A cliche I know but the final year of university is flying by – soon I’ll be in the real world of work – be it building up my online business or work within a company.  Right now I’m working on my final project, a kirigami-inspired jewellery collection.  At the moment I’m stuck in a rut; a place where I’m hating all my designs but I’m sure it’ll resolve quickly as I know what I want to do…but don’t have the right…ingredients.

Ideally, after university I want to be earning a great salary but the likelyhood of that happening to a will be recent graduate is slim.  One things is for sure though, when I eventually do get my own place my first luxury purchase will be a piano.  Although I wish for a Steinway and Sons piano that’s unlikely to happen – they’re really expensive but sound oh-so good.   I think a more “affordable” – and I use that term loosely – option would be a Yamaha…probably the digital type and preferably with pedals.  However, I’m not giving up that dream of owning a Steinway just yet.

Anyway, less than 3 months to go and I’m sure it couldn’t go slow enough but before even worrying about work I need to concentrate on getting the highest mark for the project, otherwise I leave myself very disappointed at the end of this course.  However, I get a weeks work experience, which I am very much looking forward to.

Come the end of the semester I will probably bore with a post of my 5 year experience at uni.  You have been warned!¹ :P

1. By the way, by bore I mean having to read the post, not uni. itself. [↩]

Yesterday I walked to uni. just going on about the usual routine.  Then I was stopped and told of the news that I had got 1st prize for my pendant.

I was shocked, I think the overjoyed part came later that morning when it had sunk in.  I still can’t believe…

The best thing about it is that I get to spend a weeks work experience at Charles Green – I can’t wait.  Many thanks to Mr Green, Charles Green and Sons Ltd, and particularly Pip who was a big help during the project.

Congratulations to my classmates Helen Dobson (Helen has written a better post on the ceremony as she actually…ahem…attended.), Sophie Waters and Amy Roberts who also won awards for their pieces.

During the stay in Germany my friend and I went on a tour around the Dachau Concentration Camp.  I’ll be the first to hold my hand up and confess that I have a very vague memory of the tour due to the symptoms of tonsillitis (I’ll try not to bang on about it), therefore I want completely listening and, to be honest, I can’t even remember the name of the tour guide.  In short, I wasn’t completely there. I was actually worried about the detail of the talk.  I mean, I know inhumane things happened but didn’t know the detail or the extent the tour guide would go to illustrate the things that went on in the camp.

Upon standing at the entrance you are, for lack of better word, greeted with the words “Arbeit macht frei” on the gates.  Oh the irony, in translation I think it says “Through work one will be free”.  Once you open the gate to walk through the mood is set.

We were told that the buildings where the prisoners slept were restored so not everything was quite authentic, although many of the sleeping blocks were torn down and replaced with just wooden outlines of where they once stood.  Now the plot of blocks remain as a memorial to the prisoners.  We were told prisoners would routinely have to stand out in line for long hours, early in the morning as well The group were taken through to the bunks and lockers.  There were rows of wooden bunks and each were small; not even the size of a standard single bed.  We heard that it didn’t taken much to get punished, in fact prisoners could do everything as instructed but the guards would make an excuse to punish them (e.g mess up the locker then tell the prisoner they hadn’t cleaned it).

We were told more about the punishments when we got to the shower block and “cleansing” room (where prisoners were taken upon first arrival to the camp to clean and have their valuables or items confiscated).  Prisoners would be beaten by wooden batons, not only that but have to count after each beating, even if it became to much.  Others had there hand tied behind their backs and to add to the pain suspended from the ceiling, sometime even swung towards one another.  There were more but those are the two that stick in mind.  Very sadistic though. I can’t remember a lot else.  Although we did get to watch a small clip of recordings but the lights were dimmed and the room was pretty dark, my eyes  failing to stay open.  That and my nose was whistling, which wasn’t embarrassing at all…  Try as I might to watch and concentrate but a guy behind insisted on talk throughout the short film. Other places we were taken to were the kitchen, maybe there was something about prisoners getting punished in that area, or was that near the crematorium?  Anyway prisoners who committed suicide, their deaths were treated as natural but nevertheless all limp bodies were cremated.  After all it wasn’t to be known what inhumane things went on in that camp.  No one from the outside was to know any better.

From the pictures shown on display a lot of death was caused by malnutrition, you just had to look at the pictures and know that the prisoners must not have even been given enough food, I think we were told that they were barely given anything to eat and even had to survive without having eating…I don’t know the time-lengths.

The tour was interesting, although at the time I’m pretty sure it didn’t come across that way but to think this all happened because of one man.  Prisoners weren’t just from couple of countries, no.  Joke not intended, it was international.  There were a lot of camps and people from all around the world “retreated” to them, though of course Auschwitz if probably the better known one.  It was worth going and the tour lasts about 5 and a half hours, including journey a 40 minute journey time to and from the Dachau (this is from the Hauptbahnhof by the way) and costs 18 euros (train journey included with the ticket).

From the start of my journey I was almost unable to hit the note of middle C due to a bout of tonsillitis. This trip had been saved and paid for so missing the trip wasn’t an option, that and I was too excited to go to Inhorgenta. The only bother of the trip was not forgetting to take my tablets (two, four times a day).

Friday 25th February

My friend and I headed to the EMA (East Midlands Airport). It wasn’t until checking out the luggage (as in having it weighed before put through the conveyor belt) that I realised I had forgotten to check-in online – I blame the illness – so unfortunately that meant my friend and I had to fork out £10 for tickets, on top of the £20 for luggage. With more money thrown out the window than we intended we continued through to the security, I was worrying slightly here being that I not only had my tables for the tonsillitis but also some Panadol, and travel sickness medication – wouldn’t look good through a monitor would it? Indeed, as I thought, I had my first narcotics swab. Dramatic as it sounds it felt as if my clean record had been thrown out the window. Having watched a lot of Borders UK (or something along those lines) and Nothing To Declare I knew what and what not to do.

The flight was slightly delayed as the engine needed changing of refuelling, well, from what I would lip read and hear the staff weren’t exactly vocal about it. Nevertheless we and fellow passengers were escorted to a different plane

About 3 hours later we were at the hotel, Tryp Hotel. The staff were really friendly and quick to assist us if there were any issues with the room. The bathroom light didn’t work so I revert to my mobile torch. Yes, it was that dark no light was even seeping through the bottom gap of the door.

Saturday 26th February

The day of the fair.  Due to recent events of the economy I thought there was going less use of expensive precious metals but to my surprised there was a lot of white, yellow gold, platinum and palladium.  From the moment I walk through the entrance of the hall I was bedazzled, the jewellery before me just sparkled and I was surrounded by gem-encrusted jewellery.  My friend and I perused around and found the usual big names of the jewellery world: Pandora, Chamilia, Ti Sento and Swarovski.

The jewellery that caught my eye the most were the pieces with colour and some ingenuity to it.  A collection that caught my attention was by Jacqueline Cullen: Granulation.  She utilises Whitby jet ( more commonly associated with Victorian mourning jewellery) to celebrate the qualities of the material, her pieces look quite sculptural but with the delicate details of 24ct gold adds a finer touch to her pieces.

I am very much fascinated by kinectic jewellery and was shown one, I think under the name Luna Collection.  The head of the palladium ring was set with a tiny diamond and the whole head of the stone rotated so it looked as if the tiny stone was eclipsing.  You can refer to Schulte-Hengesbach’s website but it’s not the one I’m describing – it’ll give you the basic gist of what I’m trying to describe.

One ingenious idea I remember seeing but didn’t note down the brand was a flower ring, some of the petals were satin polished, whilst alternate petals contained a cluster of drilled holes, giving the impression of pave setting.  I thought it was clever how they turned drilling into an art form to create reflection and sparkle to the piece.  Unfortunately I didn’t not down, nor do I remember the name of the maker.

I saw a lot more and there was a wider variety of things, only a minute percentage of which I have touched on.  Apart from food I didn’t spend much elsewhere but I did buy the bible of Hong Kong Manufacturing companies.  The directory is almost as thick as the yellow pages and cost me just 5 euros and comes with a CD alternative.  My finest buy I think and will certainly come in handy when looking to outsource my work.

Sunday 27th February

Only had a ticket for the one day so my friend and I spent the day watching BBC News, reflecting back on leaflets and postcards we picked up from the show, and thinking about our final projects.  Then we headed to the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Monday 28th February

Auf wiedersehen Munich and home sweet home.  Strange that my bag didn’t get a narcotic swab…