Disco disco disco

I get way too excited planning party's especially my sisters!! She's planning a disco party and was just going to write out some invites so I decided to make some cool ones for her and think I succeeded! They're like lanyards to a VIP concert except it's a VIP pass to her party! Just something a bit fun and exciting to give to her friends! 

Summer Fun

I love volunteering and it's a big part of why I'm so happy! This summer I did a couple of different things, I helped at the Williamson Art Gallery running art workshops for young people aged 8-15 from the local community. It was really fun, we made coil pots and decorated them, also little animals out of clay and did some drawings with different materials including clay, charcoal and salt. It was really fun teaching the children how to work with clay and manipulate it in different ways. There confidence grew a lot over the four days and they all ended up with beautiful pots and drawings! Here's a couple of the animals I made.. 

I also helped out at the Pop up art shop ran by Wirral Methodist Housing. It was a really fun pop up shop allowing people in Birkenhead of all ages come into the shop and take part in different activities like making hats, boats and painting. It was a very successful summer and I mastered making the paper hat! 

At the end of the week there was a parade where all the children could bring a long what they made and walk through Birkenhead led by a piper and me dressed in a cardboard boat! 

Too Sweet

For my friends 21st I wanted to create something which was special and also a little fun a long with the more serious presents I'd bought her. So this is what I came up with.. 

It was really easy to make and really effective to look at! I started with a styrofoam ball as the middle, then made a whole in the bottom which would fit in some garden cane. I stuck on all the love hearts using a hot glue gun and then decorated the garden cane in ribbon. Filling a candle holder with sand allowed the tree to stay up right. I'ts really pretty and a very yummy tree! 

Getting a little creative..

I was given a 'new' desk, which was actually really old and in a terrible colour, so I decided to jazz it up a little. And then I got carried away so I jazzed it up A LOT but it was a wonderful few days!! I used my washi tape collection to add some funky designs to the side and middle, and then had the whacky idea of turning into a chalk board. It would just be really easy for when I'm sewing on my machine and need to write down some measurements if I had a chalk board to write it on quickly, so that's what I created! using chalk board paint (an ingenious invention!) I made a decent size of my desk into a chalk board.

 

I have a stack of magazine taller than my little sister in my bedroom which I have been collecting over the last five or six years, I love rooting through them when I need a bit of inspiration so I thought the perfect thing to do would be to use bits from the magazines to create an inspirational desk. So that when I'm working and getting stuck, I just look down and inspiration will flood through me. So I got a lot of different quotes from the magazines and some colorful pictures a long with random text. I like ripping up text and sticking them down because you get different sentences which weren't originally written so it can be quite fun to find different things. 

I'm in love with my desk, maybe it wasn't the best idea because since it's been done I just can't stop looking at it!! So so far there hasn't been much work being done on it, but hopefully there will be soon! 

Birthday Celebrations

I always struggle coming up with new ideas for Birthday presents. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself because I can never just buy a simple thing to give, I always need to make something special for that person. I think especially for close friends/family it's nice to make something so that you can show how much you appreciate them being in your life and most importantly make them smile! SO here's my creation this time.. 

I bought a photoframe from asda and then decorated it in washi tape, which is such a simple way to jazz soemthing up and so easily done! But you could use anything, old wrapping paper or even paint it! Then I tired some string around the back to give a washing line effect. One of my favoutire things is bunting so that's what I chose to do here. I made a template on word of some flags, then printed them off and wrote different messages on them which can be pegged onto the string. 

Then I made different messages for each month of the year, which my friend could open and peg on. I made some of the messages personal to our friendship, some were motivational which I hope that on bad days she can look at and it will help make the bad days a little brighter, and others were just a little bit of fun! 

Overall I'm really happy with this present, as it's personal and a little different. A lot of time and effort went into it but it was worth it to see the smile on her face when she opened it! Hopefully it will keep making her smile all year! 

Curtain Time..

We recently made the cloakroom into a downstairs toilet so I got the wonderful job of making a curtain! It's a pretty simple curtain, just to block out the main part of the window. I started by measuring double the length of the window and cut it out of the fabric.Then I hemmed all the edges so it was a lot neater. Choosing the curtain pole I measured how wide a loop would be needed for the pole to fit through and then sewed that. SO overall it took about half an hour to make and is really effective, so a job well done I think!

M.E Awareness week

It was M.E awareness week from the 11th-17th May 2015. As Welfare officer on the Student Union I thought this was a really important thing to raise awareness of because not many people know about the condition but it effects so many people.

 

So firstly we did made a video, I wanted to re-create some of the symptoms of M.E so I filled a jacket with sand by cutting the pocket lining and threading bin bangs into the lining then pouring sand into them. When the jacket was put on you feel so weighed down and exhausted that's what it's like to have M.E. We took the jacket round asking students to try it on and explain how they felt, we then turned this into a video which has had over 800 views on YouTube. The thing which is powerful with the jacket is that the students who tried it on can take the jacket off. But living with M.E is like wearing a jacket filled with sand 24hours a day with no break or rest.

 

A long with the video I also made giant M.E letters which I covered with peoples aspirations before I got ill and then their aspirations when they were at their worst. These show just how debilitating the illness can be. The letters are in the rotunda and a good visual way of raising awareness.

 

In the week I organised a cake sale for the Association of Young People with M.E where we raised over £60. Overall it was a really successful week which raised a lot of awareness.

Here's the link to the video..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqFe53xuTho&sns=fb

Revamp

My sisters always been jealous of my bedroom so when she went away on a school trip I spruced her bedroom up for her. I wasn't allowed to actually re decorate but I gave it a face lift by adding decorations.

 

I made a heart hanging garland simply by cutting out hearts from wrapping paper and gluing them onto string. It looks really pretty and you could use any sort of paper you wanted or different shapes.

 

Using the same wrapping paper that I used for the hearts I covered the middle of the wardrobe with it. The middle of the wardrobe was see through but looked a bit dated and old so by adding the wallpaper it gave it a new look and made it more modern.

 

 

Then she's always wanted a dressing table so instead of buying one which are really expensive I bought a free standing shelf and attached that to the wall, then put a mirror above it to create a mini dressing table!

 

Greetings to you

I decided to make greeting cards for people because it's so much more personal than giving a shop bought card to someone. For the birthday card I used a hot glue gun to attach the buttons onto the cards and then used a fine liner and stamps to add the detail/text. I really like how they've turned out and definitely more special than just a normal card.

 

15 Minutes of Fame

I took my piece I made in Fine Art along to this exhibition, at the exhibition I had a number of people interested in my piece and it was a really great experience to see other peoples work. After the exhibition I got filmed at college for an artist profile which will be going in short video about the exhibition.
 

 

PRESS RELEASE – DECEMBER 2014

FAMOUS FOR 15 MINUTES AT ICONIC GALLERY SITE

 

 

Pop art genius Andy Warhol famously prophesised that one day everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. Now a gallery based on the site of another iconic artistic dynasty is offering the chance to take Warhol up on his word.

 

Wirral's Rathbone Studio Gallery stands on the site of the Della Robbia design centre that was founded by their namesake Harold Rathbone exactly 120 years ago this month.

 

To commemorate the anniversary of a true Merseyside maverick, the Rathbone is staging a unique exhibition that will last only fifteen minutes.

 

At 15.00 hours on Monday 15th December, painters, sculptors and potters can turn up and be celebrated for quarter of an hour in a film that will be made of the event. Later, the film will be shown at galleries across the UK showcasing the participants’ work. The public are invited to attend the brief exhibition, and it won’t take much time from their Christmas shopping schedule… only 15 minutes.

 

Gallery owner Janet Holmes says, “Warhol always knew that the public's attention span was brief but art was forever. This is our little homage to him and a chance for artists to make their reputations in a very short space of time.”

 

 

Monday 15th December 2014 – 15:00 to 15:15

 

The Rathbone Studio

28 Argyle Street

Birkenhead

Merseyside

CH41 6AE

Volunteering

I've been volunteering for the last two years, I started volunteering when my health was picking up slightly and I had enough energy to help out once or twice a week. I go to Prenton Prep School and help with art classes. I help run the classes and sometimes help plan what to do in them. It's really helped build my confidence as I have to interact with many people so it's also helped build my communication skills.

As well as volunteering at Prenton Prep I also volunteer at the Williamson Art Gallery. I do the same sort of thing and help run drop in art classes which any child can go to. At this class we let the children decide what they want to make, so in this particular class the little girl I was helping wanted to make a unicorn pony out of a pringles tin. This was a challenge but I loved it because we could be so creative and it's taking an idea which sometimes you wouldn't think would work or doesn't seem like a good idea but using a child's imagination you can create it. I enjoy experimenting and I think helping here taught me to be free with my work, if I have an idea which is a bit out there and seems a too much just to try it and see where it can take me.

 

I have recently received my Vinspired 100 award for having over 100 hours of volunteering and also received the student volunteer of the term award.

Christmas Maddness

I love Christmas! It's my absolute favourite time of the year and it's made so much more festive by making my own decorations. I made all the bunting and cushion covers for my room, making cushion covers is so easy and it means you can switch up your room depending on what mood your in and if you have enough fabric to make the covers with!

 

I also turned the doors in my house to snowmen! It's so simple, I just cut out different shapes from card and stuck them on my door with blue tack, but it's so effective.

Chocolate Words

 All my Uncle asked for for Christmas was some sweets, so I decided to make something special for him but out of what he wanted.. sweets!! I made a message up using the sweet/chocolate names..

'We're sure your going to be a MILLION-aire soon,

then you can buy us an AERO-plane or even a rocket to take us round the GALAXY, MARS or the MILKYWAY.

we'd TWIRL with joy if you took us on a TURKISH holiday.

But for now we'd be happy to go on a DOUBLE DECKER

and have a PICNIC in the park!

Happy Christmas! love your SMARTIE-pants Niece and Nephew.'

Love Letters

I was asked to design and decorate a postbox for a couples wedding in May so that people could post cards/gifts. It was a really fun project to do but I also felt quite a lot of pressure because it's such a specail day for them that I wanted it to be really perfect. 

They both love travelling and have been to a lot of places together, they also love butterflies so I decided to combine them both together. There are 15 big butterflies on the postbox because it's 2015, each made from a different map of somewhere they have been together. The butterflies were sewn on the machine together as well as 30 smaller butterflies. The massage in the middle was made to look like a stamp, so it all flowed together with the theme. 

Overall I'm so pleased with the result, I think it's really beautiful and so personal to them! When I gave it to them they were speechless and almost cried.. so job well done I think! 

Flamboyant Fascinator

My Philip Treacy fascinator is all finished and I'm slightly in love with it! There's things which I could have done to improve the quality overall and I'm sure I will like my next fascinator even more but for now this is my best creation! I love the colours, I wanted it to all link together which I think it does. The picture of my first hat which I made on the postcard links in with the colour of the sinamay and the feathers. It's not really a wearable piece as the postcard can move back and forward so that you can see both sides of it, it's more of an example of my skills. 

Link to my blog on fascinators..
http://fascinatingfascinators.blogspot.co.uk/