Saturday 25 May 2013

The Corn Exchange



From 26th July 
'A glance through time' 
 Manchester Corn Exchange 







Three-dimensional designer Alex Blakey recently graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work uses glass to create ghosts of objects and places, memories and times that have passed.  Her inspiration comes from places and objects that are often overlooked. She finds the stories behind them that would otherwise be left untold and bring them out in her designs. Her work looks beyond the surface, focussing on the beauty deep within and the wealth of secret history.
Her recent work includes a site-specific collaboration with ‘The Corn Exchange’ in Manchester. This involved working with the site to explore the history of the building. She was inspired  by the buildings vast history as a centre for trade. Although the building has gone through many changes its external architecture remain in tact and tells its own story. Her piece, ‘A glance through time’, which is due to be exhibited in the history room at the Corn Exchange from July 26th 2013, is a combination of glass casts taken directly from the building’s architectural features, large scale historical image transfer and sandblasting. Together these three elements document the building’s history.






preview at:

Three Dimensional Design
Manchester Metropolitan University
Degree show 2013


reclaim and climb


Reclaim and climb was a collaborative project with Catrin Grifiths. We wanted to design a range of viable products using reclaimed climbing equipment in collaboration with the group Green Peek Gear. The design process lead us to the creation on a range of 3 products: the caribiner seet, rock hook coat rail and a bracelet.