Sunday 31 October 2010
Stitchgasm!
A few weeks ago I sent an email to 'Mr X Stitch' - a contemporary embroiderer with an established craft blog, about my work. I did not really expect anything to come of it, but thought it was worth a try. Today, he posted an entry about my work!
Wednesday 27 October 2010
KISA Party
There was also a competition for best female and best male halloween costumes with a prize of a 50€ voucher....which I happily placed in my purse this morning :D
We also decided to make our own entertainment by 'photobombing' peoples photographs with faces similar to these...
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Start of Term 2
For term 2 Helen and I have switched from Textile Design to Glass and Ceramics and I am SO EXCITED about it! Yesterday we met Merja who will be one of our tutors, and she gave us some reading about ceramics to get us started. Today we had a meeting with our new class and all the tutors, Merja, Maria, Irja and Jari, who all seem really nice! We then had an afternoon session with Jari, but just had a tour of the different ceramic labs. We will be doing hand building with him. Tomorrow, we have a lesson back in Turo with Maria, who is one of the glass tutors. Irja is also a glass tutor and Merja will be teaching us pottery wheel! I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about this term, as everything we do will be new(ish) and exciting, whereas everything we did in textiles we had done many times before, and it got a bit mundane. Bring on the work!
Monday 25 October 2010
St. Petersburg or Санкт-Петербург
For the last 4 days I have been in St. Petersburg, RUSSIA! Russia has always seemed to be one of those places I would love to visit, but never would, as it is quite shut off from the rest of the world. This was one of the best trips I have ever taken! It was organised through KISA, the Kuopio International Student Association who put on trips through a company called 'Time Travels' for fair prices. It was a good opportunity to meet new students, from both Savonia and Kuopio University. It also meant that the planned trip would give us the best experience of St. P as possible, taking us to the best tourist attractions, and our Visas would be processed quickly.
Day One - 21/10/10
After a looong 10 hour journey through Finland and across the strict Russian border, we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. We checked into our cosey new abode and changed our Euros into Russian Roubles. There was just enough time to buy a bottle of water and chat to a semi-drunk Russian who knew Newcastle as a place with "good beer but a bad football team". We then boarded the coach once again and were taken to a traditional Russian meal.
The restaurant was like a cavern! The food left a lot to be desired - salad and bread, cheesey mushrooms (which were pretty good!), tomato and onion soup, more salad, potato wedges and something that reminded me of a snozzberry from the BFG. Then there was some traditional Russian singing and dancing and games before a desert of pancakes wth ice cream and jam!
Day Two - 22/10/10
The afternoon took us back to the city centre to Church of the Savior on Blood. This building has a very similar style to St. Basil's in Moscow. it was given its name as it was built on the spot where Alexander II had his legs blown off, which resulted in his death. The original pavement where he lay bleeding is still intact within the church floor. If that sounds impressive, you should see the interiors. Floor to ceiling murals are created from mosaic in impressive detail. It is fair to say I was quite in awe and disbelief.
After the Cathedral tour Helen and I had a wander around a small market, picking up a few souviner bargains before being taken back to the hotel.
On the evening we were given a night tour - by boat! The cruise had free soviet champagne, which was barely drinkable (but coming from a non-drinker thats probably a biased opinion). Despite the freezing temperature on deck, the cruise was a lot of fun and the city looked amazing by night.
Day Three - 23/10/10
The morning routine of day 3 was similar to day two - early rise and a quick breakfast before piling back onto the coach for a bus tour of the city. We stopped at a few sights for photo opportunities:
Smolny Convent
A convent and surrounding buildings built for Empress Elizabeth after she got bored of being a busy ruler. During it's building, she became celebate and practiced religion intensely. However, before it completetion she got bored, got a boyfriend and never moved to the convent.
Russian Cruiser Aurora
This battleship played an important role in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and survived both the first and second world wars. However, it did sink during WWI but was salvaged and it now serves as a museum!
Peter and Paul Fortress
The fortress was established by Peter the great for defence purposes, but was never used as enemies never got close enough! It was therefore turned into a prison where Peter's son, Aleksi was tortutred and murdered for having different opinions to his father - how nice!! The fortress also has a Cathedral with a spire covered by gold. The angel on the top is so thin it continually needs restortation. There is a story of a roofer once doing the work without any safety harnesses, and as payment got given free vodka from every bar in St. P for the rest of his life. However, in his drunken state he kept losing the papers to say who he was, and so got a tattoo on his neck! It is now common for the people in St. Petersburg to tap their neck when referencing drinking! We arrived at 12pm which meant there was a VERY loud canon shot!
The last stop took us to St. Isaac's Cathedral, another building with impressive interiors. For an extra 100 Roubles we walked 200 (knackering) steps to the panoramic viewing platform. Being up so high gave us a great view of the city, showing its true size. However, I do not feel it did the city's buildings justice, as they looked a bit dank, grey and delapitated. This is not the case as ground level!
The last tour stop of the day was the Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, the 3rd largest museum in the world which houses over 3 million artifacts and paintings. It would literally take years to see everything. In our 2 hour tour we were shown the most interesting pieces, which included work by Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
After a very tiring day we went back to the hotel and had an old lady nap before getting ready for our last night out - a limo tour! More free soviet champagne was handed round and a convoy of 3 limos guided everyone around the city, taking a few photo stops. I have never been in a limo and the novelty of it was quite fun!
Day Four - 24/10/10
On our last day we were taken to the Yusupov Palace, which belonged to a rich Russian family and is the site of Rasputins murder in 1916. Although quite modest from the outside and on the lower ground, the palace did not fail to deliver grand and over the top interiors like the other places we had visited. The solid marbel staircase extravagantly carved opened out to the upper level which once housed an indoor winter garden with exotic birds. The various room included a music hall, tapestry room, art gallery and theatre!
At 2pm we left and headed back to Kuopio - which took 11 hours due to delays at the border (3-4 hours).
In the four days there I also learned one word of Russian that came in very useful - Spasibo (spaz-ee-bah) which means 'Thank You'.
I really can't express just how amazing the last 4 days have been. The trip has given me such an appreciation of how lucky I am to be taking a study year out. Although I get very home sick, I know that this is a once in a life time opportunity and I don't want to take it for granted anymore. The people here in Finland are SO nice and I have had nothing but positive experiences. I also want to state that I wouldn't be able to do this on my own, and I am SO glad I get to do it with my best friend! (n'awww).
Day One - 21/10/10
After a looong 10 hour journey through Finland and across the strict Russian border, we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. We checked into our cosey new abode and changed our Euros into Russian Roubles. There was just enough time to buy a bottle of water and chat to a semi-drunk Russian who knew Newcastle as a place with "good beer but a bad football team". We then boarded the coach once again and were taken to a traditional Russian meal.
The restaurant was like a cavern! The food left a lot to be desired - salad and bread, cheesey mushrooms (which were pretty good!), tomato and onion soup, more salad, potato wedges and something that reminded me of a snozzberry from the BFG. Then there was some traditional Russian singing and dancing and games before a desert of pancakes wth ice cream and jam!
Day two started with an early rise and quick breakfast at the hotel (taking something from the breakfast buffet for dinner later) then back on the coach. We were taken outside of St. Peterburg to Pushkin, or 'The Village of the Tsars', where we spent the morning at Catherine Palace. This is an enormous Palace that belonged to numerous Russian Royalty throughout the years dating back to the 1700's. Most famously, it belonged to Catherine the Great - A German who took the throne by force and is considered to be one of the best rulers of Russian history. The interiors were insane! Included in the impressive decor was a room entirely covered by amber (Amber Room), which went 'missing' during WWII and was restored with painstaking detail. The original photosgraphs were in black and white and so every new piece of amber was photographed to colour match in B&W - that's just crazy!
After the Cathedral tour Helen and I had a wander around a small market, picking up a few souviner bargains before being taken back to the hotel.
On the evening we were given a night tour - by boat! The cruise had free soviet champagne, which was barely drinkable (but coming from a non-drinker thats probably a biased opinion). Despite the freezing temperature on deck, the cruise was a lot of fun and the city looked amazing by night.
The morning routine of day 3 was similar to day two - early rise and a quick breakfast before piling back onto the coach for a bus tour of the city. We stopped at a few sights for photo opportunities:
Smolny Convent
A convent and surrounding buildings built for Empress Elizabeth after she got bored of being a busy ruler. During it's building, she became celebate and practiced religion intensely. However, before it completetion she got bored, got a boyfriend and never moved to the convent.
Russian Cruiser Aurora
This battleship played an important role in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and survived both the first and second world wars. However, it did sink during WWI but was salvaged and it now serves as a museum!
The fortress was established by Peter the great for defence purposes, but was never used as enemies never got close enough! It was therefore turned into a prison where Peter's son, Aleksi was tortutred and murdered for having different opinions to his father - how nice!! The fortress also has a Cathedral with a spire covered by gold. The angel on the top is so thin it continually needs restortation. There is a story of a roofer once doing the work without any safety harnesses, and as payment got given free vodka from every bar in St. P for the rest of his life. However, in his drunken state he kept losing the papers to say who he was, and so got a tattoo on his neck! It is now common for the people in St. Petersburg to tap their neck when referencing drinking! We arrived at 12pm which meant there was a VERY loud canon shot!
The last stop took us to St. Isaac's Cathedral, another building with impressive interiors. For an extra 100 Roubles we walked 200 (knackering) steps to the panoramic viewing platform. Being up so high gave us a great view of the city, showing its true size. However, I do not feel it did the city's buildings justice, as they looked a bit dank, grey and delapitated. This is not the case as ground level!
The last tour stop of the day was the Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, the 3rd largest museum in the world which houses over 3 million artifacts and paintings. It would literally take years to see everything. In our 2 hour tour we were shown the most interesting pieces, which included work by Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
Day Four - 24/10/10
On our last day we were taken to the Yusupov Palace, which belonged to a rich Russian family and is the site of Rasputins murder in 1916. Although quite modest from the outside and on the lower ground, the palace did not fail to deliver grand and over the top interiors like the other places we had visited. The solid marbel staircase extravagantly carved opened out to the upper level which once housed an indoor winter garden with exotic birds. The various room included a music hall, tapestry room, art gallery and theatre!
At 2pm we left and headed back to Kuopio - which took 11 hours due to delays at the border (3-4 hours).
In the four days there I also learned one word of Russian that came in very useful - Spasibo (spaz-ee-bah) which means 'Thank You'.
I really can't express just how amazing the last 4 days have been. The trip has given me such an appreciation of how lucky I am to be taking a study year out. Although I get very home sick, I know that this is a once in a life time opportunity and I don't want to take it for granted anymore. The people here in Finland are SO nice and I have had nothing but positive experiences. I also want to state that I wouldn't be able to do this on my own, and I am SO glad I get to do it with my best friend! (n'awww).
Sunday 17 October 2010
Learning Finnish
According to the rest of the world, Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn, mainly because it sounds like no other and doesn't really share any similarities. However, I don't think this is 100% true. Most words are simply pronounced how they look! Once you know the different rules for vowels, such as when two of the same are put together and accented letters, it's really not too hard! Some handy phrases, and the ones I use the most are:
Hei/Moi - Hello
Hei hei/ Moi Moi - Goodbye
Kiitos - Thank you
Anteeksi - Sorry/Excuse me
Hyvä - Good
Hauska Tutustua - Nice to meet you
Minä Olen Englantilainen - I am English
Mitä - What?
And obviously the ones I don't use but are always fun to know:
Voi Vittu - F off
Perkele - Curse word meaning Satan
This is a fun site to learn the truth about Finnish culture: Foreigner's Guide to Finland
Hei/Moi - Hello
Hei hei/ Moi Moi - Goodbye
Kiitos - Thank you
Anteeksi - Sorry/Excuse me
Hyvä - Good
Hauska Tutustua - Nice to meet you
Minä Olen Englantilainen - I am English
Mitä - What?
And obviously the ones I don't use but are always fun to know:
Voi Vittu - F off
Perkele - Curse word meaning Satan
This is a fun site to learn the truth about Finnish culture: Foreigner's Guide to Finland
Friday 15 October 2010
Snow Day!
Yesterday is snowed. Last night...IT SNOWED!!!! So obviously, we took advantage and built a snowman! The snow was perfect for this, and it is definately the most impressive snowman I have ever made! We made it look like Rachael :)
A nice Finnish boy saw us building and brought us a carrot :)
Thursday 14 October 2010
Textile Design Course Review
Today everyone presented their final pieces to the rest of the class, which was a bit scary but went ok! Our work has been left behind to be marked.
I feel it may be important to write a review the course. The work itself felt very much like being back in college. Although I was doing things outside my normal specialised subject, I do not feel as though i have learned anything new. I enjoyed working with new materials, such as the reeds, and found an afternoon on the looms satisfying, I know my work is not my best. The set theme of natural forms instantly lost my attention and in hindsight I know I should have taken it head on and made it my own. I do not want to pin the reason for creating uninspired work on the theme alone, but I can not help but feel that I might have stepped up if I could have chosen my own.
All of the tutors were amazing. I found Elina and Raili especially helpful and kind. The facilities are Turo are also quite impressive. Due to the size of the building and the small amount of students using it, there is ALWAYS space for you in every area. This is something I wish was available for us at Huddersfield, but understand that the volume of students simply can not allow it to be the case.
Being a Textile Design student here in Kuopio has given me a greater appreciation for my own specialism. I did not do any embroidery whilst on the course, and I really miss it. I think next term will be more fulfilling as everything we learn will be new to us. Learning new skills is what I most want to get from being on exchange.
I feel it may be important to write a review the course. The work itself felt very much like being back in college. Although I was doing things outside my normal specialised subject, I do not feel as though i have learned anything new. I enjoyed working with new materials, such as the reeds, and found an afternoon on the looms satisfying, I know my work is not my best. The set theme of natural forms instantly lost my attention and in hindsight I know I should have taken it head on and made it my own. I do not want to pin the reason for creating uninspired work on the theme alone, but I can not help but feel that I might have stepped up if I could have chosen my own.
All of the tutors were amazing. I found Elina and Raili especially helpful and kind. The facilities are Turo are also quite impressive. Due to the size of the building and the small amount of students using it, there is ALWAYS space for you in every area. This is something I wish was available for us at Huddersfield, but understand that the volume of students simply can not allow it to be the case.
Being a Textile Design student here in Kuopio has given me a greater appreciation for my own specialism. I did not do any embroidery whilst on the course, and I really miss it. I think next term will be more fulfilling as everything we learn will be new to us. Learning new skills is what I most want to get from being on exchange.
Monday 11 October 2010
Final Prototype
For our final pieces we have to create a product, something I do not usually do. However, I am glad to be out of my comfort zone and trying something new. I decided to take the paper yarn egg form and turn it into a light fitting for string lights. The photo below just shows a prototype for this as I do not have time to make the full final product due to changing courses next term.
Thursday 7 October 2010
Fir Cone Forms
I am now working towards ideas for a final piece using the egg form to produce samples that would be worked into a final product.
I feel the fourth sample is the most successful and aesthetically pleasing and is therefore the one I intend to develop.
Saturday 2 October 2010
Weaving with Reeds
Last week I also decided to use the reeds within Helena's weaving class. I read in one of the books from Raili's lesson about including small pieces of reed to weave to create an interesting textured surface and thought this was perfect for my theme.
Theres a reason I am not a weaver...
Friday 1 October 2010
Happy Birthday Kuopion Muotoiluakatemia!
Today is the 150th Birthday of Kuopion Muotoiluakatemia! So to celebrate there was a party this evening in the court yard in the centre of the Turo building, they went all out! Decorations, free food, wine and entertainment. Both students and tutors packed the square and we spoke to a few more people from our course. Niina even invited us to her Halloween party and to meet her kittens (which I'm very excited about!).
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