Long overdue account of my wk2 & 3 CSM course...

Right - think i have left this a bit too long... and to be very honest, I can't remember every detail of my CSM course anymore... but i guess that's not a bad thing either - i will be precise and succinct.


Week 2: Design
This week was all about design - you work with a mannequin to do draping work and you trace the different patterns/shapes of your research photos and over-lay it on top of the the outline of a woman's body - to see where the lines cross the body and how it would look like as a piece of garment. This enables you to think out of the box and get out of that preconception of how a dress/top SHOULD look like. See photos - that's probably the easiest way to illustrate what we did, we drew like 60+ drawings. And this basically formed the designs of my end collection!

We also used the mannequin to do draping, re-creating shapes/lines that we found in our research.



Week 3: Illustration/presentation
This is a fun week - we did life drawing. We let our hands and arms go wild and just draw whatever we see in front of us - there isn't this "right" way of drawing - which is what i love about CSM. Also - love the "efficient" way of drawing, we did quick drawings - from 10secs to 10mins.

Overall - think the 3 weeks have been very interesting and learning something completely new is indeed VERY thrilling! Maybe I should take on something new every now and then to keep this "excitement" going!

Right... so many things happened over the past few months - let me write all about them tonight...

Back to school...

I suddenly have this urge to learn something from scratch, something entirely new. An epiphany dawn on me that I have not acquired new skills/knowledge for a long long time - probably since high school. We have always been building on what we have learnt previously, we just go more in depth as we go further up the education ladder. I suddenly miss this feeling of being in an unknown world - exploring, learning, seeing.

So I enrolled myself onto a course that I (and most girls) am interested in but have not had any hands-on experience - Fashion Design at Central St Martin's, London. This is a 3 week summer course and the outline of the course is as below:

Week 1: Research
Week 2: Illustration (translating ideas into 3D form)
Week 3: Presentation (collection of 6)

I have just finished my first week of researching - basically this is all about finding things you are interested in/that inspire you and then turn these research materials into a subject that you can work on for the next two weeks to create a collection of 6 at the end.

So I went round London looking for interesting things, taking plenty of photos and going to museums/exhibitions/markets (suggested by our tutors) to find things that inspire us. Went to:
- Tate Modern
- Hayward Gallery: "Walking in my mind" exhibition (EXCELLENT - it's a must see if you are in London: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/festivals-series/walking-in-my-mind)
- V&A Museum
- Spitalfields market
- Bricklane

I already found this a very interesting experience, though not sure this is for me... as I was told I can't be a perfectionist, I can't group things together (which means I can't really think logically) and I should just "mess things up a bit" - which i have no clue what she meant... so here you go - I am probably not arty-farty enough. But it's fun though, it's fun to see how people in the fashion world think and how they come up with different ideas for their collections.

Right - will update you at the end of my 2nd week - started doing some draping now.

MobArt presents... Lost Things

The Impossible, Emily Eldridge - shown at Lost Things exhibition @ Epoch (Wan Chai)

After the first Transcendence show, we jumped straight onto our next show - Lost Things, have been busy ever since... so here comes the juicy details of our next show...

These past 1.5 months, we have been working on our 2nd Art show, titled LOST THINGS, featuring locally based urban artist - Emily Eldridge! =) I am sure a lot of you would have seen her stuff around town, she has recently done a joint show at the Fringe club and has just done a project with Lane Crawford (IFC, make up counter side), her artworks are still there - go check it out! =)

This show has a very different style to the one at The Drawing Room. As everytime we do a show, we aim to match the artworks with the venue (interior, clientele, food/drinks it serve etc.). Being at Epoch coffee bar & desssererie, a chill-laxing spot for young n trendy people (yes - we are talking about ourselves!!!) - we thought Emily's young and energectic works will be a perfect match!

The exhibition will be a narration of the artist’s childhood memories and nostalgic moments inspired by the bits and pieces of everyday life in her new home, Hong Kong.

So here are the show details - do come join us for a chill-out evening!!! we have got complimentary drinks, nibbles and we will probably be getting a DJ too!!! Please do RSVP so we have a sense of the numbers we are dealing with (so we don't run out of drinks!!!) =)

Event: LOST THINGS Opening reception (http://www.mobartgallery.com/exhibitions.php)

Featuring: Emily Eldridge (check out some of Emily’s works on our website: http://www.mobartgallery.com/artists.php)

Date: 18^th June 2009 (Next Thu)

Time: 7-9pm

Venue: Epoch coffee bar & desserterie, 12-14 Wing Fung Street, Star Street Precinct, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

RSVP: rsvp@mobartgallery.com

Note: this show runs from 18^th Jun – 18^th Sep 2009

Right - see you all there. Below are some photos of Emily's works - sneak preview!

ohooho - we are doing merchandise this time!

Notebook Cover:

Greeting Card 1:

Greeting Card 2:

T-shirt:

Artworks...

Paper Girl 1

Stripe Girl 1

Face Pins

Background...

Right - think it's time I write something on this blog. First off, I think I should write a bit about my background...

After graduating, I followed everyone else's footsteps and entered the world of corporate finance (the then most prestigious job). Slaving away in a big American firm in London for 2 years, I decided that I needed to make a move - well, a move that didn't take me far from what I was doing, probably a small step to the side and forward... I entered the smaller, more selective world of Private Equity (to be honest, this is the "natural" route for most bankers...). So here you go, I went with the flow, followed where everybody was going... until one day, I realised I did have a dream back in Uni days, or even back in high school - I want something of my own. Moving to PE was not exactly just following the drift- it was a strategic move too. PE is a lot closer to the business and I must say I did learn a lot about how a business is run and how to look at a business - though there was still too much "finance" in it and I wanted more hands-on operational work.

So here you go, since the end of last year, I declared myself a non-banker, a non-financier but an aspiring Entrepreneur! And have since embarked on my two projects - MobArt Gallery and HangBag. This big move also involved me relocating back home - Hong Kong.

I have put a lot more time on MobArt since the beginning of this year as there were more pressing deadlines - as we have to work with external parties and HangBag was slightly neglected (but putting that back on the radar and should be launching in Jul).

Maybe I should talk a bit about MobArt first - MobArt Gallery is not one of those traditional gallery where we have a fixed space for people to walk in and view/buy art. We are a Mobile Art Gallery - thus the name MobArt. We don't have a physical space, we are like parasite - we use existing urban spaces such as coffee shops, restaurants, lounges etc. to curate art shows. The reason why we want to do this is to bring Art back into our everyday life. Unlike London, Art is not as accessible and it seems like the general public is less interested in Art compared to the London crowd. So that's when the idea sprung to mind - bring Art to people rather than push people to go see Art shows.

Since Jan - we have opened our inaugural show Transcendence at The Drawing Room (a new modern Italian restaurant) and we are doing our second show Lost Things at Epoch coffee bar & desserterie. The first show was immensely successful and supporters of our MobArt movement is growing! =)

I will post another entry for Lost Things - have to go sort out bits and pieces now for next week.

oh - check out our MobArt website: www.mobartgallery.com