Third year continues

The third year carries on. With only a month or so before Site 2014 the school has become busier than before. Things are falling into place with my film work, which is cool. Though I have discovered, that after painting trees for months the sea is a complete mystery to me. However, think I will probably work with the backgrounds I have made for scene four anyway and see how they work once projected. I got given the option of my chosen room for Site, provided I share it with another student as a screening room set up. That’ll work so I’m happy! I’d like to finish the work a little early if I can so as to give myself time to step back from it, and then come at it fresh for some critical editing.

Over and out!

Alice

My work for 3rd year at Art School.

I neglected the blog… again!  Then I remembered the blog (face palm). Without delay I will now update! Here are some images from what has been keeping my busy! And brief description.

Art school is great this year. I’ve moved on from my previous project Hattie Mouse, which was a picture book challenging the “overly educational” and “commercial” forms of children’s entertainment. To making a film-ish project.

This year I am still working with narratives, but I am making a traditional cell animated film. The film is a response to “Hikikomori” which you can go read about here.

The project aims to slow down experience so as to acknowledge the beauty and fleeting sadness of life (in the natural world), mono no aware[1]. This is used as a means to shift ones mind-set to a more positive perception of the world around us and by doing so, lead to a re-engagement with life.

The work contextualizes itself within “The Slow Movement,” and “The New Domesticity.” The film embodies a strong sense of nostalgia, and it is through this that viewers may be inspired to examine their own pasts in hopes of working towards a better quality of life in their futures.

So yeah, the work will be on display in the SITE exhibition at the end of the year in November at the DSA. Dates will be announced later.

In other news, we had a show to raise funds towards out projects called the “Don’t Stop” show. It was concerned with multiples and small scale works. I made a zine on how to do vintage hair styles (might do a post on this). Also put in some prints from the film and a few framed portraits of the Hattie Mouse characters from last year.

Allrighty, over and out!

[1] Richie, Donald. “The Tractate,” In A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics. New York: Stone Bridge Press, 2009.

 

 

The Happenings of January: Stamps, Walrus Cushions ect!

Oh gosh a fuzzy photo, “oh the shame!” Whatevs I don’t care. (Side note Allpress coffee is delicious!)  Hullo readers, this post is about some of the things I have been up to this January. A few major things that have happened is that I received a wee set of stamps from my Mum and Dad for Christmas you can get your own here from Typo. They are a great deal of fun. Have spent the past few weeks tearing things out of magazine and printing stuff on them (as you can see in this post). Finally my large collection of Frankie Magazines is being put to good use supplying me with lots of material to collage and print over, yay!

This one has been put above the washing machine.

My flatmate Ashleigh made this one, it’s a reference to a New Zealand Police thingy.

We have also moved house and have had a grand time arranging our vast collection of kitsch objects and gubbins so as to decorate our new home. Here are some photos of our gubbins. In particular Ashleigh’s walrus pillow is AWESOME so when I find out where it is from I will put in a link so you can buy one too.

Ashleigh’s Royal Plates and salad dressing glass thingies.

These our the duckie measuring cups.

Nan got me this oven mit. Our friend Dan grew this garlic! (Amazing!)

This is the couch, unfortunately the screen printed cloth I made in first year has since been ripped, but that’s cool because Ashleigh got a really nice blanket to put there instead.

Ashleigh ordered this fantastic walrus cushion off the internet. Link coming soon!

This the the layout of the kitchen 😀 So uh yeah… in other news have been dabbling in painting, embroidery, guitar and gardening. So might save some of those for the next post.

Over and out,

Alice 🙂

Craft Night with Lynn and Kat

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of attending a crafty and fun evening hosted by Lynn Taylor and Kat Taiaroa at Kat’s quaint and lovely studio. The theme of the evening was making cards. Either greeting cards, or cards about something we were thankful for, or some kind of positive message. But most of all it was an evening about trying new techniques and having fun in a warm and positive environment. Above is the photograph Lynn took for me of the things I made. In fact, Lynn took lots of lovely photos of the evening which I will now share with you.

There were demonstrations of several processes including gelatin printing, screen printing, using modge podge, dyes and preparing a surface with gesso to name a few.

Everyone brought yummy things to eat and drink. In particular, the gluten free veggie pizza was amazing!

We all enjoyed ourselves, even Mango who is shown posing for me to draw in the two pictures beneath. If you want to see the drawing, scroll back up to the first image in the post, Mango’s portrait is on the bottom left.

All in all a great evening! Thank you Lynn and Kat!

If you would like to check out Lynn’s blog click here.

My Pencil Jar and My Hedgehog

I have two treats of creativity to write about today on The Goody Tin! First is a pencil jar covering, and the second is my newly made felted hedgehog!

For two weeks I have been eating jam with my breakfast, and for good reason. I wanted to finish of the jar so i could use it as a pencil holder. But a plain jam jar would be a bit boring, so I made it more interesting by designing a label sort of thing. Same as with my last post, if you would like to know how to make one let me know and I will whip up a tutorial.

This is the front view of the jar, accompanied by Gertrude the sewing machine and my messy Windsor and Newtons.

And the back view!

Now comes the best part of the post where you get to meet my newest felted friend, Mr Hog!

The photos are a bit fuzzy, but so is Mr Hog!

To make Mr Hog, I felted a ball of wool for his body, then a cone for his nose and merged these together with more wool. To make his spikes I cut off strips of the carded wool and then anchored the middle of the strip to the body. As you felt the middle,  it makes the rest stand up. Then you repeat until your whole hedgehog is covered.

Well I’m going to leave him hanging out on my desk, until next time!

 

Felting!

Hullo Readers!

I’ve recently dug out my felting things after not having done much on that since last year. Here are the results!

This is my Owl badge, the first badge that I made. It’s quite big and was a good experiment, the ones I made following this have been a bit smaller. The white background is off cuts from a wet felted hat I made last year. Next to come was a smaller badge with a little fox.

Then a badger! For these last two badges I treated myself a little in a sale at the local spotlight buying a new felting tool, it has five prongs in it and make quick work!If you would like to know how to felt, wet or needle felting methods, please leave me a comment!
Hope you like the badges, I may sell these in the future.

Long Time No See!

Hullo Folks,

Well it’s a wintery summer here today in the south. But never mind, Today I took the opportunity to recover a book of mine! And when it was done it looked like this:

DISCLAIMER: This is how I covered my book, I’m not recommending you necessarily do it in the same manner. Nor am I to be held accountable if you hurt yourself whilst following this guide. Or if it doesn’t turn out perfect. You do so at your own risk. Be it on your own head basically.

I’d wanted a new note book for some time, but wasn’t willing to fork out 20 dollars for something pretty. So I found this in an op-shop (thrift store in America) for $2.50, never used before.

 

It’s quite a nice design, but I had other plans for it! I have been collecting fabric for some time, and had this pretty piece with flowers just waiting for a project!

Now I probably should have made the pattern BEFORE cutting out my fabric… but I have no self restraint sometimes so I cut out a square of that that was a wee bit too small… but still sorta fits it just doesn’t look tidy. ANYWAY…

So then I realized that you could see the old cover through the fabric and would have to first cover the whole thing in a white paper.

So I drew round the book, and measured the spine (that’s the strip in the middle). Then put about 1cm seam allowance (once a fashion student always a fashion student?) on the bottom flaps and cut out wee circular bits so it will fold round easily. Then I made the side flaps a bit bigger. If you are making this book covering at home, I’d recommend at this stage you take this pattern and trace round it onto your fabric with a bit of chalk, but extend the seam allowance a wee bit so you will cover your under layer of paper. If you want to be a perfectionist, you could overlock the edge or something… (shrugs I dunno).

Fold it up and try it on your book for size 🙂 It should fit.

Then proceed to glue it to your book, I used a craft glue, but I think probably PVA or something similar would be the best. The craft glue I used is good, in that it is strong, but it sets very quickly leaving little time for the manipulation of materials. It’s a good idea when using glue to work in a well ventilated area. The label of your glue should tell you how to use it safely.

Okay! As for the technique, Align the spin of the book with the middle of your paper cover. I tried using a brush to spread the glue, but I found it better to glue as you would screenprint. Woah… what did she just say? Screen printing? This is a book cover tutorial isn’t it? Yes, but hear me out! In screen printing, you put the ink along the top of your screen and pull it down towards you with a squeegee. But here’s what we do with the glue. Squirt out a line across the top of the book. Then, get a strip of cardboard the same length as the top of the cover. Use the cardboard to scrape the glue down across the book cover towards you in one big movement. Now it should cover the surface of you book in an even coating. Quickly press the book to the corresponding surface of it’s cover. Then repeat with the spine and opposite cover. Lastly you need to fold over the flaps and glue these to the inside of the cover. You might use a brush to put glue on these smaller surface areas.

Then your book will look like this.

Now you get to put on your pretty fabric! If your book is quite soggy from the first round of glue (mine wasn’t) you could leave it to dry a bit first if you like. Now with your fabric cut out align the spine of the book with the center of the the fabric. Then repeat the steps with the glue again.

Oh now the book is covered HURRAH!

Yes mine isn’t very well done, but hey I’m happy!

Now it looks like this! It took a few days for it to stop smelling like glue… (shrugs) I left mine on a sunny window sill to dry. Also be weary, that if you got extra glue on the inside cover, you might glue the first and last page of the cover to the book by accident. (Laughs) Just so you know! Well anyways, if you’ve followed this process, enjoy your book!

Textile Squares

Hello people!

The first thing I have decided to share is a wee project I did right at the start of the year.

For my textiles module, we had to make little squares of fabric with something on them. It was a way to play with fabric, and I rather enjoyed it, it was pretty rad. Here are a few of the ones I liked the best.

Under Construction- Welcome to The Goody Tin

Dear Friends from the internet around the world,

Hello, my name is Alice and welcome to The Goody Tin! I believe it will be a little while before I get this blog up and running, so for the moment please bear with me, and my atrocious spelling!

The Goody Tin is named thus, because of my Grandmother, whom I call Nan. When I was a little girl, I would go and stay with my Nan and Grandad for a week in the holidays. In Nan’s kitchen, besides a wonderful array of biscuits, was a cupboard which I knew as the goody cupboard. Because in this cupboard is where my Nan kept the goody tin. The rule was, you could choose one treat out of it a day. These days it is often stocked with Werthers Originals, but it used to have a real range from chocolate, to peppermints to toffees and everything in between.

I intend this blog to be a variety blog, showcasing my own creative projects. I’ve grown quite shy of sharing things I make anymore, so this is a way of breaking out. I hope that once I get a decent number of posts, the blog will become like a goody tin with each post a little treat for readers to enjoy!

Happy web browsing and bye for now!