Visit to Berrington Hall

The trip to Berrington Hall was described to us that there is something there that will inspire anyone, and that it did. Berrington Hall is a classic country house designed by Thomas Harly, with designed gardens, lake, orchard and a 18th century costume collection that we were invited to see. I was a bit anxious before we got there as I was worried I wouldn't be able to find something that will inspire me.

First we walked through the beautiful garden up the the front of the huge house for a briefing on the plan for the day, before shortly taking a tour of the house. The tour began in the first four rooms that were the entrance, library, dining room, stairway and business room where we had a brief story of the history and stories behind each room we visited with explanations on the detailing and features there were. It was highly fascinating to find out why and how they created this 30s Georgain styled house.

After the tour of the house I took it upon myself to venture around the gardens to look and take pictures of the vast range of plants and flowers they had. Over the summer I'd found an interest in natural forms like leaves and flowers etc. So I certainly wanted to capture the plant life of the grounds.

370 pictures later, we attended the viewing of the 18th century costume collection. We were shown piece by piece an extravagant and beautifully decorated range of costume that displayed the change of style over the year from wide hips to big butts, along with an informative explanation of each piece which gave you an understanding of the item for when it would be worn etc. My favorite pieces were the silver lace robbings and the men's extravagant court coats and waist coats. What I liked so much about these pieces was the intricate detailing of floral pattern they had created with either lace or stitch. They had used natural themes to create floral motifs that were then finely hand stitched into their garment.

Finally after everything I was free to roam the house to take pictures of inside. I noticed easily that like the costumes the house displayed even in the smallest details a transfer of floral motifs again into their design, from wallpaper to curtains, ceilings to carpets, door handles to furniture, everything had a natural style of pattern. I made sure to capture some of these things.

Also in the house there was a display of old samurai armor  Usually I wouldn't find these very interesting at all til I saw this one piece of amour showing the inside layer. I was all broken up and you could see the layers of the lining. Some of the layers had writing on them that read to ask for protection against harm, which I thought was beautifully sentimental. This reminds me of the embroidered servicemen uniforms by Paddy Hartley. The wiring looked like stitches making it look to me very much like a quilt, which instantly sparked an idea. I'm thinking something definitely stitched with layers but i'm not sure what I'd be making yet. This item is my biggest inspiration yet and will hopefully be the starting point of my DD project.

London Day Trip: V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum

I traveled to London to visit the V&A Museum, here I saw the 'Transformation and Revelation' exhibition showcasing a range of theature design in set, costume, drawing, sound and lighting design. What I liked in the exhibition was the lighting pieces and the costume. I particularly liked the lighting set design 'Six Landscapes of Grief'  by Bob Crowley. I liked his use of light behind the painted linen and the effects and marks of paint that are elluminated giving a faded, innocent and ghostly look.

I also like the display of costumes from various theatre productions and plays. I liked how the costumes are made to decribe a character's role and personality and that through this the clothing has more theme and fantasy with story along with them. I've always had a slight interest in costume/clothing construction and a desire to make one day look into making my own. The 'Tutu for Bugaku' and Marie-Jenna Lecca's dress for 'Agrippina' caught my eye the most with their use of layering of materials.

Whilst also in London I managed to go to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. These places wasn't very inspiring for any art work but I did have fun looking at the dinosaur section in the NHM, which was totally awesome. They have a real life automated T-rex, which was the high light of my day. But what was most important was a total revelation I had when I saw this parachute on a Huygens Titan Lander replica in the SM. I dont know much about the Huygens Titan Lander but when I saw this parachute attached to the replica I was so amazed by the shape of it and it's strings.

With dresses on the brain from the Transformation exibition it dawned on me an idea for my work. I could make a dress out of paper and incorporate my cut paper webs theme into the skirt with lots of layering. I though about this for a while and with my inclusion of light I could add this under the skirt, eluminating the skirt. Also thinking this over I have also enountered a few issuses I need addressed at a tutorial. This is whether i have time to hand cut out the webs and make this within the 7 weeks whilst also experimenting and creating a whole body of work? I'm also going to need to get hold of a tailors dummy to make it and they don't come cheap as well as lighting for undernieth. So many thoughts that it doesn't feel possible to complete.