Rubber Stamp Carving

Term is rapidly coming to an end and with it, first year. I'm frantically trying to compile all my work and fill in any gaps from the modules. Last night I made a set of stamps by carving into rubbers. Another thing ticked off the list. I'm looking forward to summer now, I have a lot of mundane household plans, and some more exciting ones too.

Sneak Peek of my FMP

It's taken hours of hard work but the end is very nearly in sight. I've made 4 complete objects for my FMP so far and I'm very nearly done. Tensions are running high in our flat at the moment - Harriet has her final hand in for the first year of her Art & Design FdA today and there's frantic printing, cutting and sticking happening in our living room. Along with the occasional "I am going to be so much more organised / work so much harder next year" emitting from both of us.

Work-In-Progress

I want to share a few behind-the-scenes peeks of things I've been working on for my FMP. I've been looking at fast food and branding, combined with time consuming hand rendered techniques. Rug hooking, weaving, cross stitch and knitting.

Final Major Project Collages

After a little final major panicking, I went out and bought a handful of fashion magazines and, remembering how much I enjoyed the collage project, I got my scalpel out and reconstructed outfits for the models in Vogue magazine, using fashion branding.

I really like how eye-catching these images are - I want to experiment with replacing the labels with advertising from craft magazines.

21st Century Living

Some postcards I made to kickstart some ideas for my Final Major Project. It's not been an easy ride so far. I'm looking at the throwaway culture of today's society and I've finally, finally, hit some inspiration.

Pretty Inspirational: Spring Knitting and Stitching Show

A couple of weekends back, Kim and I went to the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia. I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally back in October and I was excited for the Spring show - purely so I could lust over pretty yarns and get some inspiration for future projects.

Sari yarn! The colours are gorgeous, they'd look amazing crocheted into a rug. Or a bag...

They had an exhibition of patchwork quilts, which made me feel a little inadequate about my own quilt.

These two. Favourites of mine.

There were some beautiful displays of pure wool yarn, I loved this snood / cowl, it has an element of a Jacobean Ruff about it!

I think because it was missing the knitted model village and the Tales of the Unfinished exhibition, it wasn't quite as exciting as the autumn show, but I still bought some pretty yarn, which is a day well spent in my opinion.

Inspiration Fix: Wool House

Being a knitter, I am naturally a big fan of wool. Proper wool-wool. Not cheapy acrylic yarn. But I hadn't really heard about The Campaign For Wool until I heard about the Wool House Event at Somerset House. Wool House was the biggest ever celebration of wool and I'm so glad I got to visit.

This rug was beautiful. Weaving is amazing.

Weaving is a relatively new discovery of mine, that I am absolutely fascinated by, so looking at the variety of looms at work in the exhibition was fascinating. A total highlight for me.

These swatches by Anna Wilkinson - author of Learn to Knit, Love to Knit - and a newfound inspiration to me, are so beautiful. They were possibly my favourite exhibit on show. I love colour work.

It may sound silly, but I'm so grateful they didn't have anything for sale, or I'd have spent an absolute fortune! For more information about Wool House, The Campaign For Wool and some gorgeous photographs check out their site here.