WYTHNOS DDAU DEG CHWECH - twenty six

Weekend hike near Bala

What happened this week?

• Class with John to go over individual reflection

• Chat with Shulah Jones to go over financing

• 1-2-1 with Louise to discuss next steps for dissertation

• Meet Veronika and Kathy from Lazy Kate Textiles

Thoughts, Feelings and Analysis

Following on from last week's high of realising I have the potential to become a full time Arts Practitioner, the presentation from Shulah Jones was at the perfect timing. There is so much support in LJMU that I don't feel I am accessing or utilising as much as I could. It was also very encouraging to see on her slides that the first job after finishing Postgraduate Studies could be an Arts Practitioner, that gave me even more of a boost that I needed.

The Transdisciplinary Practice module feels quite stagnant at the moment, I'm still yet to hear anything back from Ty Pawb and I have this gut feeling that it isn't going to happen. That is fine, that is life. It is just pushing me to do something better and I trust that something good will come along.

My dissertation is going really well, it is now just about pushing onto the next steps which is my primary research. I know I want to do some interviews, focus groups and case studies and Louise agree's that that seems to be a good amount of primary research that I should undertake. Now it is just the planning and getting on with it.

On Friday I met up with Veronika in the Baltic Triangle to meet with Kathy from Lazy Kate Textiles. I truly had no real idea what the meet up was for other than I mentioned liking wool to Veronika when we first had a chat. It actually ended up being a very positive and exciting meeting. We discussed all sorts of things and Kathy is going to teach me how to spin and weave in order for me to make my own fabric for my Major Project. We ended up talking about workshops and how Kathy would love to host a retreat that takes participants through the process from sheeps fleece to wool to weaving. I would really love to help her to make that happen and have so many ideas and connections that could be helpful. It then clicked that this could be the collaboration I needed for my Transdisciplinary Practice. I feel really good in that it has come naturally and it's a bit of a skill swap as I know I can organise really well and Kathy has the skills to do!

Connections

With regards to the 'From Fleece to Fabric' retreat Idea with Kathy and Veronika, I feel like this could be not only a really good opportunity to collaborate with some amazing people and businesses but also as a bit of a model for what I would like to create for myself and my future business. I have started thinking more about my own studio or workshop and how I could put that in place. Using the templates from the Transdisciplinary Project, I have started a pinterest board for Y Stiwdio, what I want the space to look like, what kind of workshops I could hold and so forth. It really helps me to visualise the future and it's a good starting point for me. Maybe it wont happen as soon as I finish my MA as I have other goals - such as buying a house and building up my savings - but it is a dream I want to achieve in the very near future.

Action Plan

• Start to re-write Transdisciplinary Practice with new collaboration idea. Make sure to keep old ideas and show the development and how it's moved on

• Start thinking about my objectives for my primary research. What is the gap? What do I want to find out? How will I go about doing that?

• Start to think about retreat ideas, do some research on existing retreats and how they run.

• The focus at the moment is my university projects, but continue to visit other workshops, studios, galleries to get inspired and network

• Enjoy a weekend off consisting of a hike in the Welsh mountains and an evening of axe throwing and tacos with friends