As I had most of the day to myself an only 1 full week until my mid year exhibition, I set about getting lots of work done. I pre-wrote out a post it note of all the things I wanted to get down during the day and had a very successful day!
One of the main things to get done was a draft label for the exhibition which had to be completed and handed in by 12:30. I found this quite difficult, because my exhibition piece, is more of an educational based piece and is definitely not commercial, so will not be for sale. Fro this reason I have not included a price, this is not the aim of the exhibition, I just want to use it as a milestone to complete work for, but also as somewhere where I can show everyone my work, although very different to everyone else, is still relevant to the exhibition. I also did not attach what materials I used to create the piece, this is because I have not actually focused what I am making yet, I have a good idea, I just don't quite know how it will come together in the end.
My draft label...
Transferring Textiles
Nathan Mison
Making and
creating fascinates me and I love to process of learning and
developing new skills which allow me to experiment and have fun. Over the
past three years at university I have been exploring technique and trying to
find my feet, and want to pass on what I have learnt. Craft based textiles is a
dying process and is an invaluable part of the textile industry
promoting individualism. There are many ways to keep this
industry going, but passing on techniques and skills are key to keeping
traditional craft alive.
The focus behind this work is transferring
textiles knowledge and skills into the school
environment, integrating it into the curriculum and using it as a
teaching aid. This way, I am passing on my technique knowledge as well as
planning more kinaesthetic lessons which are more engaging.
Also, As part of my work today, I set up another blog site... http://blackboardcraft.blogspot.co.uk/
This will be the website, where I drip feed my lesson plans, so they are available to the masses. The idea behind the project is to promote the use of craft and textiles in teaching, so like everyone else, I need to promote my work. Making my plans available to anyone will hopefully mean that people will be inspired to experiment a little more based in my own work. Well, that's the plan!
As usual, I did do a little more drawing and some more planning, but i suppose the major part of the day, the key focus was on the creation of my work for the exhibition. Obviously this is quite important. I set about today, creating the basic chicken wire frame for my dinosaur sculpture. The plan for this is it will be the focal point of my work, covered in the children's work. Well, that was the plan, but after a little thinking, rather obviously, I won't be able to take the children's work and glue it all over my dinosaur!! I did think about changing the idea slightly, using images of the children's work and them working, but I have now altered my plan further, so I can involve the children more, experimenting with the addition of constructed textile to the basic framework to make the dinosaur more colourful and bold.
I am not sure, with all my other avenues of digital presence whether I shall be posting on here as often as I have been, we will have to wait and see.
I really like the rawness of the wire-worked form, but cannot just display a heap of wire. As I cannot decoupage my sculpture with photos like I had planned, which is quite good in a way, because I do not think that uni would have appreciated this, because they want to make sure that I use textile techniques, obviously, in the creation of my work, so not only is easier to work, but also relates more to the learning outcomes. For this reason, I have decided to put my textile techniques to good use, using constructed techniques to add to my sculpture rather than more simple decoupage. This will give me the opportunity to relate my work more closely to the learning outcomes, but also allow the opportunity for me to involve the children. The techniques I aim to use include... pom poms, weaving ,wrapping and tie dying, all used together to create a very fun and colourful exhibition, which shows of what I am about!
