Statement of intent.
My final project will allow me to show how resourceful and
creative I can be. It will be based on upcycling, designing and making,
connecting both meetings and connections and my final project together. I plan
to enhance my skills in all the areas I enjoy such as collage, designing and
making. Aswel as improving on my research, writing and sketching. I would like
to collect a few more skills and trades to learn such as using different tools
and equipment I use in making my work. I hope to get more connections and
broaden my product range and make some really weird stuff.
I want to use 100% recycled materials and make sure there is
some ages and story too the products I make, I want to add a sense of character
to my products like Max McMurdo has naming his products names such as Annie,
which is what he named my shopping trolley chair. I don’t plan on doing the
same thing but adding some personality someway to may work.
The context of my work would be to be designing and making,
it wouldn’t be upcycling because upcycling can be just painting a wardrobe, I
want to use completely raw materials, materials that you wouldn’t plan on
seeing in certain ways, materials combined with other to shock but compliment
one another.
The target audience for this
project would be an age of middle age viewers, I state this purely because of
the age of some of the things I’m using, middle age are old enough to recognise
the old cinema signs but young enough to connect with the shopping trolley
chairs and have a sense of humour about it. I would say that kids could connect
because my work is physical and the kids will love to recognise the shopping
trolley chair and at my last exhibition tried to push it around. I don’t feel I need art critics or experts to
appreciate my work just the common folks who recognise these physical old objects
and love the new function in them.
My last project has helped
contribute experience and practise to this project, allowing me to design and
make before the final major project. It
has influenced me to follow it up into the next project because I really
enjoyed it and just wanted to collect more and do more.
There will be
group sessions throughout this project to keep in touch with each other on what
we are up to, there is also I planning sheet where it has week by week what we
plan to do and what we’ve actually done. There is also group crits, where you
put your plan out and we criticise or approve of the plans.
I am very excited to start this
project and get stuck in. I plan to collect a load of material to work and to
make a few more connections and can’t wait to get started.
Erika Simmons
Erika
Simmons is one of the most amazing, patient and talented artists I’ve seen with
her intricate detailed pieces inspired by people who’ve walked this earth she
has opened herself up to criticism doing well known celebrities. Everyone has
free speech and using people who have been in the limelight means they know exactly
who they are and what they ‘should’ look like. She uses tape, from cassettes
and old videos and makes these detailed portraits of such as, Bob Marley and
Michael Jackson.
She uses
the tape like painters use a paint brush, sketching out her portraits with
tape. She doesn’t flatten the tape right down to the page, leaving 3D detail
like hair and clothing to jump out of the page at you and make them seem even
more interesting to look at, adding different dimensions to her work.
Erika
is very talented and clever in the way she starts out on her, work, she must do
some background research on the protagonist and then apply certain materials or
styles to her work that match the persona of the character, a little like Jason
Mercier. She uses film to do her version of Marilyn Monroe adding a film reel
to finish off the piece, I think she is famously talented and intelligent and
would love to try this out and see for myself what I can do with her technique.
Louise Firchau.
Louise has a business called Paper Panda. I have been
following her on Facebook for quite a while and her seeing what different work
she does and how she does it. She’s amazing. She is extremely talented and has
worked hard at her art to become one of the most sought after paper cut artists
at the moment. She can cut the tiniest little
things, like a mouse the size of a penny!
Her work is sought after and therefore, very expensive. She will do a piece of work and put it on her
website and within 3 mins she will have sold it for hundreds of pounds.
She hand draws all of her own designs with a mystical theme
to it, very complex but very pretty. Her designs are very intricate and made to
fit what she likes to do and makes it enjoyable for herself. She is always
blogging on her Facebook page and putting on new challenges she likes to peruse
with her work.
Her work is mainly around popular themes, sayings, greetings
and stories such as Alice in wonderland which she does white a lot of.
She frames them herself and presents them professionally.
With different papers and patterns to bring her cuts to life.
She sells range of things from greetings cards to start up
packs to show you how to paper cut yourself.
She really inspired me to have a go myself.
Carolina Fontoura Alzaga.
This woman is incredible. The way she understands her
materials and they she presents her work is truly inspirational.
Carolina is an artist from America. She is very passionate about making people
look at what they are throwing out and not shout about the eco system, but
mirror her words in her work. She doesn’t always look at it, she just enjoys
it. She’s trying to send out a message to say this is who she is and what she
believes in. Carolina says she centres her work around using materials that are
already here and making them change, making the material have a new purpose a
new look and a new representation. She firmly believes it’s not trash.
I absolutely love her work. She has a connection with her materials
and knows how they work, how they hang and look. She spray paints her chandeliers
for a finished final look. I’m not sure if I agree with that because I love to
see the aging process. I love to see rust and texture but it’s her way of
presenting her work and it definitely works because she is sells her work
regularly.
There are two videos on her website. She can be seen speaking
about her work and also with a group helping her get a chandelier ready for
either an exhibition or a sale. It is interesting to see her talking about her
work with other interested parties and hearing their comments on her
techniques.
The Cable Reel Table.
I found this big cable reel in a skip and knew I wanted to
do something with it so I dragged that back to college. I was thinking along
the lines of turning it on its side and maybe making it into a chair or some
sort, but then I left it while I thought about it. It ended up being put in the
middle of the room at college and people were using it as coffee table or a
doodle table. I measured it up and decided it was a perfect height for a coffee
table. Jo ( one of my teachers) told me
that she had a G-Plan glass table top that wold fit perfectly onto the reel and
kindly she brought it in for me. By this time I was still undecided about what
to do about it. The table was not large enough to be a coffee table and needed
extending in some way. I found some melt stilt from another, smaller reel. When
added to the original reel, it was the perfect coffee table height.
I decided that I would experiment with different finishes to
go under the glass. I thought about
decoupage but didn’t like this effect. I
also considered using jute storage bags as I liked the rustic effect that they
made but in the end, I quite liked the doodles that people had left on the top
of the reel and left it ‘naked’.
I used filler to try and fill the holes in before attaching
the other metal pipes on top but it didn’t dry out and the poles were different
levels. The glass would not sit flat on top.
I decided to add a shelf on to my table so I could use some of the
material from the other reel, so I roughly measured how thick it was and drew a
line and started sawing. I lifted the shelf and stabilised it with another
stilt from the other reel and sanded it a little for safety and to make the
finish much neater.
To keep the glass from moving you usually see little clear
gel circles to stop the glass lipping off and I thought these would be easy to
come across at B&Q, but it was not the case. Nobody at B & Q knew what
I was talking about, so I managed to search out some similar gel pads used in
the kitchen trade and they were just as good.
I do love the rawness of this table. Where it’s come from; how the metal has tones
of rust giving the final piece a rustic feel.
I am pleased with the final outcome and hope that other people enjoy the
piece.
The Camera Lamp.
I found an unused camera in a college storage cupboard. It
had been there for a long time and appeared to be redundant so I decided to
have a think about how this item could take on a new use instead of it being
thrown away.
I decided to put a light bulb where the lenses would have been.
I thought that this would be a quick and easy project but that was not to be
the case. As with all things up-cycled,
the artist has to keep as much of the original piece as possible to appear
authentic.
The whole camera had to be taken apart as the lens aperture
wasn’t big enough for a light fitting. There were lots of problems that had to
be overcome as the camera was never meant to be used as a light fitting!
I had to drill through
the back of the camera to enable to cable to come through. It was a very
tedious job and took nearly all day to get every single little tiny screw out
of the camera and then put it all back together. Once I had done that, some
tings still didn’t fit so then I sawed through another part of the camera which
allowed me to fit the light bulb holder and bulb in.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this piece. It was hard to make the camera look
well-designed and functional without compromising too much but it works well.
Hair Chandelier.
Although we live in a world where enhancements to our body
are easily available, we also live in a world where we throw such a lot away on
a regular basis. I have worn hair extensions for a number of years and they are
ridiculously expensive and I wish I had never started wearing them! They are part of the modern obsession with
how we look and only last so long before, as with lots of things, we throw them
away. I began to think of ways that I
could re-use and re-invent hair extensions in an artistic way.
So I put a request for any old hair extensions of my
Facebook and the response was incredible. People I barely knew were willing to
drop them off, or meet me and bring them into college. I was very grateful for the donations.
It took five hours to wash and blow-dry all of the hair as
there were approximately 200 parts to wash and dry in all.
Although my idea seemed like a great design piece in
concept, when it came to putting the piece together, it was much more difficult
in practice. The hair was very difficult
to attach to the wire without it looking awful.
I tried various methods to attach the hair including string, sellotape,
double-sided tape and finally glue applied with a gun. The hair and the glue had to meet heat and
safety regulations.
I wanted to make a three-tier chandelier but this again
proved more difficult than expected. I
had to spot-weld the wires together being careful not to compromise my design
with bulky or unsightly welding.
I thought about presenting it where the two top tiers
gathering inwards to give a rounded and curvy appearance but this did not
work. I decided to keep to a straight
design and felt that this looked better.
I also kept to one colour of hair as I felt that this looked better.
In conclusion, I feel that the finished design was
compromised as I ran out of time. I would have liked to try different methods
of attaching the hair as the glue gun was very messy and difficult to use. As with all of my designs, I have had to
change and modify my plans to arrive at the finished article.
Bike chain
chandelier.
I was inspired by the artist………. Her work is amazing and
really made me want to try and do something similar but with my own twist. She
got her bike chains from a local scrap yard but our local scrap yard were not
willing to help out an art student. I often just drove past a bike shop and
thought well there’s no harm in asking and they were so interested in my idea
and willing to sponsor me and provide me with bike chains, they were so helpful.
The shop is called Ride On ad in my local town of Ratenstall. So I used to pop
in every Tuesday, sometimes with cakes for them all as thanks. They gave me all
of my bike chains and then middle wheel too. I also managed to aquire some old
rusty pram wheels and thought that they could be incorporated into the piece. I
started off by just moving the chains around, seeing how they respond to
different movements; because they are quite ridged they are not so flexible to
just bend in different ways like you would be able to do with string.
I decided to just start and see how it comes along and work
from there. I got an old wheel from a
machine and I we started drilled holes through to hang the chains from.
Although I couldn’t really see what it
was going to look like, it was interesting to improvise.
I drilled holes through the bike wheels and managed to make
the chains stay in place by using old rusty nails and bending them around the
wheel.
Attaching the chains in the places that I wanted them to go
became a huge challenge. The chains are
quite rigid but also extremely heavy and would not always hang in the right
place. I found cable ties to be the best
thing for securing them as glue was not suitable and I wasn’t able to spot-weld
them. Eventually I was able to hang the chains where I wanted them and make an
aesthetically pleasing shape.
Once I was happy with the shape, I included the second bike
wheel and attach the chains underneath it. Again, I found that cable ties were
the best things to secure the chains.
Lastly, the smaller pram wheel needed to be attached. It had rubber on it but this made the wheel
far too heavy, so I took it off. The
smaller wheel meant that I could attach the chains underneath the larger wheel
and create a ‘bagging’ effect to achieve a traditional chandelier shape.
The remaining bike chain lengths looked great hanging down
the middle, so instead of cutting them down, I left them long.
I really pleased with the final design of my chandelier and
so grateful for my sponsors. I am also grateful to all the staff at college
(Particularly Bill) who was a great help.
Shopping trolley # 2 .
After enjoying making and seeing how successful the first
shopping trolley turned out, I decide to have a go at another one. This trolley (which came from a skip) was a
slightly different shape so there were some new challenges to overcome.
I wanted to create a set to display my work in the
exhibition and decided that another seat would be needed to get the right
balance.
With Bill’s help I was able to take off the wheels off and
look at the new size. The wheels had
added a lot of height to the original trolley and had to be taken into
consideration when designing the chair.
After taking measurements to assess seat height and seat
length, I sawed off the end of the trolley using a small angle grinder. I then had to sand all of the rough edges and
make sure that they were smooth and safe for people to use.
The arms of this chair presented me with a problem as the
original trolley did not have the same basket depth and I could not bend out
the sides of the arms as I had with the other chair. In the end I decided to cove pipe insulating
foam with leather to soften the arms and make the chair comfortable. Although
tricky to make, these turned out really well.
Although the trolley was salvaged from a skip, it turned out
to be a Tesco trolley. Because of
ownership issues, I got rid of the plastic strip in the handle and cleaned it.
To make the handle more pleasing, I spray painted the handle with Hammerite.
Although the final result is good, I don’t like the chair as
much a first Woolworths chair.
I thought it would be good to make an official website for
my work with an online shop also. This is to show that I am willing to sell my
work but at the moment I only have one thing in the shop because I am
guaranteed that material and can make plenty of those, I will add on a bespoke
section which is what most of my work is, just a one off.
This is my facebook page to promote my work even further and
keep all my Facebook friends in the know about my ltest work and create a link
to my official webpage. No sales will come from this, purely promotion.
This is my blog where I will post about my work for col;ege,
record my processes but no online sales will come from this, this is just to
promote my work.
I am looking into setting up an Instagram page and a twitter
page. The latest trend on setting up your own business is keeping up with
technology and bloggers and online users are
the best way to get your work and name out there.
I am also looking at sending an email to my bible, Living
ETC. just to say, heres who I am, look what ive done, and they can choose to
post it on their online webpage or put me in there magazine.
I have just been part of an exhibition at The Whitiker which
is a museum and gallery that is local to me, based in Rawenstall.
I am also looking into getting a studio and if all goes well
I will be part of Rossendale Valleys Open Artists where local artists open up
their studions to the public to visit in September this will be a great
platform for meeting collectors and boosting sales.
I saw this cool idea to make drinking glasses out of
different alcohol bottles on a tips website but never got round to doing it because of the rules and regulations of
not setting things on fire in college, so my dad said we could do It but hes
been to busy.
What you do is:
Get a bottle with preferably thick glass (empty)
Tie a piece of string just below the neck of the bottle
Then take the string off and keep it tied soaking in lighter
fluid
Put the string back onto the bottle and hold it horizonatly
.
Light the string rotating the bottle so the flame spreads
Then the bottle ahould crack slightly in around about 10
seconds.
Once youhear the crack, put it under a cold water tap on the
string
The top of the bottle will just fall off
Then sand it down so it is safe to drinknfrom.
They look so cool and edgy I really wish I could of give it
a try for this project.
Evaluation.
I can’t put into words how much of an amazing time I’ve had
while being at this college. This course
has taught me so much that I didn’t know and has also put things into perspective.
I have had complete freedom with my creativity to do anything I have wanted and
so much help from the staff (and complete strangers). I have been overwhelmed by the teacher’s
patience. A big shout out to Bill, this guy has had so much patience to put up
with a demanding student like me. He has had such great input and has helped me
so much. I am also so grateful to all the people who have donated things for me
to work with, donated their time, their skills and craftsmanship to teach me
and guide me with my work. I have made so many connections while studying here,
connections I may use throughout my career. I have learnt how to do work with
electrics. Help that came from two technicians, Bill and Barry who are from the
electrics department. They went out of
their way to help me restore the old cinema lights. Thank you to Ride On for
the support they gave me during the making of the bike chain chandelier. Thank you
to Sam’s recycling for supplying me with all the leather for my upholstering. Thank
you to my teachers for giving me things to enhance my project and push me with
my ideas. I am really grateful for everyone’s help in making my project, in my
eyes a success.
I have really enjoyed
this project I have learned so many new skills. I am sorry that we didn’t have
time to finish the pair of old cinema lights but they are just stunning on
their own without being properly lit.
I chose design and making as my specialist area because I really
do enjoy it. I enjoy the transformation from (what some people consider to be)
rubbish to functional furniture. From
undesirable, to something people might crave. From useless to functional.
I sourced inspiration for my work from various designers,
makers and up- cyclists from all over the world. I found some from magazines,
some of the TV and some from the internet. Most of my research has either
inspired me to want to try what they’re doing or to take insight from their
teqnique or presentation. I don’t just do research because I have to for this
project, I need it, to be inspired on a regular basis to keep me from becoming
uninspired. Sometimes I can stare at a material or something I’ve found for a
long time before it inspires me to do something creative.
I looked at Max McMurdo because I find his work interesting
and took inspiration from his shopping trolley chair and the humour he includes
in his work. This is shown by the playful colours he uses to coat his chair and
the naming of his products. ( His shopping trolley chair is named Annie). The
naming suggests a personality and a character, it sends out a message that his
work isn’t to be taken seriously. I always try and bare his ethos in mind when
some people might not appreciate what my work is about, not everyone will like
my work but as long as it provokes discussion, I am happy.
The context and characteristics of my work to me mean that I am a designer and maker. I am aware
that some people might want to pin my work as craft. Craft has a place and can
be very artistic but is more of a hobby than raw artistic talent. I would hope
my work is a little better considered, constructed and designed. Although
I have upcycled pre-loved items such my
reel table, much thought and consideration has been taken in thinking about how
the item will be used, by who and how the finished item will look when
finished.
My target audience are people who have an interest in the
environment and who are passionate about recycling. Agewise, I would say my
work would appeal to all, especially children who love seeing 3D work and being
able to see it and in some instances touch it. They love being able to
recognise objects such as the shopping trolley chair which can be an
interactive piece.
I would also like to think that new designers might take an
interest in my work and the making of it. I’d say my work is at its prime at
the moment with recycling being a part of everyday life at this moment and the
public having to recycle. Upcycling is a big trend at the moment with it being
a new art form and craft for people to try at the moment but it will probably
pass with technology being big part of
today’s world.
From my project proposal I haven’t achieved everything that
I planned on doing. I was not able to use 100% recycled materials because some
items did not meet safety requirements (such as the light fitting). Most items
are completely recycled such as the leather for the shopping trolley chair; the
glass for the reel table; the hair, from the hair chandelier; the bike chains
and wheels. Everything else was old, used, donated and recycled. I think did pretty well to source all that I
could. I feel I have achieved what I
aimed to do, broadening my sponsorships, creating new connections and working
with talented people. I have made a range of products suitable for lots of uses
and haven’t just stuck to one range of product, design or material. My aim was
to make some design sheets to illustrate where my furniture would look best, in
a domestic home and in a business or tourism venue.
I have definitely learnt a lot about networking. My tutor stated that I am extremely good at
this, Pulling in favours and getting help from people skilled in different
areas. I used this skill in Ride On, as I am a student I chose to supply them
with cake instead of money to thank them
for giving me bike chains and wheels.(It worked).
I have used Social Media throughout this year to ask for
people to donate and explain how their contributions would be in my work.
I have worked closely with Blackburn College Estates
throughout this year and they helped me get access to Blakey Moor, an abandoned
building. I got permission for someone
to take me round. Ian Smith was
extremely helpful and showed me all of the building. He also let me pick out
what ever I needed for my project. He also
kindly donated two vintage cinema lights to restore and use in my presentation.
I have been rummaging through skips throughout this year
collecting for this end of year project; I have always had interest in
upcycling items and furniture for interiors from an early age. I like to study how items have been used in
the past and what their future use could be.
There have been times in this project where I would get
frustrated because I had all these great ideas but could not source the
products to achieve it. I haven’t always
been able to source them and things have gone wrong. l stored lots of bike
chains at the back of my house and someone stole them all for scrap. If it
wasn’t for people helping me out, I wouldn’t have been able to make the
chandelier because of the shortage of the material.
There are sometimes physical impossibilities that happen
where the materials just will not fit into the design you want because the
object has components that cannot be used. The size of the object, storage and safety while working is also a
consideration. There are points when the design doesn’t look right and lot of things
are trial and error. Compromise and change are factors that any artist have to
be able to do. For example, someone could give you furniture or items to use
and you might only need one part from it. It is difficult to know when to throw
things away, or store them “just in case”.
I don’t know whether I see myself In the creative industry,
I would love to be but I do not have a clear idea of what I would like to do at
the moment. I may go into interior design but I’m not the best at technical
drawings so I would have to work hard at this aspect. Interior design is
competitive industry and I am not sure there would be a job at the end of it. I
would love to be able to live from doing what I’m doing now, designing and
making. Maybe set up a shop, run my own business, my parent both have their own
businesses and set theirs up from scratch I would love to create my own.
Although I enjoy studying art and hope to have a career in
the future within this field, I am still not sure which path to take
I enjoy what I do I enjoy seeing people’s reactions whether
it’s a chuckle and they walk on, or whether they offer to put it in their next
exhibition. Children love it as they appreciate the fun side to my work,
recognising some of the items I use, especially the shopping trolley.
I don’t think I would change any of the things I’ve made, if
I’m not happy I would sort it out straight away as I have a very high standard. The worst critic is yourself, after all.
In conclusion, the only thing I regret not finishing is the
Cinema light project. Due to the old
electric system used in the lights, I was unable to make them safe to use.
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