The Beginning: Research and Inspiration

Stage 3...an open brief...where to start???

The main thing I learned from stage 2 is that I need to keep on top of my blog - apologies to those who followed my stage 1 blog and were disappointed to not be able to keep up with my stage 2 blog. It became part of the project for stage 2 and was much more structured with specific post titles and criteria that we had to meet, and therefore in my mind became a chore. In reality, it didn't cover anything I wouldn't have covered anyway - it's just, well, you know how it is when someone tells you you have to do something 😉 As such, for this final stage I have resolved to get back on top of the blogging, boring you with every thought I have, all the research I do and every experiment I try!

For stage 3 we have to write our own brief - we can do whatever we like, the world is our oyster. Sounds great you think...but where do you start? I found the 20+ briefs to chose from in stage 2 overwhelming, so this is pretty much a nightmare for me!  I am interested in pretty much everything other than sport. I feel panicky when I think about it and try to narrow down the field, but I have to start somewhere.

Tomorrow I am going to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and possibly the Ashmolean if I have time, so I am hoping to find some inspiration there, but in the meantime I have been having a look through the above pictured reference books that I picked up recently from Worcestershire Resource Exchange http://www.wre.uk.com/. While we're on the subject of WRE, something at the forefront of my mind for this project (and everyday life for most people right now!) is recycling, re-using, reducing carbon footprint, reducing landfill etc...therefore I would like to incorporate the use of materials picked up from there in this project. They salvage things that would otherwise be sent to landfill and make them available for artists to make good use of.

Anyway, I have found some inspiration from all of the above books, whether it be a theme or just a word or sentence that has struck a little spark of creativity in my brain:

Look to the past to inform the future
Seeds
Greeting the Dawn
Capturing Movement
Mutilation/Decoration
Fake News:- with adverts you know you're being lied to...
Artists Book

Judy Barrass Artists Book

Creating an Artist's Book is my preferred idea so far. When I went for my Artist, Designer Maker interview at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Philippa (my interviewer) asked 'what about artists books' to which I naively replied 'well yes - I have quite a library to be honest' 😁 I didn't realise that artists books are actually works of art in themselves - either a book in the traditional sense with either original images or images reproduced on a small scale by the artist, or an art object in the shape of a book. I have been intrigued by the idea ever since and did consider making one for stage 2 as it was one of the prescribed briefs. I am thinking this would give me plenty of scope for research - the V&A have some and you can arrange to see up to 3 per day at the National Art Library in London.

It would also have great potential for experimentation and innovation with making my own handmade paper or finding other suitable materials that could be used to create several leaves or pages.  Here are a few starting ideas from the Paper Textiles book by Christina Leitner:

Handmade Paper

Handmade Paper String

Weaving with Handmade Paper String

I think I have the basis for my proposed brief, I now just need to see if I can find any further inspiration for the subject for my book at the Pitt Rivers Museum tomorrow, or progress one for the above ideas further.

I will be back tomorrow with news & photo's and sketches from my daytrip! Toodle-pip!