Fashionable Fads?

So in my desire to make anything resembling jewellery I took the results from my Fashion Fads questionnaire and made them into a necklace. This is actually a mock-up because the photos I took of it did not turn out very well. Which was a shame, but my photoshopping skills aren't too bad so I'm actually really happy with this picture.

The idea was that they would go in order of popularity and repeated mention, except I dropped them all and wanted to go to my bed, so in the end it was just what went together. Once I get some more results I'll redo the necklace in another form - this year I seem to be all about the iteration and reiteration.

Anyway so for the trends showed:

- bracelets

- bright colours

- multiples & layers

- alternative meaning (friendship, causes & karma)

- alternative fastenings (eg: magnets)

...nothing I couldn't have already told you, but it's reassuring that I'm not completely out of touch and indeed scary at the number of trends I remember and actually participated in.

The shame!

Remember Me...

Remember me when I am gone away,

Far into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

"Remember" - Christina Rossetti

I've been putting this on all my drawings and had it in my head for weeks! So rather than having to search it out every day on the net, I'm putting it here so I don't forget to remember...

How do I look?

I've decided to try and get anyone who comes into my space to try on the glasses I've made and let me take a photo. Why? Well, look how different everyones style is. 

Design Methodology

I've always hated starting sketch books. Often it's like having my teeth pulled. I don't know exactly what it is about those first blank pages of a sketch book which just makes me stare at it and wonder what exactly I'm planning on going to put down.

Don't ask me why, but make me fold and origami water balloon and off I go. They're just not scary. So. Rather than a pile of sketch books, I've got a pile of inflated paper balloons. 

I think most people would think I'm odd, but one of my tutors loves them and if it gets all my ideas out and off of the backs of envelopes and post-it notes, then why not?

Representation

Jumi used this photo I took as a representation of her trying to get playfulness into her design project. I'm using it as the next iteration in my representation of our mindful design project, which we initially started designing on balloons.

Stage 1: White Balloons

Stage 2: Typed out

Stage 3: Bates the maniacal bunny letting go of my balloons in an illustration

Stage 4: Origami Water Balloons

Stage 5: Jumi and the Magical Balloon (as a little book)

...fun

Aren't you glad there's no such thing as mind control...

These are the glasses I've been designing...fetching no? Although to be fair Jumi and Sun* both look far too cool in them. They're made of laser cut cardboard and are supposed to make people feel a little silly and instead Sun*, Jumi and my sister have all requested pairs!

The glasses are part of my cultural probe which I should get back this week as my participants have had their three weeks to work on them and I'm hoping that they will have gained me the information I've been looking for. They're supposed to create a conversation between me and my participants- the importance of appearance, image and how glasses with coloured lenses for the treatement of visual stress disorders intrupts the flow and stops people wanting to wear them. Or that's the theory.

Anyway, I love this photo of Jumi and I thought I'd share it. She looks like an evil genius!

Floral Jacks

I've been experimenting with these little flowers for a few years now, I keep making them and not knowing what to make from them. I've left them empty, put silver leaf on them and filled them with silicone and now I've started with resin. But I'm still clueless about what to do with them!

The first thing my family said when I popped the resin ones out of their acetates was that they looked like Jacks - the game where you scatter them on the floor, bounce a bouncy ball and pick them up between bounces. Given my game theme last year I'm considering giving it a whirl.

However, I prototyped these to see if the printed colour would come off onto the resin successfully, it did, though not as successfully as I hoped as as soon as they get wet the ink runs. If I use this technique I'll have to coat the ink side of the resin with another layer of resin, just to seal it.

The reason I'm doing this is because - apparently - coloured acetates can also be printed.