Uni Work

SPUR - 'A Sense of Occasion'

Yellow Fitted Dress, Burnett. K., 2009

SPUR Poster, Blades. K., 2010

Scholarship Projects for Undergraduate Researchers is a program ran by Nottingham Trent University that aims to cultivate and strengthen the links between teaching and research.

'A Sense of Occasion' was a project ran by Kate Burnett that aimed to interrogate the narratives of real clothes. The project began after a series of letters written by a woman in her 80s to her ill granddaughter in which she describes her youth in evacuation and subsequent journey to Malaysia as a young police wife in the early 1950s.

My role was to work with original dresses and fabrics from 1926 - 1976, and to create patterns from them, researching period patterns and recreating garments from descriptions in interviews.

I had the opportunity to form relationships with the Harris Museum in Preston, London museum of Fashion and Textiles and owners of Horrockses dresses.

Corsetry and Structures
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

Research, Blades. K., 2010

Design, Blades. K., 2010

Front, Design, Blades. K., 2010

Side, Design, Blades. K., 2010

Back, Design, Blades. K., 2010

Making, Blades. K., 2010

Hair, Cort, H., 2010

Make Up, Cort. H., 2010

Photoshoot, Allen. L., edited by Blades. K., 2010

Photoshoot, Blades. K., 2010 - 2011

In my third year of Uni, I studied Corsetry and Structures. I chose to explore the character of the Ancient Mariner, from the S.T. Coleridge's poem 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner'.

 I chose the Ancient Mariner because there is a lot of strong imagery in the poem that I felt inspired by.

           

"Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was Hung.""

"I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!"

"And straight the sun was flecked with bars,

(Heaven's mother send us grace!)

As if through a dungeon-grate he peered

With broad and burning face."

I felt it also gave me the opportunity to explore male costume, 19th Century period clothing as well as giving me the poetic license to design a costume that could be characterized to The Ancient Mariner.

This was a real process, and a difficult one when squeezed between 2 other projects at a time in your life when your about to be thrown into the real world. When you've spent the past 3 years of your life convincing yourself of the importance of your art, and the relevance, and how someone, someday will definitely want to pay you lots of money for your artistic license. *clears throat*..


Truth is, I love this costume, and I love what the process promised, I can't help but still sink back to it, even 2 years on. There is so much unfinished business! One day, maybe, I'll get my poor, unfortunate boyfriend back in this get up and ill finish what i started.

I created a blog alongside this project, for more about my influence and the process I went through, please take a look!

End of an Era
NTU Theatre Design Degree Show

Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner Exhibition, Blades. K., 2011

A Bridge to the Stars Exhibition, Blades. K., 2011

'Bridge to the Stars' model box Exhibition, Blades. K., 2011

This is my final year degree show. I received really pleasant feedback for my space. I really enjoyed putting the exhibition together, we worked really hard as a year group to create a memorable space.

I contributed as much as I could throughout the year, my main role was 'Head of Fundraising', we raised just under £2000, which was a great contribution!

As part of putting the exhibition together, Hannah Budd and I were asked if we could be part of a marketing video for the Uni.

Its called Theatre Design/Design for Film and television, Popcorn at the ready:

http://www.youtube.com/nottinghamtrentuni

Prime Cuts Exhibition
Brick Lane Art Gallery

At the end of my degree, (in fact the day after my graduation), My work was exhibited as part of the Prime Cuts exhibition.

as proof of this, please see this link:

  http://www.primecuts.org.uk/student_page.php?id=207