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!

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.

Friday 12th December, 2014

Today I incised aluminium with the similar idea I tried using paper. It was hard to correspond the paper idea using metal as the materials work differently.

I think this idea looks very messy though because of hand cutting.

I'm planning on taking it in Monday and talking to Cerys about it because I'm really stuck!

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.

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.

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!                                                                                                                                        

                                   

Tuesday 14th October, 2014

This morning we had a seminar on Crafts interaction with Technology which I found really interesting as we spoke about integrating technology into crafts and also creating crafts/objects using technology and how skills have developed.
I enjoy researching into this subject more and speaking about QR codes has sparked an interest I would love to integrate into my work.
This afternoon we made a tube setting, this has been my favourite technique so far because or the simplicity of the technique and the satisfying outcome that happens!
I also spoke to Julie about my brief idea and how I can go forward to develop it, she suggested creating ideas and samples out of paper, making machettes instead of straight out of metal to save time and get an idea out of my system.

Thursday 2nd October, 2014

This morning we had a lecture and were given our first brief for Contextual Studies by Adam.
I was initially confused about the brief but wanted to go away and figure out my next move. I understood I had to write an introduction to this module in a blog style or negotiate another way if needed. I decided to think about how I was going to approach this module before starting!

Etching!

Being back in the workshop was the highlight of my week!

We had a etching demonstration today, I have etched before but I wanted to refresh my mind!

Turns out I was missing a few steps last time, for best results we had to clean the copper before doing anything, so we used wire wool and a steam cleaner for metal and wearing gloves so we didn't put anymore chemicals onto the copper. 

 We learnt about the various ways of masking out the acid from the surface of the copper to create the etching effect.

We could paint it on with black stop out paint, parcel tape, nail varnish and black sharpie markers.

I discovered the parcel tape didn't work very well, this piece was in for about 40 minutes and the tape  drifted away from the copper in the acid but it left a very interesting effect on the surface, like a satin finish.

Then if we used black polish we could clean it off with paint remover but this is very difficult if your design was precise because you can't check fully how it will appear without the polish until you remove it. 

We also we shown how you could finish an etched piece, buy using liver or sulphur which I have used before but I would like to experiment more with various solutions.

Wednesday 1st October, 2014

Today I thought about my statement, trying to think of ideas for themes/concepts that would convey my message "Are there Sections? Consider Transitions"

This task proved to be hard because I wanted to pick something different but with many possibilities so I could develop my concept and samples.

I needed to think about being theme driven or technique and material driven, I usually am driven by a theme or concept but for this task it would be nice to find some techniques and purely role with them to develop my skills and experiment to see what happens.