Don't Step on the Floral Army!

A year-ish ago I posted pictures of my Floral Army Draught Set. It's one of those pieces I love for its little bit of kitschness which I think is more personality peeking through, making a made break for freedom and then hiding again. I always wanted to make necklaces and earrings out of them as some of my simple pieces but I never did because the MDes got in the way. Until Thursday.

Now normally I'd go for the Douglas Adams rule of "I never could get the hang of Thursdays", but on this particular one, I needed to make a birthday present for my friends little girl, Kirsten, who turned 4 on Saturday. I made her most of her present a couple of weeks ago, a knitted momerath after she saw the Alice in Wonderland window my sister and I had made for work.

Now is it just me or does this photo make him look like he's in a line up?

It was lucky I was depressed for a few days really because knotting all the hair on took me about a day and a half alone and I could sit and glaze over as I watched the West Wing.

Anyway, these are the first things I've made for a while and I'm just praying that she'll like them, because I'm rubbish for buying presents for kids and being able to make things comes in really handy. Now what the hell to I make my friends son, Mikey, for his birthday!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

I took the road less travelled by,

And that made all the difference.

Robert Frost

I have a little bit of news, I've been accepted onto the Masters of Design course at Duncan of Jordanstone for this September, so I shall be returning to the old university for another year. I'm excited, scared beyond belief and hopeful that it will be very valuable along with doing the Artist in Residency. It was all a bit of a rush and I think most of my friends assumed I’d decided not to make an application, but I think this is right.

Anyway I’ve been working on a few new design using quite chunky hollow forms on different earring fittings as well as playing with the draughts idea again...

Hollow Form Earrings (White Precious Metal)

Hollow Form Earrings (White Precious Metal)

Found Object Draughts Set (Buttons on Ceramic Tile)

Obviously this isn’t a finished piece – if it was I think I might be certified – but ideas come in all shapes and forms, in this case me scribbling on one of the tiles on my workbench in permanent marker and emptying a pencil case full of buttons all over my workrooms floor (I seriously keep finding them everywhere, I think they’re breeding!). I just really like the idea of using buttons for some of the travelling pieces, mostly because I just like buttons when they’re set like a traditional cabochon, but also because it does fit in with the travelling theme.

Think about it this way. How many buttons have you lost while you’ve been out? They wouldn’t give spare buttons on shirts/trousers/coats or give you sewing kits when you’re on holiday if I was seriously the only person ever to have done that. You go off on holiday and you drop things and you think bugger, I actually needed that. You always see buttons and coins and things dropped by people as they go about their lives and I love that.

It’s like seed dispersal but in button form.

Travelling Draughts Set

Travelling Draughts Set: Silver and Stone Resins

As I have spent the past few months making my larger scale Chess sets, before I went to New Designers I thought it would be interesting to play around with scale and so I came up with this simple Drafts design. My intent is to make this design like a travel game and have it magnetized and possibly use either found objects or enamel in order to have have a more colourful and playful game.

When I was in London I talked to another designer who chose to approach his final year by making toys and a chess set. He made this amazingly fun and colourful design based on children cheating in the very formalised game. Chess Boy's approach (as referred to by my friends, his actual name is Thomas) and the number of children who I talked too during the two shows have made me want to make a set which is not only more affordable, but also more playful and childish. Even I admit my Parliament set is quite severe.