#tusworkshops

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Artist Research | Fashion Elective

In TUS we have an extensive library resource where I like to spend some of my time researching the many books and fashion editorials.

I'm particularly interested in hand weaving skills and textiles.

I attempted to work on a piece by using a technique Called 'smocking' which I thought only applied to my mothers curtains back in the 80's.

Through Colette Wolff's book, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, I have been introduced to a more fulfilling creative adventure to learn new techniques to apply to my final design.

These are some of my final test piece results..

Exploring ways to create ruffles, frills and shapes using smocking.

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Monday evening I spent 2 hours in the Digital Fabrication workstation with tutor Jennifer O Riordan making a large scale version of the Mayfly wing on the laser cutting machine scaled up from my first prototype from last weeks trial.

The result is an interesting effect of burn within the detail of the wings structure by going through the process the piece has a broken , degraded , temporariness to demonstrate fragility and at the same time durability within life , its cyclical nature and restoration.

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I choose this image as the viewer can use it as a window while seeing the fragility and brokenness of the wing structure maintained by threads as I imagine how the Mayfly's wing may look after it has descended into the water at the end of its own lifecycle.

I continued to experiment and play with my fragile wing after it dissolved in the river.

As the weather here is at -3 it was a perfect opportunity to get an array of images as it froze in the cold misty air.

A little gif while it is caught in the movement of a frozen plant.

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Visiting Lecture / Artist Research /sculpture

Freida makes sculptural work that explores temporality, material and encounter. She pays close attention to the inherent character of materials and works with them in an intuitive manner, moving between the methodical (a sense of time in making) and the direct presentation of matter as it is, or just minimally influenced.

Informed by contemporary thinking on materiality, she is interested in the point of contact or adhesion between materials - the degree to which they are anchored or integrated into each other, and the transfer or exchange between the grafted materials. In this emphasis on the moment and place of adjoining, boundaries become central, and there is often a quiet suggestion of precariousness or peril.

Freida graduated from Sculpture & Combined Media in LSAD in 2020.

This morning we had a visiting lecture from a recent graduate of LSAD/TUS talking about her practice. It was encouraging that her practice is based on finding balance within the intuitive process of her exploration of her materials and her final work.

A big take away lesson for me today as a first year is about how I can move forward in my own exploration in terms of 'play' which is part of the balance in following your intuition regardless of the inherent pressure that deadlines can create.

The activity of Suspension is an area I'm very curious about. This is an element I am drawn to displayed in pieces of Freidas work. Suspending items, liquids in air creating form and intrigue.

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Fashion Elective | week 5.

Continuing to work with my swatches I progressed to working on the clothing mannequins.

I continued to place my swatches on the mannequin on Thursday. I have taken inspiration as a result of seeing them in place and visualising a final piece.

I find Fashion design interesting from the perspective of textile creation and manipulation using the form of the body as an architectural form to drape from. It appeals to my interest in geometry and space.

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Ceramics Elective | Week 4

Below is a collage of process images taken in the second week of the ceramics workshops. We are now glazing the square box pieces from last weeks w.shops into these pre-made black and a blue glaze. We had to stir the mixture as the bentonite /Kaolin clays in the glazes tend to settle quite quickly on the bottom after stirring we dip the piece in being careful to not fully immerse it as we didn't want to fully cover the bottom of the piece.

Elaine then showed us how to mix up underglazes as some students preferred to paint directly onto their finished pieces instead which also gave them a variety of coloured glazes to apply.

For the second part Tutor Elaine Riordan took us to the ceramics studios to demonstrate a method called 'extrusion'. We took lots of photos to visually document the process and the results. I enjoy using equipment to achieve a variety of structures with clay.

This result was from a digitally cut stencil which looked like a flower shape.

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For my primary research I have taken the theme of Movement to be represented through water.

These are images and short clips of videos taken recently of rapidly flowing water after a heavy downpour of rain and some others of sleet / hailstones shower.

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This was a second attempt to recreate the Mayflys reproduction within its short but vital existence to lay its larvae into the rivers and lakes. I'm happyier with this version.

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Week 10 Monday Workshops | Concept Development and Exploration

Today I attended this workshop given by tutor Sharon Legear. We discussed in detail the use of language when we are describing our work to our peers. The importance of having a clear concept and then being able to relay it through the avenues that we choose to express our project work was vital to developing my own understanding between literally and laterally in the end result.

This workshop was constructive and conducive to helping me clarify my concept and how I can push forward for the remaining two weeks.

The images below are from my second small Mayfly wing, this one is more delicate and without a frame, so the resulting images are different to the first batch I did. I like this method of working exploring color, layering, light, textures, digital technology to further my concept of the Mayfly lifecycles.

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As a continuation of our 'Temporary' project after I did Yvonne Sweeneys Draw/redraw workshop I was able to develop my plans to move forward. Yvonne introduced me to other tools she uses in animation and interesting artists to research. As a result I created these images in studio 4 and studio 8 using photography, light and colour.

These images are unedited/unphoto shopped, the next stage will be to play around under a big re-learning to use photoshop again to explore other results.

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workshops week 9 | cyanotype

This Monday I attended Cyanotype printing with Tutor Gemma Dardis. We were shown the process of working with chemicals and how they react to sunlight/uv exposure to get a print on paper which we converted into an acetate exposure.

Despite the use of two chemicals I thought this process was somewhat more organic in nature which I would prefer in my own practice. I'm interested in using this method as a way of documenting items.

The first image I laid out items on top of clear acetate, I then made this into a print using the UV light exposure box in studio 8 to get the resulting blue cyanotype print. The second image is of it drying on the windowsill.

I think I will call these prints

'Angels in the Window'