art equals happy.

Thanks. :: My life.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on this post. It means a lot to me.

The work load has reduced a lot since then & I am starting to enjoy the summertime already. Or maybe it just feels like summer because the weather has been so hot here. I've been doing a lot of reading and cuddling with my kitty cat while I let my body recover. I've also been blessed to have some really dear friends stay with me this last week which has been a nice distration from sore legs. Oh. and Meredith has been in town. :]
Also been making a dent in my 'watch this' list. Jurrassic Park and Game of Thrones. Very good. haha. Plus there are some really good history programs on BBC iplayer right now. Including one about Harris tweed.

Thanks again, you are the best. kxo

Pink and Green. :: Dyeing & BA Illustration.

At college- we are preparing some work for an external exhibition, at a pretty famous design agency in London. There are several restrictions that all of our work has to conform to. It's got to be presented in a white frame and we are only allowed to use two colours- Pink and Green. A lot of people are doing prints, where the colours can be overprinted to create a kind of grey/purple, and of course there's always the question of how opaque do you want the colours to be etc... 

To make sure that I could really control the colours, and that they would been consistent- I decided to dye my wool! As Green is one of the hardest colours to achieve in Natural Dyeing- I opted for the quicker 'dye packet' method. I know, I know... but I've never tried Woad or Indigo dyeing before, and as it's a pretty tight deadline, I just needed to get it done. haha. Still- I managed to 'mix' the colours nicely until I got the perfect shades. I took some process photos too, to share with you:I did a lot of experimenting. Some were too yellow or taupe, and the navy mix never really lightened enough to be green. haha! Eventually I got there..It was incredibly fun to play with the ratio of water to dye, and how long to soak and mixing the yellow and different blues. I also tried mixing the pink and green dyebaths, but they didn't really come out- so I'm sticking to this lot (down below). I got the colours approved by the curating team- now I just need to actually knit the designs I've been making. eep! Here they are all spun and rolled into balls/cones- ready to be knitted up!
Love you, Kimxo

Guest blog over at One Sheepish Knit!

Hello friends (and new visitors!) A good blog friend of mine, Meredith,  is over here in Londontown & she asked me to do a little guest post. Take a look over at her blog- One Sheepish Knit! 

I was feeling done in... couldn't win. :: My Life & Art Journal.

'Had he lived to-day he would still have had machines to fight, but he could at least have seen that a machine can be a good servant – if a bad master.' (Holbrook, 1947)

I've been thinking so much about this. About our reliance on machines. On how much 'screen time' we get everyday, every hour, every week... How I would like to live my life and how I do live it. I guess, doing an essay on William Morris and Socialism and how imporant it is to do 'useful work, not useless toil' (Morris in Holbrook, 1947) will do that to you.

It's been a tough month or so at college. Let's just say that Second Year is kicking my butt.And I lost all of my unpublished photos/videos from 2012 (and some from 2011) in a harddrive failure. Luckily I still have copies of the things I posted online- but there was a lot of blog content and college work that evaporated from exsistence. Just that like. 
Scary.

It's setbacks like this that make it really hard to keep my head above water (Like- it's about 10x harder already because I have to deal with a chronic illness). All of that hard work. Gone. Poof. My body is already giving up on me rather rapidly (too many deadlines), and my brain is really struggling to keep pace. I know healthy, young, happy students who are finding it too much- I really thought I was going to crack!

But, one thing this illness has taught me: I AM STRONG.

I may spend a few days in bed, I may not go to all of the exhibitions, I may have werid routines or have to take a bus instead of walking- but I know I can always do it. Whatever it is- I can do it. Pass A-levels? Sure. Do a 2 year course in 1 year? Alright. Deal with a broken heart/abandonment? Hell yeah. Be a vendor at Renegade? Obviously. Get a degree? LETS DO THIS! 

So this is kind of half a pep-talk and half an 'I'm really sorry about the blog being empty' post. I don't know about you, but hearing someone say 'it's going to be okay' or 'it will all work out' doesn't do anything for me (kind of makes me want to yell into a pillow, haha!)- SEEING someone prove that they can win when they are against a lot of stuff- makes me realise that if they can suck it up and do it, so can I. 

I know a lot of people are doing exams right now, I know it's 'finals week' and there are projects and essays to hand in. YOU CAN DO IT PEOPLE. It's probably going to be hard, but I believe in your strength. And hopefully, you can find something that makes it fun and if it's worth doing that shouldn't be too hard.

Love you.

p.s. Loosing all those photos and videos made me really really sad- but life carries on and new photos are waiting to be taken. Sorry for the delay. <3

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Holbrook, J. (1947) On Art & Socialism. Essays & Lectures by William Morris. London : Purnell and Sons Ltd.

Jammin' with Sam and Jack. :: Ba Illustration & Video.

Here's a little video I did as part of the CHANNEL project. Thanks to everyone who tuned in to watch during my show. :] I know there were some problems with showing the films at certain times- they were having a lot of technical difficulties. Hopefully in the next few weeks all the pre-recorded programs will be online for you to enjoy at your leisure. Without furthur ado...** This is in HD- so that means to see it's full beauty you want to FULL SCREEN this bad boy (and make sure the little 'HD' button is in blue- bottom right)** 

Hear more jams like this here.
Love you, Kimxo

Outfit for the library. :: Clobber

After a heavy week of staring at screens, I took a well-needed study trip to my college library. And here's what I wore:
Top: Hand-me-down from Grandma.
Badge: Handmade by a bristol artist.
Skirt: Thrifted in Yorkshire.
Jeggings: H&M I think.
Shoes: Somewhere on Oxford Street.
Hair tie: A piece of old lace.
Canvas bag: From a William Morris exhibition. 
Books: Camberwell College Library.Want to see what I checked out today? I posted some photos of them on instagram. 

Coral Reefs. CHANNEL :: BA Illustration & Video.

Hey! Remember when I said I was filming this. Well- The awesome group that was producing this, has put it together and it's going to be showing for the first time ever at 00:30!!! I've only seen these couple of stills from the final version, but I'm really excited and it looks amazing!Watch it HERE at 00:30
(Not in London? See what time it is here.) 

With original music by Hills Have 'Reefs'(Riffs), some french song mimed by Halls! and a hillarious miming of Uptown Girl!

Want to know more about Channel? Find all the info here.

The Sabbatical. CHANNEL. :: BA Illustration & Video.

A beautiful set of shorts touching on darker themes. The people working on this (Pictured above) have all come through with something magical and perfectly demonic.

STREAMING LIVE HERE at 22:30
(Not in London? See what time it is here.) 

 

Jammin'. CHANNEL :: BA Illustration & Video.

There is a short 5 min video that shows Sam and Jack jamming on the boat- Sam lives there with another friend. It's a beautiful place, with a beautiful vibe. Originally this was meant to be 20 min long as well, but I lost a lot of photos/videos due to a harddisk failure. Luckily, I've still got this to share. [:STREAMING LIVE HERE at 17:45
(Not in London? See what time it is here.)

Natural Tie&Dye CHANNEL! :: BA Illustration & Video.

STREAMING LIVE HERE at 13:30
(Not in London? See what time it is here.) 

Spend 20 min with me today, and learn how to Tie & Dye your clothes the natural way- using dyes that can be found in nature & your kitchen!!
If you learn best by getting all the facts and having a friend explain it to you then the first 10 min is for you. I talk about loads of important things (like mordanting and making your own rubber bands and how not to achieve zombie hands!) in a vlog format.
If you learn best by just watching someone do it- then the last 10 is for you! A really pretty and detailed step-by-step video for the visual learners out there. All set to some beautiful music by Sam and Jack.STREAMING LIVE HERE at 13:30
(Not in London? See what time it is here.) 

This has been my baby for the last 3 months. Endless dye experiments and hours of planning and tests and sleepless nights of editing. I REALLY hope you enjoy it. It's silly and fun and hopefully you'll learn something new. [: I don't want to give too much away yet, you just gotta watch it! But besides leaving with a nice little bit of knowledge on Natural Dying, you'll also know 3 different techniques of tie dye! See you there!

Want to know more about Channel? Find all the info here.