New Designers

A manic week of a very hot and sticky New Designers is over. Islington's Business Design Centre acted as a greenhouse full of high-vis, frantic, textile students. Our eclectic and somewhat overloaded stall proved a hit, with lots of lovely comments from the public. Here's my little New Designers corner. Thanks to my dearest Freya Lines for the photos. You can also see Carlotta Morandini's amazing snaky rug, the wonderful Natsumi Kondo's day-to-night garments, Monika Kotz's beautiful 'more is more' wallpaper and a bit of Sally Poore's genius screen-printed shed. Wonderful work girls, the class of 2010 has well and truly excelled itself!

Rob Ryan!

The wonderful Rob Ryan at our private view enjoying the circus! Thanks Natsumi for the introduction!

circus collage

I forgot to include some pictures of my big, door-hugging circus collage. After a day of polyfilla, paint and sandpaper doing the de-rig, my cheetahs, elephants and ponies are all sat in a box waiting to be unleashed at New Designers.

exhibition!

watch this space...

It seems my blog fell to the wayside a little in the last few weeks of making, planning and plotting! Tonight sees the culmination of Circus Design... our private view. A full post of photos and catch ups will be added in the coming days. And then it's out, into the unknown...

my workspace

My workspace after a looooong day in St Martin's library, photocopying circus-related imagery. Typing into the catalogue search, 'circus animals', 'performing animals', 'animals wearing clothes', 'animals as humans', I was shocked by how few books have been published solely with my project in mind. So without the comprehensive Circus Design publication, I took the long way round and have a desk strewn with ponies, elephants, tigers, cheetahs, clowns and a monkey in a tutu... success! Someone once told me it's best to stop with a head full of ideas so you have something to dive straight back into the next day. That's excuse enough for me to call it a day... resting my scapol-wounded fingers, listening to Jarvis Cocker and letting my brain tick away with photocopy textures and collaged bits. Till tomorrow...

Mixing and Matching

Taking some of my work from the letterpress studio into the print room. Screen printing block colours and wood textures, trying to get a feel of circus signage.

Letterpress

I discovered the hidden letterpress studio at uni and had lots of fun with fonts, massive numbers and wooden textures. It's filled my head with thoughts of salvaged wood, laser cutting and hand-drawn type. Mmmmm...

pony print

Some experimental prints for my Circus Design project - looking at all things bright, bold, ridiculous, tacky, outlandish using scratchy photocopies and sloppy colour separations.