Initial Drawing

This week I've been working on my sketchbook and starting to do some initial drawings expressing my ideas of quilting and segments I found in the samurai armor and natural life in the garden.

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.

Cultural Studies: Landscape and the Natural World

Last week in Cultural Studies we had a lecture about the Myths of the Landscape and how we perceive it. Afterwards we were given the task to in groups look at what we relate to the natural world and how we'd make a creative piece about it. When we got together we started listing word and agreed that we should make something that we could do individually and then bring together to form one piece. We all chose seperate parts of the natural world (Land, Water, Sky, Plant and Air) and base a small strip of paper on it. I then stitched them together to create this one collective piece.

At the lesson we presented our piece to everyone which was agreed it is good and certainly shows the areas of the natural world. It was picked out that it also looked quite religious/biblical with the shape of the long panels and the themes that relate to 7 days of creation where God created the sea and the land.

I got the new brief for the cultural studies essay where we have to write an essay based either on Landscape and the Natural World or Travel and Tourism along side a creative piece of work which reading over it totally scares me at the moment as I have no ideas on what I'm going to be writing about, I certainly need a one on one tutorial before I can even start this.

Tord Boontje

I dont think i have fell in love with anyones work as much as Tord Boontje's work. It's so beautiful. what I love most about is it's link to nature and how he makes eveything look so fantasy and fairytale that is one of my favorite things ever. Where and how he sets his work is so lovely. Words can't describe how much I like this, when I was looking through his book I wanted to hug it. Even his book is pretty with tiny holes punched through making the image of a bird and flowers, oh delightful.

I've actually seen some of his work last year at the telling tales exhibition they had at the V&A in London. i loved this exhibition, its was like it was put together for me.Tord Boontje Website
Telling Tales Exhibition