Q:  Can you see a continuous thread of development from your original drawings and samples to the final designs?
A:  Yes I can.  The original concept became simplified, from five sections to three, very early on in the process.  This meant that the areas could be larger (taking into consideration postal weight restrictions and size) and I could incorporate more complexity into each area.

Q:  Do you feel you made the right decisions at each stage of the design process?  If not, what changes would you make?
A:  I’ve had a love of model making for many years.  Perhaps I should have trained in theatre prop making!  Overall I’m very happy with the decisions I made for this piece but it would be excellent to have more layers, more dimension and more components in the machine, even moving parts.  I love hand stitching and enjoyed the felt making and embellishing on those sections but my heart is definitely with the processing machine.

Q:  Were you able to interpret your ideas well within the techniques and materials you chose to work with?
A:  I spent a lot of time working on different techniques and several of them fell by the wayside as I progressed but many were spot-on.  One or two ideas which I thought would work well just didn’t fit in once I had established focal interest on the machine and placement of final confections on the last section.  I’m glad I tried a variety of approaches though because they all showed possibilities at the start and I learned a lot from them.  Now I have a range of samples in my theme book to help with ideas for the future and some other components in my stash which are sure to come in handy one day.

Q:  How successful is your final design in terms of being inventive within the medium and coherent as a whole?
A:  Should I really comment on that?  I feel I should wait for my tutor’s assessment.  However, I believe my piece is coherent as a whole and it also tells a story.  As it hasn’t been finally assembled into one art piece I like the idea that perhaps I could display the sections as individual pieces and give them other meanings.  Obviously the first section wouldn’t warrant much attention on its own but the other two could stand alone and still represent something vibrant and interesting, telling a small part of a larger story.

This project has been a pleasure to work through.  It has been extremely stimulating, challenging and at times frustrating but above all it has been fun and a very rewarding experience.  The satisfaction of starting with the germ of an idea, following the creative process and learning new techniques along the way is irreplaceable.