Planet Ruby Starrs

More design development, this week was pretty much given over to consolidating and reflecting on work achieved so far.   This has allowed me to identify the gaps, the designs I don't think work and those I really like and which ones I am going to develop.. Original blind drawing, hand coloured using various media, including collage, oils, promarkers - scanned and digitally placed on geometric background. I'm experimenting a lot with scale and different backgrounds, and next week will be taking the chosen designs forward for further development, varying sizes of patterns, different lay outs and also defining some colour palettes.  I have a lot of work on the go and now is the time to make decisions and start to refine the designs.   I had a lovely afternoon playing in the sewing room with different embroidery and embellishment techniques and I want to apply them some where among my final pieces.  Then we had a very inspiring seminar with Claire B...

At uni we are deep in design development and its great fun, although I am a bit all over the place with so many ideas flying about and so many good resources to draw on.  The intention is to design 6 individual collections of scarves each collection having at least 4 designs and several different colorways - this of course could change to 4 collections with 6 cohesive designs - but....that's the word that's causing me a slight discomfort at the moment they is absolutely nothing reassembling cohesion in my current work at the moment. colourways for men on the moon Some of the imagery is beginning to translate as a collective design but I need to rein in the colour palate or at least make it consistent to each collection.  The collections themselves are at the moment very individual, linked only because I have designed them!! It is early days yet and I will keep experimenting and laying images and producing some lay outs and hope that in the long term the collections will e...

Its only a couple of days to my first hand in of the year and I've been making myself do all the fiddly little bits that I always leave to the last minute.  All the labeling of my resources and tidying up the sketch book, bibliography referenced the right way - all the boring bits but the devil is in the detail!!! old and new buildings - line drawings exposed on a cyanotype base My head is still spinning with ideas as usual but I need to do the essentials first and then if I have time in the next couple of days I may add some extra work if it can be executed to the necessary standard.  The really good thing about this module is that it mainly about producing a body of work and imagery to develop in the next module grandly known as the Final Major Project - FMP  for short - so we can keep adding and developing ideas. red gladioli in a tall blue vase, found paper collage on black paper I've done quite a bit of collage this time, I love cutting and sticking and fi...

I've been drawing - using photos I've taken over the last year or so. I've collated all the ones of castles I have either visited or stayed in and the drawings are of the buildings or of the rich and varied artifacts found in the buildings.   quick sketch of floor and stones outside The Old Place of Monreith Its an eclectic mix from useful objects like giant chains or brass cat candlesticks to everyday objects like fancy bedheads and table lamps. mess about no 1 hardware hanging on wall!!! I used a fine liner for outlines but have enhanced original drawings with a sharpie for boldness and some graphite pencil to add some texture, and in some places there is touch of charcoal and promarker - what ever comes to hand and feels right.   Once drawn I have scanned them into the computer and cleaned up all the scratty bits dirty finger marks etc and then they are ready to play about with.  At the moment I am just experimenting with layering ...

The weeks are beginning to fly by at college.. We are in the midst of Material Culture lectures and these are throwing up all sorts of moral dilemmas - can we really save the world - they are very thought provoking and to be honest its a little bit depressing... When you get to your 7th decade and you still cant quite get your ethics together - my latest most immediate dilemma is the cost of printing my final fabric samples... using plastic based synthetic materials would be very seriously cheaper then using organic plant based fibres... but then the dying, producing, manufacturing costs are economically and environmental unsound in both cases and what difference does a few samples make on an already produced cloth... The textile industry is second only to the oil industry in causing the most environmental damage - its a hard one to reconcile and the changes have to start somewhere and in an ideal world it has to be with today's up and coming designers!  There is a definite move ...

Some days just don't go according to plan... I decided to do my college work from home today.   It allows me access to all my fabric stash and the bits and bobs I anticipated needing to make my new project fantabulous.... The current idea is to sew and collage some back ground papers for my latest project!   I didn't exactly think it would be easy but I hoped it would fall into place, a few tries in it would all start to look ok and then quite nice and then potentially fabulous - well I'm at the ''this isn't working as well as I had thought it would '' stage.... I'm using a mix of calico, muslin, papers, waxed music and all sorts of bits of lace and other found embellishments, I can't seem to find the right balance... I may need a new plan. also... I just put the sewing machine needle through my finger - always an experience to be avoided - quite painful and it makes my stomach turn a little - and it broke the sewing machine needle which ...

ends of threads looking pretty in a jar The collecting is getting out of hand.... I found myself seriously contemplating saving a wispy gold piece of tinsel.. I think its called angel hair, that had escaped from the christmas deccies when we got something out of the loft.. I spotted it sparkling on the floor and picked it up ready to stash it somewhere when I just thought, maybe not, what exactly am I going to do with a piece of scratty angle hair - put it in the bin!!! I fear- I get more like my mother every passing day.  When she died we found lots of little collections the most interesting one being bean wrappers - hundreds of them - I didn't keep them - shame really they would have been so retro now!!   Actually on reflection I'm quite happy to be like mum... a few boxes with precious stuff in I am mostly drawn to shiny happy things (people included) and can swoop like a magpie on glinting treasure discarded wherever.  Mostly its not useful - discarded swe...

I've been sketching all the way round this trip... usual rocks and sea scapes - some interesting grottos, ruins, including Dr Fred eating rich tea biscuits laid out in the van..... crabs are featuring quite a bit and also I'm using a bit of collage to vary the medium... I couldnt do the hedgerows justice with the paints so tried instead to capture the vibrancy using Ireland National Park information leaflets for collage colour...