[ Weekend away ]

Last weekend I spent a few days in the Lake District with my family, mainly relaxing & not doing much, having a break from uni work. However I did get a chance to take a look around the house my parents are in the process of buying. Its on a area of land at the foot of the mountains with lots of open space. While the house itself is lovely I spent most of my time looking at the old outbuildings, many of which had rusty, worn features!

Rusty hooks & chains on the sides of the barn (which I've already checked out as a potential part time studio, I'd never run out of inspiration there!)

In the woodland behind the house there was also some brilliant fungus & lichen growing on the trees, including this bright orange piece which almost looked like delicate, folded fabric.

These photos remind me of the lovely ones I've seen from Elaine Bolt's Instagram feed before that have inspired me in the past.  

I also spent some time watching this little field mouse below stuff himself with nuts from the bird feeder & managed to capture this picture before he ran away!

New week. New Techniques. - Part One

This week has been a week of experimentation & trying out new techniques which has been exciting & inspiring and given me lots of new possibilities to explore in my work!

For the first technique I worked with plaster and mould making. I was given some leftover silicon to play with and this is what happened..    

Below on the right is the object I used for casting, from my collection of rusty pieces. I'm not sure exactly where its from but I found the shape & texture really interesting, especially where there are folds and creases in the metal. Its also much more fragile in nature than the photo portrays, which is in contrast to the solid plaster version. 
When I first saw it, the shape reminded me of those brightly coloured flying saucer sweets! 

I'm excited to continue working with this shape and developing it in other materials.

Look closer, everything is interesting.

On one of the only sunny afternoons last week I took my new camera out around Leicester looking for inspiration...

Weathered metal.

When you look closer there are many beautiful old buildings around the city & even those that aren't at first glance often have interesting and unexpected details. Above is a pillar from a car park - I love the peeling layers of weathered metal, the colours are something I would love to recreate in my own work.

Rusty post.

Worn nails.

Peeling paint.

What inspires you around where you live?

Rusty Finds.

Since coming back to university in January I've been collecting rusty objects for my current project. In my last project I used an old burnt out barrel my Dad found at the bottom of the garden as my main material and this has sparked a bit of an obsession with everything rust, as you will see! 

My friend Amy's parents have just moved into a new house in the countryside and in the woods at the back there was massive haul of old, rusty objects which Amy kindly managed to stuff in her car & bring back to Leicester for me! If you are interested in contemporary jewellery take a look at Amy's lovely work here.

My absolute favourite piece from this collection is this beautiful, falling apart bike, which had been there for so long it even had a tree growing through it!

As if this wasn't enough rust to be getting on with, me and fellow Design Crafter Alice (www.instagram.com/alicevictoria_textiles) took a trip to visit 'Rusty Rick' a man we found on Ebay who had a very interesting selection of rust covered items! See below for the pieces I chose.

Vintage mole traps, horse bits & pitch fork.

& this is part of the amazing horse bridle (more on this later) with the leather strap and buckle still intact.

I'll be keeping you updated on how I transform these objects so keep a look out! 

Let me know what you think about the rust, do you think its beautiful & interesting or belongs in the bin? I'd love to hear your opinions!