KaysHappyPlace: Design Theme

Woodland

My first choices for a design theme, were St Giles' Church in Cheadle, designed by Pugin in the Victorian Gothic revival style, or the Alhambra. I have decided against these, as they are so rich in finished designs, the temptation would be simply to use design elements from them, rather than creating my own.

Looking to nature, I am tempted by 'Water', from the water crystals studied by Masaru Emoto, through rain, ice, rivers, fountains and lakes, to waterfalls. 'Sea creatures' is another tempting theme, the stunning drawings in Ernst Haeckel's 'Art Forms in Nature' cry out to be used, but again, I feel a lot of the work has been done. I needed to consider a design source that was 'in the raw'.

'Woodland' is probably not the most original theme to choose, but I live in the Chilterns and am surrounded by woods. I walk through woods every day, so as well as being an environment I love, (I admit it, I'm an ageing hippie who would hug the trees if it weren't for my middle-class inhibitions), it will be convenient.

'Woodland' could include trees, bark, roots, fungi, wildlife, birds, butterflies, foliage and more. I've taken some preliminary photos and made them into a Power Point Slide Show to accompany this write up. (I can't post PP to this blog, and it's about 53mb in size, so I've selected one photo from each section, reduced it to 25%, and posted below).

For my previous diploma, I chose a local church as my design source, thinking that I would focus on the statuary or the stained glass windows. The flints turned out to be the star of my design work though. I would never have anticipated that these relatively dull stones would end up inspiring most of my designs, so I am reluctant to say right now, which aspects of Woodland will produce the best design work. I would guess that leaves and bark will be the heroes, but who knows, it could be the slug! I do find microscopic images fascinating, and as I own a microscope, that could be a promising area.