I got an email back toady from Selfridges and John Lewis...both aren’t looking for any temp work, they each said they’ll contact me if they have any further in the future, which is absolutely rubbish because I was looking forward to getting involved with that field of work! I think I need to start smaller, perhaps some shops in Manchester.

A few days ago I emailed a few companies regarding works experience or even just any type of help they might need in the coming year, I’m really interested in Visual Merchandising and decided to ask around at department stores like Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and John Lewis. I emailed all three stores and now I’m just waiting to hear back, I reallyy hope they have some vacancies, because I think this could be a step in the right direction with what I want to do. I’ve always loved the window displays at Christmas time especially, I like the mechanical moving toys and the bizarre scenario set...I think this is something which connects quite nicely with my style of work. This year so far I feel very panicky about the future, and that’s not something I generally worry about, but It’s sort of dawned on me that I should have some idea of what path I’d like to take, but I have NO idea! So I think doing some work experience with Visual Merchandising should give me a feel as to what the job would entail, and even just to give me a few contacts for any future plans.

I went to a life drawing class recently in the Nexus Art cafe in the Northern Quarter, oh I just love drawing so freely, the last time I did a class like that was on my foundation year and back then it was my favourite too. I found it exciting to be doing something which is different to what I’ve been practicing for the past year or so, I think it’s been quite important for me to get a bit of inspiration back too.

my dolls house!

We had tutorials again this past week, I missed my original one so I was in a group with a few others and we discussed our current work and upcoming ideas with Jon. My main idea at the moment is still creating a dollhouse; I’ve made a few characters recently which I imagine would fit with the theme of my house, I’ve sewn together a rabbits head made out of textured material and wiring for the ears, and placed it onto the body of a toy animal. I like the contradiction of two bodies coming together to create a new type of species, the idea isn’t for the characters to be scary and twisted, I’m aiming for a surreal element but relating closely to children’s fairytales. The house itself I want to create inside a piece of furniture, because a chest of drawers or an old cabinet has a real authentic feel to it, and I want each room to be inside a hidden drawer of some kind. The feedback I got from my group was all pretty positive, the main issue is that I need to produce more work, Jon has told me this before and I know he’s right, I’ve got so many ideas going on but not enough work to show for it. Also Jon spoke to us about networking too, volunteering more and perhaps looking for some sort of works experience.

I went to a friend’s exhibition a couple of days ago, he was showing some drawings and film in the basement of one of the little cafe bars in Northern Quarter. He draws very simply and I really enjoy that about his work, I wasn’t so keen on his film work, I think he has a better skill for drawing...it’s inspired me to do some life drawing classes!

Shelter project- 'Home Sweet Home'

My group project.

My group and I exhibited our shelter project last week, I've written a project report on it, so I won't go into the nitty gritty stuff, but basically it turned out great! Me and Felix spent the entire day right up untill 1am, trying to find the perfext interior for the bus shelter. By the next morning all the furniture had been stolen...but we knew smething would happen, and at the end of the day it's part of the fun, it's the unexpected which is exciting. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, it has gievn us ideas to further the project in different areas now.

The concept plays with the image of what a shelter is, a home is where you live, it's where you sleep and each home is personal. It's common knowledge that a bus shelter has the use of sheltering the people underneath it, so when combining the two ideas together we created this set-up displaying a scene from a house. I love the contradiction of the inside/outside scenario, and I think the project can be looked at from different perspectives, some might think the idea is simple in regards to 'shelter' but there's more depth than the visual aspect.