Upcycling!

Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience- Paul Cezanne

Yesterday I spent the day in local charity shops, collecting vintage tableware as I want to use up cycling pieces in my work. Up cycling is taking discarded items which would normally end up in a land fill and finding a new use for them. It’s a very exciting turn in my work; I am going to apply my doorsteps to the pieces to create a whole new piece.  I have chosen pieces with bits of pattern already on them as I want to integrate the old pattern with the new. I really love the idea of up cycling, as another man trash is another man treasure. Up cycling can be linked in to my theme of saving milkmen as it is known that milk man were the first recyclers as you ‘rinse and return’ your glass milk bottles.  I have been mainly looking for china that has been made in England, because I want to support English industry, as I don’t think that we make any pottery or very little pottery in the UK, and like milkmen, the industry is dying out. Tomorrow is a very busy and exciting day, as I am adding my designs to the china and also screen printing!

 



Very excited to work with this pieces!

Just a little update!

Just a little up date about the work am doing at the moment! Its still based on milkman and my milkround, but I am concentrating on developing my surface pattern work, bring more detail in to it. I have been drawing doorsteps as they are iconic to the Milkman. Another reason why I want doorsteps in my work is because the UK sales of milk to the doorstep is just 4.7% and supermarkets are riding high with over 80% of milk sale, I want to bring peoples milk back to the doorstep. Here is a taster of drawings which will be screen printed when I get back to uni on Tuesday!

Am quite happy with the outcome of these drawings and developments, very excited to get printing them. What I hope to do is have the doorsteps as the background and then apply the applique milkman/woman over the top. Also I plan to have some just black and white printed up as well.

Hollie Brown

I can't get enough of Hollie Brown's surface pattern work. I love love it! I first saw Hollie's work at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair back October, and I still keep referring to it in my work. I love the layers in which she uses in her work, and the sketches are to die for. The kooky characters in her work, remind me of my elderly milk customers on the round. I think this is another reason why I adore Hollie Brown's work so very much. 'Betty Loves Tea' collection is my favourite, which is an award winning collection and I can totally understand why!

Betty Loves Tea

Sunny Day

Free As A Bird

A Sailor Went To Sea

No Milk Today Minor Project

For this project my inspiration came from my job which is delivering milk on my father's milkround, I am a modern Milk Girl. I wanted to show people that milkman are still about and that soon enough there will be no more. Also I want to use the milk notes which we get in from customers as the different handwriting is so visually appealing. I created textile pieces based on my doucmenting of the milkround, and also ceramic vessels which were half a milk bottle with my very only ceramic transfers on them.

Hello!

This is my first blog post, its a lot to get use to.