To follow on from the post on the 3rd December and complete the laser issues I was experiencing, I left off having received a quote for my files to be cut that was rather shocking and still is!
I went on to get another quote from a company in Nottingham who, although apologetic about it being a tall price, actually quoted a decent mid price compared to the first company. I thanked them and I will bare them in mind for future crisis!
The mirrored acrylic arrived as a normal delivery but the rest of the Perspex from another company took it's time but the company was really good in keeping me informed on the order. The matt black was the cause to the hold up and I spoke to someone who checked my order and that the black was in that day and they made sure it was 'on the van' for delivery tomorrow. Sure enough it arrived sometime before 8 the next morning. I'd call that impeccable!
But Fred Aldous really saved the day. I called Paul Walker (who deals with the laser cutter) and he told me that he was quite busy helping on the shop floor on the run up to christmas but if I dropped my materials and files off with him, he would cut them when he could. He did this and was a complete star for doing so. It cost a FRACTION of the first company-- I should name and completely shame really!
In between all of this, I was getting down great chunks of my thesis and presentation, some waiting for a photo shoot to take place was needed to really finish the two.
Once the pieces were cut I collected them... a big Thank You to Paul again for helping me out! I went home and put them together. Paul recommended using surgical spirit to clean the pieces and bring them up all new! Each piece did, as he said, come up all bright and shiny except the mirrored pieces that reacted. They have developed small cracks in the surface of them meaning they are purely samples now, but I need to sort this out as a good buff of them just doesn't work!
I'm going to put the surgical spirit onto the cotton pad and let it dry up then buff away and see what happens. If that doesn't work then I'm going to raid the cleaning section of the ASDA and test each solution!
Each piece was sent to cut at least twice and it was a good job too. some of the pieces have tiny faults in them, from faint engraved areas to patches of a complete cut instead of engrave but these are minor and could be sold off as sample, seconds. Only one piece completely faulted and won't feature in the final collection, which is a shame because it's VERY nice! But the collection is very good and can still work!
I returned to the shop were I had bought the shoulder pads for the test pieces in the summer and they no longer sold them, so I went to the local haberdashery in Wakefield...HABIKNIT! and they sold a nice range of just what I wanted, in white AND black, which was perfect.
I started on the shoulder pieces as they were the longest to make, but the trial run was so useful on something so complicated and I referred to it throughout. The finish on the inside seams are much better and covered by the fabulous feather, which was difficult to stitch because of the glue in the ribbon, but I'd had experience of this sort of thing before, so it's pliers at the ready and a clean of the needle every so many stitches!
By this time though, everything was going downhill, I'd caught the cold and it got progressively worse. I spent a week making pieces slower and slower, in a raging temperature and barely anything to eat, with the terrible cough that kept me from sleeping easily. On new years eve, the state of affairs went from bad to worse, even though I had just finally completed every piece, I was now behind where I wanted to be. My temperature raised as normal in the evening then after I sat down, it unusually raised one more degree which put me in bed and marked the turning point of the bug into flu.
Alongside flu, came a chest infection- both bad but I'm tempted to say the chest infection was quite simply the most vicious thing I've ever come across. I was floored for over a week and a slow recovery began.
I had to forget every part of my work, I couldn't think of it, I didn't think of much, just slept a lot. I was fairly incapable of doing anything, at one point, I couldn't lift the glass of water a foot from my hand. My photo shoot was abandoned and any hope of finishing the MA when I should have went completely although I was in some kind of denial for a bit.
By mid January, I was able to get up from the sofa but not much else, I felt quite low in myself for a couple of days. I realised that I needed to think about my work and so I placed it back up on the horizon as a gleaming light to head towards, this instantly made me more chirpier, although I wasn't well enough to get everything out and finish. But towards the end of January I was well enough to get back up and get working again, not well enough to go out and do a shift at work or for a casual shop but enough to get my work moving again at a steady simple pace.
The morning the photo shoot was cancelled, I felt so ill- and had thought about it so much whilst overheating with flu that I couldn't bare to re organise it in the uni studio. I seriously thought about getting a photographer to help me. I did.
in a few days covering a week or so, that was busy, stressful but probably the most rewarding I had ever experienced, I pulled it together- model, photographer and studio.
(Big Thank You to go to, Anthony Farrimond le photographer extroadinaire, Ashley Sutcliffe- Model in the making and Natalie Greenfield- Make up artiste of the day!)
And I'm now on the verge of finishing my MA. I'm stressed but happy. Flu seems to have proven to be a blessing. I would have ended feeling very down and what I remember of those days are very black indeed. Now, however, it all feels so bright and sunny and refreshing.
This is probably my final post here as a student and after I've finished some changes will be occurring!
This blog will have a small shake up to be rid of the student marks, and fill it up with a bit of luck, full of exciting things.
Au revoir!
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