CAKES

I'm beginning to make a serious effort to become a better cook - too often my cakes are pretty rubbish; I had one the other day that just collapsed which was pretty odd! I quite often improvise a bit too much, put ingredients in that aren't needed and it always ends in disaster - I really should learn from my mistakes more! These beautiful cakes were just normal sponge mixture, but we scooped out the middles and put in some homemade lemon curd and then added buttercream icing (which has a sneaky bit of lemon curd added to it!). They were delicious, and just to make it that bit better I was pretty happy with these photos!

RECTANGLES

A couple of pieces of jewellery I've nearly finished. I think it's been one of the best units I've done so far on my BTEC, because its so different and involved learning so much! We got to learn basic metalworking techniques at the beginning, but for the last couple of weeks have been designing our own jewellery and exploring all these techniques put together to make whatever we want. The designing and putting skills into practice has probably been the best bit, and I've actually been really proud of the stuff that I've made (it's all pieces I would wear myself, which I think is important because it makes it more personal!). In other news, I've been to an open day today and I think I may have found my perfect uni and course, which is really, really encouraging! I feel all inspired after it, and ready to get on with more projects at college just to get my portfolio looking great.

SHAPES

At college we have a week where we make artwork to be sold in an exhibition - every piece is 10 x 10 inches and sells for £10. I had a few ideas for these and this is what I ended up with; lots of smudged about paint which made some really cool shapes. I've then mounted them on some really nice card, and overall I think they look really good - first piece of work I've made in a long time that I really like!

SAATCHI : PAPER

Having not been to an exhibition in a while, this was absolute bliss. Not only is the gallery really, really beautiful (pale wood and white walls and calm lighting, what's not to love?) but I was quite shocked by how much I enjoyed the artwork. There was so much difference from piece to piece and it was all really inspiring - these are just a small selection of the photographs that I took whilst I was there. I've been struggling to come up with any ideas for my own artwork recently, and it made me remember just how much looking at art and just spending time in galleries can really motivate you and help with being creative. My favourite piece is the last photograph, with all the different portraits - they're great, and despite all being so different just seem to match really well - but I would say it's definitely an exhibition which is worth going to see for all of the artwork in it.

LONDON

We went on a trip to London today, and this is what I came back with - lots of double exposure photos and also a little collection of books and pens from Muji!

SCULPTURE

Once a week I have a sculpture unit, and the materials we were meant to use this week were all organic and natural. I had these beautiful rocks (from france and wales), a small pile of shells and driftwood, and lots of slate. I decided to pile up the stones into this shape, and initially I'd planned to work into it to make lines over the top which all joined up and could then be filled with coloured PVA which would look sort of like resin. What I ended up doing was putting it on a block of wood, and pouring some PVA I coloured white from the top and seeing where it went. I think my favourite part is how its pooled at the bottom, and how cool it looks from certain angles. 

LIFE

Over the last couple of weeks I've been starting to think about work for my portfolio, and one of my current little projects is a photo book. I've got an amazing app on my phone, which makes these double exposures (it's called ClassicToy) which I hadn't used for a while, but had a go on whilst I was on holiday and fell in love with the photos it makes all over again! My plan is to collect about 100 of these, and put them all together - it should make a little book that's really amazing to look at!

COLOUR

Got a day off today, so I got started on something that really needed doing. My portfolio needs starting soon, so thinking about what I want to put in it is really, really exciting. When you study art full time, getting a chance to make things you actually want to can be a bit tiring - trying to think creatively after a whole day of thinking creatively isn't what I'd call fun! So when I get a chance to make some artwork, it really is quite a treat.

The middle of these drawings was done in the Orangerie in Paris, where since my last visit they'd stopped visitors from taking photos, so I decided that I'd have a go at drawing some of what I saw (I had some lovely passport notebooks from Muji, that are perfect for taking notes and drawing in galleries!) The other two are water related, and I'm not quite sure that they work, but all the same it was nice to have a go at them.

Whilst currently writing my personal statement, I realised quite how important it's going to be for me to have some personal artwork, created outside of education, and this has started getting my head into the right place for making some cool stuff! I'd strongly recommend just picking a theme, and painting, colouring, and just making a general mess, because I now feel ready to go and have a go at something else!

BOOKS

I've been doing sculpture at school now for a few weeks, and this was for the week based on 'books'. I got a balloon, pasted on some ripped up book pages, and got this globe shape which I didn't know what to do with. Eventually I got a brainwave, and cut a hole through what was left of the book and put it onto a lamp stand. I then put in a lightbulb, put the globe over the top of it and got this really cool effect!

SEND

Picture heavy, I do apologise. Which one do you guys like the best? Thinking about my future lately, and whether or not university is going to be worth it. Latest plan, is to live at home and work as much as possible so I can finish Uni with no debt whatsoever - after that, I'm a bit stuck. These are for a business idea (another one, I know), but I'm seriously hoping this one will work out! I'm sure there's some famous quote about someone starting hundreds of businesses that all failed, and the last one they did was something amazing - here's hoping it'll be me!