Travel - Tullie House (Carlisle)

little black dress

This exhibition at Tullie House explores the evolution of the little black dress over the last 100 years. I was really impressed with the detailing and how contemporary some of the pieces were. It was also really interesting to understand the context of when some of the old pieces were created. Worth a visit if your in Carlisle before the 26th Feb.

Travel - Ikon Gallery (Birmingham)

John Myers

Middle England

This exhibition covered work by Midlands-based artist John Myer, his work involves portraits of individuals and families living in Stourbridge and the Black Country. I liked his work due to the documentary style reflecting the area he lived in the 1970's. All the pictures were took witihn walking distance from his home and he documented the world how he experienced it. In this exhibition there was also "boring landscapes" where he took pictures of landscapes but also TV sets. Which was really interesting, I really liked the pictures of sub stations due to the bunker characteristics (one day I hope to live in a converted sub station).

Travel - Lost In Lace (Birmingham)

Lost In Lace explores how lace is a continuously evolving as a material; and shows off how people are using it and thinking about it. This exhibition is currently at the Gas Hall in Birmingham.

This was my favourite piece by Nils Volker due to the fact that these cushions kept inflating and then deflating in different patterns.

This piece by Piper Shepard was interesting with all the detailing, but also the scale and how it divided up the space.

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On a separate note, the Birmingham City library is coming along nicely!

Work - Nans Birthday Card

With little materials and printing capacity, I had to look for other ways of making my Nan a Birthday Card! So this is what I came up with! I just popped down to my local DIY store and collected a healthy amount of colour cards and made this. I am quite pleased with this card, I really like the colours and the hand made feel to the triangles in contrast with the typography.

Travel - RAF Cosford

I decided to take Danielle to RAF Cosford, which is a wonderful museums full of airplanes from all over the ages and world. Plus I just love the Cold War hanger (above) which is just such a stunning building but also really interesting with all the planes seeming to be in motion inside the hanger. (its like a young boys bedroom ceiling on a grander scale).

We loved this guys facial hair! Looks like he has just founded a mouse and placed it onto his face. Top show!

I really loved a lot of the type and patterns on the aeroplanes. The 'Z' on this stenciled typeface is really nice and looks similar to my website banner.

 

I love the idea of Vladimir Lenin being employed as a gift shop assitant, really made my visit.

Work - Christmas Cards

I made Christmas Tree Cards for my family this year, I accidentally came up with the folding for this card whilst trying to make a junk mail christmas tree.

As well I got a bit carried away with the gold paint and potato stamps, so ended up with some nice paper for the presents. So lots of gold paint and chinese newspaper for my family this year.

Work - Summative Project

At university we were asked to make a summative piece for the year so far. I want to represent my process of creation, so I decided to make my final piece the out of the development collages I do. I really dont like the colours in the paper I used, wish I had explored that more. It has defiantly been a learning curve and I feel more focused on what I want to active from now on.

Work - Website

I have finally designed and made a website in dreamweaver! Dont worry I will not be leaving melonwall.com! My blog is here to stay! Please have a look, and give me feedback! Any suggestion is a great help!

Work - Printing

I got this great book off (Print Workshop) Danielle for christmas. So I have been reading and playing with techniques. This week I have tried turnip stamps. I really enjoy playing and making these, but I really need a vision of what I want to create before, so I can play in the process of making the design. So thats what I am hoping to do once this current university project is over (summative project, coming soon).

Travel - Edinburgh

Last weekend Danielle (my girlfriend) and I went to Edinburgh for the weekend for the Christmas Market, I took her little Olympus Trip with me but the light meter doesnt seem to have worked, so these are all the images that came out from it.

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Here are my favorite bits from the National Museum of Scotland, I really like these costumes, the colours and patterns in them are beautiful. Plus I think they are really fun items and would like to know more about the cultures they come from and many try them on = )

Work - Magazine (Focus Current Affairs)

Over the last four weeks I have been making a cover, contact page, splash page and turn page for a made up current affairs magazine. I really enjoyed doing all the development from collages of elements to simple thumb nailing but when I got it onto the mac I was a little demotivated however when I started playing with typefaces and focusing myself it all started coming together. My piece is about the worlds population hitting 7billion people, I feel the paper works really well with the piece, taking away that clean cut approach. Next time I really want to explore typography alot more and be more challenging with its use.

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Layout Sheets

(a couple of pages from many)

Travel - Northumberland

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Sea Life Centre

Well we went to Tynemouth Sea life centre which was cool, some really nice light and some ugly fish! I love this one below, really would not want to mess with him. Also got a video of the Seal tank with the light and accidentally got a seal swimming through.

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Great Finds

Got these two cameras for five pound, the Olympus Trip needs a little bit of work to get the light meter working. Cannot wait to get some film in these and see the photos that come out. Hope they are as good as my other cameras.

Here are some nice bits of metal I found on an old RAF site, I really like the drain cover.

I really like the backs of these photos, got some really lovely typography and dynamics on them (and some great errors). Plus some of them were taken 8miles down the road from home, which was really funny to find so far north.

Plus I got a few lanterns from China Town, been hunting for the one on the left for the last couple of weeks. So I am pretty pleased I have it now, shame I did not actually get it from China.