it's traditional round these parts...

My first ever blog post was about the Glasgow School of Art degree show. I did go along this year and, although it's a bit late in the day and the show has long since been taken down, I thought I should share a few of the things I saw. It's traditional, you see. I didn't have time to do the whole thing this year, so only visited my three favourite departments - visual communication, jewellery and ceramics. (I don't feel so comfortable in the fine art department when I'm on my own anyway, plus I always get lost in that building!) The fact that I didn't see half the show combined with the fact that I am a bit hungover today, means that this is really going to be a whistle-stop tour. Look. See. Move on. Look. See. Move on. You'll like it that way, I'm sure :)

The very fun display above was by Emily Harding, who does a very nice line in screen-printed book covers.

These rabbits were a small and hardly representative part of Kirsty Gifford's work, but I liked them a lot (and know some rabbit lovers read this blog and might like them too).
Laura McGinlay used wires to write health and safety (ish!) messages about electricty. I love wires - so colourful on the outisde and shiny on the inside!

Paul Allan's flowchart explaining the rules of cricket made me laugh. I thought I knew that I didn't know anything about cricket but it turns out I didn't know the half of what I didn't know. That sentence probably makes as much sense to you as cricket does to me.

I couldn't work out who made this cow, but I applaud their sensible approach to the degree show, making something they can actually use (as shelves) after the show is taken down. All the things in the cow are made from cows. As a vegetarian, I was quite upset to learn that I shouldn't be using Pritt Stick. Pritt Stick is one of my favourite things in the world!

The textiles department had some brilliant stuff in it, but (as usual) photos weren't allowed there. I nicked this picture of Eva Joly's material from craftscotland. You should go and visit Eva's website. Her textiles are so much fun to look at. She uses lots of household objects and great colours, as you can see from the example above. She uses the CMYK process that's usually used in newspaper production to print her patterns. I like the newsprint effect.

The other person I really liked in the textiles department was Emma Shannon, who I can't find anywhere on the old interweb (other than that she has tweeted twice quite a long time ago) so I can't share any pictures or info. She had made textiles with patterns based on tower blocks etc. (she even had an 'I ♥ brutalism' badge pinned to one bit of fabric) and had some really nice papercuts of buildings in her research work. I wish I had sneakily snapped a picture or two because I'd really like to see her work again/be able to show it to you!

This brooch (I think it is a brooch?) by Gillian Harvie was great, though you might not be able to tell in this terrible photo. (It's hard to photograph things in glass cases though. It's not my fault - see the boss!) The long bit of type in the middle says, "This was one of the worst things we did." This reminded me of the long car journeys involved in summer holidays as a child (always to visit my granny in Islay apart from the two times we went to Yorkshire) and the very negative postcards I would send to my friends, even though I was having a good time really.

These beauties are by Victoria Lemon who uses typography in her jewellery, as you can probably work out without me telling you :)

And a (bad photo of) some very eerie work in the ceramics department by Yiru Wang. Gave me the heebie jeebies, this did! There are some better pictures on flickr if you want a closer look.

So, there you go - a spot of culture for you. Hope you enjoyed it :)