What a week!

I arrived back from Portugal on Sunday and have spent the last few days recovering! It was such an amazing trip, we got so much drawing done. Each day we went out and drew from 9:30 until 5:30 and then had a crit at 6pm before showering and exploring the city for cool restaurants. We found one place that was like a cave inside with single lightbulbs on exposed woven cables suspended above each table. We had the most amazing stewed veal there (not something I'd usually go for but it was Peixes (fish) or Carne (meat) and only one choice of each!) followed by whole pears cooked in port. We all nearly died of happiness that night!

Porto itself was a beautiful working city. Hardly any of it was manicured for tourists and my favourite bits were the steep streets with washing hanging out and old ladies leaning out of windows. So atmospheric. The typography was to die for and I filled a whole leporello sketchbook with with interesting examples. 

On the last night we went to the most amazing street party with performance art, live bands, painting on canvas from a huge roll which then got unrolled all the way up a building to form a huge banner - and we all drank lots of port! I'm glad to be home but it was such a magical time.

The bits and bobs above are all things I found in local junk shops, or at the most amazing flea market held under a huge bridge, or at a craft fair we found on the last day. Quite a bumper haul I think you'll agree!

I'm now back to grindstone and have an editorial brief to fill for Monday but am raring to go, the trip has both completely exhausted and invigorated all of us! 

I'll be getting my photos developed this week and will scan some drawings when I get a min, so  stay tuned...

You're Fired!

I can't help myself thinking of The Apprentice each time some new clay work is fired in the kiln. You'd think I'd stop saying it after nearly two years of teaching pottery, but alas no!

Anyway these are a couple of new tiles in the shop that were fired this week. I think they look quite cute. 

I'm off to Porto with university on Sunday and am getting very excited! Today at uni we looked at our lecturers' sketchbooks that had been done whilst they travelled, reportage-style. There seems to be a big difference between making useful documents (that can inspire new work once you get back), and making pretty and complete pictures. All my favourite pages were quite rough, with bits of typography and collage which still described a lot about the place. I'm going to be on the lookout for ephemera while I'm there, and I've been concentrating on typography lately so I hope to get some good work done. All I need to do now is work out how to survive with hardly any clothes - our baggage limit is small and I want lots of art materials with me. Eeep! 

I probably won't get a chance to blog tomorrow so have a fab weekend whatever you're up to, and see you in a week and a bit! 

Delivery

My tea towel arrived in the post yesterday and I'm thrilled! It's come out so well, really crisp and clear. It's 100% linen and feels lovely - not that I've been stroking it all morning or anything ;)

I'm going to get a quote for a few more and try them in the shop. If they go well I could think about making a whole series of  collection tea towels. They'd all have to be based around my own collections of weird things to keep it nice and personal. I'd really like to do one about wooden toys, as they are mysteriously accumulating in our flat, and then maybe teacups, then milkjugs... the possibilities are endless!

A bit of magic

Just a quick post today to show some new paintings I've been working on. I want to do a whole series of different colours of crystal. I was just mesmerised at the Natural History Museum in the "Minerals" section. Aren't crystals just magic? The thing that struck me was that most of the examples in cases weren't angular and defined, many were a little lumpy and irregular but had the most delicate colours and translucence. 

Collecting my thoughts

I had a brainwave the other day whilst looking at the brief we were set for summer. It's funny, sometimes just re-reading the original instructions after a period of research does a world of good, the words seem to mean completely different things to only a few weeks previous. My idea? Make a tea towel instead of a poster/catalogue/book to display my collection! It totally fits in with the 'nesting' element and doubles up on the idea of my items being domestic and housewifely.

So yesterday I spent the whole day painting paper in the yummiest shades of turquoise going, drawing my objects and cutting them out of the painted paper with a scalpel. I am pretty chuffed with the result if I do say so myself.  I think the typography is the most satisfying as it's all been inspired by the turquoise books I found and from the lid of my segmented tupperware container. I've sent off the design to have it printed (only 1 of them I'm afraid though) and fingers crossed it'll arrive soon. I'd have printed it myself but the print room at uni has been bulldozed and I don't know if the new one is ready yet! 

I'm also really pleased with collage original, clearly I will be doing more scalpel work this year as it seems to keep popping up as a solution to my work, remember this? 

Bird brain

Right, well this didn't turn out exactly as planned but it was quite fun experimenting with the idea... 

I had been looking at animals that collect things for my collecting project and came across Bower birds which line their nests with blue objects that they find, in order to attract a mate. As it happens I already have a very nice mate, but for the sake of research I decided to line my "nest" with my collection of turquoise objects! 

What do you think, would it tempt you? Just a little bit...?

A Sunday of Colours

Today I went to the car boot sale near our house and found these beautiful silver knives with green plastic handles. I love that they're mismatched but still belong together. This little book has some lovely 1930s folk-inspired designs for linen embroidery too but of course what initially attracted me was the yummy turquoise cover! 

I then came home and made a few new pieces for the shop. This coral design was inspired by re-stringing an old coral necklace last week, isn't that specific colour just gorgeous? It's like nothing else I can think of. I hope I've captured it well. I've also listed a new feather painting in a larger size to make a bit more of a statement. What do you think? I'm going to do a few more slightly larger pieces as I waste card by cutting them to 9x9" and think it might be nice to offer something other than tiny weeny for a change!

Anyway, hope you have a nice relaxing Sunday night all :)

A little treat

I sometimes view life as a series of challenges and rewards, like if something really crap happens, you'll probably have something good happen soon after. In fact, I often think that the way in which you try and fix things in the bad times will probably turn into the good thing you were hoping for, so being positive and hardworking will usually get you out of a hole. 

I quite like applying this challenge/reward scheme to the more mundane parts of my life too.

This last two weeks I've been heaving stuff out of my studio where I was doing picture framing. I was sharing with several other artists but could no longer afford to have the space, nor the time to do framing once term starts again. The weeks of packing, trips to the tip, taking things home and finding space in our spare room ended yesterday in the mammoth job of moving my cast iron mitre cutter. I don't quite know how, but I got it into my car single-handedly and it weighs about quarter of a ton! I can only think that it was like that story about the mother whose baby was stuck under the car and in a Hulk-like burst of adrenaline she managed to lift the car to release the babe. Something like that anyway... 

But I digress, the bit that you're probably more interested in is that I promptly went to a few local charity shops to look for a little prize for all my hard work and came away with this beautiful Ercol chair! A mere £7 was paid and it is in mint condition. I love that I will always look at this chair and remember that my hard work got stuff done and sorted, and that I seem to be freakishly strong. Go me!

Beach bound

We were going to go to our favourite beach today but didn't in the end as the Mr wasn't feeling very well. So we stayed at home and ate popcorn and watched a film (I know, criminal in this weather but it was nice), and I made some new pieces for the shop. 

The beach we like going to has lots of coloured beach huts and a pine forest behind, which I blogged about ages ago and although we couldn't be there in person, I travelled there with the use of my paintbrush. I'm especially pleased with the sand dune, I don't know why, it just came out quite nice. I also did this piece with a picnic table looking out over the sea, which was inspired by a day we spent near Inverness on our recent trip to Scotland. We set up our little red camp stove and vintage whistling kettle and had tea looking out across the Moray Firth.

We'll hopefully get to the beach at the weekend and I can see the real thing. In the meantime I hope you enjoy these. 

Just because...

I simply can't help myself. I think I must be meant to go and live by a forest and a mountain and maybe a lake as they keep coming up in my work. This time it's in watercolour and I rather like it, but then I would say that! I've put it in the shop incase you fancy a little window of alpine goodness in your home. I'm so enjoying using watercolours at the moment!

My collection of Turquoise

Today I took lots of pictures in the gallery at the arts centre downstairs of my turquoise bits and bobs. The placing and setting of objects really changes them don't you think? There aren't many of them in total but I think they look quite coherent. I hope so anyway. I also hope looking at these pictures and editing them and stuff will spark some exciting ideas of how to use them for further work. Perhaps I need to look into labelling? Or trying to mix the *perfect* turquoise paint!

Pebbles?

I've been painting pebbles today and yesterday, and it's hard! I'm still not sure if these are any good yet, watercolour is a tough medium to crack. I've put this one in the shop to see if people like the idea anyway...

Lovely video!

A friend recently pointed me in the direction of this and I could watch it all day. Watch it on full screen, it's so beautiful! Just the thing for a relaxing Sunday I think.

My new house

Just a quick post this evening to show you my latest charity shop find. £4 snagged me this lovely wooden house, which is similar to those of Francesca and Nina and was probably last used to display thimbles (judging by the dust on it!). I can't decide whether or not to paint it, what do you think?

A Good day at the Office

Today has been so nice. I got all my framing stuff out the way early and came home to make lunch. I'd already got some bread dough proving so it was ready to knock back and shape (I also put in chopped roasted nuts and pumpkin seeds). It was really yummy with homemade carrot soup.

Then I had a bit of fun experimenting with painting oil. Not oil paints, but actual olive oil. It's so subtle and beautiful when held up to the light. I'm going to test the longevity of the effect as I'd love to list some "oil artwork" on Etsy but want to know a bit more about how it behaves...I'm already pleasantly surprised that once the oil has absorbed into the card, there is no greasy feeling, just pure translucent loveliness.

And then I got back to my collections paintings, and did a collection of twigs, which is now on Etsy. I also made another feather painting as the first one was snapped up just last night! The colours are a bit more blue-y in this one. I hope you like.

I'm now going to sit back and enjoy the banana bread I just made. It smells amazing if I do say so myself. I am clearly all about the baking this week. Next week will see me being all about the dieting. But until then... ;)

Collecting things

Just a quickie today to show you two new pieces now in the shop. They're inspired by a combination of the natural things I collected whilst in Scotland, and the uni project that I'm starting to think about (collecting and arranging objects). 

The leaves are paper collage, the feathers are watercolour. What do you think? Worth pursuing and doing twigs and pebbles too?

Right, must dash. Have a lovely Sunday, the sun is out and I'm off out for Sunday lunch. Bye!

Yum

I made bread yesterday for the first time! It was surprisingly easy but had always been one of those things you imagine is very technical and not worth attempting, but I was very pleased with these little rolls. Each is just smaller than the palm of my hand, and like french bread in texture, nice and crusty on the outside but chewy in the middle, rather than too fluffy. Just how I like it! We had them with butter and cheese and wardolf salad for lunch. Yee-um.

The next thing I want to try making is Sushi...

Scraffito tiles

I had my first proper play with scraffito (the method of painting leather-hard clay with a coloured slip, then scoring through to base clay) before we went to Scotland. For some reason I'd not done much before but my friend at work fired them for me and I'm quite chuffed with the results!

The grey shows up the white underneath clay slightly better but the turquoise is such a yummy colour. I've deliberately left them unglazed as that chalkiness is what I love about working with clay and unless the glaze has its own colour or finish I often prefer the untreated version.

I've listed the vessels and pebbles designs on etsy but it was being very slow so will do the others tomorrow. Time for a cup of tea methinks...

Scotland

Hello! We're back from bonnie Scotland! It was so beautiful, and the weather was amazing. It rained on the way up, and on the way back but almost the whole time we were there it was sunny and hot. Pretty much unheard of in that part of the world!

Camping was fun too, we had a cute little camp stove and whistling kettle and enjoyed boiling up water for tea in the evenings as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I even managed to do a bit of drawing and painting too. Bliss.

Hope you all had a good week/end, I've got loads of blog catching up to do!

Read me like a book

Morning all! Just a quick post today to show you a new collage I made yesterday using my growing collection of vintage piano music and their brilliantly coloured covers. The colours are just to die for - you know, really yummy saturated hues printed in the 60s without a trace of gloss to the surface of the card. Just pure matte loveliness. Can you tell I'm a bit obsessed?

Anyway, this one is now listed in the shop for your viewing pleasure.

This will be the last post for a week and a bit as we're heading up to Scotland tomorrow. We're so excited, as it'll be the biggest road trip we've done (9 hours or so there and back)! But I'm sure even if the weather's not great we'll have a fun time, we are going to Loch Ness afterall! That reminds me, I better get cracking with my cardboard Nessie, I'm determined to have some photographic evidence on my return - and if I have to orchestrate it so be it.

Have a great week folks!