30th of October

Well today was an intresting day, i thought i had a tutorail but i read the wrong day so im in on thursday for my tutorail. So it was a day at home with a bit of work, i was mainly spending the day looking into cultural studies tommorow but i got a bit of drawing done.

This is the ideas i was working around, i thought to myself i like the traditional style of the arch way panel but i want to make it more intresting so i thought about breaking it apart with some of the vine work. I had a few ideas like splitting it up completley and just having the pieces held together with the vines. I dont really like the idea of this because it just isnt right in my head, it is just too contempary for me. I really want to keep a traditional vibe to my work.

This was an idea i had through the day, a single circle in the center and the connecting bars to the outside actually being the vines, sort of suspending the circle in mid air with the vines. I am a fan of this idea, it really reminds me of a few pictures i took of the vines wrapping around the ironwork. This needs to be took further and drill down on more.

This picture is my faveriote, i spent alot of time on this one. Around an hour or so. Why i like this idea so much is because it combines what i really wanted to bring into this project traditional ironwork and aspects of the garden together. This image you may be seeing alot of it, i want to get it photo copied on thursday and start changing the leaves adding some more leaves, really see different ways on this idea.

As far as you know Jack is going, im not too bad just similar as before just getting used to it as all.

Well i got a full day of sampling in the forging so i will be putting those up tommorow.
 

29th of October

Slow day today guys, i went into uni for a little bit today to try and see Avril over some acsess fund stuff then wandered home got with some work. It was slow to get work going today, im still adjusting to being alone alot more during the days. 

Here are a couple of the designs i drew today, i was trying to get inleast 3 designs of items i could sample on wednesday and friday so here is a few.

 These are the three designs i managed to get out today, its alot to do with leaves. One of the main things i will be sampling and trying to refine my leaf work because im not great at them so i need to get it up to scratch.

This is a sketch of what i really want the bottom bar to look like, needs abit more experimenting to get it really nicely refined down to how i want it but as a start point its what i was thinking. Nice to get something down on paper.

As of tommorow i have a tutorail with Del, be nice to speak to Del face to face dont really feel i have ever sat down with her for an actual chat so be cool to finally have that.

 

28th of October

Here is the post a little bit late mind.

I have been sketching up pictures of ferns after i saw Ozzy presentation on his fern ideas i really wanted to get involved with using them and drawing them.

Ive really enjoyed drawing this form, the jagged edges seems like something i could really replicate in steel with use of a chisel of maybe a rasp. This needs some more sampling and experimenting to get a decet form ready for wednesday to forge up.

This is a solid idea i had while taking a little walk, i really want to get in and start forging up this idea. Behind the idea as adrain would ask is i like it because of the form, its flowing form is a real aspect of nature that i keep seeing. I was told a long time ago nature doesnt work in straight lines so i want to bring that out in a forged form.

This is an idea i drew up this mornign when i woke up, its just a quick sketch on ideas i want to take forward. The main thing im on at the moment is designing the overall look of it. Whether its gonna be all the vines or archway and vines. Some real desicion to be made this week.

 

26th of October

Man these blog posts have become few and far between at the moment, im just tired guys its been alot of forge time in one week so sort of burning on empty. You will be happy to know after this post im going to bed.

Il walk you through my day, was in the forge all this morning. We had been set a tech session to forge weld some tongs together, im a nervous forge welder because i put a fair bit of work into a piece then i think im just gonna balls it up with the forge. So i went in got on with, first one straight in the heat, cooked nice, brought it out like a pro stuck first time over the moon isnt the words where i was but this if nothing didnt help because after such a great start i had to repeat it again. Second one fucked up bad, the rein burned and i lost alot of materail, i welded it which was good pratice but i couldnt use it. So i set about forging up another set of tongs nibs and reins ready to go, that took about an hour. I got them both ready, banged it on and bam it worked first time again so i had two tongs. GET IN THERE! I thought it would take longer, i didnt take my sketchbook because i thought i would be at it all day so i was left to sampling, which i havent developed enough yet so i did something im not proud of.

I turned to Will, our resident big headed American for a master class in forging a leaf. Its a simple little thing to do, i tried when i first forged and it didnt work out so i havent been back. Will on the other hand can forge these things in his sleep, picture below.

They are alot better than the ones i tried before, after the lengthy class i turned to crack on with some and Dave shouted to turn off the fans for lunch, so maybe next time on the leaf front.

In other news we got our cultural studies breif for the first essay, it doesnt seem that hard a 1,500 essay on consumerism and 500 words on a creative piece. Will take me about two weeks to smash that out, i like how the handing in system has changed to completley digital, i know alot of uni's use it. Had to laugh mind at the amount of people that were going crazy about no trusting the digital submission, its the 21st century fucking get with it.

But before i rant over my troubles, im going to bed. I will be posting tommorow some of my drawings ive been working on in my sketchbook.

Il put up a few pictures to go with the blog, just a few of the days stuff.

 

25th of October

Well been an intresting couple of days, i wanted to post yesterday but by the time i got home i collapsed so i will talk about both days.

Yesterday was the big presentation of all my ideas, it went really well for two of my ideas i feel i got Berrington and KGD across really well. As far as folly lane i didnt have lot of work and i tried to feign intrest but it didnt slide, Ambrose made a fair point i need to in the future think up a design with a bit more meat to it to any situation.

Berrington hall idea was decided to be took further forward, im exicted for it and this is the stage i was looking forward too. Drilling down on an idea and getting a real gem of an idea out of it. 

I went into sampling and i was a little lost so i decided to take the bull by the horns so to speak and get my first tutorail one on one of the year with the man himself, Adrian. As you can expect he did his usual asking me why, picking apart my idea in front of me while all the time giving me constant differet alley ways to take it down. I came out of it like always wondering what just happened but putting stuff in line, the stuff i got out of that really stuck was i was putting the blinkers on myself by saying it had to be a panel why not dress up the space? So i got alot of design work and alot of drawing to do it seems.

 

23rd of October

Well i didnt get to it this morning so i have dragged my tried self back to life to get the news to you fine people. I am fairly sure that when it comes to fans its just me and the lecturers that read this but let my ego have this one, but enough of this onto the day.

I had a nice walk in again today to the forge, didnt get a better time than hour and eight minutes but wasnt as much work on the old pins.

Had a great day with Steve, to bring back my point of yesterday he just seems like the sort of man who will help you until you start playing around then he is a real ball buster. Ive dealt with men like that my whole lif and i consider myself a worker so we should get on like a hosue on fire, even though the whole Yorkshire and Lancshire thing im sure we will get past.

We were working on some tongs, im not usually a tool maker just because of the working to spec reminded me too much of working back in the structucal forging with Andrew but today was awesome. The rust was really shaken off and i got into my serious groove, i was moving steel just the way i wanted too so been a hell of a day.

One thing about Steve is he really does make you get it hot, hotter than ive ever had it without burning it but i can see why. The steel well moves like butter, so keeping that up with the rests of my forging. Top tip of the day i guess, Get it Hot as the mighty Legge would say.

As for tomorrow i have got my prenstation, i am a little sketical on what is going to come out of it. I know i havent done as much work as i could, i mean really i might have done more or less than the others but that isnt the point its whether i knew i could do more. Man this post has been one of those fucking plato style posts, throwing out deep thinking all over the place.

Goodnight world

22nd of October

Well intresting day today, i had my first at the forge with Steve. He turned out to a great guy, a pretty laid back man who just wants to get us good at forging so really looking forward to mondays.

Im really tired so i will put up a bigger post tommorow morning explaining stuff.

Goodnight

19th of October

Been an odd day people, i keep finding myself staring at a blank page wondering whether i should be doing more. Im constantly comparing my work load now to last year and it seems a little low but that might just because none of my other projects have really started just the Design Development, just worried i could be falling behind and not even know it. But rant over onto other things.

As far as Design Development goes ive got one board made up for KGD, im hoping to get the Folly lane one finished over the weekend and get Berrington Hall done monday night ready for the presentation on Wednesday. Ive not got loads of work done for either idea because i sort of think that you just need a starting idea, i cant see that we would need to develop our ideas down into solid set final pieces at this stage but maybe im wrong. I was also told today apprently we need to do some writing to back it up, i think i will put something up here over the weekend.

17th of October

Well i did a few ideas for Folly lane, im really dragging these ideas out of my head so they arent coming out well.

 These are a couple ideas, the bottom picture will probably be the one i experiment with. Still not exicted for this one, im going to folly tommorow to get a lecture for gravity and il take a few pictures of where it will go.

17th of October

Been a little lax luster when it comes to these blog posts, alot going on with work and personally so il make more of effort this week to get some in.

This week has been pretty much pushing it on this deadline of next wednesday, ive been working on the KGD and Berrington hall idea a bit more than folly. Im betting it will be sunday night before i think of a folly idea, it just turns me off completly.

As far as Berrington Hall goes im really starting to refine an idea down.

These are the two ideas i have started working on, i think the top one is a little more subtle and the one i think im gonna experiment with more. My idea for the panels is bringing the beutiful garden into the servant alleys, places filled with nothing nice to look at just bare walls.

KGD i have started it up and got some nice ideas flowing with this one.

 I got the pictures of that i really liked, i found myself being drawn to the pipes more than anything. There whole business is pipes so i became a little fixated on them. So i got thinking to myself how is it i can bring a fabricated system of pipes into forging, i got staring at some pieces online and scroll work. I thought to myself how can i bring scroll work and this flat pipe system together, i just started sketching up ideas when i came across this shape.

It combines what i was thinking, i wanted to keep it pretty flat with the bends because there isnt an gradual curves in the pipe work of KGD instead there is sudden 90% angles but that is the nature of there company, it isnt looking nice its all about pratical needs.

I started sketching up ideas to do with this design, the one i settled on was a bench. Its a simple design but i think done well it will be exactly what the cilent is looking for.

 Still a working progress, il keep updating how i go but this idea is the one that really gets me going with it.

might be putting up a post later, need to go pick up some foam board to mount the 3 propsal on, see if im up for alot of work later :]

14th of October

Been a few days while ive been trying to sketch up some ideas get some research down but its really been agansit me, i need to endavour to get more done through out the week.

I thought i would come up here and put up a post with what ive done rather than sit and look at a blank page.

 This was a sketch i did this morning of a picture of a tree i got in berrington hall, there was something about how it was bent and went upwards which really make me want to look into it. I dont know whether i will involve this in my piece because im not looking to do such a literal translation.

These are a few random sketchs i did quickly working on ideas around the panel, i think i am pretty set on the panel in my own head. My idea for it is involving some of the aspects from the plants from the garden, so i needed to get onto drawing up some plants and looking at the aspects i like.

I really dont like these two pictures, because on the second one i got fixed on the branches running through it, the berries and leafs werent really unique or the colour so i was just looking at the branches but even those werent that intresting. The first one, i really like the picture but i just cant think of an idea to do with the little petals, its a maybe it could turn back up.

This is something i really want to get onto where i am up at the forge, make a few leafs and putting them onto a vine looking piece of steel to attach to a wall. Just how it is growing i think is really sexy and the colour, at this distance even on the screen im thinking that and veins is so close. Vines and Veins, something to thinking about.

I spent quite alot of time on these four, staring at the pictures and picking out the aspect of each photo which i love most. I tried to draw up the aspect i really liked mostly, my personal faveritoe of the four is the piece at the bottom here. I really want to get in the forge when i was drawing it up, start trying to make those leaves, i would love to get those into my pictures.

This is my faveriote of the pictures, there was something about this grate and how it was getting covered in vines and sort of trapped. I got quite alot of pictures of this while i was there and its an aspect of the vines i want to get into my piece.

Well that has been all the work for today, ive got a tutorail tommorow to go through my stuff which i really need at this point to talk over this one and the the other two which are alot less developed. My only little niggle so far, i feel like this is being rushed in my head but it could be from having more time on each propsal in the past.
 

11th of October

Finally got the shots i need off will, i dont have a great camera for super up closes and will has a billion different lenses so i asked him to get me some real up closes of the different flowers.

I must admit some of the pictures are really good.

 

Big post today, gonna get these pictures printed out tommorow and put some sketches up on the site.