Edinburgh Museum of Modern Art 27th May

On 27th May we had a class trip to Edinburgh's Museum of Modern Art and we had to choose a piece of art that we liked, to write about.

 

I also saw this robin on a hedge just outside the café:

 

 

In 1910, Ferdinand Hodler painted "Lake Thun and the Stockhorn Mountains" using oil on canvas.

 

I really like this painting and I think the style and colours fit the subject matter perfectly. I love the cloud effect and the different shades of blue in the sky. I think the mountains also help create a feeling of mystery within the painting.

 

I particularly like the purples and blues in the Lake itself, as they create a calm atmosphere within the painting.

 

 

 

 

 

I also liked Tristram Hillier's (1905-1983) painting "Pylons" which was created in 1933 using oil on canvas.

 

 

 

I love the suggestion of vast open space in this painting and also the mixture between technology and nature with the pylons and the seascape. I think the detail in the sand and shadows is very effective and creates a realistic image.

 

I like the muted colours which along with the cloudy sky create a very atmospheric painting. I think the detail in the finer wires, the supports, and the flags is very realistic.

 

 

 

 

 

What's Your Viewpoint?

For this unit, I have been doing research into magazines and posters aimed at the 18-30 age group. I looked at magazines such as Ray Gun, Vogue, Elle, Wonka Vision, Marie Claire and then started focusing more on environmentally themed magazines such as Organics Recycling, Earth First!, E The Environmental Magazine, and a few others. I also looked at a few posters with environmental themes.

 



Poster

I then went on to look at possibilities for my final design. I thought about different themes/subject matter that I could use for a magazine cover and centrespread and came up with ideas such as fashion/accessories; recycling/environmental stuff; crafts; etc. and did some sketches of what I thought they could look like...

I decided to use the recycling/ environmental stuff for my final design because this is a topic that really interests me. I am always trying to find ways to Reuse and Recycle things (and therefore Reduce waste). For an earlier unit, I reused bottle tops and crisp packets (amongst other things) to make jewellery and found it very interesting. I wanted to continue this area of work and thought a magazine centrespread/main article was the perfect excuse.

I knew that packaging waste was a big problem and thought that making it the topic for the main article and the format for my final magazine would make it even more interesting. I thought about different presentation ideas  such as using a card coffee-cup, or a cardboard box, or a plastic bag, or a bin bag liner, etc.

I decided that I would use a cardboard box that was just sitting under one of the tables in the classroom to present my magazine and thought it would be ironic and appropriate if  it was used to hold an article on packaging waste. It was quite a large box so I had to enlarge everything that I was going to use for it and carefully stick it where I wanted it to be e.g. the magazine title and sub-title; the headings for some of the sections in the magazine such as "How to... make your own Crisp Packet Jewellery"; the picture for the cover; etc.

After some research I found these pictures for the front cover of my magazine.  They both show packaging waste but the top picture was too blurred to use at the scale I needed for  the box/magazine.

 

 

 

For my final, I decided to print my own eco symbols for the sides of the box. This was quite fiddly to get right as it was difficult to judge the size to print off and my first attempt came out too large, but I was successful with my second attempt. I decided to put my first attempt  in my sketchbook as examples of my eco symbols so they didn't go to waste!

These are the symbols I used for my final magazine:

 

 

Overall I found this unit more difficult to research because of the wording in the brief. I felt it was too wordy without getting across what the task actually was. Also having two units to complete within the same week (as well as a class day trip to the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh!) was exhausting.

I enjoyed putting the final piece together as recycling/upcycling is a topic that does interest me and I look forward to doing more with shoeboxes, for example using them as shelving which I discovered during my research.

I am very pleased with my final piece because I feel it shows a creative way to reuse packaging which would otherwise be wasted. I am also glad I managed to include a picture of crisp packet jewellery that I made myself as I think it makes my final more personal.

I am looking forward to thinking of other ways to reuse different things.

Botanics: My Jewellery

For the Botanics unit, I decided to make jewellery with a botanical theme including flowers, leaves, insects, water and land.


Here are some photos of my work:

  

 

 

   

 

 

I made this necklace using the handle from a tea strainer, which had already broken off...

  

 

 

I also used Artistic Wire to create leaf and floral patterns. I also tried to use Colette Hazelwood's technique of laminating dried flowers with varying success...

 

 

  

 

 

I used the bracelet idea to make this  ring...

 

 

  

I really enjoyed designing and making these items of botanically inspired  jewellery and will definitely use this idea in the future. It was very useful having the 3D Jewellery Jig which enabled me to get a uniform size for my floral designs. I look forward to developing my technique using this tool.

 

 The jewellery making section of this unit was definitely the highlight for me and I look forward to making more in the future.

 

 

 

Monteviot May 1st

On May 1st we went back to Monteviot House Gardens and also visited the nearby Woodside garden centre which was also research for this unit.

  

The café at the garden centre served some of the food with edible pansies - I thought the worn wooden table top made a good background:

 

 

Walking around the Gardens, it was amazing  how different everything looked in such a short space of time - most of the flowers that were out the first visit had died and flowers that weren't out before, were.

 

Here are some of the photos I took...

I really like the angle in this photo because I think it makes the image more eye-catching.

 

 

I sketched a different plant this time and I think the result is nice.

 

 

 

There were also some interesting flowers at the garden centre, along with a few cheeky flies!

 

I think the range of plants and flowers that are out this time of year is incredible, much like their generally short lifespan. It's like nature is telling us that beauty doesn't last long so if u find it treasure it!

  

I enjoyed my second visit to the gardens with the variety of spring flowers already in bloom and the early summer ones just beginning to show.  Already there was quite a show of azaleas in the border near the greenhouse at the entrance to the gardens.  I had hoped to have more time to sketch some of the flowers but unfortunately ran out of time so I took various photographs to try to capture the various plants.

I am looking forward to putting some of the colours and shapes into my fashion and jewellery designs.  I particularly like the colours of the tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies and there were several bumble bees flying around.

Botanics Practitioners

For the Botanics unit, we had to look at the work of some artists and designers that use botanical subjects as inspiration. I looked at some work by "Timorous Beasties", Colette Hazelwood, Michael Michaud and Georgia O'Keeffe.

I was particularly interested in some of the wallpaper designs by Timorous Beasties because of the colours and patterns they used.

Here is a selection:

Bloomsbury Garden
Wallpaper

 

Opera Botanica
Wallpaper

Butterflies Wallpaper
Antique

Butterflies Wallpaper
Frost

Butterflies Wallpaper
Duck Egg Blue

Colette Hazelwood is a jewellery designer who uses real flower petals to make her jewellery.

Flower Range

I was inspired by her work and wanted to try it for myself, so I pressed some flowers and found some of the grasses that I had pressed before. I then laminated them, cut them out leaving a small border around the plants and used a leather punch to make a small hole so that I could add the plants to jewellery using jump rings.



Another botanically inspired jeweller is Michael Michaud. I'm very impressed with his work and hope to learn more about his techniques in making botanical jewellery.

His items are so detailed that they look very realistic and delicate. I am intrigued that he uses bronze and would be interested in finding out more about this material in jewellery making.

Charm Bracelet

 

Georgia O'Keeffe's work has a simplicity to it that makes it feel calm and relaxing. 


Hibiscus with Plumeria 

Petunias
1924

Lavender Iris
1951

 

Cherries Blossoms
 

A Sunflower from Maggie
1937

I found it very interesting researching these practitioners and hope to use some of their ideas in my Botanics unit.