Sunday 5th April 2015

HAPPY EASTER!

I didn't get much work done today, because I was on my way back from holiday, however, in preparation for my day of planning and organisation tomorrow, I managed to write out a timetable to plan my time for the week ahead.

6/04/2015	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
09:00	Organising	Planning	Organising	OFF	OFF	Lifeguard	OFF
10:00	Organising	Drawing	Lifeguard	OFF	Planning	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
11:00	Organising	Organising	Lifeguard	OFF	Planning	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
12:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	OFF	Planning	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
13:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	OFF	Drawing	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
14:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Drawing	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
15:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Drawing	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
16:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Lifeguard	Sampling	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
17:00	Organising	Lifeguard	OFF	Lifeguard	Sampling	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
18:00	Organising	Lifeguard	OFF	Lifeguard	Sampling	Lifeguard	Lifeguard
19:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Drawing	Lifeguard	Sampling	Lifeguard	Plan for next week
20:00	Organising	Lifeguard	Blogging	Lifeguard	Making Samples	Planning	Blogging
21:00	Blogging	Lifeguard	Blogging	Lifeguard	Blogging	Blogging	Blogging

Saturday 4th April 2015

On my week out this week, I had a great time off. I spent the week trying not to think about my work and what I still had to do. It was, however quite difficult to sit down and relax without uni sneaking into my head. I guess, it is ingrained into me now and it's part of what I do and what I enjoy. This shows that I enjoy what I am doing more than I think I do.

It gave me time to serf left on everything in my life and clear my mind, reorganising my brain and rethinking about how I approach things. I have to admit, I look forward to going back home and getting back to my life. I have been able to sit down and think about how best to approach the juggle of everything I do. 

My visits on holiday, inspired me and my work, giving me lots of new ideas to introduce into my own work. Although the I did not complete any physical work, I have been able to calm my thoughts and reorganise my ideas for the course of the project ahead.

Tuesday 17th March 2015

Following my presentation yesterday, I have had even more time to sit back and reflect on the feedback I received. I still think it was a little harsh, but I suppose it has shocked me into re-thinking my approach.

I have decided, AGAIN, to change my course of the project, bringing my own practice back into the work, using it to present my plans in a more artistic way. The idea is that I will couple some drawings based around the couple of the lesson plans which link and they will be displayed in a handmade envelope file using fabric created using different processes. This is bringing my own technique back into the project and I hope will make the work more appealing to my tutors.

Based upon this, I set about making one of the envelopes, for the set of Mondrian lesson plans, completing a few drawings before, using patchwork to create the outside of the file, using the primary colours and a geometric pattern in relation to Mondrian's work.

Wednesday 18th March 2015

Instead of working all day today at the leisure centre, I had to go into university as an external assessor was coming in and she wanted to see my work from the last project, Ba7. At first, and from the email I had received about it, it sounded like it was going to be quite a long day and there wouldn't be much time to get anything done.

However, we didn't get round to seeing the assessor until 2pm, which meant that I had a chance to have a good sit down and think about where my project was heading and what i needed to do next. I found this very useful, but before long it was time to attend the meeting.

I was annoyed that I was being taken away from my work to sit and talk to someone about my experience at university, which while a great experience which has pushed my way of thinking and has changed me as a person, I have not always enjoyed, especially of late. However, after speaking to the assessor, who teaches textiles at a university in Wales, she went through some of our work and she helped me so much in sorting out what I am doing and where to go next, how head towards what I want to do whilst still getting a good mark at the end of the year!!

This helped me a lot, and I hope to sit down tomorrow and sort it all out so I have a clear plan of what I want to achieve over the time I still have left ;)

Monday 16th March 2015

After a slow weekend of progression, still trying to get through the mountain of lesson plans I have to go back over a develop further to make more accessible for everyone, today I had my mid year review presentation.

I have got to be honest, I did not plan for this today as much  as I could have and I think it perhaps would have gone better if I had, but I did not quite know what to expect, and for a start, I hadn't brought in all my work I had been creating, so that wasn't a good start. When it came to my turn to present, I think I explained what I was doing well, what I aimed to do and how I am connecting education and textile practice.

After the presentations we were given feedback, which was not one to one, but more of an attack on what we were creating. I can see the reasoning behind why they were so harsh, to motivate and push us further to complete more work, but not everyone takes it the same way. I think they were a little harsh, I mean I agreed with some things and thought if only I had shown my blog or brought in that folder, it would be clearer, but hind sight is a great thing! :P On reflect, in the evening after the presentation, I can see where they were coming from, but for people who are meant to be creative and open minded, some of them aren't half stuck in their ways!

Obviously, I mentioned the blogs, but I need to make sure I have my iPad with me so that I can show them physically, my reflection and how my work is presented on-line. This is easily rectified, especially if I bring this next time! My description of my work was clearer than previously, but I did not make the link to textiles clear enough. I think that is the basic problem. I need to address this a.s.a.p as I am on a textiles course, not an education course. I think coming into the presentation with a set of notes with the broken down learning outcomes, showing how my work relates to each one. This would certainly make my work clearer.