COLLECT- Saatchi Gallery, Sunday 8th May

My first ever experience at Collect was an amazing one. The exhibition literally 'collects' galleries, artists and designers who are active in the craft world... so that's objects like jewellery, ceramics, glass wear, vessels, silver wear and so on.

I went with exhibiting jeweller, David Poston. Exhibiting with the Scottish gallery, he first took me there to show me his own work, which was amazing! I'll have to send him an email to ask if I'm allowed to display any of the images of me trying his jewellery on. I'll do my best to describe it anyway...

David Poston's jewellery is an amazing combination of fantastic skill with metal and textile. He has made several pieces which are so weightless, and have a fantastic shape to them, rather similar to DNA in the way that they have a sort of double helix, combined with threads woven in and out of metal bars to form a tapestry like effect, each edge making an entirely different shape to another. His work is inspiring as I think that it bridges the gap between work that I love as a sculptural piece, and jewellery that I would wear.

This gap is rarely filled, even by me and I will wear whatever I enjoy looking at, and not a lot of the things at collect did as David's work did. I found that work exhibited by any gallery from the Netherlands was absolutely mental and fantastically fun, but not at all wearable, for example the work of Noon Passama, is completely brilliant... but I wouldn't wear it to town.

On the contrary, I came across Helen Britton, exhibiting with gallery Louise Smit, who displayed work like this. Is it not brilliant, fun and wearable, mixed up with a dash of dangerous, which is what I strive to create!

As well as discovery my own boundaries, I learnt quite a lot about the world of design, and how it is becoming increasingly computer assisted, such as this work by Michael Eden.

I think that learning this has made me quite sad, knowing now that when I go to university I will be learning to use computer programmes that design and make my work almost entirely for me. For me this would take the blood, sweat and tears out of my career, and to me this is what I fear.

Nasty colour too...

However, its not all bad news! There are still places like Bishopsland Educational Trust that provide students with practical hands on experience, focusing just on the make and do! 

This post has been simply reflective as most of my visit will be documented via 1 billion business cards that I picked up on my travels! And I'll ask if I can upload some images of at least me in David's jewellery!

Last Friday's interesting tutorial...

Apologies for the late posts but as you will see I have been very busy!

First of these is my delayed post about a research and reflection tutorial, so basically a tutor waded through my blog!

I believe I have done a LOT of work around the 'admin' side of my course but my tutor seemed to think otherwise. His opinion was not of the volume but of the content, as he thinks that I am looking too much at the aesthetic side of the 1920s. This is fair enough for someone who is not very focused on producing an outcome which is purely for aesthetic reasons, as he is very product design - led, his view was that I should look at the poverty concerned with the 1920s and the ethics of women wearing high heels.

I reached a point in our debate about the ethics where I decided I could not be bothered to carry on explaining that I didn't want to look at poverty as it would serve absolutely no benefit to me, as I am trying to create a piece which is nostalgic of an uplifting aspect of the past, and that I, as a young woman, feel no pressure from men, in a sexist way, to wear high heels. 

The shoes I want to create would make me feel very feminine, as well as, hopefully, paying tribute to a beautiful way of life, which is very inspiring to me.

Web Research

Some website research I've been meaning to do! I've visited all of these sites and pasted interesting stuff...

 from http://nancyfashionfancy.blogspot.com/ really cute

http://awomanandhershoes.com/... a list of designers, click and look!
also looked at

www.poshposh.com

http://www.madaboutshoes.org

http://www.everythingart.com/

http://www.thestylishnomad.com I think its all photography, but really beautiful stuff!

http://www.rubbishcorp.com/ cool funny stuff

WOW!

www.highheelshoemuseum.com... loads of shoes!

http://www.batashoemuseum.com/ exhibition soon on about the 20s, heels, hemlines and high spirits... shame its in Toronto!

 http://shoeblogs.com/

http://shoewawa.com/

Virginia Barros shoes

http://secretlifeofshoes.blogspot.com/

http://theshoedish.com/

http://highheelsblog.com/

http://shoedaydreams.blogspot.com/

'Sunny Side Up' and 'The Mysterious Lady'

I am unable to watch the whole of either film as they are both unavailable on DVD, so I have watched some scenes on you tube instead. I have pasted the synopsis from imdb.

SUNNY SIDE UP

"Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long Island mansion but is markedly less happy, since his fiancée Jane won't discourage her other admirers. Fleeing in his car, Jack ends up in an urban block party where he meets you-know-who."
I took some pictures as I was watching but they're not as good as the ones on google images...

THE MYSTERIOUS LADY

"An attractive Russian spy seduces an Austrian officer in order to get some important plans, but when she actually falls in love with him, both of them are placed in a dangerous situation."

All of the actors and actresses are so attractive, which really emphasises the beauty of everything else. The suits, dresses, rooms, furniture and architecture are so detailed and luxurious, which makes it hard to believe that anyone lived like that, with so many riches it becomes a bit of a fairytale.

A summary of my project so far, and what I will be doing soon...

I have been working a lot recently on developing ideas for a 1920's themed, Great Gatsby based, pair of shoes. I have been looking at the context of my shoes, and things that I could include in my design which create a sense of nostalgia, as well as being very contemporary.

I have been to several museums where I have looked at the traditional construction of shoes, and seen examples of historical footwear, see some of my other posts, and I have reasearched contemporary shoe designers. Having said this I have realised I haven't looked at any 1920s shoe designers... Its on my to do list now...

I have been looking at the context of the era, through films, novels and fashion (I'm including architecture in this). Movies were an entirely new thing in the twenties so the ones I have watched are silent, but I would like to see 'Sunny Side Up' which was the first musical film. I have now read three novellas by F Scott Fitzgerald, as well as the Great Gatsby, which has given me a slightly different perspective, as they didn't focus so much on the glamour of the era.

Within the films and Books, the aspect which most intrigues me is the partying. The language used in the books is so rich that yiou almost feel you are there, and the films really bring it to life. In that era alcohol was prohibited, which makes the behaviour of the youths, the newly rich generation, so easily identified as a 1920s way of being. Everyone was so happy with their new money and women with their freedom (with their smoking and driving), that they didn't care what happened. This was of course a minority, but a fascinating minority they were.  

The 20s gave birth to jazz and the era of new music and fashion followed. I will be including elements of the styles that were created, in my design.

Fashion included a lot of floral designs which I have tried to explore a little in my sketchbook, and I have been looking at ties between architecture and fashion, as they were particularly prominently linked in the 20s, with buildings like the Chrysler building being erected. 

I will be visiting 'Collect' (a collection of galleries which exhbit every year a selection of crafts), at the Saatchi Gallery on the 8th of May, for my own amusement, where I will be accompanied by David Poston, an exhibiting jeweller! As well as this, I will be visiting Colchester and Ipswich's museum's curator of Fashion artefacts, at their contaner on an industrial estate in Colchester, wher I should find some amazing clothing and footwear which I can either photograph or draw!

In conclusion, I am very excited, motivated and inspired! I cant wait to continue to work with materials in order to finalise my design, and then exhibit at College in the summer!  

Museum of London visit 25.04.11

Having heard that the museum of London had a large fashion section, I took a trip up to see it. However, the aspect of the museum which I found most interesting was the shoes. They have a wide range of shoes and shoe making tools from pretty much every era in history! As it is the museum of LONDON, everything has been found in the city when making way for foundations of buildings.

Roman Leather soles and tools...

  

this is a replica

These following are all medieval...

 And now straight to the1920's, a couple of Flapper dresses and a pair of dancing shoes...

I find it amazing how the leather has lasted so long, if it is genuine, like they say it is, and also how the construction of shoes has remained the same over thousands of years. I have been advised by a designer that I have been talking to, to look around me, at the things  I see every day, and to question how they have been made. The shoe is something which I have applied this question too, more so in my sketchbook than on my blog, and I have come to the conclusion that its construction has barely changed. From the medieval shoes I have looked at, to the modern day Guiseppe Zannotti, Emma Hope and Diego Doleini designs, the only aspect that has altered, has been the construction of a heel, which even dates back to the last millennium, originally worn in fields and streets where the ground was very wet. Like the shoes below from Venice.

The shoes we wear now however, are much nicer, and probably much more comfortable...