As a Third Year Resolution, I will update this blog regularly with my work. This post is a catch up of what I've been doing since January, work-wise.
Starting with Supporting Study in Illustrator, in which I continued exploring some previous ideas about embroidery as a form of protection on clothing, and used the colour and the imagery of locks to create symbolic 'protective' jewellery. I was determined to use the laser cutter, but The designs weren't brilliantly thought out, so I also tried an idea I had about interactive gift wrapping (also based on locks and their connotations of protection and secrets), which I think was more successful.
I'd love to explore the jewellery route more in the future, as I like working on and for the body, but I would need to think through my ideas better first and troubleshoot the practical side of working with plastic and metal.
Next came a project based on a Lace brief set in conjunction with creating contemporary pieces for the Gawthorpe Hall lace archive. My fascination with inside the body caused me to focus on the vascular system, and bring the inside out. I had a lot of trouble with realising my ideas, and struggled with translating my masses of visual research into my own work. I'm a 3D worker, a maker, but for some reason a lot of my work came out flat. I used the time to experiment and learn things about my working strengths and weaknesses, rather than stress and worry about my mark. The project wasn't a success in my eyes, but I learnt a lot. These are some of the stronger, more successful images that came from it.
STATEMENT: I started with the idea of lace patterns found within the bod,y specifically the vascular system. Lace conceals and reveals, and by using patterns that are usually kept inside, but bringing them to the surface, I am questioning how much is too much when it comes to revealing our bodies. Layering and building up lines has become key. It's been an experimental project, with no specific ideas for an outcome, but I've moved away from my direction of fine art fashion pieces to more open sample demonstrations of my ideas around the body, lace and layering.
