STEPHANIE JONES

I thought I should do a post about the strange project I (stupidly?) decided to undertake last week.

Our course’s degree show has just come to an end, but while we were preparing for it after our hand-in, I decided that because my portfolio was handmade, I wanted to create a more curated space rather than use a standard white IKEA table that the uni issues each of us.

Actually it was a little bit more of a winding road to that decision - I needed to hang up my pyjamas, and was unable to find a rail that was a) small enough to not dominate the degree show, and b) under £100.  So I did a quick Pinterest search and decided I’d create one out of wooden dowel and copper pipe fittings.

However, I still needed a slightly larger table than the standard ones as I wasn’t using a portfolio stand, so, after traipsing around IKEA and buying a new table, I decided to make a table in the same style as my rail.  Because doesn’t that sound like a fun idea, am I right?

Saying all this, I honestly loved making this table.  Walking back from Wickes and B&Q - three miles, I might add - with heavy wood and ridiculously long sticks of dowel, of course the thought popped into my head that the idea might be slightly ambitious.  But I’ve actually found it one of the most rewarding parts of my degree, as it doesn’t contribute to my grade whatsoever and was purely for my enjoyment and just simply to see if I could actually make a table single-handed!

This involved buying a saw myself and literally sawing on my bedroom floor, much to my flatmates’ amusement.  Great upper body workout though, I might add.

I really feel it was worth it in the end.  My degree show looks personalised but not jumble-sale-like, which it could easily have if I’d’ve used the IKEA table I’d bought.

And it’s a really rewarding to think that I created a piece of furniture out of nothing!  Makes you feel sort of invincible.

Finally coming to the end of this project!  It’s been months in the making, its final incarnation coming together in the last two weeks, but I am hoping to have it sent off to print by this evening.

Some rejected designs for my Hay Max rebrand.

I’m revisiting an old project - An Alternate Education - and am approaching it from a different angle.  Was dreading going back to doing watercolours but I don’t know why I was forcing it.  Half of me feels like I’m proud of my watercolours and I want them to be shown, but the other half feels like they’re not completely ‘me’, at least not yet.  Perhaps it’s something to experiment with in the summer, once I’m all handed in.

Here is René Leannec, the inventor of the stethoscope.  I’m pleased with these, and it feels like a combination (and culmination) of all my styles and experimentations this year.

Finally have all of these printed and finished!

Have stickers on their way in the post, and still need to print the wrapping paper, possibly make some flower cards (just smaller rectangular versions of these basically) and then photograph it all.

I also really really want to make my pyjamas with the Dracula pattern.

Playing around with this Pink Floyd cover...  It’s not looking quite as I’d hoped, and I don’t know why.  I also don’t think it’ll look like it fits in with the Kanye one.

Back to the English Grammar brief Eats, Shoots and Leaves - I’m looking into the difference between British and American grammar, as we share a language but have completely different cultures.  I’m approaching it through music, looking at how lyrics encapsulate the culture through the grammatical idiosyncrasies of our language.

These are some experiments with my first one - American rap music shown through Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights”.  The grammatical errors are glaringly obvious, but my larger point is challenging whether grammar has a place in artistic exploration.  I suspect it doesn’t anymore, as errors and colloquialisms are absolutely everywhere in modern music!

So, I printed out my envelopes and found a whole host of problems;  the size was too big, the pattern itself was too big, the card stock didn’t do it any favours and, worst of all, I hadn’t left any space for the name/address to go!

But I suppose these things become apparent through trail and error.

Here is the complete range of cards and accompanying patterns!  I’m so so pleased with them.

The most recent is The Invisible Man, a 1933 film based on H G Wells’ sci fi book of the same name.  I think the face is actually my favourite, so it was worth doing one last one.