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Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Finishing the Summer Project

My last two weeks of the project! 

Baking a carrot cake for Raphael
My last day working for Raphael!
Visiting the Harley Gallery for the AMAZING Precious exhibition
Visiting Sheffield for Dave's birthday
Using our Groupon voucher for a beautiful meal at Chennai
Making a dress from a charity bedcover!
Inspired by my peacock bedroom
redesigning Paty's flyer
A surprise letter from my mum!
Some lovely Mail Art!
Lavender and tomatoes
Orchid popping into flower!

At the time of uploading I have now started uni (woopee!!) I'm giving myself a week's break on the sketchbook and enjoying all things enrollment, new faces and induction! The course starts for 'real' on Monday October 3rd, so I aim to continue with the sketchbook then until it is full! Then hopefully, after a workshop in book binding, I can have a go at making my own!!!

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Sketchbook update

I've been working on my sketchbook...pasting lots and lots of paper!

maps and stamps and all things global ephemera!
visiting the NEC with Claire
looking at beautiful 1950s fabric in this amazing book!
stopping for coffee at the little deli
playing on Photoshop to create a flyer for my friend Paty
keeping it Bedouin and dressing a room!
musing over summer gallery visits
visiting Derby, for more exhibitions!

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Wordle

I've been learning quite a lot from Mike whilst he's been doing his PHD. He introduced me to Wordle the other day which is an online toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text, so it's very good for using with essays. As well as providing bodies of text, you can also input the url from a blog. So, I typed in this one and out came this: 


It all looks fairly equal in word use at the moment, but I'm interested to see how this changes over time. I will try it out every month or so and see what happens. 

Watch this space!

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Summer Project/Visual Diary

For the next three weeks I will be creating a page a day in my sketchbook to record observations; events; ideas and conversations through a variety of media including, drawing collage; writing; painting, and photographs.

I thought I'd start with a look back over my summer, so I began with my experiences in Portugal...




Sunday, 4 September 2011

Woodhall Spa & National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford

Mike and I had a Groupon deal for a hotel break in Woodhall Spa.


We stayed here, at The Golf Hotel, which was undergoing some renovation but it was absolutely lovely and with a free bottle of wine, three course dinner and money off spa treatments, it was the perfect way to end our summer!

We were travelling by public transport so first had to take the train to Sleaford. There was then an hour or two before our connecting bus so we had a little wander and stumbled across an amazing exhibition at The Hub, National Centre for Craft and Design. I had signed up to the conference 'On The Brink Of Change' at The Hub back in June. It was sadly cancelled however and I'd totally forgotten that this exhibition was on. So, it was a great surprise when I realised it was, and a triple whammy too! In the main gallery was the exhibition About Time by Claire Morgan.

have look at this video of her talking about her work:


About Time - Sculpture by Claire Morgan (PREVIEW CLIP) from Electric Egg on Vimeo.

The Roof Gallery was showing work of the Class of 2011 - a showcase of work by recent art graduates. And in the window gallery was an interesting installation by artist Stacey Brafield.
Using the the classic 1945 film, Brief Encounter on VHS, Brafield will take inspiration from its linear aesthetic and the emotions portrayed on screen, before removing the tape from its plastic case and using it to create new imagery on the gallery walls. Any leftover tape will be made into a new version of the film, to be shown alongside the installation. In this way, the viewer is encouraged to contemplate what is missing from both elements of the work, the changing use of materials, and the ways in which these uses mirror each other. As one picture is lost, another will take its place.
This was exactly the sort of show I needed to stumble upon after receiving details of my summer project! Very inspirational indeed!

After leaving Sleaford we had an hour long bus journey through the villages of Lincolnshire. This was quite nice really as I grew up in that area and because my mum and dad don't live there anymore and was a nice to chance to reconnect with 'home'. Once settled in we took a wander about the town. I had been to Woodhall Spa before but only briefly years ago to visit my friend, the artist, Siobhan Barr. It's a quaint little town and nice to have a wander in

There was this amazing deli on the highstreet

where we bought these delicious cakes! That's a Rum slice on the left and a MASSIVE chelsea bun on the right (the icing was not sickly but prefectly sweet!)

we then came across this sign...
so followed it through some woods
and with a little help from some way marking friends

we
found
The Kinema In The Woods!
with its old style ticket booth
delightful foyer
and film making exhibition
It has been operating as a cinema since 1922! It is a real 'experience' and well worth a visit if you're ever in the area. It's just like 'what cinema used to be', friendly, engaging and beaming with charm...a far cry from the experience you get with the faceless modern cinema these days!

We went to see One Day which was a great little film
then we went home

Bruges

Mike and I travelled by Eurostar to Bruges for the weekend. First time I'd been on the Eurostar and absolutely loved it! Bruges itself was very pretty. I loved the architecture and the cycle friendly roads. The only major let down was the number of tourists and the very expensive sub-standard food! Beer was good though, very good!!

yum!


Grote Markt, central Bruges
Beautiful fountain not far from the hotel
 Looked sensational at night!

canals
canals
a happy deb by the canals
and very pretty shot at dusk
There were some incredible door handles
bench features
and detail all about the place
We even found a Romantik Pandahotel!
the architecture was just fantastic
the humour
the art
the sculpture
(in detail)
and
the
street
art

was all very impressive
I even liked the fact that they left a 'map' of the layout of the buildings on the outside!

 We had some time before catching our connection back to London on the last day
so we stopped off in Brussells and had a stroll about.

 I'd definitely go back here

 there seemed like a lot to explore

  perhaps when it is a little less rainy though!