Jacobs Market

During the first two weeks of my current project I visited Jacob's Antique Centre.

Open Thursdays to Saturdays 9.30 to 5.00, Their leaflet boasts;

50 dealers with a wide variety of;

Jewellery, Silver, Lace, Art Deco, Books, Furniture, Treen, Tools, Flatware, Glass, China, Pottery, Toys, Militaria, comics, Clothes, Postcards, Prints, Copper, Brass, Watches, Clocks, etc.

There are;

Collectables for the Collector

Curios for the Curious

Coffee in the Coffee Shop for the Thirsty!! (Ha!)

Its tucked away at the bottom of St. Mary's Street, Cardiff, under the railway bridge, and is an aladdins cave. Its three stories jammed with antiques from across the decades and cabinets full of treasures to be discovered. 

There's bags of inspiration, you could do 100 projects inspired by this place. They have a website look them up!

Here are some photo's I took;

The City Project

The second term at uni is dedicated to the project 'The City'. Students from every dicipline of art in the year group were given the same brief. We spent the first two weeks researching the city in small groups made up of students from each art/design course.

We were given a list of sites in Cardiff to explore. We then had to decide on two sites to research in depth, which we would later take forward to create a project and eventually a final piece around.

I decided to work with The Arcades and Llandaff Cathedral, here are some initial research photo's I took;

The Trees

This morning was one of those crisp, fresh, clear and frosty-type winter mornings, so I went out to take some photo's in the woods behind my house;

The Fern Leaf

Inspired by Wednesday's walk I set up my desk and made some art;

I picked out the fern leaf as an interesting motif to work from, and started with some inky drawings;

I then began to work with a colour story  I hadn't used before;

Black
White
Gold

After making the inky drawings I progressed on to printing with fern leaves and using them as stencils.

I also introduced a triangle stamp, I liked the contrast of the geometric shape with the natural form of the fern leaf. It was also a nice way link in the colour story with block colour.

 Finally I experimented with pattern making. I used really basic techniques/media which made for a scruffy/rustic look which I think works well.

Walking on Sunshine!

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and sunny which makes a change from the otherwise constant rainy, misty and dark days of late. 

So I went for a quick walk behind my back garden and took some photos...

First Term Project Completion

The first term at uni flew by, just as I was really starting to settle in I found myself mounting my work ready for the deadline. The deliverables for the project were;

Drawing Sketchbook

A Research file

A Dye Technical File 

A stitch Technical File

Loose Sheet Drawings (life drawing etc)

Six Best Samples edged and mounted

A Collection of next best samples mounted

200 word statement

It wasn't a particularly large amount of work for a term in comparison to foundation. However, we did also have constellation and lots of introductions, health and safety talks and general first year things to do that took up a lot of the time.

Overall I was pleased when handing in my work. I felt my response to the brief was strong and unique to me. I think I was quite successfull in identifying quite early on what techniques were working best and so focused on perfecting and experimenting with them.

I think the links between my research, drawing and then the translation into textiles were a strength. I created drawings in a style personal to me that I developed whilst on foundation. I have discovered I really enjoy working in this fluid, abstract way, focusing on creating a rich language of marks in each drawing.

However, as always there were a number of things I felt I could have done better or explored further. Again balancing my time and workload was difficult particularly with moving to a new place. Perhaps I should set myself weekly goals or some improved kind of  scheduling in future.

Anyway here's my work;