Hogwarts...Nope! It's Hereford College of Arts

Hogwarts? No its Hereford College of Arts.

Since my last blog post, wheels have been turning and I've been full steam ahead and feeling super productive and organised. It's amazing how things can really turn around on it's head once you click with something! 

I had the pleasure of visiting Hereford College of Arts and WOW, what a wonderful place. It felt like home just pulling up and parking my car and it's like stepping into a miniature version of Hogwarts. My first impressions were very good, inviting, warming and inspiring. I didn't want to leave BUT I have to consider the long journey (around an hours drive) and the impact it could potentially have on my family life..I struggle on a daily basis as it stands. Visiting Hereford really did reaffirm my growing love for textiles and how much I enjoy incorporating my photography work and skill into my designs and it's something I'm embracing and experimenting with in my latest brief...........

I'd touched on last week that we have a live brief in collaboration with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and I've spent the last week and a half designing my print from a photograph I had taken whilst visiting there. The greenhouses are filled with tonnes of tropical and semi-tropical plants and inspiration is a plenty but for me I was really looking for something outside the box and it just so happened what I was looking for was underneath my feet the whole time. 

 A small water feature was throwing out excess splashes of water out onto the floor and in turn was creating this beautiful reflection...There it was, I was taken by this immediately and knew exactly where I wanted to go with this. In . my fairytale portrait work, I use a lot of split-toning to change the colour of the highlights and shadows and this was my train of thought for this image using the colour palette from a flower in the greenhouse. 
Using the gradient map tool in Photoshop and the eye dropper tool, selected two colours from my colour palette source image (not pictured)  and added them to the gradient map. One colour for the highlights (green) and one colour for the shadows (pink). My first response was very exciting and I love this change alone, never mind developing on it!

I'm  pleased with my first response to this print and over the last week I've really developed it......Worked on it some more in photoshop with leaf stamps, reversed the gradient map, sublimation printed and then printed again over the top of it. It's coming to life and I'm really connecting with it, It feels good and I'm passionate about using my photography as part of it. 

Something else exciting happened...My husband came home with this for me...A gin advent calendar! It's nearly Friday and I can't wait to open the first box..*hic-hic

Overall I'm pleased with how this brief is going, I've planned my work load very well and I've connected well to it and I'm feeling positive. 

Year 2...Feeling blue!

Well Hello Year 2 and welcome back to my blog (or weekly whinge....)  

  

Crikey...I don't even know where to start as since breaking up from year 1 so much has happened but what I will tell you is this, I had built up a lot of anxiety about returning back to Year 2. This anxiety has had a huge impact on my first brief (which I've just handed in....Hence the happy poo face. PHEWWWW) and my outlook in general, something I'm hope will start to resolve over the next few weeks. It's really not been easy and I'll be honest, I struggle, I struggle on a daily basis but 6/7 weeks in and so far so good. I've only cried driving home about 50  times! :-D

It's not helped either that our family lost our dear 'brother' Brendan, unexpectedly at the start of October and without getting the chance to say goodbye, I've been faced with feelings and emotions very alien to me and have put me at times into quite a "dark" place. Luckily I was able to channel some of what I was feeling into my work, quite literally!  

Going to miss you so much Bren.

Looking back on my work that I have produced for my first brief back...Although I'm pretty pleased with my final outcome and what I had achieved in constructed textiles, I'm not happy with the paperwork side of things and I know for certain this is going to let me down and affect my grade.....Grrrrr! Got to be top form for the rest of the year if I want to hit distinction targets...Not putting myself under any pressure at all *winkwink. Here's a couple of pictures of what I've been upto....I've been working hard, Promise. 

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Last week I've been given my new brief which is going to take me up to Christmas and this one is pretty exciting. We are collaborating with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and being commissioned to design a capsule collection which conveys the attraction and to develop a tropical inspired print...EEEEEKKKKK....So exciting. A day out last Thursday to the botanical gardens with my trusty camera has filled me full of inspiration and I'm raring to go. I've got print ideas flowing and a range plan ready to put down on paper (which I'll show you next week). 

Thanks for reading you lovely folks. Until next time. XXXX