Blood, Sweat and Tears

"Hold your noise!" cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among
the graves at the side of the church porch. "Keep still, you little devil, or
I'll cut your throat!"

A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on
his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied
round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and
lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars;
who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in
his head as he seized me by the chin.

"O! Don't cut my throat, sir," I pleaded
in terror. "Pray don't do it, sir."

Part of the 2nd year project named "blood, sweat and tears" I sourced, distressed and broke down a costume for the character Abel Magwitch, a character from the Dickens story "Great Expectations.

Set Construction work

Based on the Images by William Hogarth, a group of 6 of us spent 5 weeks designing and constructing this full size shop front. The coffin makers shop front was based on Hogarth's prints Gin Lane and Beer Street.

Images from the final photoshoot of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" project

Midsummer work

Close up deatil work on the fairy dress for Midsummer Nights Dream, includin a cluster of suffolk puffs, sculpted parchment paper (with the MND script on it) as well as a copy of the play transferd onto silk then gathered in pleats.

foundation art and design work

this is the initial photo of my final project for my foundation course, my theme was midsummer nights dream and my aim was to create costumes and props.

more foundation work

One foundation project was entitled "Skin and Bone." I decided to focus on the "bone" aspect of the theme, looking at the texture and colour of bones and making it into something aesthetically pleasing. I chose to make jewellery in order to approach the idea of "bone" outside the human flesh.

I used Plaster of paris for the base of my jewellery as it resembled bone particularly well. I molded a thick paste of the paster around curved shapes such as bottles. Once the plaster had dried i pulled it off the mold and carefully broke it into pieces. I then used amounts of thin copper wire (salvaged from old cables!) to "sew" the plaster together. In order to do this i had to initially use a needle to scratch away the plaster to make small holes for the copper.

The overall outcomes were effective, the stark white plaster was a good contrast to the bright, delicate copper, the abstract shapes of the plaster worked well with regimented work of the copper wire.

The Nomad

For this project the aim was to create a nomadic shelter, something that could be carried around. i began to look into circus tents and similar stuctures and came up with the idea of using a belt with fabrics sewn to it. The belt could be removed and tied around a tree as a secure central point. Then undo the fabrics attahed to the belt to create an open air decorative shelter.