The Metamorphosis of Nature

Well I've finally finished making my neckpiece! It was very exciting and I don't quite know what to do with myself now (well, I do, there's evaluations and dissertations to do but they're not quite as exciting)


The feather, leaf and flower sections are all available separately as well as together.
 
#feather #leaves #flowers #MetamorphosisofNature #neckpiece

Over half way now...

Got my leaf bit finished! How exciting, I'm more than half way finished now which makes it even more exciting.
























Layered with the feathers too...

























Next week is flower week, this will get finished!

#feather #leaves #neckpiece #embroidery

Feathers

I finished my feather bit!




























#feather #embroidery #necklace #peacock

The One Ring...

Had another fun jewellery making lesson the other day, we made rings...


I shut my self up in the print room all day today for a feather day but I got a bit excited and did some leaves and flowers too...

I had to use Helens desk though, mine was a bit of a mess

 #ring #printing #feathers #flowers #leaves

Fingers crossed it works this time!

Been doing more pull throughs (I checked and turns out I did use the wrong fixative, oops) so have re-done my samples from the other day and, hopefully, they'll work this time...

I did some new samples too, they're not finished but you get a cookie if you can tell what they're going to be

#printing #sewing #embroidery #leaves #flowers #feathers

Stitch and Print

Had an interesting week. I've been experimenting with how to make my neckpiece out of fabric and what bits are good to print/embroider etc.
We learnt about pull throughs which is a print technique where you paint dye onto the screen then pull the paste through instead of mixing it all together. I did actually quite enjoy it and it gives a really nice soft effect and tried it for feathers and petals...

Ooh, how pretty and colourful! But then it gets washed and steamed and this happened

It all washed out! Not entirely sure why, probably didn't use the right fixative/the paste was off/didn't steam properly so I will try again and hopefully it will work cos I really would like to use it.

To cheer myself up after I did a bit of sewing for some leaves. They worked nicely and didn't go wrong at the last minute.

 I'd used a water soluble fabric with the leaves so when I washed it away they went a bit gluey and sticky (I've been covered in glue all day after cutting them out lol) but I can shape them and they can look all leafy

#printing #embroidery #pull through #leaves #feathers

More Blue Jays...

Been playing with the Blue Jay feathers again, decided to turn them into petals and made a little flower..

It took a while, I thought with it being so small it'd be dead quick but with all the different stripes of colour it was a bit fiddly. This is what it did to my desk haha

 #flower #bluejay #feather #drawing #workbay

Feathers and Flowers

Here are my Blue Jay drawings as promised! It took a while but I kept being a bit dippy and forgetting my camera.

You wouldn't have believed me that the feathers were so tiny so I had to use my trusty Lion King ruler to prove it haha.

This was done in fine-liners and because it's s big it took me forever to fill in.

 

Now we're up to date (I might have missed the expressive drawing work we did because I was quite shocked at what I produced, interesting mark making but looked nothing like a feather half of the time!) I can show you what I made today. I decided that I might want some smaller flowers on my neckpiece and it's always best to draw first so I made some of varying sizes - all are smaller than my original ones even though I have no Lion King ruler to prove it - to use for design development. These are what I made...

 #feathers #blue jay #flowers #LionKing #drawing

Feathers and Wings and Exciting things...

Been doing a few more drawings at Uni, theres some leaves and feathers that I've been working on the last few days...

And I had a surprise waiting for me when I got home today - I'd ordered some Blue Jay wings off eBay and they'd arrived. How gorgeous is that blue!

 #feather #drawing #leaves #bluejay #wings

Feathers and Butterflies

Had another confusing drawing session. I started off easy, I did some butterflies in tissue paper and paper that were just normal colours...

Then I made a feather with the butterfly pattern and then I used the feather with the butterfly pattern but in the colour of yet another tulip. (The black one is tracing paper and got a bit creased in the cutting out stage, oops)

Well, it's not actually that confusing when explained like that lol I think I actually understood myself

 

#feathers #butterfly #drawing #tissue paper #tracing paper

Raining again

Well, at least I'm not missing any good sunbathing time and it means I get more drawing done, yey.
I've managed a Peacock feather and a bunch of leaves so far. The peacock feather's my favourite :)

 #leaves #peacock #feather #drawing #watercolour

Back to the drawing board...

Well, it's been a while. Sadly I've not been off gallivanting somewhere nice and sunny on holiday, I've not even been sat out in my nice and sunny garden. I've been stuck in drawing and dissertation, fun times. To be honest, I could go do it outside but I'd start sunbathing and get nothing done so I'll show you some bits I have got done...

My Minor Project is gonna be about colour - how it changes and how different people see it - so I decided to do the Pinterest classic and dye some flowers interesting colours. The first pic is when I've just put the flowers in the food dye and the second is when they've been in 3 days...

There was absolutely no change. After 3 days this was all that happened...

I'm not even counting this as a victory cos the one in green dye got pink veins too.

So, I decided to give up on that and draw some proper things - flowers/butterflies/feathers. Here are my faves:

 
 They're done with a load of different stuff, e.g. watercolours, pen, crayon, ink etc. The last butterfly was on tissue paper and looks ace, I need to do some more of those.

#drawing #flowers #butterfly #feather #peacock #pinterest #sun #holiday #minor project

Opening Night!

Opening night was really quite exciting, there were so many people looking around and asking about work. There was even some interest in Azadi and the feathers which was good. And, since the show's now public, you can finally see the final thing on here too!

 It was such a good night and I'm so glad I got to make the products I did. Huge thanks must go to my tutors and the technicians for actually getting me here and to Mr Brian Bedford for letting me use his amazing song.
 
 #CCAD #opening night #degree show #Azadi #Whats the Use of Wings #Brian Bedford #birdcage #feathers #jewellery

New Stuff :)

I've been super busy today (which is like being normally busy but I was wearing a cape :) ), I had quite a bit to do today anyway for deadline on Monday but we had meetings all day which was rather annoying - but I still managed to get some stuff done. Here are some of the things I made from those feathers I was making earlier:

Ta Daaaaa, I do quite like them. They are (Left to Right) earrings, necklace, necklace, brooch, table top ornament.
I've still got a few more at College to do some stuff with and might make some more over the weekend (who needs sleep?) so there's something a bit less expensive than Azadi for people to buy. I showed the earrings to one of the girls in my house and she's already bagsied them for after I've handed in!

#feathers #earrings #necklace #brooch #embroidery #whats the use of wings

Alright, I give in...

I've been sewing more and more feathers - these are bigger ones to hang around my cage in the degree show - and I keep forgetting to photograph them but here are some I prepared earlier (I feel like I'm on Blue Peter lol)

And I've been shouted at for being mean and not showing you Azadi so here's a little preview...

:) I'm not spoiling the surprise by showing you the whole thing

Here's a pretty sunset to cheer you up...

#feathers #bird #cage #sunset #myna bird

Azadi

I finished iiiiiit! My cage is all sewn together and Azadi doesn't look like he's walked into a wall anymore, I'm so happy.
Now, I'm not going to show you a photo of it - you can see it on opening night when everyone else can see it :) but you can look at this feather I'm sewing instead:

#feather #sewing #bird #cage

Hoorah!

I've finally sewn all my feathers!

Now all I need to do is do a little bit of seeding on his chest/back and sew him together! It's a bit exciting

 

#sewing #myna bird #feathers

The end is (sort of) in sight...

I've been sewing and sewing and sewing my feathers and dont really seem to be getting much further which is quite frustrating. I have to keep telling myself that it's the embroidery taking so long and once I've done the base colour there's all the highlight/shade to do which takes longer but after a few hours sewing (where you have started to smell something a bit funny which I can only assume is the machine overheating...) and you look no further on it's a bit disheartening. Oh well, I've gone 1 wing all done and am sort of, almost, nearly half way through the other one...

I have had to find ways of entertaining myself so the slowness this is progressing doesn't make me eat too much chocolate and I thought I'd share my smiles for today - this was as I looked out of my window when I was writing this and the 2 seagulls looked like they were stood on the edge of the window (I think the funny smell the sewing machine was giving off has gone to my brain a little bit...)

 And this was just a pretty sky - look how blue it is!

#feathers #myna bird #sewing #machine embroidery #seagulls #sunset

Feathers Galore...

I know, I've been very bad over easter and not done as much work as I should have on my studio modules. In my defense I spent a week on work experience with Poppy Treffry down in Cornwall which was loads of fun, everything in my house if beautifully folded now lol. I did really enjoy it and it did help everyone was slightly mad (but all the best people are) and lovely. I also had a sneaky holiday but I think my skin reflected the sunlight cos you can't tell. I did keep trying to do work after but there as a deadline for one of my lectures that got in the way but now that's all handed in and celebratory cake has been had I can concentrate on my bird. I should really name him or her, any suggestions?
I have done some work for it the last few days, I've drawn a couple of feathers and I've drawn out all the pieces for my bird but I regred doing that now cos there are a lot and it's a bit daunting...

#poppy treffry #work experience #drawing #feathers #myna bird