Collage

Collage is a medium I have always been interested in as I find it visually stimulating and attractive to look at. Some of my favourite artists in this field are Robert Rauschenberg and Joseph Cornell.
My own collage technique however needs working on. I decided to use my designs for the MOSI DaVinci project to develop my skills. I used paint, various papers (patterned and textured), and found material to create the base of my collage and then worked over it using ink pen, letter transfers, paint and tea. I have created four collages, one for each of my designs. They will be going in my half year exhibition to show my development and also as a part of the food theme.

Spun

As I have been working on a food themed project which i have based around using food as decoration, I began to look at using the food itself as apose to recreating it in drawings.
I decided to look at sugar as a medium to produce an installation. Spun sugar is a highly effective way of decorating desserts and I Aim to produce a decorative piece on a much larger scale. As my work at the moment is looking at pattern and texture in decoration, I would like to create a curtain or hanging from spun sugar. I hope to display this in a window space of an exhibition so that the natural light catches the golden colour of the sugar and highlights the natural and spontanious pattern that the sugar makes as it is spun.
Aswell as the curtain I would also like to make other forms of decoration using spun sugar, such as jewellery, baubles, clothing etc.

Wallpaper- natural pattern

So far, my wallpaper designs have been 2D drawn patterns based on natural objects such as leaves and flowers etc. However, after a group tutorial last week it was suggested to me that I try using the actual objects i have been drawing to create the wallpaper. I took this on board and began designing a wallpaper pattern using fallen leaves as my material. I gathered and separated the leaves into brown and green piles then applied them to the lining paper with adhesive. I chose a geometric layout as I wanted to contradict the material I was using and its natural state. Because the leaves are no longer living, they will begin to brown and dry out and eventually flake away. I do not have a problem with this as it highlights the transient nature of the material, and as the leaves deteriorate, so does the pattern.

Collaboration

As part of the half year review and working with the food theme, myself and 3 colleagues created a cookery video to bring together the ideas and skills of each individual. We styled the video around the great Fanny Craddock-pioneer of cookery television. As we only had a short space of time in which to produce the film, we decided the most effective style of film would be silent movie. This way we could incorporate slapstick comedy and captions without the need for scripts, making the actions much more spontanious and less rehearsed.
The video will be exhibited alongside the finished cake which viewers can taste. By doing this, we are taking a part of the video and bringing it into a "real" situation, allowing people to interact and react to the video.

DaVinci- The Genius (MOSI)

An opportunity arose recently to produce a piece of work as part of the Leonardo DaVinci exhibition which will be displayed soon at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) The brief was to design the ivention which DaVinci did not. The work could be as light-hearted or a serious as you want but had to A4 size. The chosen designs will be displayed as a digital book in the MOSI.
I chose to take quite a banal approach to the brief as i prefer simple things. I invented a contraption which aids the brewing of tea (leaves and bags) without the need of a spoon and 3 minutes plus of standing, stirring and burning your fingers while attempting to strain the teabag. I created both horizontal and vertical teabag plungers and a tealeaves/teabag stirrer.