trying to find stories and information on the owners on their website. 

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/erddig/

I found information on the history of the Mansion and gardens.

I researched into National Trust and other installations as well as site specific applied arts.

I will use all this information within my Contextual file.

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Today we received a new brief!

I was really excited to start a new project, we were told we had around 6 weeks for this project and would be making pieces for Erddig, a National Trust house in Wrexham.

Jenny explained to us we wouldn't be able to look around until the following Tuesday, but told us she wanted us to create something that reflected the building or something that relates to the history and heritage of the family that owned it before National Trust.

I went through the brief and highlighted key points to make it easier for me to understand and read it thoroughly.

Monday 5th January- 7th Wednesday 2015

I managed to have the patience and make my piece within this 3 day period, constantly working and it was a stuggle breaking so many saw blades but I'm happy with the piece I've created in the short period I had!

During The Christmas Holidays

During this period of time I filled my Design book with ideas when I had the chance and bought my materials after deciding what I was going to make. I marked my metal ready for the workshop and the Monday I was back.

Tuesday 15th - Friday 19th

During this time I designed and sourced materials and made sure my files were up to date, still experimenting in the workshops.

Monday 14th December, 2014

Today I found out how Cerys wanted me to re-create the paper machette everyone liked in my assessment. It finally made sense to thin the aliminium down so it posessed the same qualities as paper.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Friday 24th October, 2014

Today I decided to make some paper machettes to play with composition and thinking of bases and attachments.

I had a go at making some basic shapes in porcelain looking at photos to reference how butterflies interact with their surroundings.

I found this image by Ren Hang that inspired me to capture that free moving form of the butterflies

Thursday 23rd October, 2014

Today we had a lecture with Dan about Innovation and reflected back on the evolution of Apple products and how innovation is a big part of being a designer coming up with products to make life easier thinking about the customer and their perceptions of an object. I found this lecture very interactive and interesting compared to my others so far as this appealed to me the most.

In the afternoon we were shown how to use the milling machine, I found it quite intimidating at first but then once I got into the idea of what I could use it for it opened up a lot of doors and I think it's one of those things I mean to play with and dedicate a few hours to play and spark my imagination.

I carried on creating samples, I have decided to keep the triangle folded form and play with size, colour and composition. I am finding it to be quite repetitive making the shapes but I find it relates to what I'm trying to achieve and believe the final results pay off and that's the part I'm enjoying about the making process so far.

Wednesday 22nd October, 2014

I am researching into a lot of designers that use reflective surfaces, movement and light taking into consideration my contextual research and what techniques I can try next such as more texturing metal in different ways.

Tuesday 21st October, 2014

Today I experimented with a few of the ideas I drawn yesterday making them in Copper and Brass

and seeing if any of them would work out.

I spoke to Julie about my ideas and research I have been looking at, we both brain stormed ideas and she suggested sticking with the triangular form.  

We spoke about what paths I could go down such as colour, form, size and surface finishes,

I liked the idea of looking into the environment and reflective surfaces, projecting scenary onto my piece bringing the element of nature back into my piece.

I spoke to her about looking into Art Nouveau and how I wanted to link it in with the Will to Flight but I didn't want to use too much decoration, Julie suggested playing around with softer shapes and how this movement was for the young and fresh at the time and how I can reflect this ideal in today's society and claim that I am the new and fresh face of design.

I feel I can keep developing this project further now and I'm excited to do some research and take some photo's!

Monday 22nd October, 2014

Sketchbook Day.                                                                                                                                                                        

Today I had some brain waves so I decided to draw them out in my sketchbook and write some notes and then have a play with painting. I feel like I need to speak to Julie about my ideas and see which one I should concentrate on!                                                                                                                                        

                                   

Friday 17th October, 2014

Today we carried on making our claw setting, I made a ring shank for the setting but found it extremely difficult to solder onto the claw but with Cerys' help I discovered the problems I was repeating during setting it up for soldering and what flux is best to use with extra easy solder. I finished it up using a barrel polisher for half an hour then set my stone which I found quite difficult and time consuming, I wanted to make sure this part I took time over since it was the last step and didn't want to rush this process.