03/10/2020
Hi everyone! I haven’t posted for a while so I thought I would update you as to what I have been doing! I have survived my first week at college 🙌🏽. I’m now a fully fledged full time student at the age of 48🤣. Am I mad? Probably! Is it going to be worth it? Definitely! So I’m studying for a BA(hons) in Conservation of Stone, Wood and Decorative Surfaces. This covers stone carving, wood carving, stone and wood conservation, gilding, japanning, drawing and lots of other craft modules. We will also be studying chemistry to learn the correct formulas and solutions involved in cleaning stone, plus History of Art and History of Architecture! So, very full on. Plus we will be working on pieces lent to the college by galleries, churches, museums and private clients. The teaching has been a bit different due to Covid and our class has been divided into two smaller bubbles so that we can socially distance sufficiently in the studios. All lectures are online which has worked ok so far. Our first project is learning how to model a relief image using clay. We had to construct a clay bed to a depth of 3cm. Then transfer an image onto the clay using a thin needle. Then the image was removed and the dots joined. We then learned the process of building up each area starting with the highest first to allow the different heights to be created. The image I was given is quite tricky and it’s taken a couple of days for me to get my head around the techniques but I’m happy that it is kind of resembling the image😂. Once we’ve finished, the clay will be kiln fired and we’ll be gilding sections of it in future sessions. My class is lovely and we’ve already been to the pub for drinks🍷. I hope I can make it through the three years as it’s only early days!! Finally, if you’ve made it to the end of this post😂, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone that’s supported me in my many ventures over the last few years including my most recent foray into the world of upholstery. I haven’t given up on upholstery, in fact a lot of these elements can work well alongside traditional upholstery which is definitely something I’m keeping in mind. Hopefully you’ll be interested to follow my progress and I’ll post pictures when I have something worth showing! Enjoy your weekend.###
