Inverness

So we made it up to Inverness and Loch Ness while we were in Scotland!!!!!

Inverness is a beautiful town, and was a lot of fun to walk around. And of course going to look for Nessie was a must! We lucked out and got a fairly cheap tour that included a bus to the loch, a 1/2 hour boat ride on the loch, a visit to Urquhart castle for about two hours, and then a bus back into town.

The River Ness at night

Inverness Castle - unfortunately it's currently in use as government buildings, so it's not one you can go exploring in :(

Me in my cool hat from Germany

The river and the cathedral during the day. It was lovely along the banks of the river - really nice paths, with lovely plants and flowers, especially since it's spring!

The black waters of Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle from the water

And from the other side...

This is back in Inverness, at the cathedral - all the trees around it were blossoming, and really lovely!!

We saw the most adorable little bunny on the hill under the castle in Inverness. I think he might be some sort of escaped pet, or descendant thereof, because he doesn't look like the normal wild rabbits you see.

End-of-term Show

All the students, undergrad and postgrad, set up a show of our work, open to the public, etc. We cleared out our studios, and turned them into the gallery space. It was A LOT of hard work, but it ended up looking pretty professional. It was all very exciting, as I hadn't been in a show before.

The first two photos are of my space and work, and the rest are ones I got of some of the other studios. There was so much incredible work, I didn't get good photos of it all :(

1820s Dress

So I think I may have mentioned a while back that I was making a dress for a project. We went on a weekend trip to Charleville Castle (supposedly haunted) and were to get essentially free run of the castle. Only thing was, we had to have a project that we were working on while there, instead of just running around looking for ghosts!

I decided, as soon as I heard about the castle, that I needed to wear a dress while there. I mean, what's the point of being in a castle if you can't pretend to be a princess?? So I did some research about the castle, and decided the appropriate time period would be the 1820s. I then did a whole lot more research, about patterns, and modern versions of period dresses, and what was wrong, what was authentic, etc etc.

Let's just say that I can now pretty much tell you the fashion of any given year from 1800 to 1825 or so.

Through all this research, I decided to not use a pattern, because there weren't any in existance that I liked, or that were properly period. I figured the dress was easy enough to figure out, since there shouldn't be a lot of panelling anyway. It's not like Victorian dresses, with the super fitted bodices.

I found some awesome fabric when we were in Berlin, for really cheap, and then proceeded to spend approximately four hours a night for about three weeks cutting out pieces, basting them together, figuring things out, and then sewing it all by had. All while watching whatever strange shows came on Irish television at night!

I also had to make a corset, in order to have the proper shape under the dress. Which was actually easier than it sounds, because corsets at that time didn't pull in the waist much, they essentially acted more like a modern bra, just with a different profile.

Anyway, now that I've bored you with the technical stuff (which I find extremely interesting, so if you want to know more, let me know!), I'll get to some photos of me at the castle. All of these are taken by other people, since my photos were with pinhole cameras, and so it's harder to see the details of the dress.

Here you can see the back, and the lacing (no zippers back then!). Also, it's meant to be a ball gown, thus the shorter length for dancing in. Day gowns would have been a little longer, and evening gowns not meant for dancing would have brushed the floor, and might have had a bit of a train.

Scholarship

So.... guess who got a scholarship sponsored by one of the most famous potters alive??



yup, that would be me!!!! I applied for the Art Department scholarships, and just got my confirmation letter that I received the Brown-MacKenzie scholarship. Yes, that would be MacKenzie as in WARREN MacKenzie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I get to meet him.

This fall.

At a reception for all the scholarship recipients and donors. I can only hope that I don't hyperventilate and faint in front of him!

Anyway, just needed to share.

This is me right now.

P.S.

Another Doctor-related image (this one's in Inverness):

The Doctor!

I found the Tardis!

There must have been something extra-terrestrial going on in Glasgow this past week! Cause I also saw Rose's mum at the train station (no pic of her though, I'm afraid).

Durham

So, I know I haven't posted anything in quite a long time. It was hard for me, as it kept getting closer to the time I'd have to leave Ballyvaughan. I think that I knew that if I did put up any posts, I'd have to write about how it was almost time to leave, and writing it down would make it real.

But now that I've actually left, and I can't do anything about it :)  I should be able to update some about my post-term travels!

I went through Scotland with a friend from the BCA and her friend from back home, and now I'm back in Durham for about a month.

pics of Nessie coming up!

Update

Sorry for the lack of updates. I got a virus on my computer, and only just got everything sorted out and working again. The computer guy at the college is fantastic!

So, a sort of quick update:

I'm over being sick (yay!) and it seems to have mostly run its course through everyone else.

The term is quickly coming to an end, and things are getting really hectic. We have our last day of studio time April 11th, so that's really soon! I'm working hard to get everything done, and hopefully it'll end up going smoothly.

My pinhole camera that I posted about earlier stopped working :(   I really don't know why - neither me nor my teacher can figure out what's wrong with it. So I turned back to my first camera, and have been taking photos with that. It seems to be working, which is good.

I don't know if I've posted about this before, but weekend after next we're going to Charleville Castle... and it's supposedly haunted. It's going to be just our group, and we get just about full run of the castle from Saturday noon-ish until Sunday afternoon!!! We have to have an art project planned for our time in the castle, and I'm working on sewing a dress from the 1820s (when the castle was built), to wear in the castle and take photos of. I'll do a post with more details on the dress when I'm closer to finishing it (hopefully soon!)

Dingle

So the weekend before last, we all went to Dingle. Unfortunately that was the weekend that I was really sick, so it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. I was definitely happy for the bus tour around the area - I had enough energy to sit and watch pretty things go by :)

Most of this post, then, is just going to be pictures of the area. It was really foggy that day, but I thought it was still beautiful.





This is the beach where we stopped for a picnic lunch - it was really neat.

There were also lots of really cool rock colors and textures at the beach.

This was a really old, really small church that we visited (we sort of raced another group of tourists to get there first!)

I think this was a birds nest - it was just sitting on top of the trimmed-back hedges... but it definitely had a hollow in the middle.