Intentions

I have been very conscious throughout this project that I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking, and not much practical work. I think I have needed this time to appreciate everything I have learnt, enabling me to go on and respond practically. I decided it was important to start drawing again, so a couple of course friends and I set up a Tuesday morning drawing session, which forced us to sit down at least once a week and draw. This has really helped me get back into the creative mind set, and remind myself that I am on a practice lead MA, not just a research one.

I have started drawing everyday objects that can be linked to women, things like make-up kits, hair brushes and sewing equipment. I chose to use a small A5 sketchbook, which is much smaller than I would usually use. I like the idea that this small book is easily carried around in my bag, I want to make drawing a much integral part of my practice...both observational drawings and potential design ideas. However, I do wonder whether it may be beneficial for me to have one observational drawing sketchbook and one designing sketchbook. I've really enjoyed being able to tailor my practice to be the best and most effective for me. I am a very organised person and when I am drawing design ideas I like to have easy access to visual inspiration. I have always found that when all my drawings are in one book, I tend to get confused flicking back a forth through the pages. I have also considered using lots of separate pieces of paper so I can spread them all out and view them together...but I am a sucker for a sketchbook!

In the past I have never really ventured into using colour within my sketches, or in fact my final jewellery pieces. I have been reading The Language of Things by Deyan Sudjic, and it has really inspired me. Creating a visual language within your work is especially important for someone like me; its essential for me to get my story across and for people to understand and relate to it. Sudjic talks about the use of certain colours in the design of products, he says the details are "intended to provide the cue for an emotional response to the object." (pg.66). I am going to experiment with colours and patterns that stereotypically can be linked to women, to bring this emotion Sudjic talks about to my jewellery practice. I have started simply, by injecting small aspects of colour to my drawings...I intend to continue this into my practical work and final pieces.

Lin Cheung’s essay Wear, Wearing, Worn: The Transitions of Jewels to Jewellery exaggerates this idea that by wearing, owning and interacting with our jewellery, we breathe life into it. Without the wearer the jewellery is incomplete. “Without a finger a ring is just a object with a hole, a necklace adopts a meaningless shape without the armature of the neck”. Cheung uses archetypal jewellery forms as a basic language. By borrowing and referencing the familiar shapes of lockets, rings and necklaces; she sets the pieces ready to receive an idea. The familiar forms encourage people to understand and accept new stories to be told. I hope that taking inspiration from everyday objects will create a relatable aspect to my jewellery, creating a feeling of comfort and familiarity.

During one of our lectures delivered by Jane Webb, we were introduced to ways of documenting and exploring our ideas visually, and it made me think about drawing, photography and collage in a way I had never before. Drawing allows you to experience an object down to the finest detail, photography is a way to create a sense of realism and believability, collage can be used to very successfully to tell a story and can in fact, take the realism of photographs and manipulate them to tell a completely different story.

I have collected a number of key words such as soft, strong, domestic, beauty, practical, glamorous and utility, which reflect my inspirations and interests of women. I have started to create collages to visually represent these words using some black and white photographs found from the online archive from the Visual Resource Centre. I like the idea of making assemblages of paper, photographs, objects and jewellery to help visualise my story, making the collage both 2D and 3D.

I have started to create collages to visually represent these words using some black and white photographs found from the online archive from the Visual Resource Centre. I like the idea of making assemblages of paper, photographs, objects and jewellery to help visualise my story, making the collage both 2D and 3D. In the past, colour hasn’t been an important part of my work but I intend to change this. I am going to experiment with colours and patterns that stereotypically can be linked to women.

To help me find appropriate objects and images for my assemblages, I am going to create certain scenarios such as women at home, in the kitchen, sewing or cleaning and perhaps women at work or ladies who lunch. I would like to be playful with the titles of my pieces. The jewellery will be simplistic, with strong geometric shapes and forms, and will have notions of utilitarian objects, to juxtapose and to enforce the idea of women having to be both domestically practical and aesthetically beautiful.

Words have been a massive part of this unit for me, I am becoming more and more obsessed with books; so much so, that I wonder whether some of my pieces should reflect this. At a recent exhibition I included a few relevant books in the display of my jewellery, to help tell the story. I think I can integrate books, words and quotes more deeply in my work than this. I have found an old book handed down to my Mum called Everybody's Best Friend, written and published in 1958, it has advice and guidance for any problem life may hold. At the time it was published, I imagine the book was taken very seriously, however reading it now, it is just hilarious. Sections include, Love And Courtship Problems, Difficult Wives, Etiquette For All Occasions and How to Develop Personality...I have a few other books like this that I would like to take quotes and sections from to include in my collages.

I went to the Special Collections in the Library to view some Victorian Ladies Albums, which are a colourful example of the construction of femininity and domestic obedience. Housewives spent hours carefully crafting these albums, as this was thought of as a suitable, controlled way for women to spend their spare time. The images are of flowers and birds, and other stereotypically feminine things. I want to use traditional feminine rituals and creative techniques such as embroidery within my collages, bringing back this idea of creating a visual language within my work.