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A day in the life of an Artist Designer – Maker student

Annie Fenton in Beti Biggs
Annie Fenton in Beti Biggs

At 8am my alarm wakes me up on a Monday morning and I start getting ready for the day ahead. My flatmates comment on how I always get up excessively early however I know I am not a morning person so I enjoy getting ready at a leisurely pace!
I have breakfast then walk to Uni with my flatmate and best friend, talking about the week ahead, last Friday night or having the occasional sing-a-long.

artist designer maker, A day in the life of an Artist Designer – Maker student, CARDIFF MET BLOG

Walking to uni is a chance to get a bit of exercise and have a good catch up.

We get to Uni for 10am where we have our informal weekly course meeting with the other 1st year makers – our course leader tells us about upcoming events in the week, any trips planned and sets us a small group task to complete on the Monday which relates to our current project. This meeting usually lasts about an hour and so afterwards I grab a cup of tea and start the task (I normally have woken up by now!)

artist designer maker, A day in the life of an Artist Designer – Maker student, CARDIFF MET BLOG

Nothing like a good cuppa for getting the creative juices flowing!

Tasks can consist of drawing exercises to get our brain in gear for the week ahead, maquette making and experimental work to generate ideas for our projects.

Between 1 – 2pm we have lunch – I will find my friends and we will sit either in the Heartspace where there is a Cafe or in our communal course space where we will eat, catch up after the weekend and talk about each other’s projects.

After lunch it’s time to get back to work and sometimes I manage to finish the task in the early afternoon. If so I will often go down to a workshop to carry on making something I have started previously. Being a Maker student I have been inducted into most of the workshops and so have a wide range of materials and tools at my disposal.

artist designer maker, A day in the life of an Artist Designer – Maker student, CARDIFF MET BLOG

The plaster room is my favourite bit of the workshops.

My favourite place to go is the ceramics plaster room – here I can make moulds of objects ready to slip cast. It’s a long and sometimes laborious process but the results are worthwhile!

Uni usually finishes around 4 – 5pm and on a Monday I have my weekly Pilates class at Llandaff campus so I will more often than not stay at uni until that starts at 5.15pm. I love doing Pilates and yoga as it helps relax the body and de-stress the mind – particularly useful after a long day at uni!

artist designer maker, A day in the life of an Artist Designer – Maker student, CARDIFF MET BLOG

Photographic evidence that not all student kitchens are messy!

After the class I walk back to Plas Gwyn Halls and start to think about what to have for dinner. I spend the evenings cooking, doing extra project work and chilling with my flatmates. I try and get an early-ish night because I know that Tuesdays can be exhausting with it being the workshop day. It may be tiring but Tuesday is my favourite day of the week!

Looking for more on student life at Cardiff Met? Check out what Foundation Health Sciences student Lorna gets up to in her typical day, or read Jenny’s blog on being a textiles student.