Happy Halloween

I will be spending it dressed as a witch, painting the faces of small children all day at work. I spent a lovely childish half hour carving this pumpkin at home this afternoon, and felt quite in the spirit of things. If i finish work at a decent time tomorrow I think i'll spend the remainder of the evening watching the old classics like Young Frankenstein. What will you be doing? 

Project 2.2

Title: Disruption - Sound & Vision

Brief: Make a map of the piece of music you've chosen from the list below. 

Format: No specific format, you may utilise any media.

Tracks:

'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair' - Debussy 

'Get Happy' - Judy Garland

'Forbidden Planet' - Louis & Bebe Brown

'White Horses, Ferien in Lipizza' - Herr Kamel

'Green Onions' - Booker 'T' and the MGs

'New York Telephone Conversation' - Lou Red

'Heard it through the Grapevine' - The Slits

'Jump Around' - House of Pain'

'Genius of Love' - Grace Jones

'The Great Salt Lake' - Band of Horses

'Koral' - Oval

Which would you choose??

Seasonal Smells

I was informed on Friday that this weekend was going to be the Christmas Pudding making weekend, a task highly regarded in my family. One that in recent years has fallen out of practice a bit, but it used to be upheld rigorously. I have played the important role of 'dried fruit weighing' from an early age (and have come on in leaps and bounds i might add). So yesterday father and daughter set about weighing and soaking the fruit in orange zest and cointreau. The pudding of choice this year was to be Fig, Orange and Cranberry, a lighter choice of stodge to follow a hearty Xmas dinner. The best bit about it was the way the kitchen smelt all afternoon, the rich fruit mixed with the zesty orange made it smell wonderful, and very christmassy. For the rest of the day i mused over all my favourite winter recipes and the ones i want to make this Christmas. 

Super K Sonic Booooum

Odd title non? This Friday i will hopefully be attending the opening of a rather spectacular exhibition of that title. This large installation consists of a 22 meter long ‘river’ of water running through a tunnel lined with thousands of silver balloons (photomultiplier tubes). Members of the public embark on a boat, pulled through the tunnel on a submerged track using a pulley system, with sound and lighting effects, and with an expert particle physicist navigator as a guide. On the journey they learn of neutrinos, their role in the Universe and how scientists detect them. (I pulled that straight off the website for the exhibition because there's no way i could have explained that as coherently). 

Have a look at the website, because you'll get a better understanding of what it's about, i still haven't cracked it yet, but i'm excited about the white suits, boat and gold balloons. 

http://www.superksonic.com/

Autumn Vegetables

Earlier this week i bought a Munchkin Pumpkin (i didn't know that was a real thing either..) along with some sweet potatoes, turnips & parsnips. Before i got a chance to photograph the munchkin pumpkin (it's just fun to say) i got a bit over excited and got on with cooking it, but it was beautiful. It fit in the palm of my hand and was a deep orange with a tough little stalk, and really quite sweet tasting. I love autumn vegetables, even just the smell when you roast them. There's something about them that make you feel very cosy, especially when it's cold outside. This weekend i'd like to try making pumpkin pie, or soup, or mash. I have gone slightly pumpkin mad.

mine looked like these :]

What are your favourite autumn vegetable recipes?

Intensely You

I'm having a bit of a minor breakdown, design wise. This project has got me stumped. At first i blamed it on the long summer break, and being out of practice. I assumed that, given a week, the creative juices would start flowing again. So far, everything i've produced seems very forced and unnatural. I've had to force myself to sit down and get something/anything down on paper, thinking that in doing this, the engine will catch and i'll be off again. It hasn't caught. The ideas i've had don't seem like my work, i feel a bit like i've lost who i am as a designer. 

This evening i sat down at my desk and wrote a list of the things that determine the way i've always gone about designing something, and why i'm not as bad as i'm currently thinking. Whilst trawling through the regular blogs i visit for inspiration i came across a quote from Ralph Steiner, the American photographer and film maker, about approaching design...

"Be intensely yourself, don't try to be outstanding; don't try to be a success; don't do pictures for others to look at - just please yourself."

I think i need to go back to basics, work out what i'm good at, and approach this project from a completely different angle. Off i go.

Teacup

Design that made me happy whilst eating cheesecake and drinking smoothie...

@ Teacup in the Northern Quarter.

Painstakingly Lovely

Agency: DSG Dialog Solutions, Germany

Creation: Christian Wilfer, Alexandra Lier

Director’s Names: Takeuchi Taijin, Peter Göltenboth
Production Company: BIG FISH
Production Designer: Serban Rotariu

Makes me want to give stop frame another go, however i'm pretty sure i don't have the patience.

ReConnected

Finally, after nearly a month, i am back online. Cause for celebration and rejoicing all round. Unfortunately, i thought i'd have a huge amount to get blogging on, but having been away from it for so long, i've lost touch a bit and need to get re-inspired fast. I'm heading home for the weekend to get some work done for the exhibition, have a birthday lunch with Rachel and earn some well needed cash at work on Saturday night. I'll use the weekend to reconnect with the blogging world and hopefully get some good ideas going for next week. For now, have a glance at the venue where i will be exhibited, the Nexus Art Cafe.

It feels very good to be back online :]

Have a nice weekend.

A Little White Lie...

...Will ALWAYS come back and make life difficult for you. A while ago I submitted some work for an exhibition held at the Nexus Art Cafe. The theme was on family and i had a piece from first year that i thought fitted that theme quite well, so i sent a few pictures of it. Here's where i made my large error, i told Mrs Art Cafe that i had done two pieces (i did intend to do a 2nd one at some point, but uni and flu and birthdays and everything got in the way). I then promptly forgot all about the exhibition until last night. I checked my emails and sure enough there was a nice congratulatory email from Mrs A Cafe saying i should bring my two pieces over for installation in just under a month. 

One Month.

It seems a long time but this month i have a large project for uni to do, which is lagging somewhat currently and needs a big part of my concentration going into it. It also seems all my friends were born this month and i have many birthdays to remember and buy for, along with New York planning and maybe a few meals here and there to keep me functioning. I fear this month may fly by rather rapidly and i was very tempted to turn down the exhibition offer. Sadly i think it's too good an opportunity to be missed.

(a little sneak peak at the work)

Hello lots of sewing! Goodbye Fingers!

21

21 today.

I am having the lovliest of days. Two best bits include my brother flying home from Switzerland to surprise me, and the Man Candy's present...a trip to New York! I am a very lucky person. A very lucky person that is about to go and eat a large birthday meal.

Have a fantastic weekend xxx