Colchester and Ipswich museum store

I've had a lot of trouble uploading my pictures of the things I viewed in the collection but I shall reflect on my visit on my blog and put the pictures in my sketchbook... make sense?

A little while ago I visited Colchester castle and Hollytrees museum, where I viewed their collection of shoes and leather and related artefacts. When I was there I was given the cotact details of a woman who could show me round the private store to look at an extensive array of costume, including shoes!

Having visited this contact at the store, she let me photograph anything I wanted, which included dancing shoes, which she said were a lot different ot simple evening shoes, as they posessed a strap and button/buckle to allow for extra tight fit when swinging to riotous jazz music!

The shoes were all exquisitely made except for one pair which were slightly less great quality (still far better than anything we but for around the same price today in debenhams or topshop etc!). Some were made in Colchester and pretty much all of them were completely made in britain, with the exception of silks and beading probably done in the far east.

I also looked at some fantastic beaded dresses which just oozed an energetic previous life, completely tailored for dancing and for exaggerating movement. These dresses were particularly well hidden and protected, because of their value, and also because they were built for the purpose of dancing, and intended to be worn maybe 5 times in their life. This resulted in them being hung up for most of their lives, meaning that the delicate silk chiffon would tear under the weight of the heavy glass beads. Similarly, one pair of shoes, a silver painted pair of cloth shoes, had been danced into oblivion, with absolutely no care for their well being. Actually looking at them made me sad to think that their future wasn't even considered, that they would be in museums or in galleries as a nostalgic item, emulating a whole era, and defining an entire age. One pair of shoes had even been badly recovered because they had worn out so much!

Below a still from the Great Gatsby movie...

monday the 16th may!

I'm getting so excited now as I've spent all day stripping copper wire out of electrical cables (donated to me... not illegally!) and spot welding copper, and playing generally with the materials and shapes that I will use!

 Stripping wire out of a cable with a knife... resulting in a lot of near amputations of digits... a very laborious and boring task.

3 joints are spot welded, even though afterwards I was told it wasn't possible!?! and one is copper taped.

My soles came out of the kiln, and one has gone back in. As I had to individually make the kiln props out of steel, the degree of the curve on one of the props is less dramatic than the other, so I've just put the less curvy bit of glass onto the curvier bit of steel to be fired again... if this makes sense? I'm really pleased with the shape and size so I hope the heels come out ok, the moulds go in this afternoon so I'll put the glass in on wednesdaym, so friday I'll either be elated or completely depressed... I can't wait!

The pressure is on at the moment as I really can't afford to make ANY mistakes, I need everything to go to plan, or else I'll have to use the rather disgusting alternative of plastic heels, which would look OK if they weren't next to their classy cousin glass, which is far more attractive. I think it should all go well but you never know! I do however need to get some copper sheet for the toe caps because the college haven't got neough for me to use, I may need to just ask really nicely.

Aside from this, the 3DD group had a visitor today, an ex-student named Sam Lucking, a product designer, who gave us a little presentation on his career and then helped us with our workshop stuff, having some really helpful suggestions for us. His career seems amazing, and not only did he get a distinction on the foundation course (what I'm doing), he's worked on so many interesting projects and his work is very recognisable. The aspect of his work that I found most intriguing was his origami, life size crustaceans!

Friday!

I spent much of the day producing some sketchbook work of which I am very proud and I did a little work in the workshops.

I've found a new method for slumping the glass, which is using steel instead and this has come out of the kiln now! I'm very excited because the method has worked, I just need to improve the shape of the steel sheet so that there is more of an angle rather than a curve, as shown below...

I only put one in the kiln so I didn't waste too much glass, and I'm glad of this as I have now got time and materials to improve with, so I've made some more steel moulds to go in the kiln this afternoon!

Thursday!

I have had a positive tutorial, my research and reflection is far ahead of my sketchbook work but this can be corrected as I now have some time before assessment in which to draw and paint and explore my final design ideas. Following last Friday's tutuorial, I discussed the issue of feminism with a different have illustrated this a little in my sketchbook, which has made me realise that wearing high heels is a choice that a woman makes, however, the concepts behind high end fashion are realised my men, who dictate what women wear.

Wednesdays developments...

I've been experimenting with the forming of copper in order to make an upper for my shoes...

The process of annealing is necessary first to soften the metal,

 Then use a nylon hammer to get it into the right sort of shape, on an anvil,

 Then a use a metal hammer to refine the shape... also, the shine on the hammer tip comes off onto the copper... this process is called planishing,

I used a different anvil as well to get a better shape,

This was what I acheived. I love the shape that I managed to get with just a couple of anvils, and also the shiny effect looks really great. However the whole shoe would be hard to make using this process so I have decided to use this for just the tip of the shoe, looking something like this chanel shoe

with thich copper wire to form the rest of the structure. The shape I hope to acheive will look like the spire of a building, winding once around the wearers ankle, with a few random pannels of mirror and copper lace...

Not a great image but I've alredy blogged about this so see previous!

I've also found a possible fixing method

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I may use this copper tape to edge my soles and solder the wire onto this, I do need to practice soldering though as I'm quite new to it!

I have also found a better way of slumping my soles into the right shape and that is using steel... like so,

I've used kiln paper for the top as steel will cool at a quicker rate than glass, so the paper will stop it breaking... I hope...
This will give a much smoother finish as my ceramics skills are horrendous! I will find out a lot sooner if the steel method is effective, as opposed to stoneware which has to be fired before the glass even touches it, which will give me a lot more time to put things right if anything goes wrong. I am very optimistic!

Monday in the workshop...

I spent the whole of Monday building moulds for my glass soles and heels out of ceramics...

This was my attempt at cutting sole shapes out of glass... I did get some good ones... promise!

These are the heels I made out of air drying clay first to make the mould around. They look awful I know but I'm rubbish with ceramics!!!

 This is the last that I bought from the museum of London in order to get an idea of proportions and sizes of the heels and toes etc. Its proved very useful so far!

 The following are slabs which I have propped up to form the correct shape with the correct contours. This has to wait to dry, which will probably take until Friday, then it will have to be fired in the kiln first, then on Monday it can go in the kiln again to slump the glass into the right shape.

These are the moulds of the heels, where I will use the same process as above.

I added a security slab, another one just in case the others crack!

I really hope that this works as otherwise I'll have to use perspex or acrylic! yuk!

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.