Order and/or Disorder.

It has been a while since I blogged but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy!

About a year ago I handed out the GCSE paper to my year 11 students. The theme was Order and/or Disorder. I like to work alongside my students and decided that I would complete my own exam prep sketchbook and final piece with them as a way of supporting them through the process.

What started as a teaching resource soon took on a life of it's own!

I was torn over how to interpret the theme but decided to look at the order of streets and maps. I'm still really interested in the history of the ex RAF estate that I live on so decided to use that as a starting point. I was lucky enough to have some aerial photographs taken during the War. I used these and began researching and experimenting with various techniques.

To cut a long story short I started working with Lino prints. Some abstract, some more specific. I used the old photos and images from google maps for sources.

First print.

I spent more time looking at composition and came up with a run of reduction prints.

After lots of obsessive pinning on Pinterest and artist research, I decided on a map quilt based on the print above as a final piece. I love the work of Valerie Goodwin. www.quiltsbyvalerie.com Her work is stunning.
My quilt took forever but I am pleased with the result.

And it is being used.

I carried on printing over the summer using a range of maps of Norwich.

The last print was created for the 2014 20:20 print exchange in association with Hot Bed Press. This is an annual event where printers create a run of prints measuring 20x20cm which are exchanged with other participating printers across the Country. 

Although I am still obsessed with all things Map, I am really excited by the possibilities of the GCSE theme for this year. I will let you know how I get on.