Today is all about the 'Pecha Kucha' visual essay presentation. I have been preparing the speech draft in the morning while I was waiting. However, I am asked to have a tutorial with Pauline about the reflections and researches on Workflow. 

I learnt and understood more about the importance of doing reflection everyday.  It is not only when there was some problem and I reflect about it, but also when everything went well that I need to reflect on 'Why do I think it's successful ?' and 'How would I make it better ?'. The tutorial was useful but I think it would be more suitable to have the tutorial at another time after I finished my presentation. 

After the tutorial, I decided to use key words to remind me during the presentation as the time left is not long. 

Although I prepared the talking for several times, it was totally different when I actually standing there and talking about myself. In addition, the version I submitted was not the version I prepared to talk about so I was even more nervous. This experience taught me that I need to check everything next time when I submit or before important moments. 

I think today is a very effective day although there were lots of accidents happened and totally interrupted our plans. The metal workshop was not open today so Jenny was not able to finish the metal plate collection but luckily, we did a sample in real size the day before. In addition, we finished the shelf dividers by painted them into black and used wax to join the textile pieces I did yesterday with the wood part. The whole process was quite successful expect the wax kept breaking. We solved the problem by making the wax layer really thick. 

The only serious problem was the painting part. We used masking tape to protect the white parts by avoiding the black paints getting on to the the places where we wanted to be white and we painted black paints to the exposed parts. However, the masking tape did not prevent the paints perfectly, oppositely, the black paints sinked to the white parts in a very bad way. When we were trying to paint the white again, the surface became textured and it is even worse. 

By asking tutors and technicians for help, we eventually used a marker to define the edges of black stripes. 

The marker marks did not dry and we decided to wait it dry till tomorrow and then take the final photoshoot. 

In the starting of the day, we were told that Jenny from Jewelry design will join our group. I was quite surprised because me and Proud got on well and worked comfortably and a new member may interrupt our rhythm of working. 

Me and Proud discussed the ideas that we came up yesterday after school and came up some ideas that we wanted to experiment with. However, during the tutorial with Naomi, she suggested us not to make decision at this stage yet and she asked us to think about the purpose of our final more.

This tutorial stoped our thinking in a way because we started to ask ourselves: 'Do we want to make the final mainly as a functional object or it could be something more conceptual with some functions?'. We stuck for a very long time and not sure what should we do at that time. I think it is because Naomi introduced other directions for us to think about and when there is less limitation, the idea generation became difficult. 

Therefore, we decided to go to the workshops and experiment with materials and shapes first. 

There were technical problems that we were told by the technician about the feasibility of the circular shape we wanted to do was low and through discussing, triangular shape was recommend to us. As an experiment, we wanted to do it in triangles and see if the idea of adjustable works. 

We used a hinge to connect the two pieces but for the first time, the hinge is too weak and the two triangular parts of wood container is heavy so while turning, the hinge broke. The problem was solved easily by replacing another stronger and bigger hinge to our piece. 

By taking elements from the drawings I did yesterday, I drew some textile design ideas in the starting of the day. I looked at the mark-making I have done on the drawings and combined them together onto one piece in some of my designs, on the others, I enlarged some of the patterns and made them more abstract. I also took some outlines and developed some shapes and used colors for the print.

Later on, I tried to use mainly heat press to make physical samples of my design. I have used heat press before but I learnt some new ways today, for example, using the heat press glue and some special colored papers and foils. 

 I was aiming to make one piece of textile each time I went to use the heat press, but I accidentally found more stuff when I was actually making. The slip-sheet paper, the peeled off material and the left overs are as interesting as the real piece. 

By organizing those pieces, I was able to develop a whole collection of prints very easily. I did not expect this would happen before I went to use the heat press. 

This experience taught me that when I do experiments in the future, I need to preserve the evidences more carefully and spending time to looking at them. Also, other then assuming something is going to happen, actually doing it may bring more surprises. 

I joined the stitch workshop in the morning and I decided to do an abstract piece of final outcome. I was inspired by an abstract artist Piet Mondriaan's painted pieces. He used all blocks of colors and combine them together as a whole piece. Therefore, I used pieces of fabrics in geometrical shapes and sewn them together as one piece. All the fabrics are in different patterns and all from fabric recycle bins.  

During the process of making the piece, I found that both of the inside and the outside of the piece have interesting patterns when I observe the details. All the fabrics I used have different patterns, colors and textures and the sewing parts become the edges that spits them. 

When the pieces became bigger, I decided to turn it into a bag that people could carry it to supermarkets that replaces plastic shopping bags and avoids plastic pollution. In conclusion, this is a piece of work that represent my idea of using recycled materials to make something functional and save the environment by avoiding using disposable plastics bags. I felt that I enjoyed working without a detailed planning and I will keep doing this during the rest of this 'Hand Made' project. I think risk taking is really important to me at this stage.

Another workshop I attended today is the casting workshop. I worked with all those interesting materials during the workshop time, including plaster, plastic and cement. In addition, I tried the vaccine forming machine as well and I think I had a great experience by playing around and being unknown.

I used mud to cast textures and patterns of bicycle wheels, and creating my own texture by rubbing repeated pattern on the surface of the mud. By using plaster to cover the mud model and letting it dry, I got the copy of the textures. I think it is a great way to making some 3D texture into a 2D form. The whole process was really easy and all the materials are easy to get as well. I will keep using this method in my future as well. 

Vaccine forming allows me to make a model of a combination of all the different materials and objects. It was very fresh way to record different combinations of some 3D structures other than taking photos. I think it is a really useful method to make a copy of something especially when the focusing point is the structure or the texture. 

The plastic model could be used in different ways and as it is made by plastic, it is really easy to dissect it into pieces and recompose other structures. 

In the workshop, we mixed some cements in order to make a cement copy of the vaccine formed piece. I have heard of cement before and I saw it before but I never actually mixed any or used any before. As it is my first time using cement, I realized it is actually easier to use than I thought of.

The surface of the cement final outcome was really nice and smooth. All the details of the model have been perfectly coped and I was still able to have the plastic model. This means that once I have made the plastic model, I am able to have as many copied as I want.

As I signed up for two workshops today for the 'Hand Made' project, in the morning section, I joined the print workshop and in the afternoon, I went to the wood and plastic workshop. From the experience of the previous day that I produced I piece of newspaper collage work that contains too much information and not being focused or in-depth. With all those information I collected from the newspaper, I decided to be selective and focus on one or two ideas as my starting point and then develop them further. 

I think the point of this project is to develop the ability of generating ideas quickly and hand made something physically in a short period of time. 

From the print workshop, I firstly did not have any idea of what should I make as my subject of print design idea and I noticed the weather report with lots of signs of weather. Therefore, I decided to just simply use these signs and colors that represent the temperatures and weather of different places as my print subjects. As my project is all about pollution and sustainability, weather reflects to the global warming problem which is caused by air pollution. The whole process of producing different prints was not successful that when I was trying to add more color to the print at once, all the paints dried and the print pattern did not showing the colors and the details properly.

The situation suffered me through out the workshop and I could not find a better way to make the effect that I wanted, therefore, I decided to used the collage of those cut out pieces as my final for this project.

I was enjoyed the wood and plastic workshop in the afternoon that I worked really effectively and successfully produced a piece of final outcome. I thought about the material, wood and plastic, first and then decided to focus on an idea of protecting people from chemical pollution, sound pollution and air pollution. As I am not so familiar with the characters of wood and plastic, I decided to just try something out first and not think too much if it is about textile or not. 

When I started to think about ways that protect people from inhale pollutants in the air, I thought of providing pure, clean air to people straight away and I thought of oxygen mask. Then I started to think about sound pollution, I think the most traditional tools are earplugs and head phones. By combining both of the ideas together, something covering the whole head that provents noises and provides clean air would be my choice. Therefore, my design idea came from space helmets that provides oxygen to astronauts in the space.

In the process of making, I found that the product that I designed could be seen as a bag or a bow when it is up side down. It gives me an idea of changing the design into a multifunctional product. 

The final outcome was very successful for me because I never tried to make anything like that before, all the materials and surfaces are very simple, not only the colors and patterns, but also the textures. Although it is not about textile design at all, I still enjoyed the whole process of making and impressed by what I made. However, there are some details that I could improve when I work on materials like that next time. 

• Considering about the weight and how each materials behave first (Wood is quite heavy)
• Planing out the details before head (How to join materials together, the inside and the outside, the measurements)

Today was a critique about the project 'Celebration Archway'. As the time of this project is almost finished, a formation of final outcome should start to be developed at this stage. I did some experimental textile pieces but there was not a proper final piece by the time. 

Therefore, I spent the day in producing the final textile design piece for food bottle package. I used hand knitting technique and used recycled materials I collected from the shop including plastic reticular, package of sausage, suspension link of cans, white string and cross section of chip can. I did not have knitting needles so I used two pencils and my fingers to knit this sample. After finishing the flat piece of textile, I applied it onto a clear 3D glass bottle as a package. 

 After this piece of work was done, I started to generate the idea that if I am going to develop this project further, I would like to introduce the over-packaging problem. It is very common that the manufacturers usually use a lot of materials or have colorful design in package in order to attract customers. However, those package are not functional so in a large scale, it is resource waste and it causes pollution. 

In addition, I would like to combine the element of the price tags and the packages together as I looked at the price tags in my previous experiment and development stages. For the last weekend left for this project, I would like to fill in the unfinished parts and extend some of the textile samples further. Also, I will reproduce an outcome that has both the price tag idea and the package design idea together as well as how the piece could be use in real life, the function of it.  

The stitch workshop started today’s morning section. Sewing machine, knitting machine, ironing machine and weaving machine were introduced during the workshop. Although I have used most of those machines before exempt the weaving machine, it is still a good chance to review all the details one more time. I think having the chance of using those machines and techniques provides me the availability of playing materials in different ways.

The afternoon is a self study section, by reviewing back what I have done already, I realised that I am not being effective for the past few days and my progress is behind my schedule already, I think it is because I am thinking too much in my head and not actually doing experiments. Therefore, I did some secondary researches of artists that inspire my project to push myself to physically do something and then see if there are more ideas coming through. Also, I developed some print experiments with the previous ideas and combined them with the object containers I brought the other day.

After what I have done today, I am clearer about what I should develop my project towards that I will aim for doing a more 3D textile final based on food container. I have been doing print design ideas already and I will try some other techniques in the following days as well, then refine my ideas by combining different elements together.

Today, a new project brief titled ‘Celebrating Archway’ was given and everyone was randomly allocated to a local place in Archway to be inspired for this project. I went to by places of The Yildiz Cafeteria and Yildiz Supermarket to observe and research.

I took some photos of the fruits, vegetables, cans, drink bottles, storage boxes and the CCTV camera screens from the supermarket and I found some assets of this specific supermarket. The place is small but there are a lot of goods placed all around from the inside of the market to the outside where the entrance is. Everything was well organizes and putted in orders and rolls one by one. However, because the colors, labels and sizes of the products are different from each other, in a large scale of view, the shop was messy and has a style of maximalism. The shop was quite busy at the time I went and there was only one cashier working there, I did not talk to him to get to know the shop better. I will go to the supermarket at another time and so a short interview with the cashier about the history of the shop and his opinion about archway. Also, I did not do any sketch or observational drawings about the place and I would like to draw something from life focusing on the colors, shapes but not about how detailed it is.

From the Cafeteria, I took some photos of the decorations of the place and the food they sale there as well. Not like how the supermarket using most of the space in presenting produces, the cafeteria left most of the space for customers to sit down and spent their time. I did not talk to the owners there as well and for my next visit, I will buy some food, sit down and talk to them in order to get to know the place better as well.

One of my priorities for improvement during Foundation Plus would be time management. It is not only about finishing required works or finals before the deadline but also about planning out my school time into pieces of what to do during the developments of projects as well as those weekends and after-school time.

Time management is the most important issue that I am facing right now and I need to make myself better at it as soon as possible so that I will not wasting my time in doing bits and pieces while I have much more important main parts not finished, which always happened in my past experiences. When too much time is spent on doing decorative staffs, there will be a very limited amount of time could be used in actually producing the cores in the end. Therefore, managing time properly since the starting point till the deadline and even after that would be so helpful in my progress not only during the Foundation Plus, but more for future studies and works.

I realized my weakness of finishing things on time when I was studying my second year of A-Level and I have always been working on it for the two projects afterwards, ‘Pollution’ and ‘Checkmate Fish’ and when for the ‘Checkmate Fish’ project, I was able to finish everything on time and even before hands. Therefore, during the Foundation Plus, I will start to plan my time everyday and for every project about the planning of time spent on each developing process.