Graduation

Because of the Olympics our Graduation was in October rather than July, so it seemed a long time removed from the course. However it was so lovely to catch up with everyone and find out what they'd been up to that it was better in October as everyone had more stories to tell.

It was a beautiful day, the sun shone, the setting was superb and made a great finale to what was a tough final year. I certainly felt pleased and proud of my achievements.

With hubby John, who was so supportive throughout the whole course

With Ollie and Jules and ?

With Phil

With Lissy and Jules

The Plumpton Girls!

Clockwise top l-r Clare, Ollie, Phil, Ben, Alan, Suzy, Harriet, Lissy, Russell, Jules, Lynda

Class of 2012 - hats in the air!

Getting back to normal

Whatever normal is! Decided to ignore the weather and have a few days out. Went to Stansted Park on the Hampshire/Sussex border and whilst I thought the garden was forgettable I did like the Arboretum, it had enormous Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea' (Purple Beech), from the outside very dark purple leaf but under the tree looking out a beautiful green colour, hundreds of years old I would think.

Tuesday we decided to go east to get the best of the weather and spent the day on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway, it was great fun. They have a museum and spent five years building a model railway which was brilliant, quite an inspiration for anyone wanting to make a model of their masterplan!

The engines are in immaculate condition - this one is called Dr. Syn!

Stopped off in Dungeness and went to see Derek Jarman's garden, the weather was really bleak by now and the garden was very colourful and 'pretty'; I wondered if it was too pretty for the landscape; there is something quite beautiful about the bleakness of the surrounding beach and the wildness of the flowers that have self sown over time. What I did like was the way driftwood and other items had been used as sculpture in the garden.

The tall driftwood mimics the pylons in the background

Exhibition launch and end of year party...

It was a lovely evening, everyone was so relaxed. The 2nd years organise a hog roast and make salads and cakes etc for all us completely exhausted 3rd years and MA students. Friends and family get a chance to look at all the work displayed and meet people we've spent the last year with. I took my camera with the intention of taking a few photos to capture the evening but forgot until the end so quite a few people had already left. Still, as ever the hard core remain!

It was lovely to meet Susan Willmott as I enjoyed
her blog of  her 3rd year and I also had the same pinning up spot

Will

Phil enjoying a drink after a hard days work

Ian should get an Honoury degree!

Sally

Ben and Harriet

Nick finalising his presentation - oops - a bit late for that!

I hope the examiners weren't as confused as these guys!

Grant doesn't seem quite sure!

Jules and Sprog,  relaxed and having fun

Lissy enjoying being with her Mum
(don't have a photo of her gorgeous brothers, very proud of their little sister)

A lovely evening, thank you ladies

Final Exhibition

Yesterday was the final hanging for our end of year exhibition, it was a really good day with a great atmosphere, even though we were all completely exhausted. A year ago when I visited last years exhibition I couldn't imagine how I would get from where I was to having a wall full of work, but I did it, and am pleased with what I've done. My final presentation is on Thursday morning, so 2 days off now which is a weird feeling.

A few other pictures from the day...

Phil smiling for the camera!

Zanna and Alex

Russell and Lissy, it was great Russell was there for the final pin up,
I missed him these last few months, but hopefully now he's well on
the road to recovery along with Evelyn

Setting Out

Pleased to get this page finalised. Two more construction details to do which shouldn't take too long. Printed most of my A1's today and can now finish them off by hand. Still need to work on my sketches.

I feel slowly but surely that I'm approaching the finishing line, keep making lots of notes as I'm very tired and it is easy to get confused. Four days to go to the final pin-up - is that really possible?

setting out plan for 1:50

Construction details

In the final 2 weeks now and concentrating on making amendments to all work and the construction drawings. Had a workshop yesterday which was very useful, most of my drawings are done in rough but there is some detail missing and also how I describe different elements needs to conform with standard technology. Need to set out the 1:50 plan but I know where I'm going with that now.

So a real push now in the final 2 weeks to finish things and get the printing done. Got the final schedule this morning so it is frighteningly real and very close!

Reflection

I've gone back through my work and my 1:200 sketches were quite a step forward for me and were a good mix of hand drawn and photoshop with some good comments and direction on the crit sheets; I didn't take it on board at the time because it wasn't one of the best crits for me, a strong dose of PG's Tips with no added sugar knocked my confidence on hand drawing so I went a bit overboard with photoshop on the 1:50. I can see it now, sometimes I'm so caught up in the process I don't see the wood for the trees.

I've spent today hand drawing sketches for the 1:50 and I think they look so much better, still more to do on them but I think I'll get there.