This blog will follow the progress of design students at Farnham University of Creative Arts, as they create original artworks inspired by Jane Austen's House Museum, Chawton.



The exhibition, "Under the Influence", will be held at the museum 12th June - 10th September 2010.


Monday, 10 May 2010

Knitted Memories: Melissa Ryland




My current work is based on our everyday interactions with the ‘things’ around us and the relationship of memory and what in our everyday lives has presence through absence.



As a starting point for my pieces I knit various shapes and designs in a variety of yarns and cast these in either bone china or porcelain casting slips. Some of these are then draped over everyday items we have around the house they remain masked so the edges are blurred; some remain as flat pieces in the shape of a front of a cardigan or the sleeve of a jumper. Some pieces are half knitted and frayed at the edges.



The firing burns away the original yarn and what is left is the ‘memory’ in clay. I leave the pieces white as this reinforces the simple quintessential qualities of the porcelain and bone china.



In addition to this I design and print decal transfers and these often represent a past memory or an aura of an event, the images can be autobiographical. They are then fired onto certain pieces. Others remain plain, memories that have been forgotten but a trace remains.

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