Beyond the Gallery - delivery of work

All work finished and delivered to the Fashion students. Really pleased with the pieces, and had a massive confidence boost from their reactions. While they were obviously aware of the designs and had seen my sketches etc., the impact the final pieces had was a nice ego massage. Knowing that I’ve worked well to their brief with new materials and techniques as well as getting both my and their message across is the most satisfying experience I’ve had so far during my practice.

One major frustration to temper things slightly – the finished pieces I’ve handed over are ten times better than the pieces I put in the CONNECT exhibition as a showcase of the project. They’re more like a work in progress, as we made a number of last minute improvements and additions to the final pieces. If I can get over to Lincoln during the exhibition I’ll place some Polaroid style pictures or something similar in the case to portray the end result of the project.

Time management

FRAUGHT!!

Having had a day’s breather after the exhibition, I’ve now got final making to do for the Fashion Studies pieces. The problem Victorian headpiece from last month is now just how I want it, and I’ve used the ‘duplicates’ I made for the CONNECT exhibition to hone the finished look. Only thing is, while I’ve recognised I work well with some time pressure, having that sustained for three weeks is not practical! My time was planned well on the calendar, things looked busy but steady; but the best laid plans…I HAVE to stick to timetables once they’re formulated – working under pressure is productive, but that will stop at the point where I’m taking shortcuts and compromising. Thankfully I managed to just stop short of that this time.

Completion/Delivery

Have had the week off from University to concentrate on finishing pieces for the exhibition. Incredibly useful as I completely immersed myself in what I was trying to achieve and convey about my work, and it was pretty successful. Found myself making last minute changes that I would probably have overlooked if I hadn’t been in the studio for the whole week – have learnt a lot about the way I work best! Of course, I’m now exhausted but really happy that I’ve got the right pieces to exhibit. Monday, delivered the work, Wednesday ‘installed’ it all. (IMAGES)

Really pleased with the way the cases look – our end of the gallery is a little cramped, with Hannah’s, mine and Carol’s work all in the same area, while the front end is really spaced out – organisation could probably have been looked at differently and shuffled around a bit, but we haven’t all been at the gallery at the same time this week so it’s hard to get a consensus, and equally hard to have made certain decisions without seeing everything in place. Definitely worth bearing in mind next time.