Nearly there!

No college this week due to the college equivalent of an INSET day - it's nice to be getting the day off instead of having to go! So I've done some work at home. The bookwork project is nearly complete now. I've made the final version of the gift bag, and decorated it with pencil drawings of flowers - very loose and sketchy. I didn't use the bright pink embossed word purity, that I'd been saving as it just didn't seem to fit. That'll go in the sketch book though because I still think it's beautiful! I've finished the wardrobe to go in the bag - I added some fashion guidelines on the back. I still have some work to do on my eyeshadow pop up. It needs more people and it needs something written on the front but what I'm not quite sure!
I've also been doing some research for our Cultural and Supporting Studies lessons. I picked Aubrey Beardsley, who I'd never heard of, and I have to say his drawings are amazing, but not for the faint hearted or easily shocked. Having taught small boys for a large number of years there is a real element of the naughty little boy running around shouting 'belly button' about some of his work - look how shocking I can be! But his technical ability is amazing and you can see it's influences up into the 1970's, including the Rod Stewart song You're in my Heart!
No photos this week, but I will post some of the completed bookwork when it's done. As a first project it's been an interesting one. I think I want to do more drawing because I do love it so much, but I also rediscovered  my love of printing, especially direct trace, and perhaps I can exploit that technique a bit more. I hadn't realised how mych I love working with image and text together. I felt my work really come together when we were allowed to use text too. I think I've learnt as much, if not more about myself on this project, as I have about visual communication!

The final hurdles.

This week at college was all about finishing off and how to mount our work. I was dreading this because we had an A1 board and needed to window mount pieces of work on it. This involved use of a craft knife - always a scary thought! I know that neatness is not my best asset, I find it really hard to get things precise, and trying to cut carefully was something I was not looking forward too!
But before I did any cutting I tried out lots of layouts - spot the difference!

I decided I liked the portrait layouts better, so my final layout choice was this.

All the images are surface mounted except the wardrobe (top left) and the embossing (bottom right).  I think the board reflects the theme of the project and the range of techniques that I have used.

As well as finishing the board, I have also finished my mini-magazine for my gift bag. Here are the pages, and front and back covers.

Front cover with white lettering

Introduction typed on the PC

I used Publisher to make the magazine. I did consider using InDesign but as I've never used it before I decided that I would stick with what I know, until I've got time to work out how to use a new program. All that's needed now is the final version of the gift bag and then a last sticking in session with the sketchbook. I'm just desperate now to know what the next project is going to be.

Paper making results

On a previous post I talked about paper making, and we were able to collect the results this week. I made 4 pieces of paper - it seemed like more at the time! I'm pleased with the results but I'm not quite sure how they will fit in to my current project. I think they would have worked well with the Amish stuff but not so good with the more modern approach that I've taken. Still, here are my four pieces of paper.

The paper on the left is pink on the other side and has threads embedded into it.

Again I used threads and added buttons which I took off when the paper was dry.

Catch up!

This post is really just to catch up with where the current fashion project has got to, before I go back to college tomorrow and do a load more stuff on it! So here are some photos to show where things are. It's coming towards the end of the project now really, so I'm beginning to think about my final 'bookwork'. This can be anything that combines text and images, along my chosen them, and can include but doesn't have to, work that I've done already. Last Tuesday we did some work on paper folding - origami and pop ups. I LOVE pop-ups (I know capitals means I'm shouting but that's how much I love pop ups!) So here is an idea I had for using a pop up in my final piece.

Cat walk pop up with the caption 'Life is a catwalk... who is your designer?

 I've already started my final version, which I decided to make an as eye shadow compact, using chalk pastels and acetate on the top. So here it is.

 So what is my book work going to be? Pretty much all along I've been thinking of making a wardrobe and having things hanging in it with images and writing on, but as my project has changed direction this needed a rethink. My target audience suddenly came into consideration - I'm aiming this work at young women, 15 - 25, new Christians and those who have been Christians a while. So what do they want? After doing the origami I started thinking gift bags - ladies of all ages love getting a freebie gift bag with stuff in it. There's something about it which makes you feel special and valued. So I decided to make a gift bag.

My first attempt at a gift bag, and a photo of the gift bag given out at the last CCK(Church of Christ the King in Brighton) women's day. I embellished mine, but loved getting it!

The next decision - what to put in the bag? I'd already got the eyeshadow pop up idea, and my tutor suggested a mini-magazine using some of my images. I'd seen some little scrolls in Cloth, Paper Scissors magazine that looked great so I decided to use some quotes from one of my favourite books, Captivating by John and Staci Eldredge. I tried hand written quotes but they didn't look right so I photocopied the pages, painted white acrylic over the bits I didn't want to highlight, painted the pieces of paper pink, then added extra drawings and scribbles in red and silver. I then assembled the whole thing to be like a lipstick. The one you see here is the prototype - the proper one is much prettier, with a burgundy and gold case. I'll try and post some pictures of that with the entire finished article!

Waiting for the pink paint to dry on my chosen quotes

The handwritten scroll - just not quite what I wanted.



Prototype lipstick case



It's in the bag!

Onto my mini- magazine, the first thought was the cover. I looked at some magazines and came up with 4 ideas.

Based on the idea of negative letters - my favourite

Based on Glamour magazine

Using another piece of work with cut out letters

Based on a magazine called oh comely, which had a very handwritten cover.

I've chosen the first cover as the one to use, although I might need to adjust the image a little, and I'm going to use a white background, not pink!
So we're in the home stretch with this project, and I'm so thankful that Adrian has been giving me ideas and helped me get back on the right track. I'm also grateful to Fran (my lovely daughter in law who is very much part of my target audience) for having a look over the project and giving her opinion. The next part is choosing images to mount on the A1 board, and cutting accurate mounts for them - not a strong point for me!

Paper making

No pictures for this week, due to the fact that I got so involved with the paper making, and it's very messy with lots of water! We were back in the print room this week, for a go at making paper, which is something I've never done before and will definitely consider doing again. We needed to work in pairs which is great because it makes you talk and interact more with your classmates, and I'm really loving finding out what everyone else is doing for their projects. The paper is now drying out in the print room, so I'll try and post some pictures next week.