One of my wire models made into a repeat pattern. 

Visualisation using one of my drawings. 

Two love birds perching on top of a lamp for the romance section. 

In these drawings I am looking at using wire mesh for making the birds and how it actually works as a surface pattern.

 

For the children's section I plan to make playful, simplified and colourful birds.

These more stylised paintings/drawings are looking at the birds as three dimensional models in situ. I like the idea of the models hanging from thread as though they are taking off. 

Initial Drawings for Commission Project

These watercolour and pen paintings are the start of my sketch book work for the commission project.

Inspiration for Commission Project

A Dark Day in Paradise - Claire Twomey

Claire Twomey undertook a commission piece in the royal Brighton Pavilion. She made three thousand black ceramic butterflies and covered the ornate banquet hall with them. Her beautiful yet slightly sinister butterflies signify the end of a extravagant and hedonistic era.

Location for my Commission Piece

For the commission project I'm basing my work on Richard Booth's Bookshop in Hay on Wye, 'the 'town of books'. I have taken my inspiration from Claire Twomey's 'A dark Day in Paradise' (above). Because of all the beams in the bookshop I thought it would be the perfect place to do a project on birds. 

All  the different genres in the bookshop lend themselves well to different bird species. For example the collective noun for a crow is 'a murder of crows' which would be appropriate for the crime section of the shop. I am thinking of working in wire and paper.

Finished screen - upholstered in two different fabrics

The finished article displayed in Bonington Atrium! Upholstering my screen took a lot of time, far more than I had anticipated. The first panel took a day and a half to complete but by the time I upholstered the third screen it only took me three hours. It was very fiddly work and required me to be very systematic which does not come naturally to me!

I've never worked on such a large scale before so it was a very daunting project but I'm very pleased with the outcome. 

I looked everywhere for wood to upholster and turn into a folding screen/room divider. I looked at trellis' in garden centres, went to car boot sales and scoured Ebay but didn't come across anything suitable.

I finally went to Radford reclamation yard and found three beautiful oak wardrobe doors which came with hinges and were exactly what I was looking for! My Dad haggled the price down to £25 so they were a bargain.

Screen printed fabric to upholster my folding screen

This is my final design screen printed onto fabric. After several trial runs exposing different drawings onto screens this was the image I settled on. I chose the background colour so it wouldn't be too overpowering on a large scale when used to upholster the panels of my screen.

Initial Drawings for the Gallery Project - Sycamore Seeds

My drawings developed into a pattern to screen print on to fabric.

My initial drawing of sycamore seeds.