Anna Roebuck, Artist Work!

At the moment our sixth form is working with a local artist called Anna Roebuck, an artist who works with recycled materials to create new house hold items and jewellery... And they really are amazing!
She`s been in the business for a while now, she even worked with another artist that I`ve already worked with, if you remember a while ago I worked with dawn Turner who works with glass. It turns out they both worked together on the Stanton project and both took Huge takes on the project. Both of them are really different artists but are really inspirational, they both have their own business and both of them do craft workshops where they show off their skills and let others learn the techniques that they use. Anna uses a lot of recycled plastic to then turn into jewellery and then sell on, so nearly everything in her shop is based around recycled plastic; she isn`t teaching us how to turn recycled plastic into little pieces of jewellery yet, but at the moment we`re doing metal casting which is something I`ve never tried out before. She`ll be at our sixth form for a few more weeks which means that I`ll be able to get some more metal casting samples done.


Due to health and safety reasons aswell, we wasn`t aloud to do any of this up in the art rooms and we instead had to go down to the freezing cold and empty gallery to do it all. It wasn`t too dangerous so I don`t see why it was such a big deal, it was only a blowtorch.
Unfortunately, a lot of the girls in my class didn`t want to come down and participate in this, and doing this with Anna could be the only time we ever get to do this... So I`m just going to do as many as I can!
The actual process can take a while... Well, that`s if you`re me and you can`t even make a small pile of sand. There are two metal rings, and you have to compress one of them with sand so it`s really packed together tightly, then press an item into the sand. Then get the other ring and place it on top, then compress more sand around the object that's still on the first ring. My wording for this is probably terrible, I do apologize. Then when the top ring has been compacted with the sand, separate them both slowly and take out the object that was in-between them.
This leaves an area for the melted metal to fall into and then it will take the shape of the object you`ve chosen. But before that, you have to use the rung that has the back of the object indented into it, and make three holes. One hole will be the pour in hole where the metal will go through, and then other two will be air holes, so the air in the area where the metal needs to be can escape so everything forms correctly.
The metal that we used was Led free Pewter rods, we placed it in small pans (which you can see in the image above) and melted it all with a blow torch. It melts at a really low temperature so that part didn`t take to long, then you just pour it into the pour in hole slowly and it dries in about 3 minutes or so. Then you just take it apart and remove your metal cast, but then you have to snip some pieces of metal at the back, one is from the remaining metal in the pour in hole and the other two are from the air holes where the metal pushes itself out.
The only problem that  had with my piece is that I then struggled to get the sand out of the tiny gaps because I chose something a bit more detailed than everyone else. Mine was also one of the biggest and the chunkiest casts that we did, so I still need to get rid of some bits f metal that I couldn`t file off of my little sample. The only problem that I have with the process is that It`s quite lengthy and it takes a long time to prepare the mould for the metal, but then you can only use it once, and you can`t mould a bunch of small items at the same time since the molten metal would disperse and form a flat sheet of metal.

I do like the final look of some of the samples that everyone else has done, I`m not sure how many more samples I want to work on though since it can take a while to get them all done. I know I want some more done and I can get some more done to fit my new project brief... Yes, I`ve finally been given the new project! I`ll be updating later on the Live Diary blog to tell you all about it.
but for now, I`m going to design some more moulds for some more metal casting and I can hopefully get them made within the next two weeks... As I`m still busy at the moment.
I`ve also been through all of my sketchbooks, I`ve got all of the empty ones labelled up and I`m gong to be doing some designs quite soon!

Here`s the Link to Annas website and shop! Be sure to check them both out, The bags2riches link will take you to all of her currently selling recycled jewellery pieces!
https://themakinghouse.org  , and,   https://bags2riches.bigcartel.com

My Favourite Ginger` 18th Birthday!

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Plastic Fusion Samples!

One thing that I`ve never tried throughout sixth form is a technique that most textile and fashion students use, it can be used with just about anything actually...

The main reason that I`ve never actually tried any plastic fusion work is that everytime I want to try it out, a fashion or textile student will be doing the same thing; plus, I`ve only ever seen fashion and textile students use this, they sew it into fabrics or just make a dress completely out of plastic. But it turns out that you can use plastic fusion in just about anything you want, but I never knew that cause I`m pretty simple minded and never actually bothered to ask what I could possibly use this for...

I`ve only used one technique to perform plastic fusion actually; So we use the heat press or the heat gun at my sixth form, the heat gun will just melt anything and the heat press has to be set too 150 degrees in order for anything to melt, but n both cases you will probably smell a lot of burning. I`ve used plastic wallets for my samples, I`ve cut the edges off and then neatly sandwiched what I want in-between the two remaining floppy pieces of thin plastic.  

When you pull the heat press down or start melting it with the heat gun, the heat melts the plastic around anything that has been sandwiched in-between those two pieces of plastic. So for my little samples, I used strings, papers, wax, inks and other little plasticy bits that could be sandwiched in.

I wouldn`t of expected wax and ink to work, but you couldn`t use ink without the wax. I used the heat press for my samples which meant that as soon as the metal plate came down it just started to instantly cook everything... Which meant that when it was pulled all of the way down and was locked into place I could hear the ink cooking underneath the metal plate and had to yank it back up straight away, it was bubbling, which indicates that I messed up somewhat. Also, because it had only been down for a few seconds before it began to bubble away none of the plastic had melted. So, if you just drop a few wax pellets in there, they melt just as quickly as the ink starts to cook, and then when you yank the heat press open the wax dries instantly which then sandwiches everything together just like the plastic should do. This happens in about 4-7 seconds of just having the heat press locked into place, and none of the ink falls out the sides of the plastic once it`s been taken out.
(BEWARE! You can still hear the ink and the wax cooking which means it sizzles quite loudly, if any teachers are nearby they will most probably think your cooking eggs or are breaking the press. If it gets too noticeable then lift the heat press quickly, otherwise the wax will start melting out of the sides and it will go EVERYWHERE!)

Another small problem with this is, don`t put quite chunky bits in, and don`t use loads of paper otherwise the plastic around it becomes lose and it`ll just open up again. Just make sure that you aren`t doing a huge block of solid material, otherwise the plastic just won`t fuse together around it and then you`ve ruined the fusion you wanted to make.

I do quite like these little samples, I do need to get some more little bits done so I can use it in some other mixed media pieces of work and hopefully cut pieces of the fusion out and create images with them... Basically just a collage with loads of different coloured Plastic fusion pieces!

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Screen Printing!

Since I`m still trying to bulk up my work and experimentation work for this project... Which is almost over! I`ve been doing a lot of screen printing to mix into other bits of my work.

This week is luckily our last week on this project, and then we can finally move on to the new one! I still can`t think of much to do that will be classed as formal finished work and not experimentation, but luckily for my I`ve had three different silk screens for screen printing! Unfortunately one set of screens still hasn`t been printed and I haven`t taken pictures of the other set that I`ve printed.

The two different prints that you`ll see on this update are a thresholded picture of my lovely boyfriend David and a thresholded image of me and my friend Charlie at prom. I know that it`s a project about mental health and mental health conditions, but one of the main things my physciatrist told me to do was to surround myself with happy memories and happy thoughts of something that may of recently happened, and luckily, I did actually remember that. There`s a wall in my room covered in photos of me and friends and I wanted to incorporate that into my work.

The other sets are of a photoshopped brain design that I did way back in the summer holidays and the other is of two thresholded images, one of a bunch of pill packets and then the other one was a pattern repeat of pills. If I`m smart and remember to take images of the other prints then I`ll probably do another quick update with everything else that I`ve missed in it. I might put it together at the end of this week.

For the backgrounds, I used simple washes of different coloured inks and some strips of different papers, nothing to fancy or anything like that, just some simple screen prints for practice. I have also been doing some 3D work... When it came to my final piece I went straight from 2D/flat work to a huge board that had so much cr*p just thrown onto it that I had randomly come up with. So right now I`m doing some "Final Piece Preparation work" even though I`ve already finished my final piece. So the screen printing is going to work well for layering up the small sample boards and adding more techniques over the top of things.

So at the moment It`s all going well, another teacher and I went through all of my work and tried to find if anything was missing, but some small preparation bits where all that I needed to bump up my grade some more.
I`m seriously looking forward to moving onto the next project, I still want to do it on the Decay of nature, but the teachers have told me not to jump ahead and get an idea as to what I want to do because I don`t even know the project brief yet... If it comes down to it, I`ll hunt around in the teachers cupboards to try and find that god damn Project!

Head over to Wattpad for the latest anime reviews! I`ve just started a new book of them and already have the next 50 animes sorted out!

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Hand Sketches!

I`m still working on not letting myself get bored, and the teachers are still refusing to give me the next exam theme for the next project... which means that I`m still extremely bored.

I`m literally running out of things to draw for my project, I don`t want to draw people or faces but that`s what the teachers keep on suggesting to me to do. I`ve now done 8 dry point prints and I`m running out of stuff that I can draw from for my project. My teachers where just convinced that it should be body parts, which then made me link my sketches back to my final piece (which has been finished, I just need to send all of the pictures over to my laptop so I can update).

The only other things  could think of possibly drawing that would link to my theme would be hands holding pills or eyes of some sorts. I`m still not sure about drawings eyes and stuff, but the past few days I`ve been trying to draw hands or at least try to draw hands.

I`ve never actually drawn hands before, I was completely put off by the fact that every time  I`ve even attempted to draw one in the past it`s turned into a balloon with stumpy, little, stubby fingers. I`m getting quite bored of this project now, if anyone knows me by now then you`ll realize why; when the work load dies down and I`m left with only a few things left to do or I just have to focus on one kind of drawing, then my mind just gets bored, I can`t focus properly and I need something new to try and do. Which is basically what`s happening now, but quite badly, I must of spent about 2 hours yesterday just sat on a computer looking through other peoples works on Deviantart and trying to find some sort of inspiration... but I found nothing at all. It`s been a bit of a drag, I've now done three of my university interviews, have another one coming up on Wednesday and one that I need to cancel since I no longer need a foundation year in art.

So right now, I have to prepare for one more interview, and I need to bulk up my coursework load and get some more experimentation done. By now, you would of thought that I`d have enough done, obviously I don`t blog about every little bit of work that I make, but right now I have a huge portfolio for this project and I`m getting rather sick of looking at pills, hands, faces, masks and pill packets.

If anyone else has any ideas as to something I can draw or include in some form of drawing and experimentation, that links to mental health and is most probably something I haven`t done yet, please feel free to get in touch! I`ve only got another two weeks left for this project but I can`t just stop working completely for those two weeks and really I should be spewing out a lot more work in this time since I`ve got no distractions.

These hands are only small sketches that I`ve done; The first one is just a basic fineliner drawings, the second is a wash of brown watercolour paint with a pencil drawings over the top, the third one has a wash of green watercolour paint and a drawing over the top and the last one has a wash of blue watercolour paint and then a fineliner sketch over the top... So it`s all just basic stuff really, I just need to find something new to do!

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Little Dry Point Prints!

I`ve been incredibly bored again, and I needed to find something to do that is related to my coursework unit that can also bulk up my unit and add to my grade...

The only quick thing that I can think of doing that will be easy to do, but show quite a bit of skill and knowledge of techniques... Would be a kind of print. But I`ve done screen prints, Lino Prints, Mono Prints and the only two that I hadn`t tried yet where the two types that I hate. A Collograph print or a dry point, and from the title, I`m sure you can guess which one I went for.

Collagraphs have to be my least favourite form of print making... You get a thick piece of cardboard, or whatever the stuff is, then you cut into it with a craft knife and peel bits back, or add other textured papers on top. Then you coat it in varnish and then print it when It`s dry. You use the exact same ink as a dry point, but I prefer the final look and the technique of the dry point.

For a dry point print, you use a piece of soft metal and you scratch into it to make an image, then coat the whole the whole thing in ink, then take it off and print it in a press.

Since I only wanted a quick technique to do,  only chose an easy design to draw out. You have to scratch really deep for the outlines so you can get a clear black line, well that`s what I do anyways, then I just always make sure that  use finer lines for all of the shading. I always use scissors too, I know some people use nails or different sized nails to scratch into the metal with, but I just prefer to be simple and use a pair of scissors for it.
I don`t even know what kind of paper you have to use, but you have to soak it for a certain amount of time before printing, and because I don`t have coloured printing inks and we only have this paper in white, I had to improvise a little bit with making coloured backgrounds for the print. Unfortunately, I also couldn`t tell that the piece of metal I was using had been cut a little bit wonky, so I ended up printing the finished picture on an un-even piece of metal.
The backgrounds where awkward to make too, I had to do it really quickly when I took the paper out of the tray of water where they had been soaking previously. I had to leave them soaking wet and drop small bits of ink on top and then let it bleed out to certain areas of the paper. However, our sixth form hasn`t had a technician for so long that we no longer have inks. She`s supposed to order in all of our materials that we use for things like this, which means that we have no coloured printing inks and no inks for drawing. It`s slightly annoying and it means that everyone has had to ration the tiniest little things that we can`t buy ourselves. Because of all of this, I had to use a select amount of colours that I had hidden away in some spray bottles in one of my boxes. I only had; Pink, Purple, Green, Blue and Brown and they where pretty old ones too. Since I had left the paper wet and just dropped small amounts of ink on top, they came out in these cute pastel shades that blended nicely into the background of the print.
The only problem that I have with these prints is that there is one pill on all of these prints that has come out darker than all of the other pills, and that`s because I had scratched to deeply with the scissors just on that one pill... I have no idea why I did, but it must of just happened by accident when I was working over the top of all of the mark making.
I have already tried to put the pills on a little shirt, as practice; I`m still not used to the kind of images I should be putting on there or the size and resolution they should be, I can`t find anything that tells you what kind of images you should be using... https://liveheroes.com/en/product/show/139633/aSpuYGNC9Tw7m0PA6YXU

However, I am really sorry....
I don`t know if anyone has actually notices, but recently I`ve actually been running out of work to do. I`ve ran out of ideas and what techniques to use and I`m still begging the art teachers to give us the next project, which will also be my last project before hopefully going off to University... I still haven`t heard anything back from The University Of Derby, they where supposed to get back to me today and give me their final decision, but unfortunetly I haven`t heard anything yet and It`s made me very, very worried.
I do have two more interviews coming up on Wednesday, they`re back to back interviews at Nottingham Trent University. Then the day after I have the orthodontist to have my bottom set of braces removed and then the week after that I`ve got the same all over again, A university interview on the Wednesday and orthodontist the day after to have my retainer fitted.

I`ve been rather busy lately...

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My Own Clothing!

Here are the first three designs!
I`ll add all of the links to the Shirts

So far at the end of this update! 

Since I`ve finished my art project at sixth form, and I`m now waiting for the next project... I`ve been very, very bored! Over the weekend I`m going to try and get some more drawings and sketches done as experimentation; but I`ve had to come up with something new to do...

After I finished my art project, I got so bored that I just laid in bed one night and contemplated as to what I should do for the next project... what kind of sketchbook I should have, what backgrounds, colour schemes... Yes, I was rather bored.
The next morning I was going down my facebook newsfeed and I cam across this sponsored website called Live Heroes and they were currently advertising clothing that a certain brand on their site had made. I clicked on the page and then went to their website to get a better look; it turns out that anyone can use this site, you upload your designs onto literally any kinds of clothing and put it up for sale... Then, the website takes care of printing the designing, taking the orders from buyers and delivering the final product. Then the designer makes 20% of any money made, that then gets transferred into points, then when you have a certain amount of points, you can order a money transfer and all of that money then goes straight into your bank account!
I thought it was bloody amazing and got started straight away, at first I thought that the prices where a little bit high, just an ordinary T-shirt is £21.45, and I`m still not sure if people would pay that much for just a Shirt.

Cute Watercolour Flower!

I am having fun with the site so far, I haven`t had an account for that long so I`m still trying to figure out as to what designs I should use on the clothing. It`s kind of trying to figure out as to what people want from me, and what kind of designs they would prefer from me and in what style. at the moment it`s hard, I haven't had anyone buy anything on Live Heroes or Deviantart, and I want to use the money I earn to save up and put towards art equipment and University travel money. Times are difficult and I`m trying my best to promote myself.
Luckily, I do have some time on my hands still, which gives me plenty of time to get designs done and scanned in, to then upload onto clothing.

At the moment, I`m mainly working on womens clothing designs, the shirts that I`ve done so far however are Unisex shirts and can be bought in all sizes, XS too 4XL! At the moment, all T-shirts are £21.45 and I can`t change the prices on the site as they control it all. I`m not sure as to what designs I should make for men? Skulls? Bikes? Plain Text? Dark themed Clothes?
I literally have no idea as to what men wear on a day to day basis, I may have a boyfriend and all but he mainly just wears plain T-shirts with no designs on... And I can`t really sell them for £21 a piece!
If anyone has any ideas, then please get in touch, either on the facebook page or on Google+... If anyone still uses that.

To make it a lot more easier than just uploading a lot of links down here, I`m going to upload some Deviantart links aswell, I`ve been using Deviantart to help promote these clothes and the links are on there too.
So now, select the image that you want to view:

To see the first three designs I made, click here to see them all close up and then choose a link to look at the actual product!
http://amywatkinson.deviantart.com/art/The-First-Thee-Designs-On-Live-Heroes-583194657

To see the Pink and green watercolour T-shirt, Tank top and Beanie; then follow this link and then choose which item you want to take you to Live Heroes!
http://amywatkinson.deviantart.com/art/Watercolour-flower-Clothing-582591456

To see the four watercolour flower designs; then follow this link and choose which design you want!
http://amywatkinson.deviantart.com/art/Watercolour-Flowered-Clothing-583180707

Thanks for all of the support so far! I hope the designs take off soon or at least a few print on deviantart, any money I earn will go straight into that equipment fund because I`m bloody low right now!
If anyone has any ideas as to what I should design for mens wear, then please don`t hesitate to get in touch! Since I have no idea!


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Fakemon Designing!

Since I`ve tried to take a little break from my coursework, I`ve been up to some other little things, most of which involve helping my boyfriend out a bit...

As people may, or may not, know; me and my boyfriend are huge anime and pokemon fans, and when we`re older we want to go to Japan too! But before any of that can happen, we need to get jobs and earn money... All of the boring stuff that everyone else has to go through.
One of David`s favourite pass times is creating his own Anime characters and Fakemon designs, Unfortunately I haven`t done any of his character designs over the holidays, but what I have done is a few fakemon designs.

They`re a whole lot easier to draw than before since I have a new laptop and new drawing tools to make sure the final thing looks neat enough for him. David hasn`t really got the patience for photoshop and he doesn`t know how to use it properly, so I turn his designs into digital designs. He simple draws them, sends an image to me over the facebook and then I daw over the top of them to create a digital layer on top of the original image. he chooses the colours and where they go, he chooses the small edits or wonky lines that I didn`t notice and then he gets to keep the final design that I make for him! Easy as that really.

The only thing that I still cannot do is the shading, I`ve tried adding the white highlights from where any light would hit them, but every time I then try to blend the white into the image it just doesn`t look as good as it did without the highlights. So trying to perfect any shading and blending on the images is still proving to be a little bit difficult, David did say that I`m slowly getting there, just a few more practices and I might have them done properly!

I might work on my own photoshop work soon and teach David how to do this at the same time, I`m planning on just photoshopping people at the moment and turning them into plain black and white images with bold outlines... You`ll see if I ever get time to do them!

At the moment, I do enjoy helping with this little fakemon designs, I just need to teach myself how to blend and add highlights properly before I get ahead of myself and try to design completely new things for my own work.



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