Resin, Expanding Foam and Foam Clay

I have been looking to use materials that can be used to have a natural bulbous effect, an ease to size up.

I tried expanding foam, which was so fun to use and I can see it has great potential, but I have yet to have had a chance to really play with it, it is something I have plans to forward within Unit X.

 I have been using resin throughout the project, but it has never really come to any concluded answers. I had the idea of covering one of my bulbous chains with it. I thought this would leave a lovely glossy bulbous growths on it. I didn't really think it through, I think it could be achieved but would need layers. Something successful also came out of this experiment, I had some left over resin, so put some old chain samples into some old resin molds that I had made earlier in the project. These came out really interesting, little growths on the side of delicate chains.

The pink and orange beaded type things is foam clay, a super crafty material, with a super fun application. Perfect for bulbous interventions.

Selfridges Bright Young Things

http://style.selfridges.com/whats-in/selfridges-announces-bright-young-things-2013

Selfridges Bright Young Things is an annual project that offers a platform for recent graduates and new designers to showcase their work through the Selfridges name and through creating their own window display in one of the windows of the Oxford Street Store. Selfridges hand picks 15 creatives from across the board, from fashion&accessories to art&design to food.

One of the selected 15 of 2013 that I found to be interesting was Grace Hamilton, an embroidery graduate from Manchester School of Art. Whom makes statement knotted crotchet necklaces costing from around £295 to £700 due to the long meticulous process through which they are constructed.

Selfridges 2013

2011

Selfridges 2013

All three photos taken from 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grace-Hamilton-Contemporary-Jewellery/210696555652820

They are not quite aesthetically to my own taste although I do like them, but it is her line of work that I am interested in, creating handcrafted jewellery for a high fashion market. With her being able to work within a gallery/exhibition type environment and commercial environment.

landscape abstractions
landscape artists

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Diebenkorn%27s_painting_%27Ocean_Park_No.129%27.jpg

 Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park No. 129 (1984)

 http://joanmitchellfoundation.org/work/artwork/cat/paintings/early-career-france-1958-1968/my-landscape-ii

Joan Mitchell, My Landscape ll, (1967)

Landscape abstractions,
I really admire both Diebenkorn and Mitchells work and how they work with the use of Landscape. Building an impression, leaving a space for interpretation.

 This is something that has begun to sneak into my own work, a collision of the elements, leading to a built in narrative of an abstract landscape. An otherworldly abstraction.

A close up of one of the rings of a chain for the Paris brief.
Elemental spring, I fell asleep beneath the flowers.

Maison Martin Margiela Spring Artisanal Couture 2014

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/gallery/17284/1/maison-martin-margiela-artisanal-couture-ss14

Obsessive collecting and hoarding referenced throughout Maison Martin Margiela's Couture SS14 collection. Miss match and masks. An assemblage of accumulation of design and thrift store.

I like the excessiveness of the head wear matched with the simplicity and boldness of the face masks.

Disregarded trinkets and jewels.

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/S2014CTR-MMARGIEL

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/detail/slideshow/S2014CTR-MMARGIEL/#16

I really want to experiment with headwear and intend to play around with veils and masks. This chaotic juxtaposition of jewels in the headwear is something I want to experiment with, building a surface through miss match materials.

This week,
sizing up,
going biggger,
bolder,
Ludicrous
Luminously Ludicrous
Ridiculous,

Collaboration with suzi

I collaborated with Suzi , on a project where she used some of my tassels and a pom pom for a photo shoot which she art directed. It was good to be working with somebody and to see my work from a different perspective. It is definitely something I want to pursue in the future and hope to work together again in Unit X.

PARIS BRIEF.
I have been working on a set of "chains" for the Paris Brief, trying to bring myself to work bigger and bolder, considering it not so much as a jewellery piece but as an experiment with line. More a sculpture of the possibilities of line than something to merely hang around your neck. I think this prospect of reviewing the work as more of a playful experiment with line has freed me up to be less considerate and more adventurous with what I am doing. By getting to bogged down with the formalities of jewellery making such as fastenings, wear-ability and comfort, I may have been missing out on exciting new horizons.
I find it difficult up scaling my work and feel that I am slowing beginning to do this, but I see it as something I really need to work on as once I have up scaled I can see what works and doesn't to then descale and home in if necessary.

They photograph like drawings. The above two images I feel to be of the current most interest, they are incomplete and need a larger build but are starting to take shape. Bulbous worlds contained.
I feel like they are like building castles, laying the foundations and then building upwards, adorning in its wrath.

A not so successful sample was the aftermath of the image below. The pattern became too rigid, the form too obvious that it lost any magic of the line. The idea of the coiling of the rope is something I would like to experiment more with later in the project but for this brief, in this controlled obvious state I don't think it works.