14th January 2010

So i have been snowed in for about 9 days.... i did manage to get to london though for my project briefing on monday.....what a journey that was.

I have been very productive in the my 9 days of snow....(after suffering with a really bad cold after rebelling and walking 6 miles to my nan and grandad's house to get out of the house), i have managed to finally got my website up and running. I couldn't afford to pay for someone else to do it...and on the up side atleast i can add to it myself. So i battled all week learning the programme and the result is a pretty basic, but i think a smart little first website. (www.francesleedone.co.uk)

So thats what i painstakingly built last week verrrry slowly.

So went back to uni this week and had the brief delivered by Paul for an hour and then that was pretty much it. WERE ON OUR OWN AHHHHHHHHH! When they said the final two terms were very much self directed and we wouldn't be in a lot i didn't literally think two presentation days and a few tutorials. God i really am going to have to motivate myself...which i am not worried about as i'll get a guilty conscience if i don't, but it's still all a tad daunting. I intend to visit two art galleries a week and research for the 1st few weeks to get my ideas rolling. I have been reading Nancy Friday's books from the sixties on female sexual revolution, 'My Secret Garden and Men in Love'. There very graphic in detail but i'm pulling them apart, and finding her breakdown of the psychological essential meaning, of the fantasies in the letters written to her very interesting. Why we have these fantasies? the hidden messages in them she describes as even secret to oneself. Very liberating.

I have decided even though i'm looking at wish fulfillments and fantasies in relationships, i don't want my project to be graphic and pornographic. I want the messages to be subtle and mystifying, ethereal in aesthetic and evoke a feeling in the viewer.

This week i'm still snowed in so i am going to concentrate on artist research and getting my initial ideas on paper. Also i have started to think about how i want to present my research, i've really got the urge to do some painting...hmmm.

It's so murky and depressing outside and in january it is so difficult to be enthusiastic about things, when there is literally not a lot to look forward to. Anyway i have decided i have to look on the bright side of life...

Chin up!

2nd January 2010

So i havn't written for a while but i had a lovely snowy christmas and New year....as you can see.

I got my results from last term on christmas eve and was in two minds whether to open them or not. I decided to open them and was throughy pleased with my end of term marks.... i got bloody 85% for desire.....:-) soo chuffed. Thats a 1sts in my first term...i scored 80% for research and planning and 72% for group project...we got penalized for not having enough images on the presentation day. So all in all i was very pleased with the my individual work and was ready to relax and enjoy christmas and the snow.

I managed to do alot of reading over christmas, but my mum also bought be some books for christmas so my pile has gone up again, lots of train reading!!! i've finally read 'The Lovely Bones' which i found really moving and thought was written beautifully. At the moment i am reading The Diary of Sofia Tolstoy, recommended in the Sunday Times.. had to wait 5 weeks for Waterstones to get i it in....anyway it's going to take me a while it's huuuge.

i go back to uni next monday...but we have alot more snow on the way so i'm hoping were not going to get snowed in again. The snow has been lovely but would like to be able to get about this week and get ready for uni. Anyway cars up and out of my drive a mile up the road so if it does snow again i am not stranded again :S

Goldwell 'Just Naked' - 'Coming of Age'

Goldwell 'Just Naked'

Week 7th december

(The Desire to Choose- Final)

(The Desire to Choose)

Yay i did it..i had my Desire presentation on thursday and my Goldwell on monday. If i'm completely honest i think our Goldwell could have gone alot better. We as a group needed more images than just two, me and a few others in the group knew this all along. It was just so hard trying to all get together and finalize the images, as everyone has been so buisy. Basically the blame landed on our two stylists which i thought was quite unfair, as the stylings worked really well when we tested with me. I think it was just a lack of communication between the whole group. There was a whole bunch of images that had got lost and the photographers couldn't open them as they needed special software. Anyway i just felt quite bad for the stylists as i think they did an amazing job.

My desire presentation ended up being roughly 11-minutes when i practiced with my mum a few times. So i was completely shitting it. I think this was mainly because i wanted to be loud and clear and not mumble...so it takes longer when you don't rush. :-)
Anyway i was second to get up and present....id spent all morning running around the massive Lime Grove building finding a stupid cord so i could run it off my own laptop, the reason as the layout kept changing when i put it on my stick...grrr.

It was so hot in the room as well i thought i was going to pass out. I'm quite good at hiding nerves though and i think i presented confidently. It got to 7 minutes and they said i was running out of time i said i only have 3 more slides so they let me finish! thank god.......

Straight after i went for a massive starbucks and noticed the fuzzy head fading and the excitement of christmas filled my body.

I will post Goldwell soon.

Week 30th November

Alexei My shit hot model and photographer...looking fab

This week i focused completely on my desire individual project. This is the project i have pages of notes on and really need to start putting my notes into bullets for the 5minute presentation this friday in front of my tutors. I know i am going to really struggle keeping it to 5 minutes, but hopefully if they are enjoying it and i present well they wont stop me half way through. They always try and scare us, they tell us 5minutes so we don't make it 15, that's my theory.

I shot with Alexei and he was also my model. I wanted to make the whole shoot really personal as it's about liberation of other gender. A space where you can open up and be true to your inner desires that we suppress in society. It's about the transgression of the gender binary. The body as our sacred enclosure that is not always truthful to our internal essence. The body as a passive being that we sometimes allow to be inscribed by society. This is why my final image has a ghost like translucent aesthetic to it.
I am so happy with the way the shoot went....Now we just have to start editing the images. In my next post i am going to post both my final shoots, 'Becoming of Age' and 'the desire to chose'.

So i'm nearly there this term has been tough, i can't wait to get the presentations out the way and enjoy christmas with my family and boyfriend.

Week 23rd novemeber

This week i have been concentrating on getting well, i had an operation on tuesday and it went really well just have to rest. So i am writing my research and planning proposal on the sofa.

I Came home to be waited on and spoiled by my family and boyfriend, had 12 beautiful red roses, that's love. :-)

My proposals coming on well...just having trouble with keeping the word count down and not babbling on too much about the same thing. i have so many books i intend to read over christmas that will help the ball rolling for the next two terms.

At the moment i have been reading Freud's ' The Interpretation of Dreams' which i surprisingly have found easy to read. I have noticed a difference that i am finding the language easier to understand, it helps persevering.

I have been watching films that Fiona my tutor recommended too....all have inspired me but found watching some of them very frustrating. I've learned you have to be quite patient with the films Fiona recommends. ;-)

Brown Bunny directed by Vincent Gallo, for instance probably has about 30minutes of the main protagonist (Vincent Gallo) driving with music, but i understood why when i looked deeper into it.

I also watched Breaking the Waves, Ma Vie en Rose which has really inspired my Desire project, about merging the Gender Binary.

Also watched a good film called My summer of love which i originally got so i could look at the lighting for Goldwell project, coming of age, but has inspired me more for my final major project.

So my week on the sofa has been very productive.... i have finished my proposal and will be submitting it tomorrow and have watched many inspiring films! I have started to relax into the term and have started to enjoy the challenge.

16th Novemeber

This week we shot our Goldwell project...It went well but it could have gone better. The rain held off as we were shooting outside but the light was poor and we had to work with what we had as we were being filmed as well. We shot around 1.00 and did two different stylings. Just have to wait and see now...fingers crossed we got the shot.

i had in term critique for my Individual project on thursday...which i wasn't prepared for. The time is flying by and as i was shooting Goldwell all day wednesday, by the time i got home it was 8.00 and i had to prep for my presentation. Basically the long and short of it is i broke down and had a few tears which i needed to do, let it out.

9th Novemeber

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Thursday i worked the Butler and Wilson Charity event at KoKo doing backstage make-up, which was lots of fun as a few of my friends were also assisting other make-up artists there. It was so hot backstage and we had a tiny area to work in, and each model had about 3 different make-up looks with a 3 minute change. After the show we let our hair down and partied at the vip party afterwards.


Friday i had research and planning with Melissa where my ideas were finally coming together after a little reassurance. I'm starting to base my ideas around the idea of the wish fulfillment of the creator of the image, hidden fantasies fulfilled in a staged photograph. How we as spectators are sometimes naive to the hidden connotations of an image, and the hidden messages they bring back to reality.

We shoot for Goldwell and film next week, i think were pretty much organised as a group so hopefully fingers crossed the weather will hold out for us.

Week 2nd November 2009

I have written for a few weeks had some bad news about my health and i'm angry and stressed out but trying to have a brave face. i have a hospital appointment next week and a potential operation booked for the following week. I have spoken to my tutors about it and they want me to hand in an extenuating circumstances form, i really don't think i need it. The news has made me focus and has been my escapism to throw myself into work. 

We have done a few tests for Goldwell now and everything is coming on nicely. Our story is about a girl coming of age, shedding her childhood in a positive way.(Virgi

n Suicide the film was our initial inspiration) hazy, soft colour palette and natural beauty. 

Our main message is based on a book i have been reading the Lolita Effect, and how young girls are over sexualised in the media, putting pressure on young girls to look and act a certain w

ay. The shoot is about fun, free femininity and liberation of a young woman's body without exploiting it. We want to look into the untouched essence of self, a body that hasn't been inscribed by societies commodities. As researcher i also have drawn inspiration from Joyce Tenneson's photography all about the essence and true beauty of woman, her photographs have a hazy, over exposed, washed out effect to them which have matched our lighting concepts.

For my desire project i have been doing a lot of reading and am moving on from my A to B with the idea of Gender and relationships. Currently reading Judith Butler, finding the reading quite tough but i think i will get there. Fiona said i am writing well as we are having to submit 500 words a week on further thoughts from each lecture. I am finding her lessons challenging but i know i am supposed to, i'm not on the FDA anymore! :-(  

i attended the research and planning symposium.... i really am struggling narrowing my ideas down for final major project.. Melissa is very good and is keeping up with my monotonous emails, haha. So far my ideas lie around the idea of fantasy and reality of a fashion image. Very broad concept i know...i keep getting drawn to identical multiple models in fashion image...Versace 'Steven Meisel', almost idea of cloning coming back to idea of relationship between bodies in fashion image..Paul pointed out in a tutorial last week this is interesting but how would i intend to find many models...which has put me off. I will be having a week off to have my operation and rest so intend to write my research and planning 2500 word piece, and hopefully i will be well enough to commute to london and submit it. Wish me Luck!

oh and i had a call from my auntie who is doing an MA at Central Saint Martins at the age of 39...Go Girl! ...asking me if i wanted to be a Christmas Elf at Lapland UK this christmas in which i replied yes! :s i'm a big kid at christmas...anyway i now how Elf and Safety training this weekend for christmas work...all i need! Brilliant. 

Week 19th October

Ok now i'm stressing..... 

Worked all weekend so very tired.....

Meeting with Paul went well, managed to present alot of our primary ideas and i think he liked them. We intend to test next week but i'm unsure whether we will have time. I have a photo shoot with Rob the creative Director for LCF this saturday, which i am completely stressing about as he wants 'finger waves'..the hardest thing ofcourse, need to get practicing this week. :-)

I also really need to think about my individual desire project. I have so much to do... 

Also need to rethink what i want to do for final major project as the loves cliches idea i had at bridging isn't inspiring me..... i have artists block this week and just think it's all above me. 

Also going to miss my friends birthday this weekend as i'm working. Sunday i intend to do nothing otherwise i'm going to be exhausted before i have even started. Thank god i have an understanding boyfriend. 

Week of October 5th 2009.

This was the day i went back to LCF for my final year after summer break, LCF is beginning to feel like home now after already being here for 3 years previous to this. 

We were given our project unit handbooks and i soon realised we all had a lot of work ahead....i began by adding all the dates to my diary and it soon left little time for any other work opportunities. I remember the whole class was shocked as initially we all thought we were only going to be timetabled in for a few days a week. 

We had 3 deadlines to work towards this term. The first being Goldwell, a industry based group project with real clients. Along side this we had our individual projects that could branch from Goldwell or start out thought process's for our Final Major Projects in terms two and Three.  The final deadline was to plan and research into my final ideas for terms 2 and 3 my final major project.

So this is my first entry i made that i never posted.....

After what seemed a short summer break after Bridging programme i've gone back to uni and been landed with a million dates and deadlines leaving me with little time to do anything if i want to do well. I'm working for Ariane Poole this weekend who i met when i worked the 25 shows for Graduate Fashion Week at Earls Court. I'm working the International Bridal Show doing backstage make-up which i'm sure will be good fun. I think in between shows i have to go and work on Ariane's counter doing mini bridal make-overs, Ariane's told us to bring our cards and try and book ourselves jobs which is really nice of her.

Back to uni.... i met with the Goldwell clients this week and had a presentation from the director Nick Wood which was really interesting.  We found out everything we need to know about the brand so we could come up with a new look for there 'Just Naked' collection. 

Straight after i met with my group for 2 hours and we brainstormed over a Starbucks while everything was fresh in our head. We also defined who was going to be in charge and take control over certain things. My job title is going to be researcher as well as hair and make-up.

Very pleased with being researcher as i love getting inspiration from many resources and know i will do the job well. We have a meeting with Paul on the 19th so i need to get started asap so we can present some initial ideas. 

I also have to write a 500 words on my meaning of desire to me for Fiona's lesson. I think i am going to enjoy Fiona's lectures this term. At the moment i feel quite excited about the term and not really thinking about the work load.  :S

January the 4th 2010!

So it's the 4th of January today 2010 and i'm getting my arse in gear. New years resolutions galore. I made this blog in the summer of 2009 and it has been left untouched ever since. I made it onto the BA at the London college of fashion; 2009 being a tough and stressful year i never had the time to write on my blog. 

I started writing a diary for my reflective discourse piece that will go onto be marked for my final grade at the end of the year. I have decided to write the few diary entries i managed to write last year and post them on my blog.

 My my news years resolution is to keep up with weekly diary entries and bring to you my life up to date....so hear it goes!