like a washed out version of the ribbon in the sky :-)

uncanny

the likeness is uncanny

Updating on nothing ;-D

well its now the half term, everything has been pretty much done for college, bits of paper work, photographs to be taken and portfolio to be done, the new year begins in September and it will be interesting to see how things pan out between now and then, I have a trip to Islay next week for a long weekend whisky and men in kilts and rugby... cant wait !  brace yourself for photos galore.

sounds

Sounds in my head..... after quite alot of tweaking and changing totally the sound backing, i think i may be happy... well for now, going to take it in and if i change my mind, i change my mind...simple...I dont put it in, I feel dreadful, my nerves are killing me, and I dont want to go to college. I could miss the bus lol.....

last few photographs

a few hairs left from the other photos

the greenery! the ribbon looks very different against the leaves,

its seemed so solomn again the bare branches, but

now a change.

Blowing in the wind

Well I made it back to the tree and to my delight the ribbon is still blowing in the wind, I saw it as I walked through the first field, it bought tears to my eyesas I got closer I noticed that the farmers had been up to the top field to put in irrigation pipes, I do wonder what they thought of the ribbon dancing while they worked, did they take time to watch?

The ribbon has been here for 3 weeks now, should I take it home or leave it,as I am writing this it is tapping me on the shoulder as if to tell me its time to go home.

Its a little more tattered but still beautiful in the sunlight.

The view has changed a little, some of the fields are now sunshine yellow with rape seed oil flowers and they contrast so beautifully with the rich green of the hedges, its sunday so the roads are quiet nothing to disturb me but the occasional niegh of a horse and a dog walker, what more could I ask, I will miss this place when I am gone, but I will always have the film, the memories and the ribbon to remind me.

here we go.........

No turning back now, open night on Tuesday, everything done, pictures to be taken on the night and will be posted, how do I feel..... worried about the assessement on Wednesday I dont seem to have much to show and tell, I want to go into the assessement feeling confident and at the moment Im so sleepy I dont have that at all. The work I have done is personal, and I hope that people get it to a degree, or at least see it for its beauty and enjoy it.

the final week............

So here we go,the final week, most stuff is done, I have a horrible cold typically, Im sure the stress smashes my immune system in to little pieces, the film is on the disc, the sound piece is being tweaked as they say ( its a technical term ) I listened to again last night and dreamt a way of improving it. At the moment it is drumming and the knitting pattern, I would like to keep that but add a bit of chatter in the background, to make it sound more like a socail event, the ladies in the Scottish Isles tended to knit in groups and gossip, listen to music, so I think I shall try to replecate that a little more. It should nt take long... hopefully.....

cocoon

I have started to tie together some ends, so to speak,

I chose not to carry on with the knitting of the shawl and

continue with the ribbon instead as I felt that

it had more to investigate and work on.

so what I decided was to use the knitting and something

special, like my butterflies from a previous brief, I

do feel these will keep cropping up through out my

art projects and life in general.

and I made a little cocoon for them, 40 of them,

this will be going to Islay with me, to give as

a rememberance of my friend James,

he liked my work on the butterflies when I last saw him

this will be my goodbye to him as I didnt get chance

to say it properly,

I miss him, flashforward was not the same with him

to discuss it on msn, little things I miss,

but he made a choice to leave, I cannot change that

just accept it.

this is moving faster than a feather in the wind

how in love am I with these stills from my film !

this progect has really taken off in a better direction I love the edited film of just flickers of ribbon

and these still with the distortion on them give me goosebumps,

the tattered edges are like flames, the firey redhead in a new guise

hair

This is one of  my favourtie new pics, I love the textures

and the way the hair is pulled  across the bark

all change !

moving rooms just before the end of term .... probably just as well im only using my desk !

twilight shite

well goddamn.. things havent gone to well this week, it took me forever to get hold of a camcorder and when I did get my pics and filming done it was compared to the twilight book covers, the ribbon being red and tatty, so I googled this and yes there is was in all its glory red ribbon... so. will people look at my work and compare it to this. I hope not, Im not a fan of the books by anymeans I like my vampires to be dark and sexy and at least look over the age of 16. So this made me wonder if I need to be altering what I do, I have now done some more filming with some hair instead of the ribbon but its not working for me, and if its not working for me, then how can it work for other people. A rethink and bloody quick is needed.

more pics..

I will attempt to write up stuff this week, but its just not working at the moment

new film and pics taken with hair instead of ribbon, pics will be downloaded asap as they are on a different camera. ;-)

what I am saying

what we see isnt what we always get, things that look beautiful from a distance may not be.

at the tree

tattered and torn.

printed

the prints with the ribbon

preparing the print

I love print, and part of the prep, I took one of the photos and used photoshop to separate the colour and also the ribbon from the tree and then pixalated both the images ready to be exposed.

first layer of bark drying on the rack :)

practice runs of the ribbon to go on top of the bark.

I hope to do 4 layers for the bark to get a good texture and then have the ribbon going across. I may also do a version with a ribbon going across.

playing with Pshop

little crochet and knitting.

lasted stuff to be done..mini knitting in preparation for shawl knittng...

long time red

roses are red my love

image i bought from the market, with the sun shining through the rose print :-)

lace making stuff

I have never made lace before so this will be in an interesting addition to the project..

it may work it may not !

I am hoping to have the hardness and harshness of stone softened by the lace / crochet / knit

a play with textures :-)

String vest

knitting with hand made string, a little tough but looks lovely!

Stonnall Sunday

design your own tartan website found....

wire lacing

I have made jewellery before on the foundation course and thought it would be good to try doing a lace pattern with the wire, its fiddly but it does work to a degree, I may experiment further with finer wire to see if i can move it into the shapes easier but still get it to hold it.

pics of hanging threads and the best pic is last ;-) xxx

from the word text from a digital piece I have now moved to lace makeing .............

plans so far...

Ideas have been flowing this week mainly at mad  times at night but hey, I slept well last week cant have it all the time ;-)

We have a performance piece to do this week, and as I have been researching Shetland lace knitting I thought it would be good to incorporate this , so far I have made some sound for background, and ideas of speaking the pattern,  I have also considered knitting by the church for a while, knitters through the ages have made baby blankets, wedding shawls and death shrouds so I thought the church would be a good place to sit and ponder for a while.

the other idea was to sit at hangmans tree and knit with the wool falling from the branches I felt this could look very beautiful but not be necessary fitting to the brief, I may do this as a separate piece of work over the weekend, and document as part of my work.

photos will follow when mini lappy is speaking to me :-)

I have been mostly thinking about knitting

I love knitting, its so relaxing, and you get something lovely at the end of it, so I have been looking into the history of it, as you may know I love Scotland and have been looking at the tradition of knitted shawls as wedding gifts, this are knitting in single ply wool and are so fine they can fit through the wedding band, and have a beautiful cobweb look about them. I havent done this type of knitting before so I have looked for some simple ones to start with and will build up from that.

As part of our brief we have been asked to do a performance piece, I am looking to do a sound and vision piece based on Gaelic poetry and the sound of knitting,  The Shetlanders would have evenings together knitting and telling tales I feel this was not only done here but in all the places that knitting was a part of life.

get your needles ready people you may be asked to join in  :-)

Ritual and Commemoration

New Brief time ! this is totally different from the last and I have till May to complete it, after reading the general blurb alot of differing ideas are buzzing around my head, we all know about the basic rituals of birth, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and the normal day to rituals of waking, washing, eating and sleeping. But we need to delve a little deeper I feel. Also Commemoration, I have to commemorate the untimely death of my friend James in June, it will be a mixed day for me, I know he was unhappy but I still miss him and saying a proper goodbye will help me get over his death,  how else do we remember people?  shrines, gravestones, in just in our hearts. Sometimes a little something of theres can be a treasure, I have ornaments that belonged to my Nan, that I remember from being a child, they still make me smile and remember her. Most importantly though I remember her before she got really old and not like herself, I remember the lady who took me shopping in Birmingham so we could try on hats and laugh at ourselves in the mirror.

So remembering... how do you remember people who are no longer with you?  I hope it is with a smile... :-)