Time Flies...

...and I bet you thought I wasn't coming back?  I wondered too.

When the end of January arrived I suddenly realised that I was about to run out of calendar - so decided to have a go at making my own.  One month done so far:

As it was a bit of an experiment with just ink pads, rubber stamps and pen, I kept it simple - now I know that it'll fit nicely on an A4 sheet I'll add a bit more to it next month - which, knowing me, I'll be doing late on 29th Feb....

Back on the Chain Gang

Well, chainmaille actually... have finally picked up the pliers again.

This pair made from sterling silver rings with purple (more than the photo shows) anodized aluminium.  For a very purple lady!

Oh, OK...

... I haven't really been asleep all this time - but I have to admit that hibernation does sound very appealing.

Actually, I've been quite busy since my last real post - visited a lot of talented artists during Artweeks, focusing my visits this year on glass artists; I've dusted off my lace pillow in preparation for a workshop I'm teaching in October; had my first go at lampworking at the Flame Off in Towcester and tried enamelling for the first time at Art in Action.

I've joined the Oxford Glass Artists group; been to France on holiday; got very wet on the water rides at Legoland and have made a book from beer mats.

Oh, have slept a bit too.....

Sshhh....

... I'm sleeping.

Experiments II

This week I have mostly been experimenting with inchies.  Never heard of them?  They're one inch square pieces of 'art' (I don't consider myself an artist so loath to call anything I do art!).  They're usually card-based but can be made out of anything - fabric, metal, wood etc.  So far I've done a few backgrounds - a few being in excess of 50.... As they're small they're quick to do and this first batch I've done with ink stamps on white card.

Next, I added some printed images, text and music to the card before inking: 

The next step is to finish these off with some more images, paint, ink or whatever - more experimenting!

Experiments I

I've been doing some paper experiments recently with lots of well, mainly glue.  Paper fabric is fun and a technique I want to explore further - it's basically collaging paper, fabric and anything flat to a base of thin fabric using watered-down PVA glue.  The thinner the glue mix the more flexible the end result, so my experiment (the bottom left piece with the blues, purples and text) ended up rather stiff with a 50-50 mix - will go thinner next time.

Also in the picture are some of the paper hearts I made from the paper pulp posted earlier, and above that is the start of what I hope I can turn into a book cover - it's string and tissue paper on card - but I just need to work out how to flatten it ....

Cat in the Hat

I've been doing a bit of experimenting lately, instead of blogging... and the best thing to come out of it is this:

I've had the sewing machine for years but this is the first project that I've actually completed - had a two-day deadline, which helped!  I found a couple of patterns online and adapted them to make a hat the right size.  Then I spent 2 hours designing and making the bow, which I'm very pleased with, and the result:

And of course, there is a black furry tail too.