Twas the night before the deadline.....

and Im wondering how many other people are up this late finishing stuff off........???!!!
Ive been typing on the Braille typewriter for a while now, its a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong process, but its a cool machine, im impressed! Im using coloured paper this time, its lookin good!
Part four is finally complete, ive been sewing into paper for a very long time also! Ive printed onto paper using the thinners and then stitched into the paper, ive done 2 but I iwsh i couldve done more, because I think at least 3 of them, even better 5, would have looked really good together, but i only thought about that just now, and I dont have time now. Also my paper is a bit wonky, BUT its meant to be, it adds to the messy experimental effect.

Ive gota go type more Braille on my lil'brailler, then maybe get some sleep,
my blogging words......
Ive really enjoyed this project! And will hopefully be able to use Braille again one dat coz ive enjoyed using as a new medium (could you call it that?)
Goodnight x

Paperrrrrrr

Heres some photos of my first ever hand made paper! Lovely!
I stuck bits of the esay cook cover in one and bits of a photocopy of the screen cover in the other.
Its not looking too amazing, but it is my first time.

Brilliant Braille!

its now 11pm and i just wrote out a big blog entry and then all got lost because blogger.com blogged out! aaaaaah!

So.... my Braille turned out really well! The one I laid-out in Screen mag style didnt work as expected because the Braille printer cannot recognise the bits of text all over the page, but the one in real Braille style worked well!
Ive asked to borow the Braille typewriter to experiment with different coloured cards, but my friend can only get it to me on Thursday afternoon, so i hope its not gonna be too complicated!

Part 4, Ive been experimenting with collage, stitch, and printing with cellulose thinners (which Luke told me about, and Ive never used it before and I really like its effects, but not in a sniffing way). I spent most of the afternoon using it, and started feeling quite light headed but it was worth it. Ive been using photocopies of blown up and shrunk images and sections from the front cover of screen, then printing them with the thinners and collaging and stitching with them.
oooh i nearly forgot, i made some paper for the first time ever today, will be interesting to see how it looks when its dried.
Ive done lots of sketch book work, so check out the photos!

Touchy feely . . . . .

Ive been doing lots of research on Braille,
amazing things Ive learnt about Braille ...
1) It only comes in one size!
2) Its either printed on white card or coloured card. Many blind people can slightly see and appreciate coloured card.
3) Magzines are not published in Braille with confusing templates; text boxes here and pictures there, its written straight forwardly line after line, otherwise things get very complicated.
4) Pictures are not very often seen in Braille publications. If they are they either hace a raised edge or they are just blown up really big because alot of people who read Braille are partially sighted.

Ive been experimenting with touch and texture and tactile text........... see sketch book pages.
I spent ages trying to find somewhere where I could see some Braille books, and use a Braille typewriter but it seemed to be alot harder than I thought! I did contact the NLB (National Library for the Blind) and they got back to me very quickly and offered to send me a Braille alphabet card, which they did! But that was as far as I was getting!

My mum is my hero, she saved my project! She phoned up an friend who she hasnt seen for ages, and her daughter answered. My mum knew that she worked with specail needs students at college, so thought she just might ask her about it, and it turns out that she works with blind children! She can read Braille from sight and has access to a Braille computer and typewriter!
I COULDNT BELIEVE MY LUCK! So I phoned her and we talked Braille for a while. She suggested the best way to print it is from the computer where you type out a word document and it prints it out in Braille! wow!
Apparently the typewriter takes ages, and she couldnt get it to me until Monday night, which is a bit late coz we gotta hand it in on Tuesday!
Im going to print one in the Screen template style and one how a Braille publication would actually be layed-out. I dont think the fist one is gonna come out very well but I might aswell try and see how the computer deals with it!

Friday the 13th!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have done most of the 'remixing' of the contents, but we need to make a few more adjustments to keep it in the Easy Cook style.....

I went to WHSmith yesterday to get some inspiration for part 3, there are magazines for EVERYONE, on EVERTHING!
I've been concentrating on thinking of different audiences to get me started on part 3.... and Ive come up with the idea of using Braille for a blind audience. Ive started to research Braille and how it works, and i need to start thinking about layout, templates, how I will portray the images etc.....

(photos are of the final print outs)

Thursday 12th......

Have been using my new InDesign skills to put the Screen magazine content into our Eay Cook template! Its going good so far!
Have been thinking about the next stage of the project where we have to redesign Screen magazine for a different audience. Screen magazine is boooooring,I miss Easy Cook.

Stage one is finished!

Friday- left college for the weekend thinking everything was going good, but all met up on Monday to do final touches and print BUT problems had occured! Everyone had problems opening the files, mainly because they were saved on CS2 and everyone has CS, and there were problems opening fonts etc blah blah blah...
So we had to do most of it on Monday.
We managed to get most of the fonts exactly the same but some of them we had to chose the most similar ones.
I wasnt actually there when it was getting printed because I had to leave early to go to the Aple store to get my computer mended again! And I'm going AGAIN today, as it isnt mended yet! Oh how I love that place!
I was very impressed by the final print outs, although the colour was a bit dark it was looking very Easy Cook-like!
When i first read the brief I did think it seemed a little bit boring and pointless, BUT i've learnt alot about InDesign and I know more about fonts now, and actually enjoyed it! For me working in a group on this project was very benificial because I hadnt used InDesign before, and I've learnt alot from my group!
Today it is Wednesday and we are starting the second stage............. swapping content with the 'Screen magazine' team.....

Day three......

My laptop is broken AGAIN, just in time for the start of the year. Went to Apple store, not fixed yet, so I'm computer-less, very angry today!
Our project is going good so far though.
Andre has been teaching me and James InDesign, I feel a bit useless coz I don't know how to use it, BUT I will learn!
Our group has 5 people in it, Holly, James, Andre, Astrid and me. Havent worked with most of them before, so it makes a nice change!

Day 2....

Getting confusing, too many lines EVERYWHERE!
Never used InDesign before, so need to listen and learn!

Day one....

Seemed quite simple.....
ooohhh and this is my first blog EVER!
How exciting!!! Not sure what to write though.