Light and projection- an inspiring artist!

After researching into pattern design, Chinease lanterns and Rob Ryan's stencilling. I wanted to create an interior type lamp of some sort, which resembled the lantern style. But instead of it being set alight and set free in the air, they were placed on pupils desks and workspaces as a structure to aid stress! The patterns would all be different and would relate somehow to the theme of 'Old school/New school'. This could be bringing patterns used on the exterior or interior of the Old building when that was first built? This means my aim for the coming week is to visit special collections and gather some information. However, the box i made was a quick design idea that i wanted to test. I made a box and stencilled scribbly patterns, cut out using a craft knife. I sat a candle in the box and took photographs of the light shining through the patterns, i thought this was really beautiful and it made me want to experiment more with adding colour onto the box and see if the light changes the vibrancy of the colour. Although i want to create more when i have visited special collections and i am able to carve out relevant patterns. Obviously there are many health and safety risks with what i did, and it's not materials i would take on board if this was my final idea. I would use the laser cutter to achieve patterns in PVC plastic instead of doing by hand with a craft knife! And i would have fitted LED lights in the centre of the box instead of candles as this would be a major fire hazard! This would mean i could go into alot more detail if it was being cut out by a laser cutter, although the LED lighting would look alot different to candle light so this would also be something to test.

Here are photographs of the sample box i created:

Just a quick post i wanted to share with you all, i was intially going to keep this on my own personal blog but thought it might be interesting and help anyone who is looking into projection or light in spaces? Have a look at Rob Ryan's blog, he has created some truely inspirational work and could spark off ideas. I used his idea of carving shapes into paper but then thought about how i could project the pattern using light; hense the candle!

 Have a look! http://rob-ryan.blogspot.co.uk/