The first project at university. It was always going to be one full of anxiety and trying to show what your work is all about. Yet, it turned out to be one of the most random projects of my life.

When someone says Material Portraiture to you, you don’t expect you to be making faces out of rubbish. We had to collect rubbish from around the house, or the tiny university room we had. This actually proved to be pretty difficult considering you have just arrived at university and haven’t accumulated that much stuff.

So, of course, you have to get a little inventive. I remember making a side profile of my face from my duvet cover and another profile with my makeup.

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I also took the time to go to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to look at their variety of portraiture. I found myself drawn to the 3D busts the most as they had texture and shape within them.

I also tried conventional portraiture techniques by using acrylic paints to create a self portrait. I however ruined it when I put my entire sketchbook into the heat press. I know it is weird, but I was experimenting.

From all of the drawings and collages with the rubbish that we collected, we created collages using heat transfer papers and sublimation prints too. Here are some of my first samples from university. I promise I have improved.

We learnt a lot from this project, but there is now a joke that all of us textiles girls have to keep a bag of rubbish in our rooms, just in case another project like this occurs again.