Saturday 24 December 2011

A NIGHT OUT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

I thought this would be a Christmas image that would make you all smile. Thanks to my children and their friends.
To all my friends at Blog Spot, a very happy Christmas and a creative New Year.

Monday 19 December 2011

FAIRY EXCHANGE

A fairy exchange is no robbery. My friend Caroline( http://www.carolinemccatty.blogspot.com/) and I have been exchanging fairies at Christmas for some years now. The enamel fairy is my offering for this year. We have a theme which we choose in January, this year was faded fairy, in the past we have swapped scary fairy, furry fairy, famous fairy the list goes on. But I think this year we have both been so absorbed by the new processes we have been learning that the theme has taken a bit of a back seat. I am thrilled to be the recipient of Caroline's first posted automaton, as usual I feel like I am getting the better end of the fairy deal (not complaining). It does look like we have both upped our game some what, goodness knows what we will do for next year.





Collaborations with friends is a wonderful way to make things, it is always an inspiring and fulfilling process. Thankyou Caroline!










OBSESSIVE

As you can see I am in the middle of decking the halls.
The tree is now up and covered in my favourite vintage baubles.

With everything still to do for Christmas, I am well behind on the mince pie production, I can't seem to stop making these enamel brooches!!

I think it must be a displacement activity?





Monday 12 December 2011

CHRISTMAS INSPIRATION

I am starting get into the festive mood and have begun to decorate here and there starting with the mantle piece.

When the sun shone through the windows this morning the decorations took on a life of their own throwing rainbows,

reflections and shadows.

Of course I have a great deal of spare time and Christmas pushes my creativity

into overdrive, so I can't help but experiment with bits of steel and enamel

and have made these broaches just to see if I could. The faces are enamelled using a stamp I have had for years, the legs swing...all very silly, but great fun to make.











Sunday 4 December 2011

BUGS LIFE

A number of experimental enamelling techniques are gelling together

for me in these steel labels. Sgraffito drawing into wet enamel and screen printed transfers. Etched copper fired with clear flux to achieve these warm red tones.



These are then riveted onto the labels.

The transfers are from photographs I have taken at the Grant Zoological Museum at UCL and



the Oxford Natural History Museum. I am also starting to include lustre to get the iridescence found on beetles, but the photos do not show the twinkle.















Sunday 27 November 2011

GETTING STARTED

I spent a great morning last Tuesday being shown behind the scenes at the Oxford Natural History Museum. Getting up close and personal to the collections of British moths and beetles. So as you can imagine I have a vast amount of resource material to work from now.
Consequently I have a number of sketch book pages underway. I have posted

a few in various states. Non of them are anywhere near complete, but it gives you some idea of how I build up these drawings.


A quick list of techniques used here, gum arabic transfer, photo copy/magazine and acrylic transfer, white acrylic paint drawing, indian ink washes, bleached Quink ink, label collage and a sneaky bit of pencil drawing.







Monday 21 November 2011

ENAMEL EXPERIMENTS

I am adding 3D moths to the enamel labels I am making.
It is still all a bit hit and miss, but I am enjoying the challenge.

I particularly like the effect of this stamped and sifted red.







Tuesday 8 November 2011

MOODY MOTHS

If in doubt hit the sketch book, I have been trying to find a way to include the moths into my

beetle work. I want to create a homage to the museum collections of insects, particularly the Hope Entomology Collection in the Natural History Museum, Oxford which I am going to take a closer look at later this month.

In the meantime the magazine, Cloth.Paper.Scissors has included the moth collagraph house in their readers challenge 'home sweet home' in the Nov/Dec issue. I called it a light house!! Get it?





Sunday 6 November 2011

STILL PLAYING

This set of teaspoons will be at Nature in Art, Gloucestershire in their Contemporary Craft Exhibition. www.nature-in-art.org.uk And this spoon and fork set will be at the Twenty Twenty Gallery, Much Wenlock for their Christmas show. www.twenty-twenty.co.uk


In the mean time I am still working in my sketch book.





Wednesday 26 October 2011

AN INORDINATE FONDNESS OF BEETLES

Inspired by the fantastic collection of beetles in the Oxford Natural History Museum
I have been filling up the pages of my sketch book

with these incredible creatures. These drawings have been a starting point


for more enamel experiments. The beetles give me an excuse to start using some bright colours.











Tuesday 25 October 2011

ENCORE ENAMEL

New Brewery Arts, Cirencester has order more moth spoons for the exhibition Only Words.
This collection has been made specifically for them.

So if you missed out on the last set it will be worth popping back to take another look at the exhibition.
The exhibition continues to the 20th November.









Saturday 22 October 2011

ONLY WORDS








The exhibition Only Words will be on until 20th November at the New Brewery Arts, Cirencester. This is a taster of some of the exhibits, but there is so much more to see.

Friday 21 October 2011

CAW!

It was worth spending hours cutting out the background of this collagraph as it has been accepted for the RWA's autumn exhibition, starting at the end of this month, check their web sight for details, www.rwa.org.uk

Sunday 9 October 2011