Recently I've been....attempting a week-in-my-life diary

A week in my life from March 9th to 15th (One week before the closure of theatres, pubs, cinemas; all social gatherings)

Hello, welcome back to another blog post. If you're a regular to this little space of the internet- I don't know, you might be!- you'll have noticed a slight gap in between each post and this is because I have been juggling many things, I've been very busy, and I've found uploading every other week much more manageable. So that's what I've done; I've been creating, writing, living and for the past few weeks washing my hands more than ever before in such a close amount of time!

So I am attempting to track my week this week and create a little diary to share here on my beloved blog. I've been trying to do this for a few weeks now and I remember until a certain point in the day, get to the end of it and realise I have taken no photos. I'll start again tomorrow... only tomorrow I forget and so goes the cycle. This week however I've stuck to it (it is Thursday as I type this section so balls are still in the air) and I'd like to share it not only for people who may be interested but also myself. A visual diary if you will. 

What I do in a week- what I will say is that my weeks range rather a lot and every week is entirely different. I like this to an extent where It's difficult to get bored however I'm a fan of routine and structure which can go to pot if I'm the horse and the driver. 

This week I've had more independent study days than what has been normal. This is essentially days without planned lessons to catch up with samples and get into my project, generating ideas and creating work I'm happy with. Before I witter on any more than needed, here is my week...

Monday (9th)- International Women's day

My blog post on my role models

After this week I have two weeks left until I hand in my project to be marked. This means finishing samples, updating and completing my sketchbook, creating visualisations and writing an evaluation. It sneaks up on you those hand in days and so this week requires a lot of work and progress- even if the progress doesn't feel that huge. 

Today I scoured magazines and the internet to find images for my visualisations. Visualisations are where you present your work within existing products to provide a visual for what a typically small sample will look like. For my current project, I'm exploring fashion for menswear and so I was looking for garments with white sections- these work best for digitally editing later. Once I'd found some in magazines I scanned them into the computer. 

I sorted my A3 sketchbook. And by sort, I mean organising the piles of work and research onto pages. The workload I generate triples every day which means I have to keep up with myself and secure everything down with annotation of my ideas. 

Sewing a sample. Typically this takes a long time as it's cutting, measuring and actually sewing together. I like to be precise which means that it can take a good few hours.

Tuesday (10th)-

Finished the sample I was working on yesterday...

I sorted some more of my sketchbook and generated more ideas for samples. I do this by using my photos and research to make drawing and collages which turn into design ideas. Organising my book is essential for organising my mind and reducing stress. 

I also use this time to separate work into my technical file which is a folder full of techniques/ workshops, stating how you did them with your own personal notes. It's for future reference when you get stumped for how to make an idea become reality. 

On sunny days, I set up a little photo station in the garden to take good quality images of my work. Today was sunny on and off and so I set up my flat top drying rack (traditionally for clothes) with a white piece of card on top. I then secure my samples down with blue-tac and...well...take pictures. I love making this effort for my photos as they will always come in useful.

Wednesday (11th)

First thing I poured all of my already mixed heat press inks into jam jars- so cute and I feel less nervy about carrying them around if I need to which I so often do.

At lunchtime, I met with a friend who I haven't seen in a while and it was lovely to see her. We sat outside in the sun and wind and had a little catch-up.

Sandwiched into my afternoon was a digital lesson which I always love. Here I created visualisations on Photoshop. Below is an example of one out of three I completed today. I am also due to print a digital design of mine onto fabric and so I was playing around on photoshop for this.

To end the day I started preparing for a heat press sample ready for the next day using painted up grounds and collage. I then mixed up more colours in heat press inks. 

For those of you reading that don't know the Heat Press process, I'm thinking of doing a post about this in full but essentially you mix up colours in your palette using the already made inks. This is challenging in the sence that you can't see the colour you're attempting to make as you paint it until you print it. You wait for it to dry on paper and press it in a really hot sandwich of metal and the colour comes out onto fabric. 

You can see from my sketchbook in the first image that some of the paint strips look like the same colour. I assure you that when pressed there are slight differences.

Previous Heat Press blog post: THE HEAT PRESS TECHNIQUE/ TUTORIAL AND CRAFT

Then I ate some McDonald's chicken nuggets as a late afternoon snack- no relation to my normal routine or anything in this post just thought I'd add my day's highlight.

Thursday (12)-

Printed a small heat press sample version of my large- this worked tremendously and so I continued and slightly altered my original plan, this happens and it's very much the aim to keep developing ideas. 
Burnt my finger on the heat press- it's like when you get an electric shock. (FYI this was very minor and there's no mark. Must. Wear. Gloves). 

Ate lunch outside in the sun and slight wind.

Tutorial- this is where you sit in a group with a lecturer and talk about your work. In total honesty, I don't like these as much as individual tutorials. I feel nervous and don't feel like I'm properly taking in the advice given to me about my work. Generally, I do find them helpful though and try to give encouragements to other students about their work- today not so much, the nerves took hold of my tongue.

Painted more paper with my heat press inks ready for collages.

Using a mannequin, I draped some of my samples to see what they looked like, reflect on what I'd done and generate more Ideas. Working with a set colour palette I tend to like my work if I like the colours which aren't always the best way to think. Today I hit the right chord which was such a breath after struggling with my work a lot recently. Example of a draped sample on a mannequin...

This week- and for the past few weeks- we've been told to crack down on hand washing and making sure that we are as germ-free as we can be. What with the coronavirus stats rising daily and constantly in discussions, everyone is aware of the risks and what we need to do. Saying this, it's second nature to touch your face throughout the day and I think its important to be conscious of this. Referring mainly to myself. A nervous mannerism I think is the right term; a nose scratch or moving hair out of my face.

I've seen a lot of people walking around wearing masks over there face. This kind of thing is becoming commonplace these days- especially around my department where typically we wear masks working around dye powders. This week alone there have been around 5 people with masks. The smell of hand sanitiser follows me around for most of the day. 

At the end of most days, I watch This Morning as I'm addicted to the good nature of it (and Holly's outfits), catch up on the Coronavirus news and eat dinner. I then get ready for the next day and either do work or relax depending on my mindset and whether or not I need a rest. 

Friday (13th)-

As I got on the bus today, the driver made a fever joke. He told the person at the front of the queue to scan their head to check for a temperature. I'm not too sure what the response was but there were many smiles and hastes to seats as per the norm.

Morning lecture.

Day of digital- I ended up creating 5 digital designs I'm really proud of. I also feel like this can help with creating practical work. 

Skeletal handwashing stations are now dotted around waiting for the sanitiser gel. At one point I could hear drilling outside the empty room I was working in. Only later did I find this new station- I wasn't being locked into the room.

Coronavirus nervy chats; more people are worried about the virus and its effects and so throughout the day, there were a lot of conversations about this topic that could be overheard. 

I ended today re-watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special after having it on in the background for the entire day- lush.

Saturday (14th)- 

Sketchbook catch up and research. 

Sunday (15th)-

Sketchbook catch up, collaging and a meeting with a fellow creative.

I also spent a couple hours around the shops. It was quieter than usual today, especially for a weekend. In supermarkets, many of the shelves are scarce, in particular canned food, toilet roll and hand wash. 

Thank you for reading, I'll be back soon!

Love,
Buddy xx

Previous post: Homemade and Low-Cost Mothers Day Flower Bouquet / Tutorial 

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