Madalena de Lellis Hutchings
(procrastinator turned textiles student where there is no time for procrastinating. Or even thinking about it.)
How has the class blog benefited your own creative progress and ideas?
Since specializing in Textiles the blog has helped me in several ways; firstly, apart from one two week project, having never touched textiles before, apart from to cut up outfits for Barbie, it was both educating and interesting to read previous students articles about projects, techniques and general textiles life in college. Secondly, I followed only a handful of Foundation students into textiles, blogging weekly was a great and easy way to learn every ones names and what they were doing over the projects. Because everyone posts so frequently, it's easy to help out other students, and also to get help. If nothing else, seeing all the work other people are doing definitely scares you into working!
Do you regularly follow any specific blogs, and if so, why?
I follow a couple of blogs on blogpsot, including both this blog and Gayles, of course. I follow other members of the textiles class because it's always good to know what other people are doing (this is mainly because I am nosey and like finding things out) as well as blogs on print, pattern, being organised, and a couple of beauty blogs. I love having the variety in my dashboard, it's so much nicer to have everything broken up and spread about the dashboard. Plus I think if it were just one subject the whole way through, I would get bored of logging on, but as it is, I check it daily. I am always looking for new blogs to follow!
What have you gained from looking at other people's blogs?
Diversity in my ideas - it's just as inspiring looking at a fellow classmates work as it is researching a designer for a project. It gives me a different perspective of their work, as well as my own, and that causes me to go back and look at things and see them again, and change or add to them. One of the most popular things we have collectively made as a class during FMP would be bunting - we are mad mad mad for it, but looking through the blogs makes you realise how different each persons bunting is, how bunting is just a general term for something you can make work for you in any way. You can add pockets, change the shape, use colour schemes in a certain way...when you see the variety in what should essentially be the same sort of item, you reevaluate the other things you've done, to see how they could be more unique.
Do you think that having a blog/being part of a blog community has been useful in terms of your university applications, i.e being able to showcase your work in a more professional way?
The blog is definitely something I have mentioned in interviews - it's something our class has that none other (that I've heard of!) do. If the interviewer gets the question in there first, I'll tell them about my blog and then about the class blog, because it's such a good example of dedication and essentially an ongoing online crit of your work.
Quite a few university interviewers asked about a blog, so I think it is a good idea to start way, either at the beginning of BTEC/Foundation so you can document your progress in a more casual way - if the interviewer looked at your blog as well as your portfolio, they would get a really thorough look at how you work, and seeing as they are mad about the progress, definitely something extra to show them!
Do you have your own blog?
I have several!
My Art Blog
(this is due for a revamp and a major catch up in the summer! stay tuned!)
My Personal Blog
(filled with pictures and videos and thoughts and whatever I like, really)
My Rant Blog
(mostly about my mad Italian mother. actually, it's all about my mad Italian mother.)
Why?
Well, each of these blogs has come at a different point in my life.
My personal blog was the first to be started - tumblr is full of interesting pictures and fandoms of Doctor Who (which I lovelovelove) Harry Potter, etc etc, and it was extremely easy to use, I could follow a couple of friends, I liked it. It hasn't developed much, it's just a place to leave things I find funny or pretty, but it is like a little safehaven, I can run away to it whenever I want.
My rant blog was the next to come along - my mother and I have a mad mad relationship and people were finding the various things I put on facebook hilarious, so I started the blog. I'm sure people think I make it up, but I assure you, everything is 100% reality.
Finally, my art blog. I had previously just posted pictures of my favourite pieces of art on my tumblr, but when I specialized in Textiles, Gayle, in all her infinite wisdom, assured us we would need blogs. And as I said above, from the university interviews, I definitely did! So the art blog was born, and I plan on catching up on everything after FMP!
Has having your own blog led to anything exciting yet?
Unfortunately, due to recent lack of blogging, my blog is lacking interest. Hopefully I will fix this over the summer and the people of the internet will flock to me, like shopoholics to a sample sale, but this is probably also wishful thinking, I will just have my lovely friends following me as I get over excited when I learn to use a loom (A LOOM!) in university.
But who knows?
What do you like to blog about the most? Should it all be work, work, work? Why/why not?
Because I have various different blogs, I have categorized my blogs into what they will be about, but my art blog is by far my favorite, mostly because I like to showcase my work off, in a casual way, and I can write whatever else I like on there.
Whilst most of the art blog is work, I put (and will be putting) other things on there, things that inspire me, artists/designers I am researching, videos, etc etc. You can really home your blog to perfection, make it sleek and flawless and showcase your best work up there, but I personally prefer to have a casual blog, where I can write about each project and individual pages should I want too, I like a blog full of mish mashed stuff that people can poke around in like an old vintage shop.
FMP work.
my trip to the V&A
articles from magazines
the difference between my chairs, painted and unpainted
the pine table repainted
LACE EFFECT PROCESS
line the table with masking tape
line the rest of the table with newspaper
use craft spray to keep lace attached to table
cover lace in spray paint
wait a few minutes then peel lace off...
voila, lace effect table runner.
this was my first attempt and it didn't work so well, but third time was the charm!
Research on fabrics
colour mood boards
watercolour drawing
line drawing of leaves (this later became my most important print)
analyzing images to be turned into prints
