55. "The best decision is not easy for us, otherwise nobody would make mistakes..."

No random quote today, just a little inspiring sentence I told my best friend the other day . . . I was quite proud that I came up with that all by myself!

As promised, here is a more frequent update (can you have 1 thing more frequent...?) with a thing that was at the bottom of the list of the previous one.

Staffordshire University Degree Show 2012 - "Show & Tell"

Last year, I exhibited the Syblade prototype and automotive clay models: a modern Triumph GT6 and the INSPI-R. (click the links to see images on Coroflot)

This year was weird, as I wasn't stood by any work that was mine! There were more than enough pieces of work there to make up for it though. Here's a few pictures I took both on the opening night and following day.

(click the links to view the designers/animators/artists websites or work)

Transport Design

Krieger - The Warrior - A zero emissions vehicle designed to carry a full size shipping container, yet traverse difficult terrain to reach people and places a vehicle shouldn't be capable of!

The BMW Venture Concept - A vehicle designed with BMW's "efficient dynamics" design ethic in mind, that is as at home in the city as it is on the open road, using an extending swing arm for greater stability at higher speeds.

 The PT-001 Apocalypto - Designed 'by the government' in the setting of the upcoming post apocalyptic wasteland, it is an all terrain vehicle able to rescue civilians and deploy rescue personnel equipped with 'never before seen nano-technology'. 

 Here are the stars of the 2012 animations queuing up outside the room they were displayed in. I don't have all the contacts for the animators... I can link you to a few blogs though!
LOD Creations
Animations & Illustrations of Chloe Howley
Kyle Bennett - Stop Motion
Locodreams Animations
Daniel James Animations
I can't seem to find a recent blog from Nathan & Ollie, but their character has a facebook page!

Now we come to crafts and jewellery. Here are Amy Lyne's me abstract yet finely detailed copper vases.

The above and below images are jewellery created by Jessica Speakman

I've done some soldering and general metalwork before... this is on an entirely new level though!

Then we move onto Fine Art . . . which I just don't get! Some work was quite cool though...

I would have liked a guide of some sort to say "this is why you're stood next to a guitar tuned to open G and 5 amplifiers feeding back on each other...". Alas, nothing.

Here's one side of Zack Ward's work (he's stood there in the background too!) which rather comically swore at you as you passed... Okay its not as random as that, there was meaning to his madness. One thing I could definitely appreciate in his work was the vast amount of time spent sewing it all together!

Ha, imagine if i'd tried to fit this and all the other things into one blogpost like I usually do!

Thats all for now. Go spend an evening on your computer and visit my friends blogs and websites. They are hugely talented and frankly I'm envious of them all . . .

48. "We should put all Southerners on top of a mountain, just coz its funny..."

I won't reveal who said that but I'll happily agree with them!

Last time I posted I said it would be frequent... and it wasn't. The day after I made the "mini mondays" post was when my internet decided to allow, on average, 15 minutes of usage per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Then ten days following, there was a power cut on my block...

Not all was lost however, as my camera still had some charge!

All these images were just taken on my Lumix digital camera, just with a 15 second shutter time.

I used to hate the dark... This was awesome though!

Here's a few other things I've been up to recently.

It was dads birthday earlier in the month, so I got out my old biro and sketched his favourite train.

Then came Christmas. I had planned on making about 8 cards and equal amounts of presents . . . I finished less than half that. Fluffy the penguin here was one of them! I'm quite happy with him, especially considering it was all hand sewn guess work.

Wednesday the 28th marked the first day my Syblade stood on a live stage. It may have only been a jam session, but it was still a proud moment.

Oh and, I bet this is the best thing anybody has drawn on one of those magic erasing slate things!

Feel free to prove me wrong!
Hope you had a good Christmas, and Happy New Year!