think

Designers for Mental Health Care Settings Network have just launched their web site. It is of particular interest to any design practitioner interested or involved in design related to mental health care.

www.dmhcsn.co.uk

Mixed Media Graduate

Recent Jewellery (Mixed media) graduate Jodie Dutton is featured on the BBC website following her work being exhibited at the Platform Gallery, Clitheroe.
New Creators showcase talent

Huff and Puff

Fiona Candy’s work focuses on the ways that people make and use things; from personal clothing to public buildings, in order to express identity, define communities and generate social life.

This installation may bring to mind the folk story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’: a cautionary tale about life’s inherent dangers. In the story “the big bad wolf” represents the ever-present risk of catastrophe and threatens to blow the little pigs’ houses down, one by one. The differences between the pigs’ lifestyles and by implication their industriousness and social commitment, are symbolised by the houses they each build; one made of straw, one of wood and one of brick.

But here, presented in the affecting intimacy of a gallery, each ‘house’ has been painstakingly crafted, utilising the traditional skills of a time served, local craftsman. Links between house and home; neighbourhood and way of life; individuals and communities are implied. The little houses serve to remind us that the intrinsic materiality of man-made things i.e. their qualities of construction, look and feel, are the source of their capacity to objectify myth, morality, power and social values.

In our era of urban regeneration, the ideologies conveyed by folklore: sociality, aesthetics, craftsmanship, the sensual appeal and longevity of materials, all take on renewed significance for citizens of Preston, as the ‘old’ prepares to make way for the new…

a-brand is Fiona Candy’s ‘own label’ and aims to represent the paradoxical relationship between art and commerce.

Contact fjcandy@uclan..ac.uk

3X3

As part of their end of semester assessment second year Textile Innovations students recently mounted an exhibition of their work called ‘3x3’ in Victoria Building’s own gallery space – PR1 Gallery.

The project asked students to think about the consequence of the heritage and mechanics of the loom and its warp of threads, and that many textiles are woven and finished in a continuous length; stored in rolls to be cut up to make finished products. Clothing and curtain fabrics, floor and wall coverings are all ordered and sold by the linear or square metre. This project asked students to acknowledge this through the design and production of their own inter-related collection of three, three metre textile lengths, some of which you can see in the accompanying images.

Each student was given two words, picked at random, that described material qualities with relevance to textiles. They then interpreted their combination of words in their own way to develop a visual and tactile theme that could support personal design work for the semester.

They were are asked to consider the full dimensions and complexity of textile qualities: handle, touch, drape, volume, opacity, weight, embellishment, decoration, translucency etc and particularly the concepts of scale, decorative sequence and rhythm inherent in designing for ‘length’.

For further information about BA Hons Textile Innovations, please contact the Department of Design office. 01772 893372 or visit
www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/destech/design/courses/ba-textiles.html