Making Sketchbooks.

Now I've never made a sketchbook like this before!

After such a long summer, our teacher's were conscious of the fact that many of us would be out of practise when it came to drawing; and so this exercise was designed to help loosen us up again, and prepare us for the rest of the year.

We were all given an A3 floppy sketchbook; then we were asked to 'edit' the pages.

We had to fold the pages vertically, and cut them horizontally.

Our teacher then gave us a range of set drawing instructions; and page by page we gradually filled our sketchbooks - everyone's being totally unique.

Our instructions were different every time;

- Draw with your left hand, you have 20 seconds

- Use a pencil and ink, do not take your pencil off the page unless it's to re-ink

- Tie two pencils together, find a partner, each hold one side and draw together

Etc........

It was really good fun, and I actually quite fancy doing more! Some of the pages look awful, but you can get some really nice results, and it's all about learning what does and doesn't work.

Line Dictionary.

Next we were asked to make a 'Line Dictionary'. This was basically an exercise created to make us appreciate the quality of line; essentially, we had to make a line down a strip of paper. The line could be made in a number of ways, by a number of different medias.

This sounds far easier than it actually is... But we had to make 100, so thinking of 100 different varieties of line was surprisingly tough!

Here are a few of mine...

For example, I created one with a pure white line of tipex pen, another with a line of plain PVA, one with coffee and one with a line of holes made with a pin....

A bit weird, but it was surprisingly enjoyable!

A little bit of light relief!

Those who know me know that I love baking... So my new buddy Polly and me got baking in her GORGEOUS flat :)

Simple but yummy :D

My space.

I just thought I'd blog a photo of my actual working space.

I think this will be a nice image to look back at in years to come, seeing as this is where I will spend the majority of my first year here at Bucks.

Work, work, and a lot more work.

Now, I knew that doing a design course would be hard work, but we really have been thrown into working full pelt! With such a long summer behind us, this was quite a shock to the system! But it is brilliant to be doing some work again.

As I suspected; the inspiration for our first project came from our summer work, that I blogged earlier in September.

In 3 days, we had to use our images to create a collection of at least 10 abstract sculptures, made out of anything and everything we could lay our hands on. They could literally be made out of anything; from scraps of metal and paper found in the street, to household dishcloths and sponges.

At first I struggled because I was too focused on trying to make my sculptures link back to my photographs; I soon learnt though that in using something as obvious as colour, I could quite easily give my work a strong feel of collection.

'Think families of ideas' we were told - and so these are a few of my final pieces.

And here they all are together, along with my initial photographs/photocopies...

Done.

What's next.... ARGHHH!

Before I start blogging about all the work I've been doing at Uni... I thought I'd just touch on the social side of Uni life.

I'm not exactly a party animal, so Wycombe has so far been the perfect place for me. There's lots of Pubs - The Antelope being the definite favourite, and the SU, as you can imagine, almost always has something on.

Most recently was our pirate themed night - a good night for me because I'm a big fan of dressing up and looking a bit ridiculous!

ARGHHH!

Other than that there is a shocking looking nightclub which I am yet to experience... I'm told Monday night's are the best, and so we're going there tomorrow for a friend's birthday - I'll hold my judgement until then!

All stocked up.

Loving my pun there, who says art students aren't intellectual ay? ....

So, at the beginning of Uni, Graham and me decided to cook ourselves a nice Sunday roast (with our reduced price chicken of £3.25 - cheers ASDA). That chicken did us 2 scrummy meals; the roast, and a tasty risotto (eat your heart out Auntie Pat!) and 4 stuffed rolls for lunch. We thought we'd take it one step further however, and freeze the carcass, to use a bit later to make a yummy stock! A bit gruesome I know, but trust me, it was worth it!

I had watched an episode of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'River Cottage' back at home, and remembered him cooking up a fairly simple-looking chicken stock. Unlike us, he most probably used the bones of a beautiful free- range chicken that had lived a better life than I have, but sadly we can't afford such luxury.

You can find his recipe here, I pretty much followed it exactly....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/mar/31/features.foodanddrink

Here's the pan with all our lovely veggies....

..... And here's the pan with the disgusting looking frozen chicken!

It's not until you start making these thing's at Uni that you suddenly realise all the things you don't have in your Uni kitchen! After cooking this for 5 hours.... I quickly realised that we didn't actually own a sieve! Luckily for us, we knew exactly where we could find one - good old pound world! Gotta love High Wycombe for all it's classy shops...!

So with our stock, I made my Mum's famous Carrot & Coriander soup, which tasted just like I remembered.

A lovely touch of home!

Neglected.

BLOG, I am so sorry for neglecting you! Life has been so busy since Uni started it's mad, but I'm determined to catch up - so here's for a massive update...!

This is incredible!

This is somewhat pointless, but amazingly fun.

I was feeling quite glum this morning after calling student finance about my non-existent loan... and then, all of a sudden, I fell upon this link...

http://www.drawastickman.com/

If you're reading this - you have to try it; and give it a chance, it gets more fun as you go along. Such a genius idea for 5 minutes of fun :)

Enjoy! x

The big freeze.

So... We've been in our flat for a few days now, and we're gradually learning what it's like to be 'all grown up'...

Bills, washing, cleaning, cooking, TV license... food shopping, budgeting... AH!

Anyway; like most (poor) students, we've been trying to make our money stretch as far as possible... So today we decided to cook up a ridiculous amount of bolognese, ready to freeze and defrost as and when we need it. Only thing we hadn't thought about was the fact that we don't actually own an industrial sized pan! And so we ended up with these 3...

...Mum, you'll be pleased to see that it's not just your hob I manage to splat and cover whilst cooking!

All in all we've managed to get 14 portions of bolognese AND 2 cottage pies out of £6.50 worth of mince; not bad at all!

And I have to say, it was bloomin' tasty too :)

Summer Project.

I have been set a brief Summer Project to complete before the start of University.

The project revolves around the idea that every textile designer has a collection of images and items that they use to inspire them in their working...

"these are a few of my favourite things..."

We have been asked to collect and photograph a broad range of small component parts; made up of lots of everyday, mundane objects. I am under the impression that these objects will then become the inspiration for our first project at Uni. Here are a few of my photographs...

This is just the start.

So, here it goes... my first post; I think this is the best place to start....

The next 3 years of my life will involve spending most my time here, at Bucks New Uni in High Wycombe. I am about to begin a degree in Textiles & Surface Pattern Design - a degree that will hopefully identify the beginning of the rest of my life.