Emily-Jayne Halford

About Emily-Jayne Halford

Posts by Emily-Jayne Halford:

Blog 4 – Peer Review

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As Better Lives is coming to an end its time to reflect on my developing creative attributes, by exploring and discussing my own posts and reviewing my peers work.

I have chosen to peer review Ellie Shemmells 2nd blog post ‘Reflections on how the Better Lives themes might change how you work in the future.’ I chose Ellie’s post as she is studying a similar course to me (Hair and Makeup Field). Ellie wrote about initially finding it quite difficult to identity the themes within her work, she explained how the better lives unit helped her to identify them easily which is a great positive outcome for her and the unit. I completely agree with Ellie as I struggled at the start of the unit too in identifying the themes within my work however through the lectures and sessions helped me hugely to identify and understand the themes of which have now become a second nature of mine to think about.

Ellie talks a lot about how she wants to make sure her work is diverse and inclusive as possible and making sure she is respectful about different cultures/religions through her work, which is excellent. I think that Ellie could have research more into ways she would avoid any negative effects through her work and examples of who/what. For example, reflecting on the cultural appropriation of corn rows within the black community, which have been seen worn by many white celebrities as a ‘fashion trend’ and expand more on this. Comparing my blog post I wish I had spoken more about respecting and researching different cultures/religions as I believe it is very important to have knowledge of in terms of my work.

She talks greatly about sustainability and wanting to make sure she tries to use products that are sustainably friendly in the future. She mentions ‘bigger brands’ and them wanting to be more transparent, I think to have fully reflected on the sustainable theme she could have mentioned some brands that are beginning to be transparent such as Illamasqua , Charlotte Tilbury, Glossier etc. and what they are doing to be sustainable. Comparing to my blog I talked a lot about consumable products that causes a lot of waste for the makeup industry and I think I could have touched more on makeup products as Ellie did.

Social responsibility is such an umbrella term for so many things. Ellis touched upon social responsibility in terms of diversity and taking responsibility as a makeup artist. To have fully reflected maybe looking at brands/companies that are socially responsible for products (cruelty-free, eco-friendly etc) and how she would have understood they are and why they are. For example, cruelty free companies such as NYX who display their cruelty free logo on products and have a whole webpage addressing, they are cruelty free.

Overall, I think Ellie produced a very good blog post with the fundamentals of the themes in her work however I do believe she could have even more reflect by researching and finding examples like I did in my blogs.

Link to Ellie’s Blog: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/04/28/blogpost-2/

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Blog 3 – Project Outcome and Reflection

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Mask Making and Politics (3D Effects for Performance) was my chosen Better Lives subject. This project aimed to enable us to understand and learn about fundamental principles and techniques used by 3D practitioners to design and manufacture masks for the creative industry.

We investigated the history, diversity and uses of masks through the world such as for cultural, political and even performance reasons. Exploring different manufacturing processes such Vac Form and Paper Mache. We had to create our own individual response to a political character through our exploration and create a mask that would be used to represent our response, or that could be used in a political march of such.

While researching a political problem for my individual response I looked at different problems such as BREXIT, Russian Bolsheviks, Anti mask law in Hong Kong and the US gun law. The one that struck me the most and made me want to make a response was the US gun law, the right to keep and bear arms by the second amendment of the United States constitution. As mass shooting has been on such a high these past years and Donald Trump the President of the United States promised stricter gun laws but has not done anything at all to make America safer and taking corporate social responsibility.

My plan for my mask was to make a caricature of Donald Trump to belittle and intimidate him but also to place crosses on his eye to give the message that he is dead. I want to give a very heavy impact from the citizens point of view to make him realize how much the gun law is having impacts on victims’ families. Hoping to give him the want to make the law stricter.

During the project we were given the choice between two manufacturing processes and I knew I wanted to use something that will be sustainable/eco-friendly after listening to the nature lecture. The choice was Vac-Form or Paper Mache, Vac-Form involved using a large piece of plastic that is warmed up and vacuumed onto the sculpt creating a shell of our sculpt. Paper Mache involved using and layering old newspaper and an adhesive to create the shell. Paper Mache was my choice as I was giving the newspaper a new reusable usage, so I was not creating any new wastage. As I image my masks to be worn at marches/protests I can see them being littered and left, so as paper is biodegradable meaning a much more sustainable choice compared to plastic which is not biodegradable.

We sculpted our masks out with air drying clay, some began to create their shell masks but due to the current circumstances I was unable to complete my mask.

This project has helped me to think more sustainable through my work and encouraged me to consider diversity in my work. It able me to also expand on my sculpting skills, it has been very interesting and enjoyable to experience another course at the university.

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Blog Post 2: Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Diversity in My Work

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Social Responsibility, sustainability and diversity are the three better lives themes. All these themes contribute to the ways we work, choose and perform our job roles.

With my field of work being makeup, hair and prosthetics all three of these themes play hugely into the way I work. In my opinion the makeup industry is one of the worst for sustainability due to such high standards surrounding sanitizing, health, hygiene and safety. There is also a big problem within the industry regarding diversity, even though us as artists are not responsible for choosing who we do the make on we need to make sure we are working with companies/brands/films/theatre/tv that does not discriminate against people regarding age, race, gender etc. Social responsibility also playing a huge role, making sure we are using products and brand that are cruelty-free and eco-friendly sourced. Due to the excess number of consumables and products we use over the span of our career we could be making a huge impact on the ecosphere.

We Do It Together is a non-profit production company aimed at improving opportunities for women in Hollywood. Board members included some very powerful women in the entertainment industry who want to reshape how we view women in this industry, addressing the pay disparity and the way Hollywood sexualizes females in movies. These are the type of companies I will be looking to work for as they are pushing for more diversity and equality within the industry.

Consumables, something that is use quickly and disposed of. These can be cotton buds, cotton pads, tissues, spatulas etc. These being widely used in the makeup world and containing harmful products like plastic can cause detrimental impact to earths nature as well as the amount of rubbish we are making. Brand such as Tabitha Eve create conscious free, lower impact and more sustainable products such as reusable cotton pads, cotton buds, wet wipes etc. When looking to buy such products I will make sure I aim more towards sustainable brands such a Tabitha Eve to create less of an impact on the environment.

Illamasqua are a makeup brand that prides them self for supporting causes that matter, they are a completely cruelty free company.

‘When it comes to cosmetics, not only do we care about colour, texture, price and performance of the products we use, but how they are sourced, manufactured and tested,’

Illamasqua writes on their website. With such great products that are used widely by influencers, makeup artists etc it is proof that cruelty free is the only way forward. They are such an amazing company that use social responsibility which make me know these are the type of makeup companies I will want to be purchasing from. Making me realize that I need to always research a brand before I invest to make sure I am being socially responsible within in my work.

Tabitha Eve (2020) About Us. Available at: https://www.tabithaeve.co.uk/pages/about-us (Accessed: 12/04/20).

We Do it Together (2020) The Idea, The Science, The Facts, The Mission, The Impact. Available at: https://wedoittogether.org/about/ (Accessed: 16/04/20).

Illamaqua (2020) Cruelty Free Makeup from Illamaqua. Available at: https://www.illamasqua.com/about-illamasqua/cruelty-free-makeup.list (Accessed: 16/04/20).

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Blog Post 1: Nature

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‘Society destroyed itself by over exploration of its own resources’ spoken by Kate Fletcher during a lecture about Nature, this quote had a very heavy impact on me making me have a moment of realisation.

Prior to me attending this lecture I was aware of the problems in the Ecosphere relating to nature, however I did not quite realise the substantial impact of society’s actions and how imminent the change is needed. Natural nature systems are broken because they are fuelled completely by human greed and selfishness. Rapa Nui also know as Easter Island is an example of this which Kate spoke about during the lecture. People believe they would build 30 feet, 80 tonne statues to compete as families, using tree trunks as a transportation method to bring them in land. Causing reduced boat production for fishing and by the time the last tree was gone the soil degenerated meaning prop production was not seen. This made the population collapse dramatically all due to selfishness and need of a good self-image for rival with the families. This was an example that has really stuck with me since the lecture as it is very almost shocking to me how much human greed took over them causing so many deaths. I think it has almost given me a look to our future if we do not act now and not only look after yourself but the planet.

Overall, this lecture Kate spoke through the effects our actions has on nature and the way it affects the planet, she spoke through reasons such as studies to why we need to act quickly. One thing that I think needs addressing is that school age children can name more brand names than names of nature’s insects and trees/plants, we need more early stage education on this subject to push to true impact of our actions.

The influence this lecture has had on my thinking by making me think more carefully about what I want my future to look like which looking at the way humans are mistreating natures natural resources at the moment wont be a very long time, especially until something detrimental happens. I think changing the way we live, and think is key, aiming towards a more sustainable future needs to happen as well as education from an early stage about the detrimental effects that are happening on our earth. There are so many sustainable products on the market but not enough education of the reasons why we use, if there was a lot more people would be investing as now it is very much of an afterthought. I am more conscious of how I live my day to day life and hope one day we can all adapt to make our earth happier and liveable.

Fletcher, K. (2020) ‘ Nature’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 12 February.

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