Rebecca White Jewellery & Metalwork

Preserved Moments in Time photo pieces

2011-08-19T01:50:00.009+01:00

Domestic Paradise project

January/March 2011

I realised I was running out of projects to experiment with and I just had to base one on rocks and minerals. The structures fascinate me, its like random complex geometry...

I wanted to produce a piece that wasn't jewellery.

As the project title was domestic paradise.. I was thinking about my past. I produced a video tape with a tonne of very small photos stuck on the actual tape of the cassette. This then brought me on to looking at the photos and how I could make an interesting photo frame/holder.

This is a CAD (computer-aided design) render I produced from looking at minerals. I actually was about to make the back frame but just as I was about to make it I realised in this picture it was taking away from the photos, so I discarded that idea.

I made the photos into mineral shapes. They are amazing when held up in light, so instead of a wall piece they would be better hung up infront of a light.

I kept the shapes of the photos the same as in the CAD image. They were hung up on a wall in this photo of them. I took the photo from the side to show the 3D - mineral like quality.

They are meant to be angular and 'rough-cut'.

As you can see for what the piece is about, it is a really personal piece. I don't need to delve into why though as that is only important to me.

In future I want to come back to this project and see how I could make it into jewellery.

Chape Pendant

2011-08-19T01:02:00.007+01:00

Research Project

November/December 2010

This piece was based on a roman chape that I drew in Dundee McManus Gallery.

My design revolved around this piece of ebony wood that I carved and sanded. I liked the shape so much I wanted it to be the centre piece of my design. By keeping the chape form in mind, I created a case for the wood to sit in. Then made the chain and surprisingly I really enjoyed making the chain, there is a sense of achievement when it gets long enough.

The piece falls to your stomach. The pendant itself is between 40 - 50 mm in height.

This is one of my favourite pieces. Even my classmates and friends said it was "so me". It has a sharp elegance about it that I love. I am also fond of the silver/black contrast.

Knife Crime and Computer Game Brooches

2011-08-18T19:40:00.012+01:00

I'm going to revise my projects that I completed this past year.

To begin with:

Narrative project

September/October 2010

I'll admit my outcome did not do the knife crime concept any justice. I think because the subject was so big and strong I wasn't able to project a big and strong piece. I didn't want to glamorize knife crime. I could have made a very sharp bold piece of jewellery but I didn't feel it put across the fact that I was against knife crime.

I got a creative block halfway... then I brought in computer games as I enjoy them, yes even violent ones...

(table showing crime figure decreasing when games were released. I don't know where this was based though)

(This was what I asked friends regarding computer games)

Then I got lost and couldn't work out what I was trying to show. I ended up making to very obvious brooches.

I think I made them small as well because I wasn't completely confident with them.

However I did like how I put the brooches on display. I felt the titles "RESTART" and "RETHINK" put across what I was trying to show in these brooches as well as the separate write up:

"In a game you can begin again if something has not worked out for you. With real life you can not erase what you have done. While building up knife crime numbers, not only does violence cause physical pain for the victims, it causes emotional pain for others. "

After completing this project, I realised in the short space of time I was trying to tackle a very complex subject and was not able to research it enough.

In a jewellery sense, I also realised I was making too many brooches and not other types of jewellery and that I needed to make things with more confidence.

Treasures of the Anglo Saxons

2011-03-10T00:27:00.004Z

One week only!

Really enjoyed this programme, it is worth a watch if you are into history and metalwork.

I watched it last month. It related to my dissertation perfectly :)

iPlayer - Treasures of the Anglo Saxons

...

Update on Team project

2011-03-03T00:04:00.006Z

For the past few weeks, I've not actually had much to show for the team business proposal project even though I have been to every meeting. I tend to throw ideas in here, there and everywhere during our meetings. Jen is usually the one that writes down things that are relevant.

I thought I'd post up some of the individual work I have been doing, which is now rather backdated....

Initial Bottle recycling thoughts

Quick thoughts on SOWN boxes, which were included in brainstorming session.

Basic box design

Design trust Pages

For all the team work in one place, see the blog here.

Post Consumer

2011-02-03T15:18:00.006Z

Our group met again to add our notes together to come up with a profile of a post consumer.

These are mine and Jen's quick brainstorming of what a post consumer is.

Our "poster" is a facebook profile. We thought it was very fitting seeing as our post consumer is part of the "Net Generation". Here's the link to Emma Post-Konsumer ("I'm a Post Consumer").

Start of Semester 2

2011-01-23T22:51:00.005Z

Which learning style best represents me?
Activist, Reflector, Theorist or Pragmatist?

Apparently none.

I took a test/questionaire and I wasn't at all suprised by my result. Technically I'm what you call "Multi-Modal". I don't have a dominant style. I suppose that could be a good thing because I can be put in situations and be able to adapt to them. However I got "very low" for activist...So I don't learn well from situations I have been thrown into or haven't planned. I'm really not good if I've been put on the spot because I panic. I try to: put what people have said together, stick to the topic at hand, plan and be practical/realistic. I'm a mixture of different qualities from Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist because only half I agree with and thats probably why I never got a high score.

It was hard to work out which style best represented the people in my study group. I got a couple right but was far off on other people's. What shocked me was that I was the odd one out of the group! "Team Gorgeous" should really be called "Activists + Becca" haha. I kind of wish I was more of an activist, seems more fun :P but it doesn't work for me.
To try make the team more Multi-Modal, they'd probably need to apply aspects from the other styles, like sitting back, researching and planning more, being realistic, that sort of thing.
I think activists are always good in a team because they keep the ball rolling.

Busy..

2010-10-21T00:33:00.003+01:00

ahh.. blogger.. I've not written properly on here for a while... Probably because I never seem to find the time to sit down and type or find anything interesting to tell the world. I'm still finding it hard to get into blogging. I'm not sure it is for me. I'm not a natural writer. I re-read whatever I write about 50 times.. and that could be a reason why I don't blog much - I know it is going to take ages. I enjoy reading other blogs, but on my own blog I don't know what to write so that others will enjoy reading it.

I'm just putting some thoughts down. I want to blog but I just can't seem to...

I've been rather busy with my narrative project at the moment. Many 9am - 8pm days in the workshop. Its still not finished. And I'm just so worn out because I've been working on the presentation from the time after dinner up to 1am.. I might just sleep all weekend to recover!

I'm thinking of writing some entries based on initial research and concept for the narrative project before putting photos of the final pieces up. I am sort of backtracking and that just means you may need to wait a bit longer to see it...

Design Studies - Assignment 1

2010-10-06T13:38:00.003+01:00

- This is the "wiki" entry I have done for design studies following on from mindmap in previous post-

Resource Depletion

Summary

Resources such as oil and metals are finite which means they will not last forever; especially at the rate we use them. Resource depletion is the exhaustion of these natural reserves. Depletion can affect minerals, energy and food sources, such as farming and fishing. Mineral and oil resources have been made gradually over billions of years and in such a small space of time of the Earth’s history, we are practically using them up (Kesler, 1976). Many factors such as: population increase, consumption and demand, deforestation, soil fertility decline and pollution can cause depletion. All of these problems are because of human actions:

“The finger of blame points clearly to man’s activities.” (Brookins, 1990)

Then and Now

Worries over energy resource depletion have come and gone throughout the years. People were concerned following the Second World War and it is now a constant apprehension (Robinson, 1975). Not everyone has this fear, since the problem does not seem extremely serious at this point in time, but many people are not considering the lifestyles of future generations. They may presume that everything will work out, but we can already tell that the Earth will not end up the way it is represented in science-fiction stories.

Until the USA took over, Britain was, for a time, the main supplier and consumer of metal. The USA now acts more as an importer as most sources are found in undeveloped countries (Blunden, 1985). Developed countries can then receive more profit from selling the final products that were sold to them by undeveloped countries that mined the original resource.

The population of the world in 1950 was approximately 2500 million (Young, 1998) whereas the figure now is around 6870 million (U.S. & World Population Clocks, n.d.). As population rises the more resources are consumed.

Overpopulation - Not enough resources to go around...

The industrial revolution of the 19^th century made a huge change to how people lived and worked. They were not making products or getting products by hand anymore:

“…products were no longer manufactured by handicraft workers in the neighbourhood and exchanged against farmers’ goods” (Spangenberg, et al., 2010).

This led to the diminishment of the trusted link between producers and consumers. Machinery allows a great volume of products to be made; this also uses up resources, energy and metals at a high rate and causes pollution and waste.

In the mining industry, a big difference has been noted in levels of gold production in that 29 million ounces of gold were produced in 1957 (Anon., 1960) and fifty years later 82.5 million ounces of gold were mined (Anon., 2009). The increased levels in 2007 can be attributed to the use of more efficient machines. These figures show that there may be a high level of gold produced, but it is also consumed very quickly. In the future there will be less and less to consume; this is the same with other resources, they are not infinite.

The Earth’s oil supply is depleting at an undesirable rate and, because it is completely used up in the energy burning process, it cannot be recycled. Alternative energy sources have been considered and most are in practice now. In Mineral and Energy Resources (Brookins, 1990), every alternative energy source is described up until the 1990s. These include: solar energy, wind power, geothermal energy, tar sands (synthetic crude oil), ocean thermal energy, biomass (living matter such as plants), municipal wastes, tidal power and oil shale. Wind power was the first alternative energy source put into practice. This was before the 20^th century and it is still used widely today. Nuclear fusion is another source that is mentioned but it is not in operation now and probably will not be for another century. These methods use other sources in order to store the energy that they create, which is impractical, but means the expiration of energy becomes more distant. All alternative methods are very expensive and are likely to use up a lot of energy and materials in their production and set up.

Design Relevance

“We can make only probabilistic statements” (Robinson, 1975) about what will happen in years to come. If we run out of energy sources would we go back to making or retrieving things by hand? Would there be too many people for the Earth to maintain? Would the Earth recover? If we were unable to find more metals would we have to recycle huge amounts of existing supplies? Anything could happen.

The best way to prepare people is to educate them about sustainability, as this topic is not being taught on a large scale (Spangenberg, et al., 2010). Past generations, and even this one, appear not to be considering future generations and they are taking advantage of current resources in the meantime. Some people do however choose to recycle consumable goods. Most things can be recycled now and this cuts down on waste in our throwaway society, making it less of a problem. Teaching sustainability could perhaps help everyone to understand the importance of recycling and that the use of less energy will be essential in the future.

Linking sustainability to design would be another key issue because other methods of designing, sourcing materials and producing products may change things for the better.

Earth Hands - The world is in our hands...

From a jewellery perspective, metals are important in the way of design. Gold and silver are the top precious metals used in jewellery and are both particularly rare materials. Perhaps there is less of a worry about the depletion of gold because “a third of all gold ever mined, is in government vaults” (Brookins, 1990). Companies are currently advertising on television to try and get people to exchange mobile phones and old or broken jewellery for money. Mobile phones are made of many materials; gold is the main one these companies are after. For all of the mobile phones they receive, they must accumulate substantial amounts of gold.

The mining of gold is not good for the environment as cyanide is used in the extraction process:

”monitoring wells surround each property to ensure against pollution of water by the cyanide” (Brookins, 1990).

Some mining companies are environmentally friendly. If designers were willing to pay more for metals that are extracted from a reliable source, which is not destroying the land and water, then land degradation would reduce.

Increasingly designers are now choosing to use different materials and they are promoting the fact that they are sustainable designers. Many use found objects, recycled items or other non-metals that will not affect resource depletion. Using recycled metals for design purposes is another way to avoid depletion, but the cost of the recycling process makes this unsuitable for some project budgets.

To help with the energy problem, jewellers may want to go back to making everything by hand, which would take more time but would result in more personal work being created than mass produced mechanically made pieces.

Bibliography

Anon., 1960. Statistical Summary of the Mineral Industry 1953-1958. London: Overseas Geological Survey. Available at: <>
[Accessed 27 September 2010].

Anon., 2009. World Mineral Production 2003-07. Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey. Available at: <>
[Accessed 27 September 2010].

Blunden, J., 1985. Mineral Resources and their Management. New York: Longman Inc.

Brookins, D. G., 1990. Mineral and Energy Resources. Columbus, OH.: Merrill.

Earth Hands. [picture] Available at: [Accessed 1 October 2010].

Kesler, S. E., 1976. Our Finite Mineral Resources. USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Overpopulation. [picture] Available at: <> [Accessed 25 September 2010].

Robinson, C., 1975. The Depletion of Energy Resources. In: D.W..Pearce, ed. The Economics of Natural Resource Depletion. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. Ch. 2.

Spangenberg, J.H., Fuad-Luke, A. and Blincoe, K., 2010. Design for Sustainability (DfS): the interface of sustainable production and consumption, Journal of Cleaner Production, 18( 15) [online] Available at:<> [Accessed 29 September 2010].

U.S. & World Population Clocks, n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 October 2010].

Young, A., 1998. Land Resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Design Studies: Mindmap

2010-10-04T10:28:00.003+01:00

Here is the mindmap I did before I started writing the summary/design essay for design studies.

Group Meeting

2010-09-22T12:07:00.004+01:00

So back to university - I'm in the middle of week 2 of 3rd year and I am already working away!
For my first assignment for design studies I am looking into Resource Depletion. I literally had to look up the whole list to see what each topic given ment! Somehow this one really stood out to me. I have to write a 1000word summary of it and how it relates to design. This shouldn't be too hard, the only struggle is finishing early so it can get proof read (the hard times of being dyslexic :P). So this week I really need to get the reading done so I can write it next week.

I was put in a group of 8, each studing different areas in design which will be my study group. Last thursday we had a "lunch date" to decide and discuss what topics we were doing.

This is us! Alan is missing from the photo because he had to leave early.

I kind of wish I had made more of an effort with my appearance now!

Watercolour Portrait

2010-09-02T17:25:00.010+01:00

I decided to paint my mate Sana seeing as she was the person that was online at the time when I was wanting to paint! And chose one of Nuno's photos of her that he took for his catwalk project. (Click their names to go to their blogs).

-Ok.. photo isn't good quality and blogger has made it small .. just take my word that its way better in person -

This has to be one of the best portraits I've ever done. I spent about 2-3 weeks on it, painting in small amounts.

Time and patience is key.

I've improved my painting skills and have brought my old friend - watercolours - back into my life! I used to use them a lot in highschool and then ditched them for acrylics and inks when I was making up my portfolio. My love for watercolours has come back! :)

First painting in a while..

2010-07-15T19:06:00.008+01:00

so.. my plan for the summer was to do at least one portrait and I have done that today. It is A5 size and I spent a couple hours on it. Normally my portraits turn out better but I have not painted with acrylics for a while, let alone paint a portrait with them. It has been a couple years since I painted one (excluding life drawing - there is never enough time to do a proper painting... and none of my pictures turn out right). I think I'll do a few more portraits seeing as I miss doing them and it will improve my painting skills (I hope).

Why I painted a winter scene in summer.. I don't know!!

Project 3 : Stone Setting

2010-05-01T21:37:00.003+01:00

3 Greek Gods ~ Zeus, Poseidon & Hades Brooches

Not the best photo of them, but this is what I've been working on

for weeks!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while... I never have much to say! I also don't stumble across interesting things to write about...

Assignment 5 - Primary Research Essay

2010-03-31T18:52:00.003+01:00

The early identification of disabilities is important, as children who are struggling to learn may be helped if they are provided with the additional support that they need. From what I have read before on this topic, it can be hard to identify problems that are not clearly noticeable on the outside. Only with closer observation will these problems appear. However, not every teacher may be able to closely observe their pupils individually, as this would mean their time and help would not be easily shared around the class. In Gerber’s journal: “Teachers are Still the Test: Limitations of Response to Instruction Strategies for Identifying Children with Learning Disabilities” (2005) he wrote that teachers are not all the same and they can act differently towards their pupils. This could explain why disabilities may not be seen. A teacher may pay more attention to those who want to learn, without thinking that the ones who are not learning could need additional support. In Martin’s book “Teaching Children with Speech and Language Difficulties” (2000) she states that teachers should look at the class as a whole, and then direct their attention to individual pupils who are not working as well as others. Teachers need to be shown how to look for problems and they should be aware of the characteristics of certain disabilities.

In order to find out how much teachers have been told about disabilities, it would perhaps be best to interview a few to see if there were differences in their training. This may depend on where they were first taught. I would ask if they were aware of disabilities when they first started teaching and if they had become more familiar with types of children’s disabilities over the years. The results would tell me if more information about disabilities should be provided for teachers. Asking the questions: “how easy is it to spot disabilities?” and “how have you noticed disabilities in the past?” would give me varying results, because it comes down to each individual teacher and how observant they are. The answers would be helpful in working out what teachers could do to notice students with disabilities. Then, from the pupils they noticed that had signs of a disability, how did they ensure that the correct support was provided for them? Was it a simple change in their own teaching, someone coming in to work with the child or was the child taught separately from the class? There can be many different support methods. Schools may simply go for the most cost effective route rather than the most supportive. Taking into account the “Response to Instruction” that Gerber (2005) writes about would be very expensive for schools and there is no way of seeing how effective the trials could be in identifying disabilities since it has not been used on a large scale. Most schools would probably go without, as this would save them money and time that would involve changing the school for Response to Instruction needs, i.e. more staff, rooms and pupils leaving classes for trials.

I could attempt observing a classroom of pupils to see if spotting problems is a difficult task and to see how much observation is needed. I could do this through general observation of the class behaviour and the work of the pupils. I could also try out the two checklists in Martin’s book (2000) to see how effective they are, as they are designed to help beginner teachers to become more observant of their pupils. The first checklist looks at the class as a whole and the second one looks closely at how individual pupils interact and work. I would then write up my results to see if someone else who is familiar with learning disabilities needs to come into the schools to view a classroom while the children are working rather than taking them out of class. This would make it easier on the teachers and should hopefully be cheaper than Response to Instruction trials.

Both of these research methods could go wrong. The first issue I may face could be that teachers might not be willing to speak to me. I feel those that would speak to me for the interviews would not be honest with their answers because they may feel the need to ‘gloss over’ their answers and I would have no way of knowing if what they would be saying would be what they think they are expected to say. I also may not be able to gain a true experience of observing a class. The class pupils may feel uncomfortable with my presence and not work efficiently. If I, instead of the class teacher, were to identify a pupil that may have problems it could make the teacher look bad. Even though it can be good to get an outside view, I would also not be able to notice issues that do not appear straight away. In this case I would have to get to know many pupils and observe their work over a long time. Another main problem is that parents may not give permission to get their child’s work observed.

Practically all of these problems are unavoidable and there would not be a way of getting useful results without using the methods I have mentioned. There is no way of knowing in advance if this would work or not, but by changing the way interview questions are asked obvious and expected answers may be avoided. I would have to make sure to ask indirect questions to avoid leading the subject. This way the teachers I interviewed would be able to provide more realistic responses. Also, taking the teachers out of their school environment may make a difference in what they say.

I think researching the issue of how to detect children with disabilities would be hard to do because the research methods are most likely not to work. Every school, pupil and teacher is different so any information I find out from one school would not be the same for another. This would make it very difficult to see if any improvements are needed within schools. The only way to get good results would be to gain a larger sample of results by going to many schools and talking to many teachers. This could be time consuming, expensive due to the travel involved and pointless if I were to get no useful information. I would only be able to look into this area for official purposes.

Bibliography: -

Gerber, M., (2005), Teachers are still the test: limitations of response to instruction strategies for identifying children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 38 (6) 516-524.

Martin, D., (2000), Teaching children with speech and learning difficulties. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd.

progress

2010-03-19T23:46:00.002Z

Wow I actually have a free moment! Been so busy recently, was in a show and been trying to finish my jewellery work. I haven't got any photos of my work yet, as I've just been working like a mad woman to try and get it done. Sadly it wasn't finished for today, so I don't know when it will. Finished 1 brooch today though!!! Got the other 2 to finish, hopefully by next week.

Each brooch panel represents Zeus, Poseidon and Hades (sky, sea and underworld). They can be worn or can be displayed. I moved away from just the underworld idea because I wanted to make different panels, so that ment setting different stones.

Will post photos when they are complete :)

New Project - Underworld theme

2010-02-25T23:08:00.003Z

So I've decided to go rather dark for this next project. Looking through my big tangled mass of jewellery I found necklaces from my "goth" days. Haha... you know the ones where you think you look cool but you really don't. Yes... those days :P

Anyway... first of all I had to look up on religious/spiritual symbolism... not my kind of thing if I'm being honest... I have probably gone the opposite direction to most... I started thinking about hell (pleasant I know!! haha) then looked at black stones and came across Obsidian which is a natural glass (mmmm glass.... I need to remember to write up a blog about my glass work I did in highschool...) and it is said to have come from the underworld....

Recently I've just been looking up the greek mythology of the underworld. I honestly don't know where I'm going to go with this.... but we'll just have to wait and see! :)

Catwalk Project - Final Work

2010-02-20T11:07:00.007Z

-my Elizabethan inspired catwalk piece-

"I wanted to produce a very unusual design. My work reflects this era with a modern twist..."

Exhibition was a success. Everyone's work looked so great on display! :D

Development of catwalk piece

2010-02-18T00:21:00.012Z

I was ment to write this blog sooner but I've been really busy!

My piece is based on a hall that was built in 1570 (during Elizabeth I's reign).
Little Moreton Hall

This image is from wikipedia (I just randomly chose it from google images to show you).

Isn't it pretty? :)
I just love the patterns and the strong contrast.

I randomly came up with this design (and others but this is the one that I thought was best). The original image of the woman was from the book Tudor Costume and Fashion by Herbert Norris.

As I started making the piece, the design changed a lot. I believe I come up with ideas better when I am playing around with materials than working in a sketchbook.

This was the model I made 2 weeks ago to get a basic idea of how to make it.
The plastic part has been flocked with black, to follow the black out line in the Moreton hall pattern (3 hours of inhaling flock was not good!). Black and white together were Queen Elizabeth's favourite colours, so I wanted to incorperate this into the piece. By using the flock it gives the piece a more textile feel. The metal collar has been etched like this:

I did not want to show the final piece yet, it is almost done....
I am modelling it tomorrow, so will upload the photos at the weekend :)

Sam Gosling: Facebook

2010-02-03T22:59:00.004Z

I recently have been reading Snoop: What your stuff says about you by Sam Gosling and I managed to read most of it in 2 days! Very easy read for me, normally it would take me a few weeks to read a book that size. It is very interesting book, makes you think beyond what you see in front of you. Also found that my worrying side of my personality is double the average... which is worrying :P

Just thought I'd pass on this link of an interview published on the Facebook blog yesterday.

Facebook Blog Link

In the book I skipped past the online parts (because I was trying to analyse a bedroom not a facebook profile) but this link shows what he is looking into now for those that are interested :)

"It becomes personal"

2010-01-30T14:58:00.003Z

From reading chapter 4 of Guy Julier’s book The Culture of Design, I realised that it is better to have commissioned jewellery rather than mass produced jewellery.

Jewellery that is churned out will only have meaning if someone buys it for you. There was nothing special about it to begin with and you know many people will own the same piece.

Cheap jewellery is not significant. Whereas as a limited collection or even just one piece that is more expensive is significant. It becomes personal.

Jewellery that is commissioned is more personal. The commissioner knows or has spoken to the person that made it. It is not made for an unknown person. There is a connection between consumer and maker. This is what Ikea tried to do, where they created a relationship between consumer and production by letting the consumer build the furniture. Obviously the Ikea furniture is mass produced so there is nothing special about it, yet with commissioned jewellery it is special because it is unique.

I have a lot, and I mean a lot of junk jewellery that I’ve accumulated over the years, yet I only ever wear sentimental jewellery, not jewellery that I’ve bought myself (unless it is earrings).

Ever since I started studing jewellery & metalwork, I’ve actually stopped buying jewellery. I do not like the idea of mass produced jewellery (I’m not fully against it, I love receiving jewellery :D) and I know in a few years I’ll be able to make my own and it would be personal because I designed it. I have found myself either changing the chain, or taking off a charm on a necklace before.. it makes it different and looks better most of the time. So I think if I was to make my own jewellery it would be versatile pieces that you can change in small ways to make it fit with what you are wearing or how you personally want it to look.

I’ve gone a bit off topic…

Julier has mentioned many authors in the chapter and will try and maybe look into a couple when I find time - it just takes me ages to read and understand what I’m reading :(

Project 3: Research

2010-01-19T08:48:00.012Z

This project looks like it will be a lot of fun. Our final piece has to sit on the body in an unusual way and/or be big and bold. Catwalk pieces are ment to be different from everyday wear.

I've based my project on the Elizabethan era because it interests me the most. The big dresses, the jewellery, the architecture, ship architecture.... Theres just so many patterns aswell. Elizabeth was a good leader from what I have read and the film I saw (as research ;) ) She brought back art, music and drama. She also had a colour code for everyone as a law e.g. only royalty were allowed to wear purple. Bad way for people to be judged I must admit. If you were seen wearing a wrong colour you would get imprisoned! Its fascinating learning about the past because it came before our time and is what shaped us now.

For the last two projects I've had a few ideas in mind before I even hit the research. I wanted to get out of that so this time I've had a clear mind and I have no clue what I'm going to be
designing! Will have to see where it takes me.

Doing eching today, so should be good :)

First Semester - Level 2 Jewellery & Metalwork

2009-12-11T12:24:00.009Z

Project 1 - Vessel

I uploaded this professional photo of my dish seeing as the previous ones were just taken with my camera and aren't great. :)

Project 2 - Wire

Sorry I did not put up anything about this project before, I have just been too busy. This neckpiece just took forever to make and I now know I need tonnes and tonnes of patience for jewellery making! I am actually glad it is finished... I can finally relax...

Interchangable Neckpiece (brooch and 2 "branches") based on Chinese Painting (specifically Guo Xi's painting Old Trees, Level Distance - organic trees contrasted with a geometric structure).

Assignment 4 – “Learning Disabilities and Response to Instruction”

2009-12-04T10:33:00.006Z

Following my topic on dyslexia, I have chosen to look at detection of learning disabilities in a broad spectrum. Starting simply, I referred to “Teaching Children with Speech and Language Difficulties” (Martin, D., 2000). This book is for trainee teachers who have not experienced working with children who have some form of learning disability. When talking about speech and language problems, Martin uses very basic examples to show the reader how complexities affect children and get in the way of learning effectively. If new teachers understand the importance of detecting whether or not a child has a learning disability, they will be more alert and more helpful in regard to their class as a whole. If a child is not recognised as having a potential disability early, or not helped with it, they can struggle throughout their school life. In a section called “The Role of the Teacher” in Margaret Crombie’s book “Dimensions of Dyslexia: Volume 1”, it is suggested that children with issues give up on tasks if they are struggling:

“As reading is likely to bring about [negative] feelings, the pupil will try at all costs to avoid reading.” (Crombie, 1996)

Martin goes into detail on the different ways in which disabilities can be comprehended depending on which profession someone is in. The two methods that I find most relevant are the “educational approach” which is about vigilance and the “psycholinguistic approach” which is about the intervention process. Observing children is a good way to start looking for disabilities, which can affect children in different ways. By paying close attention, a child’s concealed disabilities may become more obvious as time goes on.
At the back of the book Martin has added two checklists. The first is aimed at an entire class and has a list of possible issues that a child may have, categorised in three main areas. These areas are: “listening behavior”, “expressive language” and “social behavior”. This checklist is meant to be used over a period of time so that the teacher has time to get to know pupils and monitor their progress. The teacher may put a child’s name against a certain issue if they are causing concern and then go on to finding means of assisting those that appear to be having problems with learning. The second checklist consists of two parts, covering different age groups. They are only samples of the AFASIC (Association for all Speech Impaired Children) checklists. It covers different areas such as ‘”language content”’ and “communication”. The difference from the previous checklist is that this is an individual checklist. If the teacher fills this one out for every student then there will be more information than the class checklist. Both of these are unofficial tests but can be used to back up concerns which would then lead on to the children completing official tests. The section on intervention does mention how problems can differ, so it considers children’s skills and what their strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to learning. However, this is the area Gerber believes is ineffective or perhaps, not as effective as it could be.

“Teachers are Still the Test: Limitations of Response to Instruction Strategies for Identifying Children with Learning Disabilities” (Gerber, 2005) is a journal that examines the aspects of Response to Instruction and Intervention that make it inadequate in schools. These points include its expense and teachers acting towards pupils differently based on their teaching, as well as the children’s behavior and approach to learning. He refers back to his previous arguments, some written more than 20 years ago, that are still relevant now. The main ones are teachers and students acting different towards each other and how externally behavioral problems are seen, yet most of the time inner problems are not. It is easy to see someone has behavioral problems without Response to Instruction trials and these trials will not necessarily work well in spotting unseen issues.

Gerber created two graphs which show how two students can accomplish different results even with help from a teacher. He formed a further graph, by joining the two previous ones together, which could represent any size of class. It shows that some children are fast learners while others are not; those are the ones that need more time. Each child is different. The graphs were fabricated to give a general idea of how children differ. I can see why Gerber has done so, as it would be too complicated to base this on reality. His graphs generally represent the expected outcomes, with more highs and lows depending on the child, the teacher, and what is being learned or attained. He also produced a table of approximations on how much Response to Instruction will cost per year, depending on how many children are allocated to one teacher. This table is a rough calculation on expenses sourced from the little information found. Looking at the calculated amount, it is unlikely every school would use Response to Instruction as a way of initial detection of learning disabilities. More staff would drain schools funds and additional time needed for trials would be less time learning from the class curriculum.

Response to Instruction is not possible on a large scale; we cannot tell how it will work or how successful it can be. Schools will have to be improved to suit Response to Instruction needs and teachers will need more training to increase on their knowledge and skills. Disabilities can be acknowledged out with Response to Instruction through closely observing pupils, especially their work. It will not make a learning disability any clearer to those without Response to Instruction. If this journal is taken into account, I think schools and teachers will find a cheaper solution than using Response to Instruction. Something that is more efficient in identifying a wide range of learning problems, not just the obvious ones. They may want to see more detailed reports on Response to Instruction because it has been very confined so far. If not, and people still think going through with Response to Instruction is the way forward; they will dismiss Gerber’s arguments.

Remembering the basic aims of “Teaching Children with Speech and Language Difficulties” (Martin, D., 2000), should help teachers to spot children with disabilities more easily. I believe it will, but not for everyone as teachers act differently towards different pupils. Martin does not mention this, and is expecting teachers to spend a lot of time observing the children; only motivated teachers will do this. Gerber writes:

“…we think about teachers only in terms of specific isolated behaviors - curricula, or strategies - we can sometimes disregard the variability inherent in real teachers and in institutions that create, distribute, and constrain them.” (Gerber, 2005)

Teachers need to be able to teach in their own way because if every teacher teaches and acts exactly the same, and that is not efficient, then nothing will come out of teaching and children will not learn. Children sometimes need extra assistance to help and encourage them to learn:

“It is for the teacher to find strengths of the pupil and give praise and encouragement whenever possible. Through an increase in confidence, the pupil’s whole approach to school work may be altered.” (Crombie, 1996)

“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell (2000) covers how improvements were made to increase the reading and learning of children who came from low income families. The television programmes “Sesame Street” and “Blue’s Clues” were made for this reason. A lot of research went into finding out how children remember things e.g. with repetition. The book mentions that structure and content are important, but we need to remember these aspects are suited for children that can learn easily; learning disabilities obstruct those who cannot. This issue is too complex to write on because each disability affects a child differently. Martin does explain some types of disabilities whereas Gerber writes about disabilities in general, without being specific. He does this because it links back to the fact that everyone is different. By not writing about specific disabilities this way neither extreme nor mild disabilities are left out.

On the design aspect of identification of disabilities, things could be improved. Perhaps Response to Instruction is useful, seeing as Gerber does not dismiss it completely. However, it is not useful at the moment due to its expense. The expenditure could be up to 2.2 billion dollars nationwide over a year (Gerber, 2005). There needs to be a cheaper, more effective and rapid solution. Martin’s writing does not cover improvements, it simply advises teachers to be more observant. Gerber, however, does say improvements are needed:

“…a set of concepts much broader than Response to Instruction will be necessary, concepts more focused on the determinants of capacity of teachers within real schools to respond effectively to students’ responses to instruction.” (Gerber, 2005)

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If I were to continue with this topic, I would probably like to see Response to Instruction in action as it is hard for me to fully understand the processes. And see if just simple observation is the best way to spot learning disabilities. Talk to teachers and ask them how they have spotted disabilities in the past and what they do to get help for those children.
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Bibliography:

Gerber, M., (2005), Teachers are still the test: limitations of response to instruction strategies for identifying children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 38 (6) 516-524.

Gladwell, M., (2000), The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Great Britain: Little, Brown and Company.

Martin, D., (2000), Teaching children with speech and learning difficulties. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd.

Reid, G., ed., (1996), Dimensions of dyslexia - Volume 1. Glasgow: Bell & Bain Ltd.

Vessel Project

2009-11-12T23:39:00.014Z

I've been meaning to put this up for a while but never had a chance to upload the photos!

Inspired by the movement of water and the subtle waves created by ripples. I translated this into the metal to make a solid form with a fluid quality.

Jewellery & art and general interesting/inspiring websites

2009-11-11T11:55:00.006Z

Jewellery/Art sites:

1. Dazzle Exhibitions

2. Whos Who In Gold and Silver

3. Association for Contemporary Jewellery

4. Genna Delaney I could put more jewellers up here, but I particularly liked her work.

5. Deviant Art (I would post my profile but I haven't updated it for almost a year and its mostly just got my old photomanipulation pictures I used to do. I check this site everyday to see what artwork people are favouriting and to see what artwork the people I follow/watch are producing).

General interesting/inspiring websites:

1. TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design

2. BBC

3. NASA

4. Youtube e.g. Christina Aguilera's Fighter music video directed by Floria Sigismondi

5. The Guardian

:)

oohh pretty...

2009-11-09T23:59:00.002Z

Just stumbled across this... its very distracting... :)

Neave.com/imagination

Researching Dyslexia, teaching and testing.

2009-11-09T19:13:00.008Z

For Design Studies I was asked to look up books and journals on my issue that came to light on assignments 2 (brainstorm & mindmap in a previous blog entry).

My issue was based on personal experience where no one noticed that I had dyslexia in school. I decided to research at the beginning, starting off with general books on dyslexia and learning difficulties. My journals are on the point of view of the teacher to see how they can spot difficulties. No teachers managed to pick up on my perhaps not-so-obvious dyslexia (looking back now, it was obvious... I just thought I was normal... I shouldn't have had to struggle as much as I did though).

If I was going to improve the education system these are the texts I would first look at before going into schools observing and asking questions (even though I'm not one for asking questions! Again my school life is to blame).

Here are the texts I found:

Gerber, M., (2005), Teachers are still the test: limitations of response to instruction strategies for identifying children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 38 (6) 516-524.

As it says in the title, this journal concentrates on RTI (response to instruction) as a way of earlier identification of learning disabilities. However its limits include expenses, teachers responding to students differently based on behavior and the fact strategy training and results are rarely reported (e.g. each session cannot be done in the same way, have the same results everytime and unnoted improvements would be made).

Hultquist, A., (2006), An introduction to dyslexia for parents and proffessionals [online]. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.dundee.ac.uk/lib/dundee/docDetail.action?docID=10156041

This online book goes into the various types of dyslexia, giving basic examples of how the children with dyslexia spell, not be able to retrieve certain words or read. It brings into account different levels of dyslexia - mild to deep dyslexia. Apparently there are many tests to identify dyslexia but she particularly talks about IQ tests. Other areas are covered such as laws and other reading disorders.

Martin, D., (2000), Teaching children with speech and learning difficulties. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd.

This book shows how to spot a child that is having issues. It tells us about teacher's observation and shows examples of situations. The book has sections where it shows what questions the teachers should be asking themselves in regard to a student.

Muter, V., (2003), Early reading development and dyslexia. London: Whurr Publishers Ltd.

This book covers very early learning, going onto children with difficulties. From chapters 7 until 12 is specifically looks into the testing and teaching of children with dyslexia.

Reid, G., ed., (1996), Dimensions of dyslexia - Volume 1. Glasgow: Bell & Bain Ltd.

Information wont be that up-to-date but will still be relevant (it was reprinted in 2000 though). Each chapter is written by a expert or group of experts, so there is a lot of information regarding each section. Covers teaching, support, all types of assessments and further education.

Taylor, H., Anselmo, M., Foreman, A., Schatschneider, C. and Angelopoulos, J., (2000), Utility of kindercarten teacher judgements in identifying early learning problems. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 33 (2) 200-210.

In this journal, it is the teacher's view on the child's progress, to predict if they will struggle and how they will be in the future, based on their behaviour and if they are learning at such an early age. The authors do tests on groups of children in kindercarten classes.

Recording the past...

2009-11-04T00:25:00.006Z

Hazel White's Website

Hazel White explained her experience over the years last Friday in a lecture and it was good to see examples of the work she has done. Her work and ideas have changed a lot in the space of about 10 years, I like how she has developed her work and moved onto different ideas. Her interactive jewellery is really interesting. She spoke about a past story of a relative and I liked the idea of something holding a record of that.
During the summer I joined ancestry.co.uk, after watching Who Do You Think You Are?, as I wanted to find out who was in my family before me. I got quite far back but there was only two people that had made a name for themselves so there was info about them on a couple of sites. Shame I wont be able to hear about any of their lives personally, I only know little snippets my grandparents have told me from what they remember being told. I think jewellery (just a example, could be an electrical piece or something) that holds a record of you personally would be good for future generations wanting to see who was in their family before them - see if they act the same, same views, personality... etc. Most important, their stories.

A lot to read... sorry!

2009-10-26T22:17:00.009Z

For Design Studies, we were asked to research into a certain topic extracted from a group brainstorm. Our brainstorm on TV Education is above. We went from children education to adult education, showing the difference between what things you learn from TV. We went into how TV education is actually designed. Other ideas such as computer games and merchandise were also said.

I decided to look into the learning (for children) in general. I could have looked intoit a lot more, writing more for each area, but there are just so many! I went from learning, to my own experience, to truancy, to a recent news report on children going into formal learning later and then finally to homeschooling. I started off with a spider diagram which went into 4 small Mindmaps. Seeing them together I feel a spider diagram is more useful as you can write so much more in the space provided. I maybe should have used colour, but I’ve not quite worked out a best way to do that.

Anyways, researching this has actually been a bit emotional for me… I wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until the summer before I came to university. So throughout my school life it wasn’t noticed. In primary I was put down a lot by teachers as my reading was terribly slow, my writing was so messy and I wasn’t good at structuring my essays (writing is better now, but the other two things still effect me). Apparently I used to “pull a sicky” whenever it came to Language.
In 5^th year at High School I asked my English teacher if I could get extra help regarding close reading and he said “no, you get enough teaching as everyone else”. And my sort of art teacher when I was making my portfolio said to me “You won’t get into Art College”. It’s like thanks for the encouragement! I realised my nervousness, worrying too much about everything and generally thinking I’m doing everything wrong was because of the way I was treated in primary school and at high school. It’s subconsciously there, making me get all whelmed up when it came to talking to teachers. Obviously, I’m not as bad as I used to be. University is different, and that’s why I love it. I hated school so much, ever since I first started!! I still get stressed and worry a hell of a lot…

This got me thinking of a way kids could get tested for dyslexia early so they don’t end up like me! There should be a cost effective solution. A few people never actually realise they have it… so if there was a way to test a whole class early in primary school which could also point out people with reading and writing delays that may not be connected to dyslexia so they can get extra help also. There are many forms and levels of dyslexia, obviously some worse than others, but as soon as it has been found out, they can get the help they need. It needs to be simpler and not take a lot of time to do. It cost my family £700 to get me tested as we didn’t know if I’d be able to pass English to get into DoJ. Luckily I did pass because a few teachers noticed I may have a problem so they gave me extra time on my English papers (and on my Product Design paper) I really don’t think I would have been able to pass without that extra 15 mins! I think it’s the cost that puts schools off from testing students and this is why the kids struggle throughout their school life. Basically there needs to be a solution to this problem….

For the other areas I covered, I only researched them... I wasn’t able to come up with ideas to help or improve them. I didn’t mind researching them though. It was a good week’s worth of research. Hopefully I won’t mind doing this when it comes to the dissertation :) And now that I have support for my dyslexia I’m sure it will be fine… bet I’ll still be worrying and stressing! :P

Just some thoughts...

2009-10-19T01:01:00.002+01:00

I'm starting to accept that design isn't all about the visual aspect of it. Everything is designed in some way or another. I think I'll come back to this concept of in more detail after I've had a while to ponder over it. It has never really hit me before, but I'm glad it has now.

I was speaking to my grandad who was a research chemist. If you are looking to design something new, you consult what was there before. In his case he would consult books. I think it was Plutonium he mentioned (I do listen but my memory fails me a lot...) was a not-so-new-but-new-enough man-made element (again design!)... he had very little to refer back to, no books had been written about it. So he would have had to rely on experimentation and what people around him had found out. That must have been exciting to work with something new but also tough as you wouldn't know how it reacted or anything.

These days there aren't things that are completely new, you can find out everything about everything if you look for it...

I'm not too sure where I am going with this and its getting late, so I'll leave it there and perhaps think a bit more :)

A New Idea...

2009-10-05T22:19:00.004+01:00

I've been having some issues lately with my vessel project in my Jewellery & Metalwork class. I had a set idea in my head, which is not a good thing to have as it distracts me from other possiblities and when that idea isn't possible, I am just back at the beginning. So I have learnt my lesson to not do that again!

I was partly set on soldering (I really like soldering...) metal shapes onto a bigger textured metal bowl... but the bowl itself was causing problems as I'm not a silversmith! It would just take too long to learn the skills in the time I have left on this project.

So I've gone back to looking at my sketchbook to see what I could put together. I've come up with an idea that involves fly-pressing instead (I'm practicing this tomorrow, I hope it turns out okay!) I believe it will work better with my idea. Watch this space...

My theme is water as it is a liquid container I am designing and making, I think it fits quite well plus water has a lot of movement in it so I can develop many repeating forms from it. Heres a drawn picture of my ripple idea before I go :)

Tipping points and education

2009-10-03T12:25:00.004+01:00

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell was a very interesting book. It is so amazing how the smallest and simpliest change can produce big results. Above is my Mindmap of the main sections of the book. I didn't go into too much detail but I think I got most of the important points.

I should probably read to book again because I have a feeling I'll pick up far more if I do or at least listen to the audio version all the way through. Takes me far too long to read a book, its really annoying. Literally my book collection is about 5 books! o_O

Anyway, going off a bit... I find it amazing how much research went into producing this book. Gladwell gathered so much information and put it in a way for the rest of us to understand. He repeats himself a lot so once you have forgotten something from the begining of the book he'll mention it again so you can see how the situations all work in the same way. I found myself repeating parts of the book to my family :)

As I was fairly confident in understanding The Law of the Few and The Power of Context, I decided to do a second Mindmap based on The Stickiness Factor section. It was the section I never really took in! Guess it wasn't "sticky" enough :P

I never realised how much testing and research goes into children's television. I didn't know how a child's mind works either. There is a fair bit more to them than we first thought.
I used to love being told stories...

First post!

2009-09-19T17:34:00.000+01:00

Well Hello :) I'm so new to this sort of thing. Never written a blog before but I think I'll eventually get the hang of it :D

I'm Rebecca. I do Jewellery and Metalwork at University. First week has past and I've enjoyed it.. however... I definitely need to work harder this year!

My first Design Studies lecture was interesting because even though I did higher Product Design I didn't realise how much more important the process of design was to the visual aspect of the design. I may have got a better grade than a C if I'd realised that sooner! I think a lot of my views will change over the next year.. which is probably a good thing :) It will open my eyes (how cheesy...!)

I just know this year and the next 2 are going to be good! :D