All done and dusted.........At last!

Well the exhibitions preview evening went off great with plenty of guests arriving to see our work and have a glass of wine or two and a few nibbles.  Personally I had quite a few people interested in my work and it was lovely to be able to talk to them and explain my ideas and techniques.  The conversations were sometimes intense as I described how and why I have done this work.  A lot of positive feedback was received and an invitation to exhibit in another gallery opening for contemporary art work in Lincoln. 

The week leading up to the opening was tiring and to say a few of the group were stressed would be an understatement.  I assisted in the sanding down of the gallery walls, filling the holes and painting them; painting plinths; moving arranging and painting of my baords and plinths and collecting the glasses for the wine.  It took me about 5 hours to put my work up, secure it with blots, screws and anything I could so it wont go walkies!!!  By the lunchtime on the Friday I was happy with my area in the foyer. 

On the evening itself i arrived early : 1. to make sure none of my work had fallen off or the walls collapsed and 2. to set up the drink and nibbles tables.  This was assisted eventually by a couple of close friends from my BA course who agreed to wait on for the evening (for a box of yummy chocs).  They arrived in time to finish laying out the food for me and to open the wine ready to serve. 

After a very tiring 2 hours all guests left and the group went for a celabratory drink, I however remained with the waiting staff to tidy away to remenants of indulgence so the gallery and foyer where in a suitable condition for the following day.  Eventually leaving over a hour after the others I decided my bed was in order as I had to be up early to wash the glasses and get them back to Sainsburys.

All in all everything has gone as planned my dissertation is written, also my dissemination is complete apart from the Introduction which will be done this week.  Once they are both printed and bound they can be handed in for assessment and hopefully my Masters Degree.

Update On Opening Evening

Spent quite a few hours at the Architecture building sorting out the gallery space and my area to exhibit.  Along with moving the remaining work from the Graduating Architecture students that had the gallery prior to us I have been painting, painting and more painting.  My area has had a couple of coats of fresh paint so that is now ready for my work to go up later in the week.  the gallery area has been cleared and painted with a couple of fresh coats of gleaming white paint and is in the process of having the floor cleaned to remove old, dried paint.  This is one aspect I can not assist in because of my disability but I will be with them in spirit. 

When planning out where my work was to be mounted on the boards I have decided to add a couple of plinths as well, one containing my portfolio and another with a past piece of work from my BA that I think will show where all my ideas for the MA came from.  For this though I had to dig out my old plinths from the garage and re-paint them over the weekend.  I have also sorted the problem of how to hang the work securely as it will be open to the public and I don't want anything to happen to it.  I have used security mounts of all apart from the plinth piece which will be bolted down. 

I have designed and built a website today that is www.donnamjames.vpweb.co.uk  it is a basic site and hopefully I will expand on it in the future but it covers everything I need at present. 

I am now going to spend a few hours editing and finalising my Dissertation after it was deemed fine to submit last week by my Tutor.

More Strenuous Work To Come.

The past two weeks has consisted of meetings, cross referencing and editing of my publication.  With the meetings we as a student group have consolidated or individual tasks and have begun to set up our exhibition space.  This has involved building plinths, filling, sanding and painting walls and still left to do is the cleaning of the floor areas.  We have also arranged invitations which I emailed out at the beginning of the week for the opening evening on the 10th September and we have put into place everything required for that night.  I have arranged some friends to come along and help serve drinks and nibbles to our guests and my daughter, wanting to be involved, has offered to greet and direct people on the evening.  As the exhibition will be open until 17th September we still have to arrange invigilating sessions so at least one person will be in the gallery at any given time during the week to protect the work but also to answer any questions the viewers may have. 
Personally I have sanded down the gallery walls, re-filled where necessary and re-sanded.  I attempted to paint about 5 meters of wall space before deciding I should really be starting on my specific area just outside the gallery in the foyer.  I have chosen this area because of the high glass windows opposite the site that will help reflect the array of colours within my pieces, showing them to their best.  With this area I have four large timber boards that have been joined together in a vertical 'U' shape, these have then been sanded down and at the moment been given one coat of pure white paint.  Another coat or two will come next week ready for mounting my work on Thursday and Friday.

As for my Dissertation, I had a meeting with my Tutor yesterday and he has recommended I move one paragraph from the end of the Introduction to the beginning of the piece and add a few more words.  Apart from that it will be just the final editing, little grammatical mistakes that the more you look over it you see less of!  Then it is off to the printers and get the two copies required for marking printed and bound. 

Off to see if there is any more work to do in the gallery but will post an update next week before opening night.

Last Hurdles

I have spent the past couple of months writing up my research from the work I have completed over the past 5 years at University. The culmination of work has led to me being able to write a book for publication later in the year, though I have had two offers from publicists i have yet to decide what I am going to do.

Three of the chapters from the book are going to form my Masters Dissertation. This has been the main focus of my life lately, trying to combine all that I wanted to convey to the assessors and tutors but not writing too much. Overall I have condensed my dissertation to approx 15,000 words and that was hard going as when I start writing I seem to have so much information I need to have down on paper (or screen as the case may be). Today I have hopefully managed to edit it and it is now ready to go to my Mentor for a final proof read then it is off to the printers to be printed on good quality paper and bound in a hardback cover ready to hand in for assessment the middle of September.

Along with the written work I am finalising my practical work by getting it suitable to be mounted on a wall and then wrapped and boxed safely for transporting to our Final Exhibition. We have been holding regular meetings to discuss and arrange this exhibition and all seems to be on target for the opening night on September 10th 2010 at the University of Lincoln Architecture Building, (that's the big square looking building you can see from the road on the Brayford Campus). My role for the exhibition is collating a mailing list of professionals and VIPs to whom I will send an official invitation to the opening night. Along with this I will be organising any other guest numbers so I can monitor the footfall for the Health & Safety aspect of organising an exhibition. I have volunteered to be the H&S, Fire & First Aid person for the evening involving ensuring there is suitable access for everybody, fire exits remain clear, first aid and fire equipment are located within easy reach, there are no trip hazards, electrical problems and generally making sure all that attend and my Peers are safe. So now I will spend the next day or so writing up risk assessment forms, checking fire equipment and first aid boxes at the venue in preparation.

There is another meeting tomorrow to arrange a rota to assist with the re-decoration of our gallery space that will hopefully start on Friday, so we will have plenty of time to make to area suitable for our needs.

Getting there....slowly!

I passed the second part of the course so now it is full on for the negotiated written practise and the dissemination. We have been meeting regularly to discuss our final show to be held 10th to 17th September in the Architecture Building at the University of Lincoln. I am compiling the mailing lists for the invitations and assisting anywhere my help is needed, painting, sanding etc. Our catalogue is going to the printers asap so the statements and photographs have to be ready this week. Dave at the University has helped me with my photographs and it has been great watching him at work, far better than anything I can do in my workshop even though I have the correct camera etc the lighting isn't up to scratch and that makes all the difference when photographing copper.

My written work is going slowly. I started by writing a couple of outlines for chapters for my book but then my Tutor asked for a synopsis and to find out what the publishers actually wanted. This I did so I wrote the book proposal and the synopsis and prepared to complete the first two chapters all ready for marking and sending to the publishers. However my Tutor has now suggested that I just write the two main chapters within the book, one on the preparation and application of the essential oil patina and one on patinas in general. The first one isn't too bad to write as it is what I have to do every time I produce a piece of work and the process of what I have been experimenting with for the past couple of years. The second chapter is going to be a bit more of a challenge as I am required to cross reference my work with that of pieces already in use. This may prove difficult as no one else has used this type of patination before, but I think I will just have to reference other types of patination that are generally used. I like a challenge though.

Final stretch.

Well all the practical work has been completed and I am now on the final part of my MA at last. I assume I passed the Major Project as I am continuing! however there is still a fair bit of work to do.



I am now between researching and writing for my final dissemination on Copper. This will involve looking into the use of essential oils as a patina for architects/designers/craftsmen as well as the economic and ecological issues surrounding patination as is done today. The research is tough going as this is a new concept so there is not alot out there to reference so I will have to back my theories up with evidence from the environmental and financial impacts.

We are also in the throws of organising our final show which will take place at the University of Lincoln Architecture Building at the beginning of September 2010.

Back to the grindstone

I am back at last having had a few months away from the workshop and computer. I have now got to catch up on some work as my MA has started again (though a bit later than I originally thought).

I have been back in the workshop for a couple of weeks and completed a couple of new pieces the pictures will be posted shortly. I am now trying to finish my paperwork side ready for submission next week. The only thing left then is to write my Dissertation or book as I have chosen to do. Not a lot then.

Update on MA

Due to increasing medical problems I have had to defer my Masters Course for a minimum of 6 months to try and recover fully. I will be trying to complete some work in this time but it will be a slow process as I would like to start back in April/May 2010 with 100% effort and enthusiasm. If I do complete anything I will post a new blog.

External Examiner Meeting

Well my work went in to be marked internally then this week the external examiner came to chat to us. My meeting went well and I managed to express what my thoughts and ideas so she understood my work so far. However I was informed that even though my practical work was good and I had submitted more than was required my written work had unfortunately let me down. After a chat with my course leader and my mentor I have decided the best course of action is to re-submit my work in September along with my final unit. This will hopefully give me time to elaborate on my technical processes within my written work and get that couple of percent extra I need to pass.

To say I was gutted at the result is an understatement, after spending the past 26 years taking at least one exam a year it is the first time I haven't passed one since I left school at 17. I wont say I failed just that it wasnt what was required so I will do it right next time!!

So I have spent the day trying to make head way on the written work by re-writting all of the technical stuff I had marked in my first part. I have rehashed it and adapted it to coincide with my current work. Fingers crossed this will be on the right lines this time, a tutorial next week will tell!!

I will be making one more practical piece as well and this time I will try to use various patinas and various techniques all within the one piece of work. I think it will be extremely abstract but it will show my skills and research to the full.

2nd Part of MA submitted

After a couple of busy weeks in the workshop I have at last finished the practical part of my MA. It was submitted last week to be internally marked and will be externally marked next week when I meet the examiner for an interview.

Now for the final part of the course in which I have to write a 10,000 word piece on my subject and display my work in an exhibition. The exhibition will be in September in Greestone, the Fine Art building of the University, dates to follow. I need to have a look at the space that I will have available to exhibit and start to organise the fittings and lighting for my pieces. I will also be co-ordinating the mailing list between the MA Design students and the MA Fine Art students who we will be sharing the show with. This calls for some logic and lots of emails and letters.

For the written work I have decided to submit a few chapters of a book which I hope to have published in the future (once it is finished). I have been in touch with a few publishers and a couple are interested in the idea so fingers crossed. As for the initial chapters, I have already researched quite a lot but there are still some of the background areas that require looking into in more depth. I have written a few chapters though in no particular order as yet so when I have a few more I can start to collate them. I will eventually require around 60 to 80,000 words for the book so the initial 10,000 is going to be hard to choose for submission.

Weekly update

I have spent more time in the workshop this week and things are progressing slowly. I have decided that my classical figures piece needed to come off the background frame that I had made as it wasn't quite right. I have now added copper tube to the reverse side and decided to have them placed individually on a wall with dowel to support them. That way they can be moved around and you can have a different piece of wall art at your leisure. For the purpose of my final show exhibition I have made a backing baton to fit the dowels into save having to drill several holes in the wall at the exhibition. This can them be attached to the wall by just 3 screws with the pieces still being able to move locations.

The final piece of work is underway. I spent most of the week piercing the figure out of a foot square piece of copper. The figure now is depicted in the positive and the negative forms. At present it is soaking having it's patina formed. i will probably have to leave it a couple of days as the weather has got colder and it will take longer to form the desired effect. I could move it into the house but it could then form too quickly and I would miss the finish I want. the backing for this piece is a curved piece of plywood that I have cut and polished with beeswax ready for the figure to be attached. The beeswax has brought out some of the grain in the wood but is mainly for a protective natural coating.

Sometime this week I will be trying to put together all of my pictures and design work in to a portfolio for the examiners to mark. Maybe some extra research if I haven't got enough information on what I am trying to portray.

I'm back.

The past couple of months have been quite hectic...I got married and went on honeymoon and now I am back to finish the second part of my Masters.

This part is more practical based for me with some design work documented. I have been in the workshop and produced 2 definite pieces of work, one that needs adapting and another one ready to be worked on.

The first piece involves 4 foot square pieces of 0.7mm copper that have an embossed design of the female form depicted. The figure itself has a patina of Worcestershire sauce and wood shavings on it. The outer flat area has been heated gently to create a warm yellow colour to highlight the figure. The 4 squares have then been fix together by copper tube soldered to the back on the outside edges. The piece hangs well on the wall and could be fitted into a frame if the client required.

The second completed piece involves a slightly different patina of essential oils. I used 4 different oils in different areas of the female figure that is embossed on a single oblong of 0.7mm sheet copper. The central figure is of a different design from the 1st piece but keeping within the same form of a total posed figure. This has then been riveted on to a piece of slate with copper rivets and washers. As this piece is heavy I have designed a stand for it to be displayed on but clients could have it wall mounted depending on the wall fixtures and quality of the wall it is to be placed on.

I am back in my workshop today to complete the third piece of six individual figures in a classical style that have a soy sauce and wood shavings patina.

The blog will now be updated on a regular basis to keep up to date with the progress.

Back to the workshop

It's been a while since my last blog but now I am back in the driving seat. The first part of my Masters work has been handed in, marked and I have passed. That is the Postgraduate Certificate completed and now I am working on the practicle side for the Postgraduate Diploma which is due at the end of May.

I have had to have a couple of months off due to a medical condition I have that flared up but i am getting back into the swing of things again. I have started on three new pieces of work on a larger scale than I have previously done. All will be wall hangings of one form or another and are from a new range of designs. Using the natural shape of the female form I hope to combine this with the natural patinas I have been experimenting with.

Having spent some time away from the workshop I am now ready to get back to the grind and am really looking forward to it.

Donna M James: Lincoln Christmas Market

Donna M James: Lincoln Christmas Market

Due to some drainage problems at the venue, my work wont be on show/sale there due to Health & Safety issues.

Lincoln Christmas Market

My work will be on display and for sale at the Lincoln Christmas Market this coming weekend. The Market starts at around 4pm on Thursday and goes on all over the weekend through to Sunday evening

Check out the Terrace Workshops by The Collection you will see my work in one of the studios there.

Research, writing, research, writing?

After a lot of thought and soul searching it is time for my to actually start putting pen to paper.....well fingers to keyboard! I have started my report for Preparation for Major Project, (the Major Project is practical work that I will start after Xmas) and it is going OK. I have managed two chapters and still have another two to do before the conclusion. then it's just all the setting out stuff that always seems to take forever.
After being in lectures today I have now got my presentation on my mind. What medium should I present my work in? PowerPoint? Lecture? Hands-on? Video? So many ideas and so little time but I will just have to work through them and see what reflects my work best. I don't particularly want to do the PowerPoint as it seems uninteresting and old-hat so watch this space to see what I eventually decide to do.
Over the next week or two I will have my report completed and hopefully checked by my Mentor and have the presentation on it's way. I would like to have it all sorted by Xmas as it all has to be ready for the 5th January and I would like some time off over the holidays.
Anyway back to the research, writing, research, writing.

Update

All of my testing is now complete and the results written up. I have also mounted the test pieces on board for presentation purposes. My pictorial log book is almost finished just a bit of colouring in to do!!! I have actually done some sketches that look like what they are supposed to be for a change. I am not keen on drawing at all, I really have to be in the mood and alone with my music on. The lecture paper work is up to date so no problems there. I have still to write a report on my findings and prepare a presentation but they don't have to be ready until the second week in January. I would ideally like to get them done before Xmas but we shall have to see. So for the next couple of days I will be out of the workshop and updating my written log book.

I have a crafts fair on Saturday to try and sell some of my older work as it is beginning to mount up in the workshop and apart from moving it around it hasn't seen the light of day in a year. That's what makes me think it's time to get shot.

Half way through 1st Semesta

It's the beginning of November and my testing and experimentation is well under way though the test results have been rather different than what I was expecting. Then isn't that what experiments are for? I have now completed tests with flame, plastic wrap and sawdust on 120 pieces and getting ready for the final part with fruit and veg. It sounds unusual but the results are amazing on sheet copper.

I am conducting the testing in my workshop and as I have no proper ventilation I have decided to use any non chemical products. As well as this being safer for me personally it is also better for the environment.

My learning plan for my course has just been handed in as a draft so we will wait and see what amendments are needed after it has been marked. I will probably have to elaborate a bit more on where I will be going with the course and work involved.

Lectures have almost finished and have been enjoyable, we have been looking in to research into Design and Entrepreneurship. We have a few visiting lecturers in the next couple of weeks so that will benefit us hearing from others how they practise.

I am up to date with my lecture work, though I cant complete my log book until all of the testing has been done. The rest of the written phase is plodding along nicely. I have compiled my pictoral log but need to add some sketches and drawings of what my final design will be. I have been encouraged to carry on with the female form theme but it will be slightly different as I will be taking on a Cubism/Modernist slant and abstracting the form. Dont know how this will turn out until I have sketched and made some models. Any ideas on a postcard to............

Getting going again.

It's now mid October, a while since I have visited here. Since my last blog I have had my work at The Ropewalk near Hull and brought it home again to go into storage for a while until I decide whether to sell it or keep it for myself as a reminder of where I started.

My MA in Design has begun and I must say I am enjoying the theoretical side more than I thought I would. It is quite in depth but the discussions are fantastic. We seem to be able to delve in to the subject then take it off at a tangent and back to it as though nothing had happened. The group seem to be getting along ok and though there are 4 crafts people there is a good mix of other practitioners as well. It is interesting to talk to the others and get an insight to their work, you never know it might rub off and i will have some thing to break my creative block!

I have been in the workshop conducting some experiments with my new materials and the results are not as I thought they might be though still useful. That said I am logging all the results and starting on other ideas of patination. All of the research and tests will be part of my thesis at the end of the MA so I will have to keep them under wraps at present as i can't find evidence of anyone else using the materials I am. As for the Major Project involved in this course, this is where my creative block comes in. I have no idea what I want to produce, my course leader would like me to carry on with the female form but i would prefer to embark on something different. I am interested in African and Aboriginal art so that is one direction, we shall have to wait and see.

Family commitments have slowed things down a bit over the past month or so as my daughter has been in hospital but thankfully she is on the mend, though more visits to outpatients to come.

I have had a commission to engrave some champagne flutes with names in Chinese (something I taught myself to do a few years ago). The clients, who I met on holiday in Turkey were happy with them and have recently ordered another couple. Things on the up in that department though not what I though I would be doing after Graduating.

As there is no funding for MA courses I am also looking for part time employment locally but after applying for several positions I still have nothing. Anyway I will update regular as this is also part of my course!! Unless I actually work out how to set up my own website and I will use that.

Next Exhibition

I am just back from a 2 week break in Turkey and building up momentum to produce some new pieces. I have also been invited to exhibit at The Ropewalk Gallery in Barton Upon Humber, North Lincolnshire ( 13th-28th September 2008). I don't think I will have any new pieces ready for then as I am also working on my research for my Masters and at the moment that has to take preference. I will update my blog regularly as to how the work is going.