Dundee Art and Design Degree Show 2015

A quick clearing of the throat to share how I've been spending my time. This friday, I went straight from finding out that I'd passed my exams (huzzah!) to the DJCAD degree show, to see what the art students have been up to for the past four years, and try to avoid spilling free wine on the exhibits.

Warning: images containing nudity below the break. 

Modelling: Rainy Day Steampunk

Featuring the mandatory lace parasol, owned by goths everywhere.



Last semester I had my first official modelling gig, which I had forgotten to post about until now; I'm not seriously planning on going into modelling as career, but it's a skill I'd like to learn (plus it would be fun to be able to take on the odd interesting project). It was an enjoyable experience, though the miserable weather meant everyone's fingers went blue and lighting was a challenge.

The shoot was organised by a local photography student (I found out about it via advertisement in my student paper) andstaged at Camperdown House on a steampunk theme; I wore my go to outfit for steam related events (seen on the blog before here). I should state that all images have been heavily edited post-production. Editing is something I do myself for my own photography, but I have no idea if he's altered my appearance or not, which I don't do on the blog.

Looking at the photos afterwards, I am most definitely not a natural model, and I need to look at make up which performs better on camera. Nonetheless, I've got a better idea of posing, and even if I don't become the next Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell (god forbid), it will help my own photography for the blog.



Have you ever had experience modelling before? Are you a fan of steampunk? Let me know in the comments!






Fee



Dundee Western Cemetery

One of my regrets about my first year about university was not living at the West Park halls. Not for any serious reason - I adore my flatmates, and in a lot of ways it was far easier living close to the city centre, but one thing always made me long for the off campus accommodation; the cemetery.



View from the back of the cemetery.

Yup, punching my goth card here - I adore cemeteries. I spent a good chunk of my childhood wandering around old graveyards, and it's a practice I continue to this day. Dundee Western Cemetery is right next to West Park Halls and Conference Centre on Perth Road, and I spent a fair amount of time this year wandering about it (indeed, I even studied in there). There's lots of other smaller cemeteries in my part of Dundee I visited once or twice - Balgay Cemetery is a probably larger cemetery also on my route back from Ninewells, but it mainly seems to be newer graves, and the older styles of the Western keep drawing me back.

The cemetery has a war graves section (from memory I think it's mainly Falklands deaths?), and - something I didn't know until I did some research - has two interesting historical figures; James Bowman Lindsay (1799-1862), one of the early experimenters with electricity - he pioneered a 'constant electric light' 40 years before Edison's light bulb! - and Preston Watson (1880-1915), who some claim to have made the first powered flight over the Carse of Gowrie before the Wright Brothers.

It was a glorious day when I first took these photos, and the cemetery is really stunning - makes me wonder, as full as my schedule is, if they're looking for volunteer groundskeeping.

This is just a few photos from my first visit - I plan on going around the grounds documenting the elaborate graves (I didn't take any photos of the large tombs for wealthy Dundonians, stupidly, as gorgeous as they were), and think I might actually visit all the cemeteries in Dundee properly; these were taken on my iPhone, which coped surprisingly well due to the good afternoon light.

Until then!




Fee

Scottish Goth Resources

Due to Scotland not being necessarily as big as some of the cities in the US, it's often difficult for the Scottish spookster to find goth shops and clubs in a new place; indeed, it's nearly impossible in some places (looking at you, Dundee). As a result I've decided to compile a list of all the resources I know of in the main Scottish cities for goths and alternative folks -

 

GLASGOW

Club Nights
Asylum @ QMU, last Saturday of every month.
Cathouse Rock Club @ 15 Union Street, various club nights.
Cryotec @ Classic Grand, first Thursday of every month.
Danse Macabre @ Classic Grand, first Thursday of every month.

Alternative Bars
Nice and Sleasy, 421 Sauchiehall Street.
Solid Rock Cafe, 19-23 Hope Street.

Shops
Cyber Alternative Clothing, 107 King's Court, King Street.
Hellfire Couture, 46 Queen Street.
Inferno and Wonderland (same owner), 86 Queen Street and 72 Queen Street respectively.
Osiris, 51 Queen Street.

Good Secondhand and Vintage Shops
Starry Starry Night, 19 Dowanside Lane (just off Byer's road).
Mr Ben Retro Clothing, 101 King's Court, King Street.

Places to Visit
Glasgow Necropolis, Cathedral Square, Castle St (open days and tours available). 


Other
Glasgow Ubiquitous E. Steampunk Society (G.U.E.S.S.) - not a goth society de jure, but somehow filled with goths anyway.

 

INVERNESS

Shops
Beauty Box - Inverness Victorian Market.
Far Fetched - 8 Drummond St, Town Centre.

DUNDEE

Club Nights
Beat Generator @ 70 North Lindsay Street (various gig nights). 
Distorted @ DUSA, Dundee University Campus, every second Friday.
Kage @ 4 St. Andrew's Lane (various club nights).

EDINBURGH

Club Nights
Ascension @ Jekyll and Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, every second Saturday of the month.

Shops
Underground Nation, 41 Candlemaker Row.

Alternative bars
Jekyll and Hyde, 112 Hanover Street.
Frankenstein, 26 George IV Bridge.



ATTENTION - I will attempt to update this page as and when any changes to the below clubs, bars and shops take place, and when I find a new goth-friendly establishment. Some of these resources aren't necessarily goth oriented, but have been included as they may be of interest.

I currently only have more details for resources in Glasgow and Dundee due to having lived in both locations (Edinburgh is patchy as I usually only get to make day trips there and know little of the clubbing scene, and Inverness I only know about through word of mouth), and hope to get resources up for other cities soon. I also hope to do reviews on each of the establishments and club nights featured below in future, which I will link to in future when completed.

If you notice that any of this information is out of date or have a suggestion, please let me know!
 

Interior Design: Dorm Room Plans

I'm about to head back to Dundee - It's been a strange an unusual summer, but not an unpleasant one. Given uni has been fast approaching and I've been missing friends, I figured during August that I should start thinking about my dorm room.

As you can see in the photo of a typical bedroom, it's not really ideal for a number of reasons - on top of the usual 'no blue tack, no pins and no changing the furniture' rules, I have very few shelves and drawers, the under-bed storage isn't easily accessible and - most irritatingly - the pin board is tiny. On the plus side, unlike last year I have all the room in the world for REM starfishing and a bedside table, so there are some benefits with the room. I plan on testing the under bed storage when I get there and working out a way to get another pin board in without breaking the rules, but until then I'll have to think of new ideas on what to do.

Source. Perhaps something like this in black for holding note cards?

As well as working around the problems created by the new abode, I need to consider what I had trouble with in the old one. Whilst I think I have more desk space than before, last year it did get horrendously cluttered, and I need a better filing system than before to help organize myself. For this purpose I got myself this beaut earlier in the summer whilst in the Inverness TK Maxx -

I genuinely asked my mother whilst in there if she thought they would have halloween stuff in. In July. Wishful thinking.

Also for the purpose of organising myself, this roof slate was scavenged from our garage for use as a ready made chalk board for my to do list. In theory, this should remind me to complete the tasks. In theory.

I intend to swap out the string for twine when I next go get craft supplies.

 I was planning on doing more craft projects over August, but something both fabulous and horrible happened; I got a job. This was great, as I earned my keep, but on the other hand the shifts were very unsociable hours and incredibly physically demanding. The time I did get off was spent mostly sleeping, so all time for making various trinkets and whatnot was swallowed up. Having trawled the Everyday Goth's post on goth dorm DIY ideas, I have plans for making a spiderweb rug and cushion, as well as one with a line from my favorite characters in Macbeth, 'something wicked this way comes' (perhaps similar to this?) possibly using potato print. Don't think I'll be able to finish all that in the two days before I leave, but I intend on giving it my best shot.

Of course, my room wouldn't be complete without a little bit of customary clutter to start me off, and for that purpose I got some various gem stone pieces from the Orcadian Stone Shop in Golspie whilst on holiday (above - quartz pendant, stone skulls and selenite tower). My brother was also in Florida this summer, and got me two presents -

He went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and all he got me was this actually quite nice quill pen and a Jack Skellington plushie.

As well as this, I'm asking for a bedside light for my birthday, and perhaps a rug if I don't get around to making one. Although I often strive for minimalism in interiors, as in small spaces such as dorm rooms too much decor can be overwhelming, I aim to make my room look as 'me' as possible.

I plan on posting photos of my room when I have it set up and running (which should be sometime after this next week, I think), so until then!






Fee