The life of a textiles teacher: February 2012

Monday, 27 February 2012

Working backwards...

So this is what I should have done before I did the last post.... Design process and all that! BTEC firsts learn from my mistakes.....

Monday, 20 February 2012

So I haven't posted anything about the 14 year olds for a while - it is all about jewellery at the moment and things are proving to be moving pretty slowly at present which is frustrating, it is always hard when you have a set idea of what you want but no examples of previous work to reinforce this because it is a new project, and on top of this it doesn't help when your students are also new and considerably younger than those you are used to teaching on a daily basis, so lots of things get lost in translation - I WISH that there were more hours in the day so that I could do the projects myself! Life is also more hectic than ususal at the moment too with our impending adoption prep days and it just so happens that two of which fall on a Tuesday, which means I am not even going to get to see them until 3 weeks time, agghhhh!!! SO, in a DESPERATE bid I have done a little something which I hope Liz and Deborah will look at with them tomorrow.....

Basically...... They had a mechanical object like a clock, took it apart, drew the pieces, found a shape/piece they liked and then started experimenting with this one shape in terms of texture and scale (in theory), they have had a go at felt making, knitting, crochet, resin and latex casting so far, and now have to decide how to use these processes to create one or two pieces of jewellery - I am looking for things that are flamboyant, ambitious and well designed! My ideas below are just a start and I am really hoping that what they produce is far more creative, especially as I have copped out and only used a circle shape to play with, but time was of the essence........!

So I have used binding around card, felt making, and different sorts of crochet - looking at flat rings and more 3D examples and then started to place them together to from, in this case, ideas and designs for a potential necklace - in an ideal world I would have joined the pieces together and photographed them on Monica - our plaster mannequin, but well, hey ho, I didn't!

Adding ribbon as fake ties kind of gives you a bit more of an idea (I hope!).

SO, if you are reading this BTEC first girlies - get on with it, oh, and do your blinking homework too!!!!

See you all in a couple of weeks!

Sunday, 19 February 2012

4 days all to myself!

So the first part of half term was brill and the second half has been great too - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) has been climbing, climbing, climbing, and I of course have been printing, printing, printing! We have also had another meeting with Happiness our social worker, and I have to say that these sessions are what I imagine therapy to be like, it really is quite strange dissecting your life with a relative stranger. I have been very fortunate in that I have never in my life felt either rejected or unloved, it is therefore quite sobering to fully appreciate the fact that on a certain level I may be unable to draw upon the necessary reserves when things get tough with a child who may well be emotionally scarred. I never thought that the adoption process would be easy, but the harder you look at yourself the tougher the journey appears to be. Having a child is a massive commitment and one that we are both ready to take on, I do however wonder how it would be if every prospective parent analysed who and what they were in quite so much depth...

This week we will be attending the mandatory preparation days held by our adoption agency, I am both excited and terrified by this and can't imagine what will be involved, what will be good though is being given the opportunity to meet other potential adopters who are in our exact position, I will let you know how it goes....

In the meantime, here are so more boring pics of my latest creations!

Amina also got married - she is one of my aerobic girlfriends - and oh how we all danced - just the thing to end a lovely half-term, and do you know what? I am even quite looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!

There were even goody bags to take home!

Valentines roses

Friday, 17 February 2012

ISTANBUL and Half Term...

Well, it has been a rather lovely half term thank you! For us, I expect like just about everyone else, the Christmas holiday is so chaotic and family filled that we don't really get to relax, so by the time the February half term arrives we are more than ready to kick back and take stock. I say that, but ours has been quite jam packed this year, but I can tell you that it has been a pretty damn fine one so far! Last Thursday saw us head off at stupid O'clock - really, it was 2.00am - to Heathrow terminal 5 with 3 other staff members and 44 rowdy teenagers to Istanbul. I have never had the opportunity to go to Turkey before so it's fair to say that I was pretty excited, despite the fact that I hadn't been to bed Wednesday night and it was unlikely I was going to get any sleep until the evening!

When we got there it was just starting to snow, and for me, that really was the icing on the cake, the city is stunning and looked even better with a substantial blanket of the white stuff! I even got to wear my fur hat from last years trip to Russia! The city itself is very easy to negotiate and the tram makes life very easy indeed, especially as our (upgraded) hotel was right next to a main stop, in fact the kids all managed to find their way around without a hitch, The only two people who got lost were two of our colleagues - ha! Says a lot doesn't it!!!

So, here we are buying our "jetons" for the tram.

First stop - the grand bazaar - Oh. My. God. I was in heaven - the fabrics, the ceramics, the Turkish delight, the mad gold sellers, the whole place is mental and so very colourful - Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) idea of hell, but not mine.......!

Piles of fabric

heaps of bowls

hundreds of people

posher fabrics

of course

sparkly lights

Ivan (Mr Bicknell) making a break for freedom

and dodgy bling.

Whilst outside the snow kept on coming....

Getting to grips with the tram

Sneaky peak at a sneaky purchase - well, you have to grab every opportunity when Ivan (Mr Bicknell) is in charge of the itinerary!

So while we were all bargaining hard, Lewis was taking advantage of the hotel services! I trust he wasn't offered something for the weekend.......

But it was all too much for Mark.......

Our first night in search of food led to brightly lit windows and literally piles of Turkish delight - it was clearly going to be a calorific trip, especially as it transpired that the locals in the markets get very upset when you don't try their wares! Charmian proved to be a bit of a trooper in this!

And it carried on snowing!

Even Ivan (Mr Bicknell) got excited!

Snowy mosque

The BTEC hooligans - right before the snowballs starting being thrown!

Charmian at Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) mercy!!

Always a sucker for a cat - Istanbul is home to many!

Ill-dressed girls are made to wear these fetching garments when visiting a mosque - I was included in this, but they look better!

Quiet time before prayer time

Sam - doing her best impression of being a foreign correspondent!

The Blue Mosque

Haghia Sophia

Cold pretzel seller - whilst we didn't eat what he was selling we did take advantage of the roasted chestnut carts!

Haghia Sophia

Spectacular!

Hmmmm, funny how the BTECers are snapped outside on the brink of a snowball fight whilst the A level students are discovered actually absorbing the culture.... can you guess which ones I teach......!

Jamie, Louis and Lewis trouble with a capital T!

Oh I do love a bit of texture!!

Yerebatan Sarnci - underground cistern

Medusa's head

Pomegranates everywhere!

World famous fortune telling bunnies - my fortune said that I would soon be with my lover again, so I needn't worry, now considering Ivan (Mr Bicknell) was standing right next to me, I did begin to wonder if I was at last going to be united with David Tennant........!

Mark's fortune told him that he would need the support of his friends for an important decision he had to make at the beginning of the week, - hmmmm, it did actually take him until Monday to make a decision on a bag he wanted to buy, so maybe there is actually something in it and Mr Tennant will rock up soon - must shave my legs!

Oh yeah, did I mention the cats?

Somewhere religious - I was too busy eating mezze in a lovely roof top restaurant when Ivan (Mr Bicknell) took this!

The Spice Market, which funnily enough sells tons of Turkish delight too!

Queueing for coffee - seriously, here you snooze you loose, the server had served 4 other people behind Mark by the time he managed to get his money out! You think I'm kidding? Well, watch the film below to see how fast they work - this has NOT been speeded up!

The streets around the spice bazaar - they sell EVERYTHING!

There was going to one very disappointed shopper!

Oh, err, and another one....

Istanbul Modern, aside form the piece below, I didn't really go a bundle on the art here, but the cafe and the actual building were rather cool!

The police were out in force on Saturday in anticipation of what appeared to be a relatively peaceful demonstration - despite my best efforts I am afraid to say that I have no idea what it was all about.

On top of the Galata tower - warming up now and virtually no snow

It also proved to be a bit of a playground for the seagulls!

The Sultannahmet district, stunning at night

twirling and whirling with the Dervishes - made me dizzy just watching!

Our big posh meal of the trip and Mark was looking forward to a fish this big............

Just to prove I was there - ughh, just as photogenic as ever!

Our supper was on fire - literally! I LOVE how the owner of the restaurant was so quick thinking in promoting his restaurant when he clocked the fact that we were all taking photos!

Impromptu dancing - these two were guests - in different parties - who the hell goes out to supper dressed as a belly dancer???!

A little cruise on the Bosphorous - Drew looking all whistful - wisely he mainly kept his distance from us - well there is only so much that you can take of watching Mark try to buy a bag!

Mark, the water and an OJ - what more could a man want?!

Hannah - serious photographer!

Hugo - not so serious photographer!

And God Hugo, stop pulling that stupid face!!!

Charlie and Lizzie - gorgeous girls

Rachel and Viki - dappy girls!

Ivan (Mr Bicknell) - just stupid!

Apple tea, apple tea, apple tea - Turkey's very own Manuel - blimey the man worked hard at keeping us refreshed - it was a revelation in salesmanship!