So much has happened...

Thursday I had my Part One Examination from the University of Wales... It went really, really well. Essentially they talk to you about all of your first year projects and notes and evaluate your work. I got a lot of very nice compliments and I am happy to say that I passed...


This is Sar'a and I after it was all over and we were taking everything down... If I look a little tired, is because I hadn't slept in two days...



This is one of my gilding projects that I haven't quite finished in this picture but I thought the light on the gold looked cool! And if you can't read it... it says: "Care not for the body, neither for the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul..." (one of my favorite quotes)



This is Sar'a's work display... she is from Pakistan. She comes from a family of artists. She was teaching art before she came here. She learned of the school through her sister (a previous student) and she intends to teach again when she is done. But she also wants to be a painter of floral images and geometry.



This is Tasleema's work display... she now lives in London but is from Banglidesh. She did the diploma the first year she was here (which means that she did all of the first year work already once before the rest of us) then she applied for the MA afterward. So she has now been here for almost three years and is really happy that she passed with the rest of us and will very soon be done.



This is Layarli's work... she is a geometer and has a cute little boy named Zeid that her husband watches while she is at school with us...She is from Jordan and after graduation she will go back and teach at a school that was set up based upon our schools program...



This is Saa'ba's work and he is from Iraq (I think? it may be Iran--I can't remember at the moment) Anyhow he is a nice guy and does lovely Arabic Calligraphy. He is really excited to just focus on the calligraphy now with his second year work. He trained under a Calligraphy Master for about ten years before he came to this school.


And this is my work display... some of my books aren't there at the moment cause this was the night before and I still had some things to finish...


This is looking straight on... again the night before...



And this is from the other direction...



This is some of my Part Two work that's theme is based on my Indian Miniature painting which you have all seen...



Again you have seen my stained glass...



I now realize I didn't take the greatest pictures...some are kind of blurry like this one but you can see some of the sample tiles I did showing some of the process I went through to establish my colors etc...



And the other direction... The examiners couldn't believe how exact and basically flawless my chess board is. The result of marquetry really is awesome; its just such hard work using the chisel to cut the wood and the strain on the shoulder, arm, and hand muscles that I don't know how much I will really do it in the future...




Again just more pictures of the display... they loved all of my work and again complemented me several times... of course that is always nice to hear especially when you have worked so hard... I am really hoping to graduate with "distinction" and based on the examiners responses to me I think I am well on my way to graduating with it.



Part of what the examiners wanted to see was the process; so I have plaster carving that I abandoned because the drawing wasn't accurate and the plaster got too hard too fast. But that helped me understand how to do the carvings for the ceramic tile plaster casts...and I also have work that is part of my second year project that I veiled so that they couldn't see what I have already done--which is why the brown matte board is surrounding the Persian Miniature leaning against the wall...



Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the tiles and the things laying flat on the table so you can accurately see them...



In the morning I barely got there on time to put my other books down and put up the gold frames I retouched up the night before... I have to cart everything in my suitcases to get everything to school so that is why that is in the picture....



Once again an overview with the other books included... (see the big fat one--that is my geometry that I was up all night putting together since I didn't want to do it while I was in Cancun...)


It was really rewarding to see all the work put up together... and finally have that part done completely... now it is just finishing up the projects I've already started and making a plan to follow through with the rest...