Well, I had a very busy and organised day today! I have finally looked out from University to the world of industry for my work. I visited The Glassworks in Birmingham to get them to laminate two sheets of float glass (which I have screen printed my dance sketches onto) to sheets of mirror so that the image is further away from the mirror and hopefully gives a more exaggerated effect. The glass is 4mm thick and the mirror will be on 4mm thick glass as well so the image will be 8mm away from the glass. This will ensure that when the viewer looks into the mirror from different angles, the dancers will appear to move with them.
The second place I visited was Dutton Glass and Mirrors Ltd also in Birmingham to get them to transform my larger sheets of float glass with screen printed dance sketches into mirrors by silver coating the back. They are the same company I had my sample made by, however last time I asked my tutor Stuart Garfoot to arrange it for me, but this time I wanted to make the connections and network myself. It was also mirrored on the wrong side the last time and so this time I took a photo of the pieces and printed it off with y contact details on it which I then passed over when I gave them my glass to make sure it was on the right side this time. These pieces have been made to fulfil a brief set to design giftware products for the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. I have also used the same sketches to print onto a few samples of card designs. This will ensure that the price range is varied and to show that my sketches are adaptable to different products thus making them more commercially viable.
My third visit was to e-shopfittings to get standoff’s for my other module as well as for the mirrors. I have produced three wall panels using 6mm thick sheet float glass and sandblasted a series of silhouettes onto each with varying depths used. the first panel has skateboarding silhouettes, the second which will be displayed directly below with a gap have basketball silhouettes and the third and final panel (displayed below as previous) has a series of street dance positions silhouetted onto it. On each panel the sandblasting gets deeper towards the middle of the panel and gradually gets more shallow towards the edges of the panels. At first I thought I wanted to display them with the sandblasted side facing the viewer but I have since looked at them with the smooth side facing the viewer and this looks better in terms of three-dimensional quality. The silhouettes appear to be coming out of the glass towards the middle which works really well.
To sum up, it was a very busy morning and expensive! I also bought a business card holder and an acrylic poster holder from e-shopfittings for my jewellery sales craft stall in the hope that I can drill holes in the poster holder to make it an earring holder! My stall will look more professional this way.