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.

Circus Design

A little introduction to my 'Final Major Project': my final uni project which will be keeping me company for the next few months. As a Surface Design student, people often mishear me when I tell them what I'm studying - often leading to excited gasps of "Wow, Circus Design?!?". Sick of this misunderstanding, and intrigued by the prospect of such a course, I have decided to undertake a surface designers take on Circus Design. I'll be looking at the bold, gaudy, overblown, graphic aesthetic of the circus and considering the spaces of the circus and how this could be reinterpreted... that's the plan, anyway...

my first post!

My very first post on my new blog documenting my work! This is an attempt to present my work whilst recording and profiling the vast amounts of ideas, plots, plans and intentions (the jam) which often end up staying just as that due to a shortage of time and organisation (the elusive bread). Hopefully the act of blogging will provide a little extra bread for my jam, resulting in a satisfying cyber-sandwich. Yum!

Due to a desperate urge to get something up here straight away, teamed with a lack of up-to-date photos as a result of a recent low-down, dirty camera and laptop robbery, I have opted to use these two collage pieces as my debut images. These were made as preparatory work for a ceramics project during my second year at uni, a time when I was largely inspired by fashion illustration, grannies, hair and feathers. I'd pretty much forgotten about them but have been reminded of how much I like to collage... maybe it's time to reach for the scalpel and plasters again...