Can’t Make It To The Degree Show?

Here’s  a little look at some of the work I have on display

I’ll try to get some more photos up throughout the week.

 

 

I Always Take Something Back From My Travels Even If It’s Just A Story.

This collection focuses on the sentiment of mementoes and our urge to collect and store memories. Inspiration comes from my personal experiences and combining my  love of travel with my  fascination of architectural forms. I have created a collection of delicate yet structural pieces, which offer a tactile and tangible way to reminisce.

One Day We Will Look Back On This And Laugh

HELLLO!!!

Sorry it has been a bit quite here lately I have been super busy.

First of all we reached our kickstarter target! (YAAAAY) so will be heading off to London in June for New Designers. So a big big THANKYOU to everyone who supported, donated and shared out campaign, the support has been overwhelming and greatly appreciated.  You’ll all be getting little gifts and rewards sent out in the next few months.

In other news I have been busy preparing for assessments and degree show. So it has been a hectic few weeks of finishing pieces, painting, setting up spaces and presenting my work. However all of the stress is over  and I cannot wait for next Friday. The degree show Space is looking fantastic.

  

It’s also nice to have a little more time on my hands so I’ll try to use that to keep up to date on here.

Until then go have a little looky at my Facebook page and brand new website:

www.facebook.com/kmanzidesings

www.kirstenmanzi.co.uk 

We’ve been working our little butts off promoting our Kickstarter Campaign to get to New Designers and have made significant progress raising £1,770 so far however with only 5 days left time is running out and if we do not …

“Your mood doesn’t really matter. Some of the best creative work gets done on the days when you feel that everything you’re doing is just plain junk” Julia Cameron

I’ve been pretty bad at keeping this updated with what I’ve actually been doing and just been keeping people interested with little things I like…… SO (without giving too much away) this is what I’ve been up to the past few weeks:

Change of materials. From wood to paper to metal to acrylic to silver to paper to a combination of everything……to paper and silver……and now wood and silver. As well as some printing and etching and framing and making.

Hopefully gonna have a little collection of neck pieces and brooches.

(Maybe a lil something on the side if I’m feeling ambitious and have time)

Unrelated (although it is totally keeping me going) song of the moment:

paperfortressfilms.com

This could quite possibly be one of my favourite websites!

New Fave: David Tinto

“This series of aluminium and brass engravings collectively record the gradual dismantling and demolition of the largest Red Road tower block in Glasgow.” –  www.davidtinto.co.uk

‘Our House’ Olafur Eliasson

I need this book in my life (if only it wasn’t limited edition and extremely expensive)

Our house is a limited-edition artist’s book by Olafur Elaisson which was comissioned by the Library Council of MOMA in New York.  The visually appealing book consists of lasercut pages; negative impressions of the artists house allowing readers to make their way through the rooms of the house as they flick through.

AMAZING.

and sometimes it’s good to have things written down:

KID PRESIDENT PEP TALK

“STOP BEING BORING (you’re gooder than that)

ITS TIME TO DO SOMETHING

HELP EACH OTHER

BE ON THE PATH THAT LEADS TO AWESOME

GET A BETTER DREAM AND KEEP GOING

KEEP GOING KEEP GOING AND KEEP GOING

DO NOT QUIT (but you CAN retire)

THIS IS YOUR TIME

WE GOT WORK TO DO-DANCE ABOUT IT (don’t cry)

LETS GET OUT THERE

GET TO IT

CREATE SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE THE WORLD AWESOME”

“We were made to be AWESOME” Kid President

Wise words from a child in a suit in the run up to Degree Show (and for life in general):

Not.Enough.Time.

Making. Experimenting. Sketching. Designing. Degree Show. Concept. Context.  Fundraising. Pricing. Selling. Promoting. Galleries. Exhibitions. Press Packs. Business Cards. Postcards. Graduation. Grad Ball. New Designers. Travelling. Career. Future Plans.

“It’s a busy time of year, that’s for sure–the fun sort of busy, usually. But with that fun frenzy comes a pile of to-do’s, a mountain of stress, all the daily pressures that build up, little by little, until one day you realize there’s a pit of worry in your stomach. There’s a knot tangled with all the things that unsettle you. And you see that somewhere, in the midst of it all, you forgot to breathe.

 You think: No wonder they tell us to stop and smell the roses.” 

–Little Things and Curiosities

“A barrier is a limitation only when you perceive it as one.” ― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free

Amongst all of the making and writing and making and sketch-booking and making we have also been doing some Fundraising to help send some of us  to New Designers. New Designers is an exhibition for graduates and is a fantastic opportunity for young designers to showcase their talent, kickstart their career and get themselves and their work out into the “real world”

It’s pretty much the place to be!

Only 1  problem: FUNDS.  We gotta get a stand for New designers, get ourselves and our work to and from London and accommodate ourselves for 1 week. As full-time students we just don’t have enough £££ to do this by ourselves. That’s where YOU come in.

You can help a diverse group of talented, hardworking designers take an invaluable opportunity to launch their careers and show off their talent.  Have a look at our KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN to learn more about us, see some of us in action and see what YOU can do to be a part of it all. And remember in the words of TESCO “every little helps”…we might even give you a little something, just to say thanks. 

Good Advice

from the lovely Jane Gowans during one of our recent lectures 

(this isn’t her advice I just enjoy Marc Johns)

This is the advice…..

STAY BUSY

being motivated and hardworking are qualities that future employers are looking for. Work hard to get to where you want to be.

PROMOTE EVERYTHING

If you’re in an exhibition/entered a competition/working on a new piece….Whatever you’re doing post updates on the process. Promote it who knows what opportunities will come from it. 

NETWORK

Make genuine connections with people. Get to know people outside of your own discipline  Use social media. Talk to lots of people. Exchange business cards. Keep in touch.

BRACE YOURSELF FOR FAILURE

Nothing comes easy. If you want to be successful you have to work hard for it and be prepared to hit some bumps along the way.

Oh hey, I have a blog…

forgot about that for a while but hi, hey I’m still alive. Sorry been away watching Hart of Dixie.    AND writing a dissertation, working towards/having minor bursts of panics about this little degree show thing I have coming up…oh and Graduation…and New Designers. No big deal or anything.

Anyway here is a little photo update of what I have been up to: 

Apparently the next few months might be a bit stressful, exciting and very very very busy but

I’ll try to keep in touch.

Farewell for now.

GOLD: Every piece tells a story-Fairtrade Foundation

 

“My interest in architecture has always been sculptural. Most of my photography is of architecture.” Parker Stevenson

Photographic work on the architecture of buildings and large residential complexes Parisian years 1950-1970 by photography student Pierre-Luc Baron-Moreau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squares of colour

 

I really like these wall works by Peter Nencini. I love the collage style, the materials, composition, colours and textures. They remind me a little of paintings I saw in the degree show last year by Aimee Henderson….

Maybe just the colours or shapes….  Love ’em both anywaaay.

Little bit of Sunday afternoon thoughts & inspiration:

 

 

Ute Decker is a German born jeweller now working in London.  She has an ethical approach to her jewellery practice “actively engaged in campaigning for ethical ‘good practice’ from mine to jewellery-box” with this approach she creates beautiful sculptural pieces from recycled gold and silver.

 

Reading through her blog and al of the information on her website, Ute Decker really has been inspiring and encouraged me to think about jewellery in a different way, opening my eyes  to alternatives available whether that be materials or ways of doing things in the workshop. Part of my work is to enable the customer to see the journey of a piece, giving them an insight to how it has been made. Having an  “ethical ‘good practice’ from mine to jewellery-box” would allow my pieces to be traced right back to the materials they were made from, giving me the opportunity to give my work new meaning but also educate customers on the background of the pieces and the jewellery industry,

To look at more of Ute Decker’s jewellery and for information on ethical jewellery head over to utedecker.com 

 

The skyscraper establishes the block, the block creates the street, the street offers itself to man. Roland Barthes

Thinking about using some of these images to photo etch onto metal/laser cut other materias. I feel some experimenting in the next few days.

 

I was in love with New York. I do not mean ‘love’ in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never love anyone quite that way again. -Joan Didion

 

 

 

Some snaps from my time in NY.

 

 

 

“Aeon Profit – Piano Forte”

A5 is the collaboration of artists Annika Pettersson, Romina Fuentes, and Adam Grinovich, 3 contemprary jewellers from Sweden. Sinc 2008 “A5 has served as a forum for creative discussion and international cross-disciplinary collaboration.”

“Aeon Profit – Piano Forte” (2010) is a project by the contemporary jewellery collective A5 which explores the function and value of objects,

“In Stockholm one can find a piano at any time via internet forums. The value of these once precious tools for making music has dropped to absolute zero. A5 took this phenomenon as a starting point in questioning the value of objects, and re-purposed the entire piano into individual pieces of jewelry”

They have a variety of interesting projects on their website: www.afive.se