Freebies...

...for the Cambridge Handmade promo bags; bookmarks and gift tags. (Between you and me I will glad when this fair is done, they are hard work!)

Busy Bee

A quick peep of my new little notebooks with my own fabric covers....busy busy....

A Spring Day in Cambridge

Mothering Sunday

Wishing all the mums in the UK (and across the world) a fabulous day!

Stacked up

I have turned into a one woman production line; all the pages are cut and folded, the covers cut, the fabric sorted (including a few of my own digitally printed ones), just enough time to glue the covers and poke the holes then tackle the sewing in front of the tv this evening and sleep....

Once upon a time...

Do you have days when you think the list of things you have to do just gets bigger and bigger no matter how much you do? I don't remember having this problem when I was younger, if anything I had a fair amount of time to be bored. I drew and read and listened to music and went out with friends and did lots of fun stuff but there were always hours where you could just sit and do nothing. Bored. Sundays in particular were boring. I never liked Sundays much, apart from knowing that Monday was coming next and I could get back to doing things.

How I long for those Sundays now. To have a real lie in (as opposed to getting up at 6.30 instead of 5.30) to read the papers, have brunch instead of breakfast, go for slow relaxing walks and come back ready for a mighty roast dinner. Then curl up on the sofa in front of a movie or with a good book whilst someone else washes up. Bliss.

But in the meantime I shall keep ticking off my perpetually growing list and hope some day soon I reach the bottom of it. Hopefully my family will still know what I look like!

Oh by the way do you like my painting? It's one of a selection of children's paintings that will hopefully make an appearance at the craft fair along with the new books I am sewing, new prints and cards. If you happen to pop along I'll be the one asleep in the corner :D

Hands On

As I have spent the best part of the last two weeks glued to the computer with website commissions I thought I would take time out to make a few books ready for the craft fair. (I'm not looking to see how close it really is!). I bought some black indian cotton rag paper a while ago with the intention of making photo albums, something I haven't made since giving up the wedding stationery malarky 4 years ago. And I'd forgotten how time consuming they were, even the bolted ones! Getting all the papers lined up and holes punched in the right place with a hand punch isn't the easiest job. Might have to invest in a proper paper drill one day. After a new computer, letterpress, new pair of shoes, a holiday, new flooring for the living room... you get the idea.

Yellow

Pockets of colour are finally springing up around the garden; daffodils, pansies, crocus and miniature iris are in full bloom. The days are getting longer, my mood is lifting, just need the breeze to be a little bit warmer so I can let the outside in. Nearly there...

Texture Journal

Being kept busy with a few commissions so here are a few pages from my journal until normal service resumes :D

A step closer...

...to getting my studio done. Found my other half with tape measure in hand drawing everything out to scale. A couple of weeks time and we will be off to the wood merchants to get the pieces cut - I am so excited!!!

Pods

Ignoring the fact that I am a terrible gardener and these once vibrant purple flowers (still haven't found out what they are called) have been dead since last summer, the skeletal seed pods that are left are really pretty close up and I thought they might make a fun pattern.

I have more nature inspired doodles waiting but work comes first...

Handmade Cambridge Craft Fair....

...is only a month away! No pressure then. As is the way with these things you sign up the year before thinking you have ages to prepare, then all of a sudden there is only a matter of weeks left! Thankfully I still have stock left over from We Make last Christmas so its just a case of getting new stuff done. Easy, right?

To see who else will be there check out the blog http://handmadecambridge.blogspot.com/

One Word Project - Final burst...

...of inspiration from today's walk round our local chalk downs. I didn't quite manage to post a photo a day (which is not surprising with my schedule) but I have a 28 photos that I am pleased with, some of which have already turned up in paintings.

Not quite sure if I will carry on with next months one word (depending of course what the word is) but I am going to continue taking photos and pay attention a bit more to what I am taking. Before this project they were more just snapshots, points of reference or structural shots to shore up my art work. Now I am trying to paint inside the camera which is adding depth and richness to my canvases and I am inspired to keep going and see where this develops.

A collage artist always need source material and producing your own not only avoids copyrights issue it adds to your own personal style, something I am finally starting to find. If I can start adding more drawn elements too I will have achieved what I set out to do.

(New readers might wonder what I am on about - to cut a long boring story short I have drawing demons which are slowly being dealt with.)

I truly wish I'd had more clarity at college all those years ago; all the elements were there but I just didn't have the maturity or enough faith in myself (or the tools!) to produce the work I wanted to do. It's been a long journey only to end up right back where I started but sometimes you need to step away and do different things to appreciate what you already have.

Latest book

is now available in my shop, if you live overseas email me and I will list it on etsy instead.

Texture Journal

OWP day 21 - 24 colours and contrasts

Finally it looks like the flowers are finally breaking through and the long awaited spring is on it's way!

This is one of the perks of living in a village. Our daily walk to school is a joy, especially now it is getting a little bit warmer and you can see a hint of bud and blossoms appearing on the trees.

Everything is a little bit brighter, a little bit greener, makes you want to through open the windows and take down the curtains and give everything a good clean. But not just yet, it is still a teeny bit too chilly to go that far but I am enjoying recording the changes as they happen.

Texture Journal

I think this must be my favourite journal / sketchbook so far, no rules, no stressing over wasted pages because everything came out rubbish, everything a sketchbook should be.

I've been told I think too much, analyse too much and this gets in the way of my creating. It's true but it's not something I can necessarily do anything about. To ask me not to think about what I do is like asking me not to breathe but maybe its time I learned to breathe a bit easier. Close my eyes and not worry about the outcome. Learn to trust myself more. This is something I could have done learning in my 20's but better late than never!

OWP day 20

Ooops keep forgetting to post my one word photos so getting a bit behind!

As all mums will tell you there is nothing more inspirational than your own children. Both of mine have seem to inherited an artistic streak which is fantastic to watch. My son loves drawing; give him a pen and a blank piece of paper and he couldn't be happier.

I have watched him in awe over the last 10 years as he has a freedom and imagination that I wasn't blessed with but my daughter seems to have my love of paint and colour and will happily paint just for the sake of it. I will often catch her in my workroom desperately trying to find where I've hidden my expensive pencils and will painstakingly go through her all her colouring books. Even at the age of 3 she doesn't go over the lines (an obsessiveness also inherited from me I fear).

I've never been a pushy mum, I'd rather allow them to be themselves and guide them when I think it might help them take that extra step. It would be fair to say I have learned more from them!

Cuteable

I was excited to see my mini paintings pop on cuteable this morning - thanks guys! The paintings have gone in to my shop and if anyone outside of the UK wants one please let me know and I'll list them on etsy too.

Step by step

When I get a spare child free five minutes I try to sit and learn a bit more on Illustrator. I have mastered the pattern feature but for the kind of artwork I want to do for my portfolio I need to learn how to add textures and collage effects to my drawings and photographs. Bit by bit it's slotting into place. It's not that the software is difficult to use but there is SO much of it and finding your way round and making sense of what it can and can't do is mind boggling. With these two gerberas we have worked (albeit badly) on gradients and textures and next on the list is clipping masks. Anyone got a spare brain they can lend me?

Starting them young...

My son has started blogging again - now a very grown 10 years old and developing into a talented little illustrator in his own right. He did this line drawing and scanned it into Illustrator and I think he needs to start giving me lessons! You can see his work, old and new, here.

Texture Journal

I may well have posted these before but as with most of my journals and sketchbooks I only get so far then never touch them again. This one however has been picked back up and is going to be finished. Honest! With each new canvas comes a new page in my journal as I reuse the leftover sheet from the image transfers and incorporate drawings and doodles, hopefully to push and develop new textile designs at some point in the future. But the wind changes direction a lot round here so we shall see!

OWP day 18, 19

These are my daughters first pair of 'proper' shoes bought for her by a member of the family for her first birthday. Although she had been walking for a good few months these were too stiff for her to walk in properly and then she grew out of them! I kept them anyway as they are just too pretty. Every little girl wants to be a ballerina or princess and my little tomboy is no exception. The pink gene kicks in eventually!

This book is the first one I made using my own fabric and has become my signature design. The daisy is a motif that seems to have followed me through life, an association to my childhood where I remember watching my mum make daisy chains. Often it is the simple things in life that we treasure most.

Illustration Friday - Instinct

Nature uses a lot of tricks to keep predators away; most instinctively know that red = danger but whether it protect protects the prey or the victim who can tell.

Mini canvases

Stop the presses I have finished something! I started these little babies ages ago but got stuck with them so left them alone until inspiration struck. If you look closely you'll see image transfers of some of my one word photos. They are teeny 15 x 15 cm gallery wrapped canvas and I may list them on my website at some point. Just enjoying looking at them for now.