Impressions

Formal Assessment

I sent all my work away for formal assessment in May and now received my feedback. The mark is lower than I expected (or hoped) but after being involved in assessment of art in education myself recently, I can understand my mark better. The thing is that it is very difficult to know which work should be selected to demonstrate your abilities and even more your learning experience. Distance learning offers so much but also makes some aspects more difficult. For example the formality of my written work and presentation was not a focus during the course for me. However I regretted that very much later on. I'm very happy to have completed my course and achieved my mark. Sadly I won't be continuing with OCA for now due to finances and personal circumstances. I will try maybe transfer my credits to another educational institution but not right now. 

It returned !!!!

After unbelievable four months missing in the post nirvana, my parasol literally turned up on the door step of my tutor. I couldn't believe it!

However, now it returned back to me, looking a bit dishevelled but nothing major. I now can put all my work together for the final assessment in July. I just signed up for the assessment and everything has to be at OCA by the end of May. Exciting!

Last assessment

Just got the red bag back from my tutor. She wrote a lovely assessment and suggested a few things before I hand in all my course work to the final course assessment. I really hope my parasol turns up again soon (missing since three weeks) so that I can hand it in too. My tutor had to work with the picture on here only. Not great really! However I might consider making a new one. Different colours maybe and a different design? 

I'm not sure what to do next. I would love to do more course work but I also would really like to go further with the textile artwork I'm doing already. I need to think really hard for a while! However I will continue posting some of my work here, especially the experimental and exciting things!

Just straight to follow then my very first felt picture I ever made. I entered it in this Christmas Exhibition at an art gallery here in Aberdeen. They called for A4 sized 2D artwork with the theme 'grotto'.

'Nymphaeum'

End of course project VI- Finished!

The very last step was to add the swirly top to give it a bit of fairy tale. I hand felted the light blue Austral Merino wool with the white Netherlands wool and then shaped the swirl. I dried the swirl stitched in place. Once the wool was dry I roved the stitches and sewed the swirl unto the umbrella and the frame. Et voila! 

End of course Project V

The next step was to attach the canvas to the frame and decide how to treat the outer rim. When I took the original parasol apart I was very carefully inspecting their method and wanted to re-create this again. Firstly it mad a small hole in the middle of the canvas which was marked from the very first step. This hole was put over the small spiky pole which can be seen in the picture. I then cut very fine strips of double sided sticky tape and put a 2'' strip on each umbrella branch near the wooly part. After removing the safety layer I stretched canvas a stuck the fabric on each branch singly. I repeated this procedure further down near the rim underneath the canvas. Another row of sticky tapes went around the very end so that there was around 1/2'' on the underside of each branch too. I then took some really strong yarn and strung it around the parasol rim. A loop around each branch end and then quite tight to the next, all held together by the sticky tape. I then cut back the fabric to about 1 1/2'' and folded it over several times. This fold stuck to each branch and was then hand stitched all around to create an even and neat finish. Remember with umbrellas that you can see the underside too. To work best I popped the parasol in a big vase, put it on a table and worked standing up.

End of course project IV

After drying I ironed the canvas. The next step was the block printing. Again to have this porcelain effect I decided to not use many different colours, not even shades. However I deliberately chose to not be too careful with the colour distribution to have a bit of fading. The motifs I have chosen are meant to pick up the inner 'flower' as well as the idea of many dancing umbrellas. In order to make the repetitive motif more organic I added the small swirly branch which should be found as well in the lace border. Altogether I was quite satisfied with the canvas so far. After 24 hours of drying I had to iron the canvas again to stabilise the fabric paint.

The planning of the next step of getting it on the frame was a bit uncertain because even though I planned to use double sided sticky tape on each umbrella branch, it was difficult to determine if the wool would stick, if the tape would show, especially at the lace part and if the tape was strong enough to hold the fabric together.