Young Scientist of The Year Nomination!

My lovely little sis has been nominated for Young Scientist of the Year - woopee! I'll be going along to see her deliver a presentation on Wednesday, all based around her final year project:

Improving environmental sustainability in the food industry by readdressing methods of food production and local food networks. 

It's very far removed from my arty little world, but I'm incredibly proud of her indeed :) I was also very happy that last week were able to join forces! As part of her final year assessments, she took part in a nutrition fair at Sheffield Hallam uni. Delivering a stall with the theme of Grow it Cook it Eat it we worked together to make it all look tip top!

So, starting with this bunting as inspiration,

I created an applique patchwork wrap around for her to wear.

adding a little extra detail

to both sides of the apron

 it really made her look quite the part!

Then it was time to have a rummage and source everything we needed for a well presented table..I knew all this stuff would come in use one day!!

 We kept with the patchwork theme and cut out letters to match for the backdrop

Made a few minor adjustments, et, voila!

Here it is on nutrition fair day, I think the addition of the yellow looks great!

Each stall had to run a competition as part of the assessment, so after securing a free veg box from able & cole as a prize, she created a 'competition garden' for people to guess how long it took from a courgette seed being planted to flower and end up on your plate!? The stall was very well received and the competition especially -  I love the idea of using the plant markers as your guess!

So here is a happy Nic caught by instagram on the day!

Well done sis! Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

Making Local Food Work were the main sponsors of her stall

and Taste Real Food UK have played an important part of her uni life this year too!
Highlights include her organising various tasting events at local drinkeries and eateries:
most recently at the newly opened Tamper in Sheffield, and an up and coming trip to Ludlow Food Festival.

Line Design

I'm really interested by line at the moment. saw this today and thought about my digital project

Line Flowers from The Objects of Design

love these birds

and circles both by Sonia Whitehead

pretty peacocks by Sian Elin

and for something a bit different, this stop frame animation of graffiti artist jo peel is brilliant!

Blog blog birdy birdy

I've been having so much fun with this blog recently! Maybe it's because there's only a couple of months left to my first year at uni (and I already feel a bit like I'm in summer mode), but I'm really into researching at the moment and finding so many wonderful makers! The internet is amazing, distracting, yes, but amazing!! I have discovered so many things from the hour or two I spend browsing everyday..newsletters, blogs, and facebook feeds - information and connection at the click of a button!

Today I came across Tara Badcock Tasmanian embroiderer-extrodinaire! These birds are hers:

I love the addition of the long feather!

and she quotes so beautifully too! :

My favourite and constantly inspiring quote is from Mark Twain, “You might be on the right track but you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

If you want something to happen in your life, you have to make it happen and if you’re on the right track then the Universe seems to conspire to help you succeed.

So true!

Another bird-y maker is Abigail Brown - who really is incredible!

Another to mention at this point too is Donya Coward. Local to Nottingham (and a studio that's a stones throw from uni!) her taxidermy creations have been mentioned already on here but beautiful nonetheless and worth another shout!

Scalpal to the Landscape

I have been cutting out rivers, lakes and woodlands from a variety of maps, and working with the negative space to create sculptures for my next project

creating my own landscape by adding maps together...

I came across this painting by David Wightman and the vibrant river against the dark grey background reminded me of a similar idea:

via Aesthetica

then it was a case of moulding the maps into shapes

this one would look great with some light behind it!

attempt at a bird...following the roads as my scoring lines

working a bit more with slotting and abstracting, concentrating more on form and structure

using the found image and working with its elements

this one is my favourite - simple cuts and the last one I did (typical!) lots of scope for development with this though

Out of the kiln and into the...what was that colour???

I went to the kiln room today to see if my pieces had been fired...they had! 

  

Here's what happened to the pigments at 1100'C! 

I like the way the colour has worked here, much darker than I thought but they fit really well together

was hoping for a bit more colour in this one - time for some more experiments!!!

he's worked out just great tho - what a happy little birdy!

these work so well!!!

really happy with how this one looks!

wish I'd painted his head a bit darker...never mind, I know for next time! Little egg saucer support looks good though!

I'm a bit disappointed by the streaky lines on this one - wish I'd left it alone!!! Happy little fella tho isn't he?!