18 March 2010

Tagged - A photo Meme - Art & Design Textiles

Gigi's Ramblings has tagged anyone with this meme and with me being the ultra lazy blogger that I am at the moment, I swear my brain cells have been replaced with air bubbles, I thought I would run with it.
And wouldn't you just know it, it's a photo of one of my Teen Daughters Textile projects...Grrr!

This is a particular bugbear of mine at present. Last September TD chose Art Textiles and Photography as her A-level subjects (plus 2 other re-takes). Now, just in case none of you are aware, both of these are HUGE coursework based subjects. During the first year they have to produce 3 separate finished final pieces (for each subject), with large, fat sketchbooks to support the work.  TD had completed (ish) 2 and had number 3 underway, when a meeting at college was called and we were told, reading between the lines, that given the work she had done in Textiles so far, she probably wouldn't have a place at the college for the 2nd year! WTF...
TD was fine with this, she had already decided mid way through the first textiles assignment, that she'd made a mistake and wanted to change courses, too late of course. So she struggled through, with  gritted teeth (both mine and hers) I might add. 
When we had this meeting (only last week) she was 7 weeks away from her final exams (May this year), and their suggestion was that she drop textiles, there and then, with nothing, no qualification at all to show for it. So 2/3rds of the work was a complete waste of her time...as I said Grrrr!! Also, I'm not a believer in starting something and not finishing, I think it conveys a message of "It's ok, if its too hard you can just give up". She is continuing with her Photography course, but only till the end of this academic year. So we are now looking at other courses at different colleges for her, as you have to have a minimum of 3 A-level courses to attend the college, which she now won't have. More Grrr...

Anyway, rant over, back to the photo...

The first photo is of TD's final piece (not quite finished) for her 2nd project based on the title 'Lost & Found' with a sub-theme of 'Body Adornment', using some of the methods she learnt, plastics, jewellery making, etc..
She used only items found in the house. Plastic sandwich bags and fine copper wire from cables and melted them to create shapes.  Which she then turned into this 'neck piece'.
In fact, because she put a lot of hard work into this piece, contrary to college opinion, I'm going to add more than one photo, so it's the tenth, eleventh and so on, photos...well, I'm already in the folder anyway, so I may as well.

The rules are:
Open the first photo folder you find.  Scroll to the tenth photo. Post the photo and tell the story behind it.
Tag five or more people. But I'm not going to tag anyone, just jump in if you feel the urge.

3 comments:

  1. What very talented children you have there. Although this might not be her "major" (which I guess is what we call it, not sure) she seems to be a very creative soul and I'm sure that whatever she decides on - she will be successful.

    I know what you mean about starting something and seeing it through....but at the same time, I have recently learned that sometimes (only sometimes) it's better to admit defeat and move on.

    So glad you jumped on this tag!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gigi: Our kids, at 6th form college, tend to have 2 or 3 minors for 2 years, then chose a major from that to do at Uni. And yes, that was more or less what the tutors we had the meeting with said, admit defeat, learn from it and move on, as she vocalised quite clearly how much she hated(!) the course. But when it's something thats so close to the end, only 7 weeks to go, I felt 'You've done 7 months, whats another 7 weeks?!' But I do sort of agree with you, just wish it had happened sooner. TD has now applied to do a Catering course, at a different college, but it's really late to apply, fingers crossed. Watch this space..xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gigi: 6th form college is for 16-18yr olds only. Sometimes its at the same school they attended, if those schools have 6th forms, some schools don't, other times its at a separate college. They choose 3 subjects they have an interest or apptitude in, if they enjoy & do well in any of them, they then chose one to continue with and go on to a University Degree with (normally about 3 years)

    ReplyDelete