28th, October; Shed2Studios Artist experience!

I did wash this art shirt,
But as you can see nothing has
come out... oops!

28th, October; Shed2Studios Artist experience! 

So I`ve been in contact with a designer and artist from Shed2Studios called Dawn Turner, I`ve wanted to go in and see her for a while or try and get some kind of work done with her. But because of my sixth form and work at the weekends, so for the past two days I`ve been in at the studio doing a bit of work with her and I`ve literally learnt so much from her about the business and about producing some of her work.
(I know i just updated about ink Kings, I was supposed to do that on Friday but haven`t had time).

So on Tuesday I was seriously nervous, I`ve been exchanging E-mails with her for a while now and talking about when i could possibly go in and see her work... So it`s a bit strange going and seeing someone face to face when you`ve actually been speaking for a while.

So she was quite busy when I first went in and I felt quite bad because I kind of stood and watched for a while until she could explain what was happening. It was quite confusing and I can`t remember as to what it was that she was using exactly, but you can use it to create a negative space for glass to melt into; so basically a mold and you can use the bits that you cut out too which imprints in the glass and pushes the shape through.
It`s really interesting, and the designs she was using are cute little snowflakes that she`s turning into glass Christmas decorations. Two different sets are going to two different galleries and they`ll keep around about 50% of the money earned from selling Dawn`s work.
(I can`t remember the names of them, but one is rather fancy and last year they ran out of Dawn`s work in two days!)

Dawn gave me a small tour around the studio, it was a lot larger than i thought and the ceiling itself was quite high meaning that Travis` huge wooden boards could fit in there easily. Travis is an artist who basis his work around wood and is currently working for the boss of Superdry, but he thought that it didn`t sound to impressive when it bloody is.
Ewan is the photography and takes some amazing images but I`ve only met him once and it was only briefly as he was photographing another artists work so she can sell them on, her work alone was amazing aswell.
Tom, now he`s practically a hoarder... His small area is stacked with old random things that people where just going to throw away and he then makes recycled objects out of them or recycled equipment; so it is very interesting but he`s a complete and utter hoarder!
Jeff designs guitars, and is currently off to Berlin (i think), for an exhibition or to sell a few of his guitars over there (if I`ve remembered that correctly). his work is amazing and some of the patterns he can make for the guitars are absolutely stunningly beautiful!

Seeing dawn`s work and a lot of her university work has been a real eye opener for me, I`m now even thinking about choosing a Decorative Art course instead of Art Therapy. Just seeing all of the roots you can go down with Decorative arts has made me think about my future just a little bit more and now I`m even considering asking Dawn for some sort of lesson on glass sculpting or creating these stunning pieces of work.

The candle made it look super
cute, It`s on the shelf in the
living room now!

So today, (Wednesday) dawn showed me some more hands on stuff because on the Tuesday there was a lot of organizing of glass and trying to get some molds ready for the decorations she needs for these galleries.
She`s been trying out these candle holders by using molds for the glass to slouch on, she`s tried doing the frosting on them before putting them in the kiln and she has one that she hadn`t tested out yet... Soooo, lucky Amy got the chance to make her own little christmasy styled candle holder!
I also got to use the sand blaster which was terrifying as the compressor kept on making me jump as it was right behind me, but I`m stupidly proud of myself for making this little glass holder! It`s the first time I`ve ever done anything with glass and probably the only time before I go off to University, I might be slightly cheeky and ask If I could possibly do any extra work with her... Hehe.

I`ll leave the link down here (somewhere), All of their work is really amazing and I`ve loved being there for the past two days, I may also go in on Friday depending on what Dawn is doing and I might ask if their are any other days that I could possibly go in and help out with; It`s worth to at least have a look at their work... it`s strange thinking that there`s all of these different styles under one roof and they all chip in and help each other out quite a bit, very interesting.
So here`s the link to their website: http://www.shed2.co.uk
Here`s the link to their faceboook page: https://www.facebook.com/shed2studios/?fref=ts

I got these amazing high waisted
jeans from ebay cause H&M`s
website wasn`t working... I prefer these! 

Like always, go and take a look at all of the other blogs and ways to get in touch with me and my deviantart account is being updated very regularly at the moment aswell!

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27th, October; Ink Kings Work Experience Week.

These new leggings
though :3

27th, October; Ink Kings Work Experience Week.

So last Tuesday I began a week of work experience, well four days of work experience at a local Tattoo Parlor called Ink Kings... It was amazing!

Because I`m not 18 yet, I couldn`t really do much... I couldn`t be near the tattooists when they where tattooing and I wasn`t aloud past a certain point when there was tattooing aswell. So it was a little bit frustrating, and I might go back there when I`m actually 18 so I can observe the tattooing process and help them set up.

so for my four days there I was mainly doing quite a bit of receptionist work, to be honest I did feel quite useless for the first day of being there. There wasn`t much that I could do apart from answer the phone and chat away to the customers whilst they where waiting.

Steve, Tony and Maria where amazingly friendly and helped me out quite a bit for the week that i was there.

Tony is the owner of Ink Kings:
The work he mainly does is just with black ink, he`s had years and years of experience and can even tattoo without using the stencils.
This is one of the latest images that has been uploaded onto their facebook page (I`ll put the link to it at the end).
His work is amazing, and he keeps the study unbelievably clean, unless he`s had porridge... then you`ll find that everywhere in the kitchen earlier and dried bits in the bowls that he`s left out... It`s gross, I had to clean all of the bowls on my first day there and he seriously loves his porridge at lunchtime.
he really helped me out with my own work, he told me that when It`s quite I can bring in stuff to draw and he gave me some really good tips and advice on how to improve those dotted drawings that I`ve been practicing.

I basically just bugged Steve for the week:
Steve does a bit of everything, the picture that I got from the facebook page is two watercolor butterflies, I actually saw him tattoo another watercolor design whilst I was there and it looked stunning!
So when I`m 18, I`m hopefully going to go there to get my very first tattoo; I`m definitely going to Ask Tony to do it though, after winding Steve up that much I think he`ll just make it hurt more than usual on purpose.
Steve is really funny, but he doesn`t have a manlier beard than Tony... However, he does have a really cool motorbike.



Unfortunately i only got to see Maria for two days:
Her boyfriend was Ill so she wasn`t in for most of the week, as she had to babysit him for a while.
She specializes in realism work and this is one of the pieces that she did whilst I was there on the Friday. If I do have any flower tattoos at all in my life, then f*ck anywhere else I`m going to Maria!

Here`s the ink kings facebook page link:
https://www.facebook.com/InkKingsStudios?fref=ts



You can see the majority of their work on there, and people usually send in what they want tattooing to them over facebook, but here`s the link to their official webpage: http://www.ink-kings.com

I seriously enjoyed my week there, and I want to go back when i`m 18 to hopefully observe then tattooing this time. I`ve never had a good week doing work experience and last time i even got rejected, probably 11 times; So the fact that I got this placement with only a months notice was pretty good for me. If anything they guys there are at the studio and some of the funny and welcoming customers we had are what made my week better. Sure, I couldn`t do much cause I`m not 18 but the week for me was amazing and I really enjoyed.
I did get a free T-Shirt aswell, I offered to pay for it but Tony let me have it... But hey, A FREE SHIRT!

I`ve taken their advice with these
drawings, their starting to look
better. 

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19th October; Tattooing Work Experience

19th October; Tattooing Work Experience

So for the next week I`ll be working at a local Tattoo parlor called Ink Kings, So I`m probably not going to be updating on here for the rest of the week. Just so at the end of the week I`ll actually have something to blog about at the end of the week.
Or, I could update once every night to say how my day has been; It depends as to what works really, I`ll find something out tomorrow when it comes to actually working there for the week. 

Thanks for reading and thanks for getting in contact about my other blogs and devinatart account!
Here are the links like usual, just to keep anyone who`s interested occupied for the week. 

Anime Reviews:   http://melonheadamy-animereviews.blogspot.co.uk
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14th, October; A Week Of, Not Much, Relaxation

The past week has been absolutely manic for everyone, the sixth form closing, the teachers losing
their jobs and us worried about what will happen to the rest of the lower years at our school.

It`s all calmed down a little bit now and everyone seems a little bit more relaxed as the week has gone on, the teachers are looking for new jobs and the majority of the year 12 students have now left and found a new place for year 12 and 13. If anything we`re all happy for them finally finding a place after different colleges and sixth forms said that they will be refusing quite a lot of the students that we had... but it`s all calm now, no more stressing out on their behalf.

Not much has been happening, we got over 500 supporters on the change.org petition that I set up, one night it was that busy that my phone just kept on freezing whenever I tried to get onto the website and I`ve been getting messages of support to carry on petitioning. But so far we`ve met with the local MP, and all shes managed to do is keep the sixth form open ONLY for year 12 BTEC art students who are doing the 2 year course.

God I love adventure time,
and a bonus... Halloween!

People are seeming in much better spirits and this week has felt a lot more positive in my class, I`d say that the only problem that we have in class now is the noise levels. especially because most of us are getting headcolds all of a sudden (I blame my work colleagues for that), so loud music, laughing and singing won`t really be helping any of us at the moment.
I`m also going to pick up my Portfolio soon so I can begin filling that with some of my work, so right now I`m getting ready for my university interviews which I am incredibly nervous for right now. I`ve filled out my UCAS form so that`s all ready, the only things left now are my personal statement and then my reference from the head of my sixth form.



Apart from all of the sixth form closure drama:
Work has been going well, I`m trying to get a few more hours of over time so I can hopefully get some more money towards Christmas time so I can get some nice presents for everyone! This will be my first year having a job and my own money to buy people presents and I`ve been trying to budget myself a bit but I only have 50p in my bank right now... Yay.

I finally figured out how to use the Sixth forms scanning system for my art work, so now on my Devinatart theres a bunch of pictures of paper marbling and some wet on wet work that I`ve been doing; So at the moment it`s all experimentation work.

Then, next Tuesday I`ll be working at a Tattoo parlor called Ink Kings. They`re one of the best around and I`ve luckily got Tuesday till Friday to work for them as the receptionist. So I`m a bit worried about the way I`ll come across to people, because this is a professional business that I`ll be working in so I`m still really nervous about going there... Even though I work in customer service at the weekends.

Some of The Paper Marbling work I`ve
Been Doing, The Rest Is Over On
Devinatart. 

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THE CLOSURE OF MY LOCAL SIXTH FORM!

This morning we received devastating news about my sixth form being closed down at the end of this year; this place has offered so much to me and It`s disastrous to see it go. But we aren`t going down without a fight.

This morning we had an emergency assembly with the whole of sixth form attending; then we where informed of the closure of our AMAZING sixth form in July 2016. Luckily I`ll be able to finish year 13 and go on to university but those in year 12 who have settled in and are loving their course will now have to leave and find somewhere new that will take them on as an emergency placements. I`m seriously devastated at the news and I`m so disappointed at the fact that they are seriously going through with this now...

Future generations won`t be able to gain the life skills, employability skills and just the general skills that they`ll need to get through life. So many students are now left without a clue as where to go and most parents are furious and have been storming into the school today so they can speak to the head of the school.

Even if this petition doesn`t work, it shows that people out there still care about the students and the community that we create. Because of all of this, we can no longer raise anymore money for students in Gambia and no more money for the charity called Ben`s Den...

Here`s the link to the online petition, even if you`ve never read any of my blogs and if you`ve never even heard of this sixth form... Just remember the students that will miss out on this amazing opportunity for work experience, community work and for higher education.
https://www.change.org/p/mr-smith-stop-ilkeston-academies-sixth-form-from-closing

Also, feel free to speak to me on Facebook about what has happened, I need some ideas for some sort of fund-raising and some sort of protest that students can do.
https://www.facebook.com/amy.watkinson.104

This is what people will be missing
out on, amazing friendships and
amazing lessons! 

A HUGE thank you to anyone who chooses to sign or contact me, even if you don`t know what this about; just think about the students who are missing out and the staff who will now be loosing their jobs.
Thank you!

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2nd October; Student Ambassador Work and Anxiety

Smexy student ambassador couple over here!

2nd October; Student Ambassador! 

So I`m starting to get a lot more confident when it comes to working with others now, i`ve done a little bit of student ambassador work in the past year at sixth form and then some in year 11.
But this time, it was bloody awesome.

So if you don`t know yet, I suffer from anxiety, quite badly too... Just last night, I had an anxiety attack when walking home since a bunch of teenagers where across the road from me yelling abusive phrases about my hair, boyfriend and how much of a "whore" i am. But i had my headphones on an pretended to ignore them... Bad idea, my hand got sweaty, i started to shake quite badly and then I couldn`t breath and when I got around the corner i ran down the street and got inside as fast as I could.

I found this on the sixth forms Twitter
account: @OIEA6thform

But it got me thinking a little bit, these people stand on street corners smoking and drinking when they`re about 12 or 13 years old, I`m 17 and still get nervous when walking past these kinds of people.
But I`m going to University, these kids are going to be getting a PASS grade in shampooing a mannequins head at college. It just makes me wonder why people think they look "amazing" when they smoke and have nothing going for them. So then i remembered the night before when I did some student ambassador work with the year 6 opening evening.

The whole school was open, parents and their children came in and looked around, sat in speeches from the head of the school, got a tour around the school by us and then got to see all of the subjects and the subject teachers.
That night the head of the school received a lot of compliments about how lovely, kind and helpful I was when it came to answering questions and speaking about the subjects that the school had to offer. Now because of my anxiety, I`m scared of gobby mouthed teenagers but not of parents who will judge the whole school on the grounds of the student ambassadors. There`s definitely  been a big change in the way my anxiety works then, before I was terrified of everything... But now I can speak to people a lot more freely than before, but I can`t walk home without feeling nervous and petrified of the chavs of Ilkeston.

Horribly, itchy red jumper crew.

I`m quite proud of myself for the opening night, I spoke to soooo many parents and tried to get involved in the kids. The amount of compliments I received that went to the head of the school was amazing and then all of my old teachers that I would usually be too shy to speak too where coming up to me and asking me as to what I`ve been doing and how I`ve been. Many of my past teachers didn`t even know that I was still at the sixth form, I`m not surprised though... I hardly either never leave the art room or I never put the effort into going and speaking to them.

But there`s a good improvement there; just like when I began blogging and uploading to devinatart I never responded to messages, but now I respond whenever I get them and I quite enjoy reading through the messages now... Like an even bigger confidence boost to be honest.
But there`s always a own side to receiving messages from people who can see me worldwide, inappropriate nude images from guys and the hate messages from the girls; I`m getting a little bit used to it now and I should hopefully stop receiving them soon. The again, there`s the supportive people who send me lovely messages about my work On devintart and on facebook, so thanks you guys!

But all in all, It was a good night; But my anxiety is changing dramatically and that was the first time I`ve had an attack out in the open like that, luckily the chavs didn`t notice. My confidence is improving, but I need to upload a lot more on these blogs if i want to keep on getting supportive messages from you guys; thanks so far!

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