Rake's Progress Tavern Piece - Second Attempt Background

The second attempt of the Rake's Progress Tavern scene had gone better than the previous attempt; the background had more time spent on it so it was darker and contrasted more with the elements that were going onto it. The idea of wetting the fabric before the charcoal written on made the words able to smudge and create the dull grey colour. 

Linda Stokes

Linda Stokes, textile artist; uses mixed medias, embroidery and quilting.
http://linda-stokes.blogspot.co.uk/



Heat Transfer Dyes

Thermofax Printed

Screen Printed

First attempt - Rake's Progress Tavern Scene Piece

The first attempt of creating a large artwork of elements of a Rake's Progress Tavern scene went well; although the important elements were painted on, the black background wasn't dark enough to contrast the coloured elements.
I think the typographic background idea worked well, there just needed to be more of it to show the darkness that lingers within the scenes of the Tavern.
The composition of the entire piece I think needed work as it looks as if it'd just been painted on in any place rather than placed carefully in relation to the painting's composition.

The Whore of Babylon

Most people mistake the Whore of Babylon for a woman, when it actually isn't; there's a few theories about what it is, but most people tend to go with that it is a "evil world system" that is controlled by the Antichrist.

In Revelation 17:1-2, she is described as having "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the Earth" written across her forehead. In Revelation 17:3 a description says of her "sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and has seven heads and ten horns".  
The Whore of Babylon was close affiliated with end-rising Antichrist, the Antichrist being the 'scarlet beast'.

More information here:

http://www.gotquestions.org/whore-Babylon-mystery.html

The Whore of Babylon riding the Antichrist.

Harlots, Adulteresses and Deceivers in the Bible

Within the Bible there are some women that are portrayed badly as they sinned. Some examples of these women are Bathsheba, Delilah, and Drusilla.

Bathsheba didn't intend on sinning, but the captain of her husband's army called for her after seeing her bathing. She became pregnant and an elaborate plan was hatched by the captain to get her husband to stay with her for the night; this failed and he then had him murdered in battle. Bathsheba didn't know her husband had been murdered and ended up marrying the captain. 

Delilah was powered by greed and her own beauty. She used her beauty to entice the hero of the Israelites to find out the way to break his strength and make him become weak. She did this through lulling him to sleep and calling on a man to cut his hair (which was his vow to God to keep his strength).

Drusilla was married at 15 to a King after he turned to Judaism; not long after she cheated on the King with a Roman Governor. The Governor kidnapped her and they married illegally as she was not a widow or divorced. Drusilla then took the Governor as her husband and this claimed her reputation as a sinned woman.

These stories and more of these women can be found here:

          http://www.netplaces.com/women-of-the-bible/adulteresses-harlots-and-deceivers/

Nikki Nye and Amy Flurry

Nikki Nye and Amy Flurry work together to create 3D paper art. Mostly the pair create wigs and 3D paper art of animals, though they recently created some masks shaped as animals as well.

Some of the wigs have been for fashion icons such as Cartier, Vogue, And Elizabeth Taylor.
Although they are for fashion, they seem to have some sort of 18th Century feel to them with the size and style of some of the wigs. 

Private Collection - London

Elizabeth Taylor Collection

Elizabeth Taylor Collection

Cartier Collection
Cartier Collection
Bay Holiday Windows Collection
Bay Holiday Windows Collection

Positive and negative space

In 3D we experimented with positive and negative space; after creating a room of positive and negative space by using string, we were then made to go through this course of string to perform weird and wonderful moves to get back to where we started. It taught me a lot about the negative space we need to be able to move, as well as about the composition a piece of this size would need. I find that there is a fine balance between having positive and negative space with a large 3D structure like this, as people would have to manoeuvre  around the piece to see it from different angles. I truly enjoyed creating something on a large scale and not being restricted to just a tiny area of a room; the string and wool is something I may look into because you can do absolutely anything with it, as well as being able to create large unpractical sculptures like this.

Almost completed paper wig

After another lesson of work, the back of the head is almost complete and the middle parting has been redone; I really didn't like the way I'd curled the paper to make it stand away from the head, so I recreated the middle parting. I also started on creating the curls, carefully so I didn't paper cut myself in the process. I'd like to add some more paper to the parting to emphasise it a little more and then finish off the curls

The front

The back

Design Process

For a design process, to me there are 5 steps to creating anything and possibly everything. 

The first step would be to find out the topic and then mind-map or make notes that could then be researched on; this means that the more notes that are made there will be more pathways to take when researching.

Research is the second step to the process; research every single pathway you can get from the topic, most will lead to dead ends but you will get ideas from the dead leads. The leads that turn out some sort of idea, whether it is completely out of the subject or you’ve gone off to a different tangent, it will still hold ideas that can be combined or kept on their own. This is known widely as exploration as you'll be exploring different leads as well as different techniques.

The next step is to refine two or more of the ideas either into one single idea or take one of the leads and research that lead more thoroughly. Researching more into the specifics allows the idea to have more information as well as having more opportunities to combine leads. More refining is done after this to get rid of the leads that are unwanted and have no chance of influencing the final outcome. 

The next step would be to start work towards the final production, for example, selecting the final materials that will be used. By going through the exploratory stage, the different techniques that had been tested will then be selected out of to be used within the final product. 

The final step would be to take all the techniques you have decided to use in the final product and test them for a final time before using them for the final product. The final product would then be created by using the techniques learnt.
(Not quite 500 words, couldn't quite make it that long)

Sarah Tucker

Sarah Tucker uses batik to create landscapes and seascapes by building up the dye.

Both dip-dying and and hand-paint dyes are used by her to build up to the final product of a landscape.

Instead of using normal tools to apply the wax, Sarah typically uses brushes to create the large areas. The marbling/cracking effect is the method she enjoys to use on the paintings.

Here's some of her work:

Holocaust Centre

So a trip to the Holocaust Centre in Newark was dropped on us today (tad late, but that's just my opinion) so I thought I'd go do a bit of research.

They have two exhibitions on full time, the Holocaust exhibition and the Journey exhibition. The Holocaust exhibition is mostly general information like what happened, why it happened, what it was like before etc. The Journey exhibition is more personal as it is based upon a certain child's escape from the Holocaust to England.

There's also memorial gardens around the centre, probably good for some life drawing or something, but mostly to do with the memorials that are around.

Here's the website, lots more information on there: http://holocaustcentre.net/

Equality and Diversity

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/equality-and-diversity/
Equality and Diversity

Equality and human rights commision

 

The Commission is subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty. Equality and diversity is at the heart of everything we do.

 

Public sector equality; equality and diversity workforce.

 

"The aim of the general equality duty is to integrate considerations of the advancement of equality into the day-to-day business of public authorities. In summary, those subject to the equality duty, must in the exercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a characteristic and those who don't
• Foster good relations between people who share a characteristic and those who don't"

United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights

 

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

 

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

 

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

 

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

 

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

 

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

 

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge"

Sub Ink

I was doing a bit of research on inks trying to find something original and innovative and I stumbled across Sub Ink; it's an ink that can be practically used on almost anything, including different fabrics, canvas shoes, walls and pretty much anything else you could possibly draw on.

Simply, they're marker pens (and also paints) that when dry it has a glossy coating so it shines in the light. They come in a range of colours both opaque and permanent, making it flexible for what you want to use it for. I have to admit, I'd happily get my hands on some of the paint to try out in Textiles. 

Some examples from their website:

http://subink.co.uk/

18th Century Wigs

I found this interesting little website that had a page on 18th century trades, one of them being wig making. Most of the information is about who wore what and how the social standing back then was all about the which wigs you and your servants wore. 

Link: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/wigmkr.cfm