Catching up...Year One...Part Two...Look what I made!!

So in this post I will attempt to sum up and remember most of my first year at Uni...easy right?

Perhaps I should start with a few pics of my work...(look out for the oompah loopah!)

In my first year I learnt tonnes of things
I made tonnes of stuff
using tonnes of techniques
in tonnes of different ways
and discovered tonnes of different ways to hurt myself as I went along!

Here's my desk set up for module assessment at the end of year one!
All items are made from glass, ceramics or metal.

 

STUFFS!

MORE STUFFS!!

                 EVEN MORE STUFFS!!!

ANOTHER BUNCH OF STUFFS (and an Oompah Loompah) !!!

Year One (level four) of my Uni Applied Arts course was all about being introduced to and learning about the materials, getting familiar with them, experiencing new techniques and discovering the possibilities of working in Glass, Metal and Ceramics.                                                                                                                 The idea was for me to learn as much as possible as quicly as possible so that I could get some sort of an idea as to which direction I would like my art practice to head in....however my problem was that I loved EVERYTHING!

Another of our modules was in Computer Aided Design,  learning all about Solidworks software and 3D Printing. This topic totally fascinated me, the growth of 3D printing and it's impact on the world is extraordinary.                                                                                                                                                                      We visited the 3D printing facilities in the university and at the end of the semester had the opportunity to design and print our own 3D Polymer objects...

                                                                                                   I designed a set of stacking rings which are shown in the pic on the left after they had been printed!







During my first year I had a blast and amazingly, despite my hectic life I also somehow managed to get very decent marks...overall I got 2 B's and FOUR A's!!  (Pats on the back are greatly appreciated) (Please excuse my ego!) Seriously though, the marks made my year and hugely increased my confidence in my abilities... I was so proud to have been able to keep my marks at the level of my peers despite my busy life at home with my children and running my business.

I was so keen to show off the work that I had made that I held a mini exhibition evening at my house for my family and friends and I told them all to choose pieces to take home with them - I love that now when I visit their homes they have items that I have made proudly on display......

.....Plus to be honest if I had kept it all...god knows where the hell I would have put it!!

Catching up...Year One....Part one...

(I'll begin the catch up posts with a blog post that I actually wrote during my first year but for some reason didn't actually post at the time!)

and it's been a while.....

13/2/13

Sooooo....it would seem that the reality of becoming a mature ball-juggling student is literally falling off the earth and not even finding the time to update the blog that you deludedly started when you assumed that some of your time would still be your own.

Here I am in Semester 2 and it's bizarre that there are less than 3months left of my first year. The shortness of the university year is suddenly so apparent. Perhaps these three years are going to fly by?

The Uni really feels like home now however I'm still lacking in organisation and still not too good at using my study days for study but I'm still hoping that one day I'll get the hang of it. Perhaps at the end of my third year.

Today I got the last of my marks for my work last semester so here they are in full ...cue fanfare...

(Da dadadaDA da da DAHH)

...3 B's!!!

AND ONE A!!!!

So perhaps it's been well worth neglecting my blogging for :) 

I suspect that this is the first A grade that I have achieved for around 20years....grades such as these were last seen during my first year at Secondary school!

*cheesy grin!!!!*

...since I could hold my head up high.

Sweet Dreams Poet

...So long and goodnight....

23/6/14

In Memoriam

Our department was dealt a cruel blow shortly after assessments this year when one of our much loved colleagues tragically lost his life. He was an extremely talented artist and craftsman and I feel privileged to have studied alongside him both at university and also previously on the access course at college. He used the tag 'Poet' when signing his work, an extremely apt monicker for this deep thinking, caring and intelligent gentleman.

When we return in October his absence will be felt so very strongly and the 2016 graduation year will be incomplete without him alongside them when they collect their awards.

Sweet dreams Poet
X

Back from Outer Space....

..And so you're back,  from Outer Space....

23/6/14

Well Hello Earthlings....

I have returneth'd.

It would appear that my earlier intentions to improve my time management have pretty much just consisted of me no longer managing any time whatsoever in which to write my blog.

 It has been a massive 20 months since  my last confession and this self appointed life juggler has apparently dropped the balls quite a few times along the way!! 

However when I read back on this blog I really am so very glad for the few posts that I did write when I began University. It's cool to have the record of how I was thinking and feeling as I embarked upon this adventure. It gives me a tool that helps me to reflect upon the changes that I have undergone since starting university and I can appreciate just how much I have gained from this experience so far. This is why I'm back and I want to keep adding new posts... I have so much to write about, I've had so many awesome experiences and I have learnt so much!

Three updates that I will begin with:

Firstly- Life as I approach 35 has changed a little...Following cut backs, set backs and a dead budgie it now stands as such:

 I currently run my business, the lives of two now teenage daughters, a house, a frog and I still run myself ragged. 

Secondly- Despite trashing various items of clothing at uni I still haven't actually bought myself any overalls. I don't understand why and, after rereading this blog and rediscovering my initial enthusiasm for them, I now feel the need to get myself a set ASAP! 

Thirdly- As predicted, I still despise my student ID photograph and people actually laugh out loud when they see it. 

 SO...hopefully over the next few weeks I'm going to add quite a few

 'catch up posts' to bring the reader up to speed and to attempt to get into writing down many of the experiences and thoughts that I really want to hold onto. 

Be prepared for a remarkable voyage through time and space dear readers!

..and you see me, Somebody new.....

Going under...

I'm going under, Drowning in you...

Suddenly I'm freaking about how behind on my work I am. Every week I seem to panic about a different module and have to immerse myself in it completely whilst shouting at my daughters if they talk in my vicinity, ask me a question or do anything other than bring me cups of tea and offer me back massages.

I'm definitely not allocating enough of my own free time to doing my work. I need to work on using my study periods for study rather than using them for housework, washing, shopping, business paperwork and catching up with family/friends who happen to think I've been abducted since enrolment.






Last week we had a huge Halloween party at home and I spent most of my study days organising it. Twas a great night but in reality it's now to blame for my growing workload.....

(I dressed up as a Pumpkin by the way, a cute and slightly sexy one I hope, not one resembling Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And the house is still all 'Spooked' up, even down to the bloody footprints walking across the bathroom floor. I do love Halloween!)





I'm also finding this week a bit stressy as my kids are off school on Half Term, meaning that I'm missing half of this weeks lessons rather than sort out babysitters. So now I'm trying to strike a balance over the next few days between spending some much needed time with my girls and keeping up with homework. So far The SwingOmeter is not really swinging at all, more it is fixed by powerful magnet pointing straight at my daughters.

We've been in the glass workshops for lessons recently. I was always worried about how I would cope around broken glass as I've always found it a quite frightening material. It turns out that I was right to worry.  During our first glass cutting lesson last week I managed to burst into tears as the broken panes of glass kept reminding me of that icky scene at the end of 'Ghost' where Karl gets speared by the window pane.  I really could curse my own brain sometimes as it often seems to work against me.....

Well onwards and upwards, I did much better in glass today, mind over matter and all that jazz. I suppose I should really return to my homework....I think my time management skills need some serious attention!

I'm falling forever, I've got to break through...

1 Month today!

One month in and I thought it's about time for an update!

I honestly still can't quite believe I'm a University student. I often wonder when will it actually sink in?

Life is great, The workload is heavy and my house is a mess. I'm eating shedloads of junkfood and slacking on the exercise.  Actually the food is something I'm really surprised about and I keep harping on about it to anyone that will listen, so now I'll harp on about it in here too.

Students are generally young, broke and pretty damn unhealthy. So what do the uni's do? Stick expensive vending machines all over the place that charge 70p for a bag of crisps or £1.20 for a bottle of coke. Even the teeny tiny undrinkable cups of vending machine slop are 70p a shot. The kiosk in our building sells overpriced crap as well, sausage rolls, chocs and pasties at petrol station prices. Not a healthy, brain building snack in sight.....and I can't get over that despite fees of almost nine grand a year they still try to make a profit out of us..Gits.

Ok, rant over back to the happy stuff....

I had a few adventures in the last month and met some fab folk. the crazy bunch on my course get better and better the more we get to know each other. I try to ignore the fact that I'm the oldest full timer by a decade ad I'm hoping that they do too....The tutor asked the other day 'who was born in the 80's?' he received blank stares and looked quite despondent until I shouted up that I was a 70's child...It turns out the rest of the full time bunch are 90's children....like my own daughter...*shudder*

So what have I learnt so far?

That I look like an Umpah Lumpah when kitted out in full Kiln safety gear - Leather apron (down to my ankles), Gauntlets (up to my elbows), Full face protective visor and scarf. Especially when stood next to another student who stands at six and a half foot tall (His apron only reached his knees).

Dumpity dooo.

That being left handed has it's perils, mainly when opening library turnstyles with my ID card; I swiped the card last week on my first visit to the uni library and then watched the adjacent turnstyle open instead of the one I was standing at.....and of course I then had to run round like an eegit to enter through the open turnstyle rather than keeping my cool and just trying once again to open the one in front of me.

 Muppet.

That I thoroughly enjoy student discounts.

Oh yes.

Hysterectomies & Turnip Mash

20/9/12 Part Two

On the way home now in the quiet carriage. Not sure why they call it quiet though.

There’s a girl opposite whinging down her phone to her friends about her meeting in London with some failed love interest who doesn’t treat her right.

And behind me are a bunch of women having a good old gossip and natter all about ‘My friend Mary’, Oven cooked sausages, Hysterectomies and Turnip mash.

I've had a perfect day. 

I am now well on the way to becoming a whizz on the London underground and I'm already hopping on and off tubes as confidently as a one-legged tight rope walker.  Actually I’m so good that I hopped off and then back onto the same tube at one point when I became temporarily convinced that it was going the wrong way.

I spent the early afternoon at the Victoria & Albert museum.  I last visited it two years ago and it was inspiring to meander around again with a fresh eye and with Applied Arts at the forefront of my mind. I adore that place, it’s so vast that you could visit for a week and still not see everything. I do need to make a point of going more often now that I’ve realised I’m capable of independent travel.

I was booked in to see the Heatherwick Exibish at 2pm and all I can say is WOW. That guy is a dude. A Genius Dude.

I think I’ll follow up with a blog entry about him and the exhibition at a later date J

Later I took a tube over to Blackfriars and went to mooch about in the Tate Modern again. The first time I visited a couple of years ago I didn’t really enjoy it so I had decided to give it another go. I really should learn to trust my instincts as I didn’t really enjoy it much this time either!  It’s nice to have further confirmation to reassure me that my choice of avoiding a Fine Art degree was the right one for me.

I also found time to wander around a few London landmarks before meeting a wonderfully lovely friend for dinner at the end of my day. Amazingly the weather was warm and pleasant which was a shocker and meant I was lugging my coat around all day. I also found that the two pair of socks got a bit much at times.

To sum up: Two Trains, Five Tubes, A Museum, A Gallery, A Formerly Wobbly  Bridge, A Restaurant, Two Pubs and A Posh London law firm. Not a bad visiting count for a single day in Londinium….

A pretty successful trip all in all!!