The second week started in a more dynamic way then how the previous ended. The deadline was approaching fast and we could feel it in the air. I spent the first two days helping around some of the girls to drill, paint frames and shelves and cleaning the common spaces and painting tools. But most of all I was happy to help Kyah with the layout of her work. We moved around her pillows, chair and fabrics to find the most appropriate one. I really appreciated her asking my opinion and actually follow it. We discussed why a piece had to go in a place rather then another and why and all this made me realise how important is that every detail fells in the right place for a coherent visual of the whole. Colour seems to be the first thing that catches the eye. It was exciting to see all the different layouts around the room that were taking shape.
Besides Kyah’s layout, the most important thing I realised is how many details there are to consider for the show, directly and indirectly. In fact, I decided to make a list of materials and tools needed for the degree show and what to consider for the final display of the work. There were so many little and big things, all necessary to get the job done for the best:
For the walls: filler, sand paper, white paint for common areas, paint for own space, various dimensions paintbrushes, paint roller, paint lead for roller, sand sponge to clean the tools, brown tape for the corners in between panels, paper tape, drill.
For the fabric samples: 2-3 double side tape, 2-3 magic tape, scissors, rotary cutter, cutting pad, needle, embroidery needle to pull in the edges of the stitch in the fabric samples, headers.
Brand: Business cards, envelopes for cv, fabric samples to send with cv, stickers for headers and envelops, post cards with own design, expositor.
Exposition layout possibilities: shelves, table, boxes, chair, chez long, hammock, banch, tower expositors, hooks, plant, curtain, garments pillow, frame, hangers, mockups, wallpaper/wall covering, mirror, tiles, blanket, rug etc.
The last days were super busy trying to get every aspect of the show sorted. I got assigned to a new buddy, Alice and started by painting her hangers, start cleaning her space and measuring and cutting some headers for her A2 samples that needed to be made to measure. I then mounted and stitched her beautiful sea blue samples. They were so long I was barely seeing where I was stitching so I just focused on the foot of the stitching machine to get it strait.
After all the technical questions of the last days and coming across Alice’s designs I naturally started to ask her about her inspiration for the collection and started analysing them from a technical point of view. I find her designs to be very original and at all obvious, with shapes I never came across with and It was very interesting to find out about sea slugs. Truly everything can be of inspiration. On the same day I found out about Sonia and that her fabrics would arrive the day of the deadline. Since she needed help I offered to make her two pillows so I spent a bit of time with Maggie teaching me to stitch a cushion case with a zip I got so happy I’ve learned it that I already ordered some fabric to make my own for the summative show.
The last day was kind of crazy! I helped Alice to sort out her square samples till Sonia’s fabrics came in and by lunch time I was fighting with the fabric of her pillows that were not allowing me to pass the needles through and stick the zip in place. After some struggles I managed to find a tricky solution which worked out for the best in the end, allowing me to sort them out an hour before the deadline. I only had to be careful at all the needles coming out from the fabric and take the away one by one while stitching. All together it took me double the time expected from the prototype of the day before:
When I thought the running stopped, it actually just began after a third year student came in to get her layout sorted one hour before the deadline. People started gathering around her to help in any way and for the last half an hour we created an industrial production line. It was actually beautiful to see people coming together like that to help somebody else. A classmate, half worried half amused, made us swear that nobody would do this next year.
And there we were, sharing the moment of the deadline with the third years’ last minutes as students, tired and happy to have been part of their achievement in having a professional looking show:
Before and after:
I wanted and managed to be involved in, I think, every aspect I could about the degree show, over these two weeks and I feel more in control of what is expected from us and how to organise it. In fact, I always prefer to have a global understanding of everything before going into detail. It was a huge opportunity to learn what is about to come, but also the variety of possibilities to start thinking about from now. I’ve learned more than I imagined and it turned out to be a place where I got to interact with people from my own class which I never really had conversations with. Amazing experience, thank you.
Anda Avramescu 