What Whitney Made Next

There's more than one way to make a card . . .

2012-02-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Technology - we love and we hate it and we can't live without it. But as we all know it can have a mind of it's own and logic doesn't always come into it. I replaced my faithful old A4 printer a little while back with a swishy new A3 version . . . . and how my geeky little heart jumped for joy when it arrived.

Yes, I thought, this can do everything!!!!! ( except make the tea of course. . . . now wouldn't that be nice?) I can print all my own art prints, my notebook covers, my own card designs, the lot. I'd be the Queen of Printing; it would give me flexibility and control over what I did and how much I did. Brilliant.

But the damm thing wouldn't print a custom sized card with nice even margins all the way round. I tried everything I could think of; altering the layout in Photoshop, changing the layout in the print dialogue. I tried bad language and tears but the pissy thing just wouldn't do it. I retired, hurt and defeated, to think the problem over. Meanwhile I had to withdraw my card designs from my Etsy shop. I was playing around with machine stitching on paper for one of my art pieces when I had brainwave . . . . . never mind trying to get perfect margins, just sew the image onto a blank card.

The first couple of tries were a bit rubbish but a bit of adjustment here and there and it worked . . . . I even came up with the idea of cutting the image down to an oval which I now like better than the original. Even better I sold a pair of cards almost as soon as they were listed! Sales have been slow in coming so this feels like a bit of a triumph for me.

See the lace cards below? They are also listed now because I had another brainwave ( I know, I know, it's Brainwave City here ) and conned the printer into printing what I told it to and not what it bloody well felt like doing. Champion!!! I would run round the house with my t-shirt over my head like the footballers do but I'd only injure myself and I feel like I'm on a roll again so I'll quit while I'm ahead. The moral of the story here is, there's always more than one way to do a thing, lateral thinking girls, lateral thinking.

Now over to Handmade Monday to see what everybody else had been doing . . . .

Lovely Blog Find - Amelie's House

2012-01-31T06:01:00.000-08:00

I’ve been going through a cake baking phase recently and in the synchronous way that the Universe has I came across the most amazing cake maker while browsing the blogosphere. I just had to share this wonderful find with you.

Her beautiful blog is Amelie’s House , her name is Natasha and she is the proprietor of Nevie-Pie Cakes. Making a scrummy cake is one thing ( even I can do that!) but this woman takes cake decorating to a whole new level. Can you believe she paints these!!

Here, in Natasha’s own words, is a little bit about her:

I grew up in a very creative environment; both my parents are working artists and have always encouraged me to express myself creatively, and although I was always free to choose my own path through life they were both visibly relieved when I gave up on my early career plans to become a dentist (I know - me, a dentist, what was I thinking?) and study illustration at University.

After graduation I muddled along as a jobbing illustrator for a year and then fell into textile design, which really suited me: while I was at Uni I had done a holiday project on flowers, which I recall my tutor looking at and saying, "It's nice, but do you really want to paint flowers for a living?" - and I remember quietly thinking yeah, that would be great... and in the end it was exactly what I did! I worked in both furnishing and fashion textiles for ten years, finally ending up as the Assistant Art Director in the London studio of a New York fashion textile house.

Cake making, as a creative outlet came with the advent of her ‘kidlets’ , with ‘kidlets’ “came children's parties...and with parties came cakes. I decided to play to my strengths and experimented with painting on cakes. I love the fact that my cakes have two purposes, to both look good and to be eaten. I like the practical use that something beautiful can also have...its’ transient design."

But how can you eat something as divine as one of these cakes? I'd be tempted to put it in a glass case and just look at it every day! I played to my strengths with kid's birthday cakes and stopped doing them! Mind you I did make several valiant attempts but coming up to her 8th birthday my daughter begged me not to make her a cake that year. That you just have to take with good grace really don't you?

Combining the best of all possible worlds here . . . handbags and cake!

And pretty cookies on lollipop sticks . . . . . a simple but clever idea. Even if you cannot aspire to such decorating skills, her blog has recipes for cupcakes that even I can manage . . . and will definitely try. Her latest blog post features a gold cake, can you believe it . . . . go and have a look for yourself . . . .

Every Girl's Story Valentine's Day Special

2012-01-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Are you feeling smoochie yet???? No? Well why not? My husband has never acknowledged Valentine's Day but that doesn't stop me getting in the mood. In fact being online with my little shop and seeing the wonderful Etsy Treasuries, being part of UK Handmade and UK Craft Blog and seeing what fab things other people are making has really fired me up. I felt positively inspired. So, a little late in the day perhaps, I decided to do a print specially for Valentine's Day this year. I think it's romantic without being soppy . . . . and, in case you're sick of all the prevailing mushiness, I deliberately didn't go for red or pink.

Buy the print and you get a mini ACEO sized ( 2.5x3.5" ) card to go with it . . . . the mini card comes with it's own darling little envelope. I do love those tiny little envelopes . . . . the internet is a wonderful thing!

I couldn't resist doing the same design in a card . . . . .

And yes, buy a card and you get the mini card too . . . . all wrapped up with a cream satin ribbon! I did have fun doing this . . . . coming up with the design is only part of it, it's the details like the mini card and the ribbon that I enjoy, kind of putting a little package together.
So, that is what I've been wrapped up with doing this last week as well as recovering my composure after a computer crash . . . . remember to always back your files up!!!!!!

Now head on over to Handmade Monday to see what everybody else has been up to . . . .

Every Girl's Story - new textile pieces

2012-01-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day it was, the sun shining fit to bust . . . . quick grab the camera and get some photos in situ. There is light from the window on the right of my table which so often means that it's too gloomy to get any decent photos. For good measure I over exposed it but in doing so over exposed it . . . if you see what I mean. But hey, I like that accidental thing and doesn't it just look chic all bleached out like that?

Something new I'm playing with . . . . little textile pieces, only about 4x5" . Layered with snippets of lace, vintage fabrics, bits of trim, hand stitched, machine embroidered and buttons added . . . by the time I finish it feels like a confection.

Here's another one in progress and I still can't get enough of that pink; a soft sherbety kind of look (another candy/food metaphor there. Any minute now I'll be mentioning meringues).

And while I'm in the mood for pink ( it's that knicker elastic pink again ). . . . there's plenty of it lying around on the work table . . . it doesn't always look as arty as this of course but get in close for some macro shots and any old mess can look sexy.

These things inspire me everyday . . . . a fabric bowl filled to the brim and spilling over with vintage necklaces.

a pretty vintage milk jug to keep my scissors in . . . . .

a little fabric saucer to keep my embroidery threads to hand . . . .

But enough of all this dreaminess, what I really need is some proper sensible grown up photography so that I can list these new pieces in my shop. Keep an eye on my facebook page for news of that. Til the next time . . . . .

My Vintage china

2012-01-10T06:59:00.000-08:00

My husband and I weren't going to do presents this Christmas, it just being the two of us but I saw this dinner set in the charity shop window a few days before Christmas and ran home in a state of high excitement claiming that I would positively die if I didn't have it. I had also seen another woman peering at it in the window as I passed by on my way home from the shops which added to my sense of urgency. Oh yes, there are lots of thing one would quite like to have if given the choice but not often that your heart just stops and your stomach flips.
Which is exactly what happened when I saw this. My husband, lovely man that he is, said it could be my Christmas/Birthday present. I ran back down the hill, slapped the money down on the counter and said " That dinner service in the window . . . . I'll take it." The woman serving gave me a funny look but then I think I must have had a mad gleam in my eye.

It's Johnson Brothers though I have no idea what the design is called. Now that I've taken some pictures of it I will email them to see if they can tell me. Black and cream ( sorry for rather yellowy photos ) which is just soooo sexy. The shape of that gravy boat!!!!

There were two tureens with it and about 6 small and 6 large plates . . . . .

and the plates are so thin, ever so slightly oval. Heaven, just heaven . . . . I have a couple of pieces on display in the kitchen and feel a little frisson of pleasure every time I look at them. If anyone knows what the name of this design is do let me know. . . . hope you like it as much as I do.

Christmas Special Offer.

2011-12-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

I made these purses a while ago but decided they could do with a little extra something and so more lace has been applied and some more hand embroidery. Now I'm satisfied with them. I wonder sometimes if I'm being too fussy, too picky but really unless I'm happy with something I cannot put it out there for sale, even if it means going back over it or even, taking it apart and doing something else with it.

These little babies are now listed and to celebrate the whole Christmas festive whatsits thing I am offering 15% off for the whole of December - that's right up until midnight 31st. When I am sure you will be doing other more interesting and important things but well, I thought I'd make it tidy. The code you need to enter at the Etsy checkout is xmas11. For my facebook likers there will be an extra holiday discount which I will be posting up in the next week so keep your eyes peeled. If you haven't already hit the like button on my page then get on over there and do so. The little heart shaped brooches are also going to be listed through the week and I will be posting those on Fb too . . . .

Well, that's the self promotion out of the way . . . . it's a bit of a slog isn't it? I feel like I've been running round in circles by the time I've posted here and then there and facebook and updating my website. Etc, etc etc.But the sun is shining here on the south-west coast of England and once I have finished running round in cirlces chasing my tail I may venture out to look at the sea, take a few deep breaths of tangy salty fresh air and decide that actually life is pretty good. May your week be a good one . . . . now, on over to Handmade Monday to see what's happening over there . . . .

This week I have been mostly making . . . .

2011-11-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

This week I have been mostly making . . . . a mess. I thought if I took a couple of macro shots it would look artistic and a bit soft focus, you know.

Look at all the lovely lace and ribbon, the beads and fabric . . . . doesn't it look artistic? It is artistic . . . . artistic chaos

The reality of course is that it looks like this aaaallll over the place, hardly a surface to put anything else down on though I notice the cat always manages to find himself a niche somewhere. I have actually produced one thing but what has really come out of all this storm has been ideas. Thishas got to be the result of thinking time . . . three weeks of being in bed with pinched nerves and inflammation in my hip has given me lots of time to think. Despite Tramadol and paracetamol taken together - a pretty hefty combination, let me tell you! The ironic thing is that without the bad hip I would have been trolling around as usual busy, busy, busy and not taken the time to just think stuff through. Sometimes you just gotta take time out or in my case sometimes your body insists that you take time out.

The ideas generated will see the light of day soon enough but in the meantime I've got some tidying up to do! Not as much fun as pulling it all out but satisfying in it's way. And while I'm at it I shall do some very necessary computer tidying up too. I have a routine for that, backing files up on an external hard drive. With the amount of digital work I do I 'd be sunk if anything happened to it. Not saying I sleep with it under my pillow but if the house were on fire I'd grab the cat and the hard drive. The other thing I've got, for safety's sake is a Surgemaster. Titter ye not! Every woman should have a Surgemaster just in case, you know, you get any sudden surges. That surges, not urges. Anyway they're available from all good whatsits and you really shouldn't be without one. On that very silly note I'm going to go and do some very sensible tidying up but do pop over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to . . .

Craftfest Goodies - Part II

2011-11-23T03:44:00.000-08:00

Only a few days to go now until the Craftfest over at Creative Connections ( follow the link for the Craftfest home page )and I thought I'd showcase a few more talented people . . . . . first off the astonishing Origami creations of Folding4You . . . . works of art every single one of them. Then Ley Holloway of Vintage Beadery( a fellow Devonian ) and her beautiful jewellery . . . . unlike anything I've ever seen. I long to own just one piece of hers.

Violetta Handmade does felty and knitty things . . . . isn't this scarf unusual? Now that I think of it, wouldn't that scarf go well with that pendant necklace? Dear Santa . . . . .

A piece of awesome art by Sciartimages, the work of a former scientist. All his art is created from what he sees through the microscope. And all are available as prints or cards so even if you don't have room for more art on your walls you can have thesse terrific pictures as a set of cards. He has also now got a range of gifts like mugs, mousemats, cufflinks, bookmarks and phone cases - lots of good stuff to choose from

Kokokelli makes jewellery . . . . this great little cherry necklace would be perfect for a teenager!

And last of all Karenza Paperie who specializes in stationery, giftwrap and cards for absolutely every occasion . . . . . I love this card . . . . very contemporary.

Interiors Scrapbooking

2011-11-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

I've been out of action again recently with pinched nerves in my leg and full of very heavy painkillers. Frustration inevitably set in - after all there's not much you can do while lying quite, quite, still on your side for days on end. I did, however, master the art of eating while lying down, drinking tea through a straw while lying down, brushing my teeth while lying down . . . . . you get the drift. I graduated to sitting up and am now tottering, rather gingerly, about. I got some reading done . . . . a Terry Pratchet and Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope . . . . a case of literary indigestion if ever there was!

And then I thought I'd get the big box of pictures out and do some scrapbooking and I spent a couple of happy hours with scissors and paper and glue. I love doing this, no idea why I don't do it more often . . . . it's no good saying there are too many other things to do . . . I need to make the time. Anyway, here are a couple of things I stuck together, hope you like

Christmas Craftfest 2011

2011-11-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

I'm very pleased to be part of this online selling extravaganza . . . . everyone has been furiously uploading their wares in preparation for the big weekend. There will be LOTS of sellers, around 175 at least from all over the world and all of their goods are handmade. Here is just a little taster then to whet your appetite . . . . .

Jewellery from Life's Big Canvas

More jewellery of a very different kind from

Hollowbourne

Lovely bookmarks from Made for your Books

And last but definitely not least luxury handmade soaps from Buggalug Bubbles.
I will be posting more goodies between now and then so stay tuned, pass the word on to all your friends and relatives and most important of all, make a note in your diary!
It being monday, don't forget to pop over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to this week . . . . . .

Scribble Domain - new stuff

2011-10-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have, finally, got these notebooks done and listed ( or should that be done and dusted? ). Nothing worse than a pile of stuff sitting there reminding you reproachfully that you still haven't made the time. They are satisfying to finish off though, a nice weight in the hand ( 50 sheets of nice smooth recycled paper ) and the colours have come out really well.

Add to that the print to go with the notebook . . . . .

And something new entitled 'The Moon behind the Clouds' a 10x10 print. I quite fancy this for our living room wall . . . . it just needs a nice matt black frame.

Something else I've been fooling around with, trying for a simpler line. I always start off simple but end up with something that is waaay more complicated that I planned. Like life really! This to me has Miro kind of quality to it. Not sure if I want it to actually be a print or not . . . . . gotta live with it for a while and see.

Oh yes and then this . . . . . I'd started fiddling around with a very vague pattern idea, just vertical lines to start with, trying to keep it loose, just seeing what components would look good totgether without any real thought to their placement. I have to work as spontaneously as possible or I just grind to a halt. Do it it rough ( and yes, this is very rough ) and then later work it up in best. Have also decided that I am going to do this in a half drop repeat. Which I'm not that good at doing yet. We shall see, it's going to be entertaining! Will let you know if it works out . . . . if it doesn't there will just be the sound of sobbing coming from in front of the computer . . . and not for the first time, I might add!!!

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing!

My Vintage Fabric

2011-10-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

I love fabric . . . no, really, I love fabric . . . the way different fabrics feel and fold and fall, their colours, their patterns, the history behind them. What better way to start off a pretty dismal monday ( pouring rain, howling winds ) than to go through my beloved stash of vintage and rescued fabrics and pick out a choice few to photograph and share with you.

Even the reverse of the fabric can be interesting . . . . picture above is the reverse of the one below and I'd be hard pushed to say which I like best. It's what I call Old Lady fabric . . . kind of reminds me of an english 1930's room with lots of old dark wood furniture and anti-macassars and some really hideous old floral carpet.

Another Old Lady fabric in that peculiar shade of peachy pink that I call Knicker Elastic Pink.
Virtually all of my fabric comes from the local charity shops and boy, did I pounce on these
when I saw them!

The other side is so sweet . . . I have so little of this that I haven't been able to bring myself to use it for anything yet.

The best bit of all is putting the combinations together, each pattern bringing out the best in the other . . . . .

That striped thing on the bottom of the pile ( a pair of curtains originally ) is pretty but too much on it's own . . . . pair it with something else or even do this with it and it works!

The reason I am able to take these pictures is that my Darling Girl has left . . . . . set off with her backpack to go all the way round the other side of the world to New Zealand . . . where they are just coming up for spring . . . . pretty jammy eh? Yes, I miss her already ( she's only been gone a few days ) , I know I will miss the Pinterest sessions and the lolcats finds and the youtube videos shared but I am also excited for the adventure that awaits her. And of course I have moved some of my stuff into her now vacant room. I have set up a little photography corner which means I can take pictures at any time. So, more pictures of fabric soon. More pictures of everything sooon! Don't forget to ake a troll over to Handmade Monday to see what everybody else has been doing this week . . . . .

The Queen of Hearts

2011-10-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's been so satisfying to make these plump little babies, picking through my piles of fabric to find exactly the right combinations. I'm having a bit of a run on hearts at the moment having started off making heart shaped brooches . . . . more of those to come, already cut out and waiting to be sewn.

I thought they'd work well in pairs, I do tend to think in multiples. Mostly I think " What would I like to buy? " and go from there.

Hmmm, love the pink and yellow together . . . . these have had lovely big glass buttons sewn on them since I took these photos. I'm going to have to re-photograph them all in order to list them and style them properly.

Then Sunday afternoon, having finished reading the papers and with an hour or so to go before getting dinner started, I thought I'd try a paper collaged heart . . . . a bit of machine stitching to give it a bit of texture, I think it came out quite well actually . . . . I'd make it a bit smaller next time. Had to scan it 'cos it's too late to take a proper picture but you get the general idea. Set of three perhaps? With a nice bit of perle cotton to hang them up with? Well, we'll see how much I can get done of what I should get done before you-know-when, maybe I will have some made and listed in time.

My other bit of news is that I have an Every Girl's Story Facebook page now so hop over and take a look, hit that like button and pass on the link for me if you like what you see!! I've come across some really lovely sites and interesting makers recently which I want to share with you as well as more of my vintage finds and of course news of up and coming give- aways . . . hope to see you there . . . .In the meantime head on over to Handmade Monday to see what everybody else has been up to this last week

Downton Abbey's Divine Dresses

2011-10-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

I am watching Downton Abbey as avidly as anyone but it's the interiors and the costumes that have me riveted - the plot after all, is laughable, pure soap opera, and the historical setting cosmetic to say the least. No turn -of -the- century aristocrat in his right mind would have employed an irishman with openly anti-english politics or gone to a pub to be pally with his former valet. Anyway I'm being picky, it is ravishing to look at, every week I find myself sighing " Divine dress". And don't the women just look the part . . Elizabeth McGovern has the right face for the costumes.

I just adore this cream and black number . . . . loosely structured but still so elegant and of course the hats. Time was, a lady wasn't considered properly dressed if she went out without hat and gloves. My mother can remember having to wear gloves when she went out in public.

And of course who can resist Maggie Smith hamming it up as the Dowager Duchess?

Lady Mary, Edith and Sybil . . . lovely old fashioned names those, Edith and Sybil. Mary of course gets the best dresses of the three sisters. Some of the dress shapes of the time leave a little to be desired, like the tulip shape and the hobble skirt but what a relief the looser styles must have been after the corsets of the Victorian age. Paul Poiret, a french designer, pioneered this looser style of clothing, incidentally becoming the first designer to market a perfume linked to a design house.

Swoon, swoon, burgundy red velvet and elbow length evening gloves and I particularily liked this outfit of LadyMary's from last sunday. What a great job that must be . . . here, you get to wear this and this and this. I wonder what they do with all the costumes when it's all over? I'll be glued to the box again on sunday night like everybody else, secretly hoping Mary and Mathew will get together.

Scribble Domain - Mid Century designs

2011-10-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, I have been busy, scribbling away, trying this, trying that. Dumping this and going with that. So, some new stuff . . . . . prints now listed in my Scribble Domain etsy shop. A new abstract ( above ), a very satisfying combination shape and line. It's not always as easy as it looks to get that balance just right.

Another print worked up from a scribble I did with a fineliner and a brush pen . . . . chopped up and reworked . . . . the one below is for a notebook cover. Paper is cut, all ready and waiting for me to print out the covers. I'm at a bit of a low ebb, energy wise so I'll have to get to that later in the week.

And my curiosity being what it is I thought I'd just see how that design looked on a mug. Only stuck on with bluetack mind, but I put it in the kitchen so I could look at it and was suprised to find that, despite being Modernist, italso looks good with pretty vintage stuff

The dark blue vase behind it has obviously been an influence . . . .

Then something completely different. Believe me when I say this happened completely by accident, it just made itself. I was only fooling round with a couple of shapes (honest guv) and before I knew it I had 'The Rialto'. Not what I was planning to do but I was so taken with it I thought I'd see if I could do something else in that vein . . . . cut paper shapes have now been added to the scribbles

The Temples . . . . . hoping these might evolve into a series.

The Rialto as a possible mug design . . . .

and lastly fooling around with The Temples as a stamp. Another notebook cover perhaps? I have all these printed out and stuck on my wall so I can live with them for a while . . . . got to let the ideas percolate for a bit, see what else happens . . . . .

Prize Winner

2011-10-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

Didn't have a hat to pull the names out of but thought a vintage bowl would be appropriate . . . . . Congratulations Gill from Gloucestershire, three brooches winging their way to you. Thank you for all those who took part and stay posted because I will be doing more giveaways including the occasional specially created print. . . . till the next time.

Vintage Fabric Brooches - Giveaway!

2011-09-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

You know how I love working small, you know how I love fiddly tiny bits of things . . . . playing around with one of my bags of fabric scraps which I absolutely have to use up I came up with these. Aren't they darling? Made with a combination of hand and machine stitching, each one is backed with cream felt and has a brooch fastening on the back. I'm giving away these three to a loving home. Leave me a comment, I will pick a name on friday and the lucky winner gets all three brooches . . . . that's one for you, two for a friend . . . . or should that be two for you and one for a friend?If , by any chance, you don't have a google account you can e-mail me your comment

I enjoyed making them so much I decided to try another shape and I'm loving the heart shape . . . . .

Got a way to go before I get through all my bags of fabric scraps but gotta start somewhere . .

Botanical Cushions

2011-09-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Not a great one for the heat of summer, I love, love, love the cooler days of autumm. I find myself getting whimsical about seed heads and dry leaves. And yes, I will be out there taking photos . . . . in the meantime I'm feeling inspired by these botanical cushions especially the seed head design below.

Teal Fuchsia Linen Cushions - Marram Studio

Ferns Cushions - Jen Rowland

Strawberry silk cushion - Jane de Bono - 50% off at the moment!

Amaryllis Botanic cushions - Leila Duly

And a little bit of tasteful linen to set off those beautiful designs . . . . . . .

Linen cushions - Lombok

All in the Name of Looking Good

2011-09-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Leafing through a ladies fashion catalogue the other day I came across one of these and another similar to the one below. Both of these are courtesy of Gok Wan, bless his camp little socks and all he's done to make women feel better about their bodies. ( seperate but important point is, why has it taken a gay man to champion pride in the female body just as it is? )

But basically they're no different to this 50's/ 60's model. The Pantygirdle as it was known. Except for the rather pointy breasts of course. Lift and seperate girls, lift and seperate ( making sure you don't put someone's eye out while you're doing it ) !

And really there ain't a whole lot of difference between that one and these though these had whalebone in them. The ill effects of these kinds of corsets are horrific to read, not least to the whale.

This is the shape you want to have . . . . note unfeasibly small waist, not unlike Barbie whose legs are of such strange proportions, were she real, she'd actually be unable to stand.

An elegant pose there by the lady on the right though a trifle painful to maintain one feels. This is from a Parisian ladies fashion newspaper from the late 18oo's. They are wearing a lot of clothing compared to todays models but the pose is still seems to be about sticking yer bum and yer tits out. And really is there a whole lot of difference between a fashion illustration that draws women of ludicrous proportions and a model of today who is photoshopped beyond recognition?

Going the long way round . . . . .

2011-09-05T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hmm, got an idea, got half an hour with nothing else to do . . . . find a bit of stiff calico and lets see if I can . . . . . Oh crap, that's not what I had in mind at all! Never mind, it makes a very useful little fabric pot to keep threads and scissors in while I'm working. But one thought leads to another and so I made a nice fabric pot . . . . just to see, you know.

Yes, I quite liked it but wasn't blown away by it. One thought leads to another . . . . what if I?

Nah, not happy with the heart shape either but hey, let's try another type of fabric. Hmmn yes, much better. Lovely satiny, 30's style old lady curtain material. But how about . . . . . ?

Yes! At last!! A vintage fabric and lace notebook cover. Notebook is 5x5" square, recycled paper, a really nice little size which fits snuggly in your hand. Reckon these'd make great gifts.

A satin ribbon for a tie and some perle cotton for the stab stitch along the spine. All around the houses to get here but I got here in the end. Nothing creative is ever really a mistake it's just that some things take time to evolve.

Check out Handmade Monday for creative stuff made by lots of others in the last week.

Silly Saturday Collages - The Queen

2011-08-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when there is nothing but you, a pile of pictures, a pair of scissors and a stick of glue . . . .

Scribble Domain - something old, something new.

2011-08-22T05:45:00.001-07:00

I think it started with this or maybe even this . . . . long afternoons in bed with a fine liner and pad of paper, scribbling and doodling away. Kind of frees the mind. I've been wanting to get back to something cleaner, less fussy, more abstract. Like sorbet after a lot of rich food.

So scribbling on paper led me to start scribbling in Photoshop with the mouse. I love that slightly wobbly line and it's a fascinating and truly rewarding experience, trying to get exactly the right arrangement of lines and space. That is what all art is of course but this seems to resonate more deeply with me than anything more representional.

I wonder what happens when you take that scribble and do this . . . . .

Aha, you get one of those . . . . how interesting . . . ..

Hmmm, and now lets try this . . . . . I was very pleased with the results. In fact I was so pleased with the results that I put them altogether in an Etsy shop and called it Scribble Domain. I have already sold a print to a lady called Lisa who lives in the States and who very kindly sent me a photo of it in her living room. Tres chic, don't you think?

That was a few weeks ago but I've been playing around with some new shapes and ideas and I seemed to be getting a kind of a Mid Century / Modernist vibe coming through. Oh deep joy!!!

For these two I used oil pastel to do a shape which I then turned into a Photoshop stamp. Much cleaning of the scanner plate needed after that! I know, I know, I should have used a fixative and waited, blah, blah, blah, but I don't really do waiting. Maybe next time eh? So there we are, Scribble Domain, a new playground for me to try stuff out in. I will be trying out card and notebook designs at some point . . . . I do, in fact, have one notebook already listed and tons of ideas buzzing round my head.

The Devil makes Work - Lucky Grab Bags!!

2011-08-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just look at all these lovely goodies. The Devil Makes Work is having a Lucky Grab Bag Sale - pay just £10 plus postage and you get a shoe box sized box of varied goodies - handmade items and some fabrics. None of the items are seconds just lines that are being discontinued so get shopping ladies and get your You-know-what present shopping done early!!

Pinterest - it's a Love/Hate thing

2011-08-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Pinterest, Pinterest . . . . what can I say? In case you haven't heard of it, it's a virtual pinboard for all the wonderful things/ pictures/recipes/tutorials you come across on your travels around the internet. What a clever idea I thought when the e-mail about it dropped into my inbox and promptly forgot about it.

Several weeks later my daughter and I thought we'd check it out and OHMYGOD, I was totally unprepared for what we found. Absolutely everything in the whole world is there.

But that's half the problem, it is so overwhelming. One long continous scroll of lovely, beautiful, cute, fluffy, yummy, georgeous, inspiring, things. ( umm, temporarily run out of adjectives ) My computer jams up after a while ( no joke ) and so do I.

It's all so pink and pastel, soft focus, hipstamatic looking that it's like overdosing on too much cake. ( I was going to say ice cream but as everyone knows you can't actually overdose on icecream). And here's another thing . . . it makes me feel inadequate. I can read Vogue ( skinny young beautiful women ), World of Interiors ( impossible beautiful houses ), Elle Decoration ( totally aspirational modern design and designers ), look at any amount of aspirational silliness and not feel bothered by it. But Pinterest, like any sugar binge, somehow makes me feel inadequate and slightly depressed in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. If I work it out I'll let you know.

Having said all that I am of course addicted. Not that I've had a lot of time to pin stuff but I've made a start. If you want follow me on Pinterest then click the little button in my sidebar. If you're already there then stop by and say hello; lets compare yummies. Most of my pins so far are my favourite films and hot looking guys - Pinterest is awash with pictures of hot looking guys. like this one ( Safety Warning - looking directly at this picture can seriously derange your hormones).

In the final analysis I won't be giving up on Pinterest ( currently working on the Beautiful Shoe category ) but I will be trying to adjust the daily dose to something that doesn't make me feel queasy . . . . or uneasy.

Summer Picnic Anyone?

2011-08-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

Paper napkins - Mithus.co.uk

Paper Napkins - Mithus

Vintage Bakelite Thermos Flask - Little Jay Vintage

Porcelain 'Paper Cups' - Samantha Robinson

Linen Tablecloth - Libecohomestores.com

Red Herringbone Blanket - velvetbrown.co.uk

Every Girl's Story - Special Offer!

2011-08-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

Taaadaaa! A slightly delayed Grand Opening Special Offer but I did want to have my website - http://www.everygirlsstory.co.uk/ up and running . . . .Please go and admire it, I am so very, very proud of having done this.

Many thanks go to Monica whose confidence in me gave me the confidence to do it - knowing that she was, metaphorically, holding my hand.

So, for one whole week ( from Monday 1st August 2011 to Monday 8th August 2011 ) there will be 20% off everything in my Etsy shop - Every Girl's Story . Just make sure you enter the code Yippee1 in the box provided at the checkout. There will be other 'Yippees' from time to time so stay tuned.

Just listed this last week, this pair of 6x4 chunky little canvases . . . . so Vintage, so very Modern. They look great on a shelf or mantelpiece so go on over and check them out.

Happy Shopping . . . till the next time!.

Faded Beauty

2011-07-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not referring to myself ( never having been a beauty in the first place! ) but these lovely roses. They had been in my daughter's room and she gave them to me before throwing them out knowing that I would want to photograph them. They really came out better than I anticipated. The silly thing is, I can't remember wether I used the macro or not. Either way it worked . . . must remember to make notes next time!

And you know it's ( finally ) summer when you've got peaches and nectarines ripening on the window sill. I am often chided for the amount of vintage china I have but you see it really does all come in useful at a time like this. I rest my case. The only drawback to this rather pretty arrangement is that the cat loves to come in and out via the window in the summer time. In all of his 13 years he has never gotten over the sheer delightful novelty of mincing back and forth across the windowsill.

Having had some time to recover my strength and stamina a bit I am slowly gearing myself back up - this week I am sorting out the Etsy thing that allows me to do a percentage off offer so stay tuned . . . . . till the next time.

Busy Doing Nothing Working the Wole Day Through

2011-06-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Aren't these just the most beautiful little faces? The plant was a Mother's Day present and it is still blooming away . . . blooming a bit too much for it's grown leggy. Having decided to give it a severe haircut I was left with all these little flowers but with very short stems. Floating them in a bowl seemed the best way to do it - I love the way their faces look up at you.

And jsut enough to go in a very small jar . . . .

Still over tired and trying to find things to do that help me to rest . . . . a bit of embroidery; not very nice colour thread I know but I wanted to get stuck in rather than spend ages deliberating colours. I haven't done any in ages and was pleased to find that my stitches were much neater than they used to be. Somehow I can never think of anything to apply it to so this is generally as far as I get with it.

This old book was fun to look at for inspiration - very 70's! Can you believe it, it's still published, though with a new cover. Is there anything you can't find on Amazon?

Then a gentle bit of scrapbook collaging. It's so soothing to put together colour and shape though I had little stamina and ended up with only these three pieces. I'm afraid my head starts to hurt and I lose concentration when I'm burnt out or too tired and that's what happend here. Ah well, back to bed with me . . . . till the next time.

Every Girl's Story - Vintage Birds Print

2011-06-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

Have had some time off, resting in bed and consequently getting very bored. I just don't do time off very well but boy, did I need it! Slowly, slowly, I'm going to get back into doing things. My impulse always is to rush into everything . . . . not good, not good at all.
I finished sorting these prints out for Every Girl's Story yesterday, test prints and all that kind of thing and now they are listed.

I'm crazy about this yellow at the moment . . . . sort of mustardy but nothing harsh about it. Will have to see if I can use it in something else.

And then my beloved Birds . . . have had these prints done for the longest time and have lived with them on my wall for so long that they seem like old friends. I have notebooks and cards of these . . . not listed them yet but will soon.

And then this lovely print of vintage roses tinted in the style of old photographs. I'm printing all of these on Canon matte paper which has a soft velvety kind of look and feel which works particularily well with this piece.

Every Girl's Story Etsy Shop

2011-06-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally, I got there!! There were times when I thought I would never make it and be lost to mankind, drowned under a tsunami of fabric, lost in an avalanche of practical details but persistence wins out. Here then are some of the yummy things I've listed in my new Etsy shop . . go and check it out. I will be running some introductory offers soon as well as occasional giveaways so stay posted. And thank you to those readers of this little blog here, who have followed my rather erratic course towards this goal!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2011-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

What about these babies then? A bit War of the Worlds don't you think? After many years of faffing about with lesser and crappier solutions I finally forked out for a proper lighting kit and I have to say it is worth every penny. Two lights ( with proper daylight bulbs ), and a light tent all of which packs into a nice black carry case. The problem for me is that the tent is waaay bigger than you think it's going to be and, as you know, space is at a premium here in Dinky Cottage Land. My daughter is not here at the moment so I set the whole thing up in her room. And shut the b****y cat OUT.

Check out the backdrop cleverly fashioned from cut down roller blind fabric . . . the cream linen look fabric is so much nicer than the backdrop you get with the kit. Even lighting, this is what you're after . . . let's face it even the english summer doesn't give you that!

A good result I think you'll agree and my beloved camera picks up all the detail.

This is what I've been ploughing through the last few weeks . . . lots and lots of photographing, then cropping, resizing and naming everything. Oh yes, and backing it all up on an external hard drive . . . I'm paranoid about losing stuff!

I'm also writing up the listings for the up and coming Etsy shop . . . another mind bendingly tedious job. What I should have done is write up product descriptions as I went along,but no, I saved it all up to do in one go. Silly me.

You're supposed to write descriptions that make your product sound simply divine and scrumptious and irresistable but, honestly, after an hour or so of doing this, I was beginning to feel nauseous. The truth is if someone doesn't like/want/need what you've got, no amount of descriptive syrup is going to make them buy it. I shall try and strike an happy medium that will, hopefully, nauseate neither me or my potential customers.

As a much needed antidote to all that tedium I thought I'd do some more teacup pincushions. I liked the one I made for myself so much I thought I'd have a go at making some more. The first one was perfect, exactly what I had in mind.

The next couple were not quite right but I couldn't put my finger on what it was that wasn't working. Wrong combination of fabric and teacup perhaps? I decided to take a break.

Sitting there, drinking my tea, looking at these little babies, I thought they put me in mind of something . . . . I know what . . . . Tribbles! If I leave the room will they begin to fill up the table and cascade all over the floor? Will I be able to get into the room even?

I decided that I liked them just fine the way they were, there was something about their very squeezable-ness, the round plump little shapes that was awfully appealing. So I have sewn flat bottoms on them ( oh, for a flat bottom! ) and they now reside on my table, waiting to be photographed along with everything else. That still leaves me an awful lot of teacups but I've got the beginnings of another idea for those . . . . .

Me and my Macro

2011-04-05T10:06:00.001-07:00

A view of my latest charity shop finds . . . . playing about with the macro setting on my camera.

Trying to get that narrow depth of field where just one point in the picture is in focus and the rest is blurry . . . . not quite there yet . . . .

This is better . . . like this angle.

Oh yes, that's what I wanted . . . a teasing glimpse of what I'm working on this week . . . .

Back to being focused here but I do love the detail, being able to see every thread of the fabric.

Fabric and Teacups . . . what's not to like?

2011-03-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

Got this little package from Hong Kong the other day . . . had actually forgotten that I'd ordered these. I thought my husband had ordered some geeky phone/computer component which he's done before. But no, my very own labels . . . . nothing fancy but what a buzz to have a whole box full of these with my name on them.

Just in time because I'm sewing these new lavender thingies . . . . I had a template in this shape for something or other and thought it would make a nice change from squares or hearts or that kind of thing. Lavender hexagons, that's what they are but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it?

I did the lace with a freestyle machine stitch . . . . kind of fun looking on the reverse isn't it? While I was sewing I thought I'd replace my tatty faded old pincushion with something nicer. There are a couple of vintage teacups that sit on my windowsill, one of which holds my tiny pincushion . . . only because it's closest when I'm tidying up at the end of the day. Why not do it properly I thought and had a look round online for a tutorial for a teacup pincushion. Found a nice and simple one here

I love this cup, it's a Susie Cooper, just the one with a chip in the rim and no saucer but I love it anyway. The green fabric is almost exactly the same shade as the inside of the cup and O.K the fabric bits I added are not good for sticking pins in but I'm pleased with the result. Fabric and teacups . . . what's not to like? They'd make great birthday presents but I don't know anyone else who would like one which is a shame because I'd love to make more!

Oh dear . . . . one thing led to another and I tried adding some of my vintage buttons to the teacup thing but that looked stooopid. O.K. take that idea one silly step further and yes, I am channelling my inner Victorian which lets face it is never that far away. The colour is way nicer than these photos but it's raining today and the light is crap. I think I'd have to make the stuffing bit a bit bigger if I was going to do these . . . . what the hell is it anyway? And does it matter? It's a decorative thing, that's what it is.

And here's the little hexagonal fabric container before I dressed it up and made it look silly ( the fringe, the fringe, I just can't resist the fringe! ). I made this ages ago but couldn't make a lid that fitted properly so it lives on my work table with some fabric roses in it. Oh dear, I have so many other things to do but there's something about this that is irresistable. ( must resist, must resist).

Charity Shop finds

2011-02-28T04:18:00.000-08:00

Saw these treasures in the window of the junk shop down the road last week. He's not open that often so I had my fingers crossed that I would bags these before somebody else did. They both look pretty manky to the casual observer but you never know.

This is the box . . . . perfect for an assemblage once I've got it cleaned up. It's so hard to find boxes like this that I had to grab it straight away despite the fact that, no, I haven't got anymore room and no, I'm not planning to do anything with it just yet.

This is the fan and very kitsch it is too. Don't think I can use this for anything but you never know and I do have such a weakness for this sort of thing. I though that I might thrwo out one of the others just to make room for this one but when I looked at them I couldn't bring myself to do it. Needless to say my daughter recoiled in horror when I showed it to her. I knew she would. She is coming round to my love of mid 20th century design but not the kitsch!

And then a good little haul of pink fabric. They are that lovely old fashioned dusky pink which is also hard to find. A couple are circular tablecloths but brand new looking, no stains of any kind. They've been through the wash and are waiting for me to find them a home . . . . where, oh where am I going to put them?

The Golden Age of Couture 1947 - 1957

2011-02-20T04:16:00.000-08:00

Had to share this book with you . . . . a birthday present from my daughter was to choose a book from Amazon. After much agonizing I plumped for this one ( with another half a dozen on my wish list though! ) It's always such a gamble when you can't leaf through the pages but this was well worth taking the chance on. It was published to accompany the V&A 's ( Victoria &Albert Museum, London ) exhibition of the same name in 2008 and has contributions from a number of different experts in the fileds of fashion and textiles. To be honest I bought it for the pictures which I promise you are to die for . . . .

this one on the left, showing a close up of the cut and seams of a Balenciaga jacket ( 1951). On the right from the top, Balenciaga checking the fit of a jacket and below Christian Dior inspecting an evening gown ( 1957 ). The behind the scenes photographs are fascinating. Everybody knows the name Christian Dior but who knows what he looked like?

Swoon, swoon, swoon! An evening gown by Balenciaga ( 1950 ) modelled by Dovima, a famous model of the day. Such elegance! Such cheekbones!!

The chapters cover the economic and social changes from 1947 - 1957 and the impact these had on couture in Paris, how an atelier actually works, textile manufactures and their relationships with the studios and designers including the introduction of new fabrics like rayon and Lurex. On the use of Lurex the author writes "It created the potential for extremely showy products" which is wonderfully understated given how ghastly Lurex can be. There is a comparison of Dior and Balenciaga ( not read that yet ), Dior's New Look which galvanised and rejuvinated couture after the War. I had thought that the New look was some time in the fifties but the first design was 1947. Rationing was still in place in both in Europe and Britain. The fact that just one of Dior's dresses took between 30 and 40 metres of fabric is just shocking in that context.

One of the final chapters of the book, The Visual Culture of Fashion, covers the work of Richard Avedon ( who took this famous photo - Dovima again ) and Cecil Beaton. They were instrumental in conveying an image of couture the influence of which is still with us today. Cecil Beaton knew everybody who was anybody in high society and persuaded many of them ( including Margot Fonteyn and the Duchess of Windsor ) to donate couture items for an exhibition in 197, the bulk of which were then donated to the V&A.

Just a couple more pictures . . . the shade of nude/pink on this is even more delicious I think than the embroidery and check out the details on the stocking tops in the picture below. . . I know the light flare obscures it a bit but you can click on the photo to enlarge it a bit.

I highly recomend this book, put on your wish list and if you are in London visit the V&A. We spent many a happy sunday afternoon when my daughter was young with our noses pressed up against the glass in the costume department. Before we went home we each had to choose our favourite costume and though we tried to choose something different we always ended up in front of one particular glass case - a Belle Epoque long evening gown with train in pale pink velvet by Charles Worth, covered in diamante stars. The memory can transport me even now.

Antique Lace Designs

2011-01-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

These are my absolute favourite bestest lace designs so far . . . and believe me they look equally good printed out . . . I'm fitting all designs into print, card and notebook format/ sizes so I will be doing the same with these . . if I can just choose which version I like best. Oh, Lord I hate having to make that kind of decision. Never put a box of chocolates/beads/selection of fabric/ribbons in front of me and ask me to pick just one!!

January Blog Giveaway

2011-01-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

January can be so dull and hard to get through, so grey and rainy. All the treats are over, the diets embarked on and the resolutions suddenly not looking quite so important. Well, I thought I'd do a giveaway just to get back into the swing of things. I've done a print in two different colourways just to show that grey doesn't have to be dull. You can have either a 6x6" or 8x8" print on beautiful smooth matte Canon paper. Leave a comment and say which colourway and size you'd like and I will pull two names out of the hat this time next week . . . that is the 25th of January by which time we're nearly through the month and February is just around the corner! I'm feeling optimistic about this year, full of verve and vigour . . . well, perhaps not quite so much vigour, but I'm keen to share the enthusiasm! So, leave a comment and check in next tuesday and there may be a nice new print on it's way to you.

Alternative Christmas Carols

2010-12-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

The tree is never decorated until two weeks before Christmas, I simply can't bear tinsel fatigue. We've had this one in a pot in the yard for a couple of years now and it will never get any taller because I pruned the top but it is getting bushier year by year.

Madeline has had horrible flu but she dragged herself and her duvet downstairs and lay on the sofa while I faffed about with baubles and whatnot. Michael got very grumpy about the whole thing and went to sit in the kitchen but as the hilarity in the living room increased he took himself off down the road to his friend's house. A good arrangement all round for it was done and tidied up by the time he got back . . . we had even come up with a couple of alternative christmas songs . . . . . there's "O, Sparkly Things of Joy" an ode to fairy lights which will fit just about any christmas carol melody especially if you tack a few Hallelujahs onto the end for good measure. We didn't really have any words as such but we felt the idea was sound. Then to the tune of Jingle Bells we have "Gringey men, grinchey men, grinchey all the way, being their own sweet grumpy selfs right up till Christmas Day . . . oh grinchey men, grinchey men, grinchey all the way, we'll leave you home on shopping day 'cos you just get in the way" which has us in fits of laughter. And my personal favourite . . " B*****ks, I've fallen off the Christmas tree" . . . this one a response to having put the sweet little bird ornament onto the tree in such a way as it looked decidely tipsy. Mind you at this point we were getting so silly that anything would have made us laugh.

My camera doesn't like artificial light but don't these look pretty?

I got the idea from a book in the Library . . . . granulated sugar as fake snow in jars . . I just added some lace and a few tealights . . . oh and lots of pretty paper doilies.

I shall probably not post again before the New Year so I will say Happy Holidays to you whatever your faith/ inclination and I will see you again in 2011!

Pink Roses and Blue Roses

2010-12-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

I've been sick . . . . horrible cold and a horrible cough and spent several days in bed feeling sorry for myself. Long term unwell I'm kind of used to but I rarely get colds and I never get a cough so it was most decidedly the end of the world . . . bit like man-flu. Anything creative/work related has been out of the question but of course now I'm getting bored. So I had a little Photoshop play the other night and came up with this pink rose design. God, I just love this shade of pink.

Then came this blue rose variation . . . . the white stamps are from a photograph of a piece of costume jewellery. I liked this so much that I've put it into the right size for a notebook cover and a card.

Then I thought I could use my printable fabric sheets to print this out and make some lavender squares . . . they'd only be 4x4" so I could get two from each A4 sheet . . . the economics of the thing has to be considered at every stage, some things are just not economically viable. So far so good. The backs would be plain fabrics in a matching shade but that's where I ran into a problem. This lovely shade of blue isn't just blue, it has a hint of green to it and trying to match that to a fabric I might ( or might not ) find for sale online would be ridiculous. Think again Whitney-Anne. The only way to go was to change my original blue to match the fabric. Then I remembered that a while back I had overdyed a horrible grey green bit of cotton with a mid blue and come up with a nice kind of Air Force blue. It was still in the washing basket in the utility room awaiting another wash to get rid of it's excess dye. Perfect . . . now all I had to do was to match the right photoshop colour with the fabric. Can you believe I did it first time? Absolute sheer dumb luck but the first test square I printed out matched perfectly. Thank you all the Gods of Inspiration and Photoshop! (I'm convinced there's a God of Photoshop.) I do need to contact the company I got the horrible grey green fabric from in the first place to see if they have any more or all my so-called cleverness will come to naught. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Three more designs for lavender squares . . . hopefully this pink won't be so hard to match. Now I'm torn between going ahead and printing them out because I'm excited by the idea and being sensible and waiting till I've definitely got the right fabric for the backs. An agony of indecision . .

It's that time again . . .

2010-11-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Isn't this pleasing to look at? Isn't it tidy? That's because the box I took down from the shelf just above and a bit over, fell out of my hand, came crashing down onto the windowsill sending stuff flying everywhere including down the back of the radiator. It broke three of my vintage china cups . . luckily not my best. Still I had to pull everything out, grub around on the floor, under the radiator ( eugh! ) and very patiently clean the windowsill, the cups, put all the cd's back in their boxes and by the time I'd done all that I couldn't remember why I'd reached for that silly box in the first place.

So, it is that time again . . . you know when craft people everywhere work like demons to make as much stuff as possible for Christmas. Never mind Santa's elves, it's really a whole load of women sat in their rooms at home sewing and painting and glueing and knitting and felting that do the hard work and the elves get all the glory.

I've been offered three evenings in December to sell some work locally alongside the Brixham Shoal of Artists courtesy of my friend Nicky Stevenson and so I'm gearing myself up for that. Somewhat late in the day, it has to be said, because everybody else has been at it for ages but, hey ho, I shall get done what I can and not worry about the rest. I had started to get myself in a lather about how little time I had and how much I wanted to get done but that kind of behaviour is a) a knee jerk reaction and b) Not Very Helpful. So I dropped it and feel much better for having done so.

First some paint mixing which I adore, there's such an element of mud pies about it. As a kid I used to make all kinds of mixtures with dirt and water and grass and sticks and really I've never gotten past that. Hmm, pthalo turquoise and white.

I was just thinking to myself this morning while mixing a rather sexy shade of green that I'm much neater about the whole thing than I used to be. Moments later I dropped the saucer I was scooping paint out of and dropped it on the floor via my t-shirt. I'm always messy but I think I'm going through a particularily clumsy phase at the moment.

Here are some of the notebook covers I've made up . . . pages torn from an old book on roses and painted over very lightly . . . there will be roses collaged onto the front . . . I've yet to make up my mind about which images to use. It's already wednesday which gives me two days to make the decision and get them up to the copy shop. Mr Jones from the copyshop ( that's me and Mr Jones ) does them for me on really nice heavyweight paper which I can then colour with pencils or paint. Wait and see, they're going to look really good.

How satisfying to have a whole stack done, ready and waiting for the paper and binding wires.

Another thing I'm doing is little keyrings with vintage fabric in them . . . must order more blank keyrings . . . I want to do loads of these . . reckon they make nice stocking fillers.

Then a trial piece . . a little drawstring bag - minus the drawstring here - from vintage fabrics. Oh deep joy, I've had all the fabric out putting combinations together for these. If I can get the notebooks all done by the weekend then next week it's sewing!

A japanese influence clearly . . . .

2010-10-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

This is the photo that inspired me, seen on one of my walks . . . . the minute I saw the tree I knew what I could do with the right picture . . . . I've already tried it out once here. But yesterday I started fiddling around with another idea . . . . originally I wanted to see how the green background pattern would look if you took slices of it and stuck them together, taking care NOT to make the seams match. I know about blending the edges when you put a pattern together but I'm quite interested in how it looks if you don't. Oh well, one thing led to another, the green needed something punchy to bring it to life so I went for the charcoal grey and then the idea of a japanese screen started to creep in. The pine in stark black is just perfect. I'm wondering how this would work as a print . . . . will have to try printing out to see.

I had to try it . . . . a square of the original green background made into a new fill layer with seams not matching. It has it's own rythymm but closer inspection reveals lines . . . . I wasn't that careful! It was pretty slapdash but then I like to work fast in rough just to get the ideas down. If I turn up anything decent then I can go back and work it up in 'best'. This might work as a cushion . . . .

O.K. this doesn't really work but it contains the kernel of something that might . . . . maybe it's the colour combination . . . can't put my finger on quite what it is but I shall print it out and stick it up on the wall and live with it for a while and no doubt it will tell me eventually.

It developed out of this . . . what I call my 'messed up chintz'. I'd like to do a big wall panel of this. I know you can get stuff printed straight onto large canvases but I've seen some and I really don't like the way they look up close. The texture of a piece is so important. This is why I get all geeky about digital photo paper . . . . I have this simply georgeous matte photo paper that is almost velvety, there's such difference between the way the colours look on that and even satin matte. It seems fussy and nit picky but to me it's the details that make or break what you turn out. Ah, maybe have this printed onto fabric and then mount it on canvas or board. My mother, about 30 years ago, had fabric on the dining room walls . . . . mounted on a framework of wooden battens which were then screwed or nailed to the wall . . . she always was ahead of the curve.

Maxine Sutton

2010-10-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

You know how it is, you discover someone's website and you think "ohmygod, I want EVERYTHING here". That's pretty much what I felt when I found Maxine Sutton's work.
This sewing kit ( see above )was featured in Elle Decoration magazine a while back which sent me straight to her site to see what else she does. Sewing kits, tea cosies, and wonderfully organic looking lavender hearts all carry her distinctive folk art inspired prints. I notice that she likes hands and eyes . . . ah, a woman after my own heart. Her cards are reproductions of her fabric collages. Delightful, whimsical, charming . . . much overused words these days but truly they apply here. Her work chimes with the current desire for recycling and green concerns as well as the love of vintage while still looking quite distinctive and original.

Maxine says of her inspirations " Decorative patterns on wallpapers and fabrics reminded me how important patterns were to me as a child, providing endless starting points for day dreams and imaginative, sometimes fearful, scenarios. I remembered how the familiar furniture and objects in my grandparent’s houses and my own acted as an assortment of scenery and props for games and stories to be built around."

She uses a variety of techniques . . . machine and hand embroidery, applique, patchwork, needle-punch and screen print. I particularily love the hand embroidery in her pictures like the one above which reminds me of all the lovely tablecloths and doilies and anti-macassars I find in the charity shops and then buy and take home and don't know what to do with.

She has done all kinds of clever things like an M.A in Constructed Textiles at the Royal College of Art, won several art prizes and has designed a rug for Anthropologie ( envy, envy) which alas is only available in the U.S. Her 'real life’ bricks and mortar shop, as she puts it, is now open in Margate Old Town so if you are in the area do go and visit. I'm going to go and look up what needle punching is all about.

It's a knock-on effect . . .

2010-10-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Working with some full-on colours for my new digital work has been really liberating . . . the colours are saturated and I feel saturated by them. Such intensity is deeply satisfying. While I've been fooling around with some more surreal imagery for My Cool and Funky Stuff I thought I'd take it in a slightly different direction . . . the pale green background for the image above is a stamp made from some bonkers retro fabric. It's all dependent on context really . . . it looks quite tasteful here.

Tomato red is my favourite at the moment, needs a bit of tweaking to get it to print out exactly right but it packs a real punch!

Here is the pale green background again but with a beautiful stamp of pine branches . . . I took a series of photos the other week contorting myself under a tree to get the right angle. I knew exactly what I wanted . . . . it was so japanese looking against the blue sky.

I still haven't worked out how to use the jewellery I took photos of and made into stamps . . . here it was the background I was interested in . . . I had a piece of paper I'd painted and then streaked another slightly darker colour on top of. I wasn't sure wether it would work or not . . . needs a bit more definition I think but the idea's there. Despite the fact that my creative mind appears to pop about all over the place, there is method to the madness and I do tend to think in series . . . in my mind's eye I can see a series of these prints framed on a wall. Or an a set of large canvases. O.k back to the (digital ) drawing board . . . .

Fab Fabrics and Vintage Finds

2010-09-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Oh deep joy, I succesfully bid for this on Ebay though I'm gutted at the fabric I missed out on. Just as well really, once I start looking at fabric on ebay I'm a lost soul who ought to have her bank card taken from her by force!

But I got lucky in the local charity shop and found this plate . . . Barratts Delphatic White tableware

and this very pretty little cup and saucer. There were two of them and two side plates so Madeline and I have split them between us . . . I feel a little guilty for having given my daughter the china habit but it is so nice to share such finds with someone else who appreciates them.

This is another version of the ogee shape that I'm playing around with at the moment . . . I thought they'd make nice lavender sachets . . . with a little loop at the top to finish it off. This one is just roughly stuffed, enough to give me some idea of wether it works or not. I've yet to put the loop on one . . . the top of the shape may be too thin in which case I shall turn them sideways and put the loop at the top of the curve. Think laterally Whitney.

Here are some of the fabrics I'm going to use, most of them were aprons which I have had for ages and have finally decided to cut up. Got to let the fabric go, can't keep all of it. Pretty eye popping colour combinations don't you think? The one on the left is a bit bonkers . . . don't think I could cook with that tied round my middle!

This is a fuschia pink apron with a wonderful panel on the front. It will need to be very carefully unpicked though I'm not really sure what I will use it for. I may just get a large canvas and mount it on that as one whole piece. Just couldn't bear to cut into it.

A pretty cupcake for my pretty plate . . . I got the Primrose Hill Bakery Cupcake cookbook from the library and Madeline decided to start making a batch mid evening which meant that it was quite late by the time they were cooled down and iced. We ended up with three large tupperware boxes full of cupcakes. My husband has a very sweet tooth and can be counted on to really pull his weight when it comes to polishing off any of Madeline's culinary efforts. I on the other hand have an intolerance to sugar coupled with an addicts inability to say no. Three boxes of cupcakes . . . what can you do? Luckily Madeline took a box to work which is a bit like taking coals to Newcastle seeing as she is works in a restaurant which has a bakery attached! Two days later and we are down to the last box. I have experienced some serious sugar rushes ( cheap thrills Whitney! ) and some awful headaches afterwards but have no regrets. Life is too short to pass up a cupcake.

Ogee Fabric Containers . . . I think.

2010-09-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just mad about this shape at the moment . . . it's called an ogee. Ages ago I'd made some little fabric containers/boxes but wasn't really happy with the results. Don't know what made me go back to the idea but I did and spent several afternoons making up models of different shapes and then those shapes in different sizes in cardstock, held together with lots of masking tape. Ugly looking things these models. Mary Shelley must have excised the parts of her novel where Dr Frankenstein looks at his creation and says "Hmm, a little less sticky tape I think"

Ugly or not they served their purpose and I confidently set about cutting and sewing. Lots of handsewing involved in this which is great because I love hand sewing. I pick up needle and thread and it's as if everything in me just calms right down and I feel soothed and peaceful.

This is the bottom of the ogee . . I was pleased that it held the shape so well . . . . pelmet stiffener is the trick here.

Then I had to try a slimmer version of it of course . . . . curiosity wouldn't let me do otherwise.

In actual fact there's not that much to choose between the fatter and the slimmer version though if I were to do a set of three then I would go for the slimmer one . . . .the shapes tessalate nicely and would look good on a desk or table . . . . I'm thinking of them as desk tidies or Useful Things to Put Stuff in though that's hardly a term that you can enter into a search engine so I shall have to come up with a more google-able description. What do you think? Help me out here . . . what the heck do I call them?

Are they big enough to be called fabric containers? This red one is 6" long by 5" wide.

See, they look nice on a shelf as a decorative thing. When I make something I do spend time thinking about how it would be used, is it practical? If it's not, does it matter? Can it be purely decorative? There is nothing worse than a badly designed object. I've banged on about that before so I won't go into my usual rant.

Having sold some things I immediately spent the proceeds . . . well, not all of it but I badly needed some new inspiration. This book - 1960's Fashion Print by Marnie Fogg was perfect. I've been carrying it around with me for the last week just drinking in the mad colours and patterns. I felt a bit dazed after the first cover-to-cover read of it, it's a bit full on colour wise. Felt like I had acid greens and oranges and yellows burned into my retinas. Probably should have worn dark glasses the first time.

Pretty bonkers stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. My scanner is being moody so I've only managed to scan in a couple of new shapes I'd drawn inspired by all this psychedelia. Just playing around with the ideas and the colours . . . . these are rough copies but they look good printed out so my mission this week is to work up copies in best so I can list them as prints. That and beat the scanner into submission!

Notebooks and the Bind-it-all

2010-09-01T04:58:00.000-07:00

So, here at last some actual real notebooks that I actually really finally made without c*****g up at any stage of the process. A fanfare at the very least please!! I don't know why it proved to be such a pain to produce . . . let me say here it was me and not the Bind-it-all ( more on that in a sec. ) I guess it was just teething problems and perhaps it wasn't going to work until I had the right designs, goodness knows I've changed my mind about those enough!! These I am properly pleased with though . . . . adaptations of the three prints. I did try transfering the original print design just as it was but it looked too fussy. See the thing is, the wires along the side kind of disrupt the space visually and I have to centre the design and then add an allowance for the wires of 1cm. This is all part of the learning process, all part of the challenge which I love.

I do like the blue retro shape with the victorian clock. I've printed these covers myself and sprayed them with an acrylic fixative for longer life. The paper inside is recycled which makes me happy and is really nice to write on . . . I've use it for all my creative journals. Nice paper to write on is very important.

So onto the little machine . . . this is not meant to be an exhaustive kind of review, do look it up on youtube for an idea of how it works, these are just my impressions of it. It's lightweight, compact, for the most part well designed though the plastic part on the side that has to slide back and forth is not that slidey and I'm always afraid I'm going to break it. The stabilising arm that slides out at the back is a really good idea otherwise the whole thing tends to tip over. Found that out the hard way!

Then there is another stabilising arm to help hold your cover in place, it has numbers marked along it though this is really for quite long covers which I've not done yet. My real quibble is that you could do with a stabilising thingummy at the other end.

When you put your cover in there is the little plastic stop button at the side against which you rest the cover so that it doesn't slide out when you are punching.

So far so good, hold the cover with one hand and pull the handle down with the other. If for any reason you let go of the cover, say the cover is thick and the handle needs a bit of extra oomph to pull it down then the cover will tip out of place and you end up with misaligned holes . . . see picture below! It does not deal kindly with fabric covered covers but stick to card, paper etc and it's fine. It comes with a little instruction book and DVD which is most helpful . . . again youtube has plenty of demo videos. All in all I'm pleased with it and delighted to be able to make my own notebooks. Plus Cutting Edge Crafts here in the U.K do the wires at a really good price and free postage which is always a bonus.

Tote bags and other things . . .

2010-08-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

There's been precious little walking this last week because of the rain . . . very frustrating because I was dying to go out and take more orange pictures at night. But I have done plenty of sewing and now have two tote/book bags listed in My Cool and Funky Stuff etsy shop.

Feeling kind of 70's inspired with these appliqued flowers . . . I have another planned but with a blue background. I have masses of fabric but very few plain colours so I'm scouring ebay and the internet for affordable plain fabrics.

I just had to have this mad pink roses fabric as a lining . . . .

With this one I made the handles a bit narrower and longer . . . . love that mad swirly purple fabric . . . . again very 70's.

Then I listed these Keepsake Bags . . . actually I made these quite a while back and had put them away and forgotten I had them. They measure 8 inches wide by 6 1/2 inches high and are great for keeping Stuff in. We all have Stuff and we all need somewhere to keep it and if it is made in nice retro fabric with contrasting linings ( see thumbnails in etsy shop ) then so much the better. I made some in dark satins with big ribbon bows one christmas . . . my daughter Madeline got one and kept her letters in it.

Very busy week because I also did three new prints for the shop . . . . I love these, the green and blue is so punchy . . . . available as cards and prints and tomorrow I'm going to see if they work as notebook covers though I have the feeling that I'll have to simplify the design somewhat. Will have to wait and see on that one. Bleugh! That's enough self promotion for now . . . am going to go for a quite tun around the town because the sodden downpour has come to an end and the sun is shining!! Till the next time . . . .

In which I go walking at night and some progress is made . . .

2010-08-17T04:12:00.000-07:00

Not quite 'Walking after Midnight' but pretty close to it . . . . for a while now I've gone out at night for exercise . . around 10:30 or 11:00. I want to try and cram as much into every day as I can but there's also something special about being out and about at night. During the day there is so much to distract us, such a vast amount of information is taken in at any given time, we are jostled by people, by sensations, sounds, smells. Night time is empty of so much of this, it allows for a different kind of perception. I love the emptiness of the back streets down to the harbour, observing the cats at their posts, the same place every night, watchful and a bit shy though I did see one the other night, before she saw me, disporting herself in the middle of the deserted street spotlighted by the street light, rolling on her back flipping back and forth with gay abandon . A very private cat moment it seemed.

I took my camera out to see what I could get . . . I only took three shots before giving up . . . you can see why.

BUT . . I turned the picture into a stamp/brush in Photoshop and using a pale grey on a dark grey background got this . . . . very strange and beautiful don't you think? I might go out and take some more orange photos.

The really good news this week is that I've begun to feel a slight difference . . . . and slight is the word here but it is a difference none the less. Slightly less pain in my hip joints, a slight increase in stamina, my breathing feeling easier as I come up the hill on the way back. I can't tell you what a difference this has made to me, now I begin to feel motivated rather than just slogging through it with gritted teeth. So, take heart any and all who are trying to do the same . . . IT DOES GET EASIER!!!

Walking Diary

2010-08-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

Last night was my longest walk this week . . . . we had family visiting from abroad at the beginning of the week and what with the excitement and all I was exhausted for days afterwards. But I ventured out after dinner last night . . . taking the camera with me really helps . . . taking pictures makes you look at what is before you in a very different way, details catch your eye, the light or the clouds take on a whole new significance. Artists do this anyway but something about the camera increases your focus ( no pun intended ). It also really helps to distract from the pain . . . very useful indeed!

I am testing the light with my camera. I have gone out at nearly dusk before but last night was earlier, about 8 o' clock-ish. Round the bend in the road I went and was able to catch the last of the sunlight on the top of the church tower . . . .

Then at the end of the road, that golden light mixed with moody clouds coming over . . . how many times have I seen this over the years . . . more magical than the straightforward sunshine- on-the-sea. I was stood on the very edge of a ledge right up against the railing to get this shot . . . oh, to be taller.

Then down to the harbour, past the tourists outside the pub/fish and chip shop/ ice cream parlour. Met a young german man who had spent two hours looking for an address in the town that nobody seemed to have heard of. Watched two young local lads on the other side of the road, about 13 or 14 years old done up in pristine white track suits and trainers. One boy smaller, insignificant. The other boy rigid with adolescent male self conciousness had a brand new baseball cap perched on his head, worn backwards and set back at such an angle that it was clearly going to fall off if he so much as moved a muscle of his head or neck. No matter, the look was everything and he was doing his best to strut his bantam stuff without losing his crowning glory there.

By about half way round my little route, it feels like a pilot light has gone off inside and I'm boiling by the time I reach home. This is A Good Thing according to my husband who knows all about these things . . . . it means my body is used to the exercise now and the heat is my metabolism gearing up. Today I lay on the living room floor and did some exercises but tomorrow I'm off out again for that walk . . . . . maybe the light will be different this time.

In which I play with fabric again . . .

2010-08-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

You know how it starts . . . . I'll just get a few bits out, a box of lace here, some fabric there and before you know it . . . .

Chaos reigns!

Then the inevitable occurs . . . No-Good-Boyo appears and makes himself comfortable. There was distinct huffiness and lots of grumbling when I started ever so gently to pull the fabric from under him.

I had started to make the covers for my ringbound notebooks . . . all the details had been worked out, all I had to do was print them out, spray them with fixative, cut to size, punch holes and do the binding bit with the wire. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. But . . . I sprayed with fixative on a board in the bathroom with the window wide open and came back a bit later to find a couple of water droplets had landed on one and spoilt it. Print out another one . . this time put it in the bedroom by the window to air/dry. This time I punched the holes on the wrong side. Back to the printer! Then I ended up with another droplet on the surface and at that point I decided that enough was enough and I'd better do something else before I lost it altogether! I think I'm so nervous about getting it wrong that I'm being all cack handed and getting it wrong anyway. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a thing.

I've been wanting to do some fabric playing for a while and I wanted to try my hand at making a removable notebook cover . . . this was the time to give it a go. I'd bought these two notebooks from paperartsy . . . I like the fact that they are hardback . . . not sure if they are recycled or not, must ask . . the paper has that kind of feel to it.

So, having happily pulled tons of fabric out I settled on this combination and sewed it together.

I thought I could top stitch to create the pockets ( the whole thing is lined ) but realised that it was way too bulky . . . . so back to the drawing board.

Eventually I made the pocket flaps seperately and unlined and then sewed them to the main part and also by some fluke managed to do the whole thing without any top stitching!!

I was just about to try and photograph it this morning when I decided to add this dark turquoise lace as a finishing touch. So there we are, one notebook cover sucessfully negotiated, one very happy Whitney feeling soothed by the fabric. The notebook by the way is listed in 'My Cool and Funky Stuff' etsy shop. Hmmmn . . . what to make next?

The Footsteps and the Immense Distance.

2010-08-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

Mutual support . . this is one of the things I really like about Blogland. Laura Baillie , Laura Bray and I have started a new regime of walking. Regime sounds a bit totalitarian but the important thing is that we are doing something positive and we are supporting each other in doing it. It's sooo much easier when there is someone else doing it too wether it's giving up smoking or going to the gym. Laura Bailie suggested we blog about it collectively too so this is what we are doing . . . . each sunday a blog post about our progress, things we have seen or felt along the way. How long I can sustain this I'm not sure (I don't want to bore either you or me ) but I do feel encouraged by the idea of doing it and the idea of doing it together. I'm a Capricorn, I love targets and goodness knows I've got a way to go.

So, just to give this all a bit of context . . . . I'm recovering from eight years of M.E. or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, my muscles are weak from neglect especially my back, my joints are painful, I'm now 50, going through the menopause and I am overweight due to all of the aforementioned. Then there is the chronic sciatica. This results in inflamed feet and heels which makes walking for any length of time painful if not impossible.

HOWEVER on the plus side I am highly self motivated and have lots of plans for the future. So, there we are , I need to walk if not every day then as close to that as possible . . . to strengthen the muscles, kickstart my metabolism and override the inflamation in my feet. I have thought about strapping on rollerskates but it's all up and downs where I live and I could just end up tearing down the hill and end up in the harbour!!

No, walking it is . . . not very far, I have a little circular route that I take. If you want to achieve your goals it helps to make them achievable . . . if you are faced with something mountainous then break that mountain down into smaller achievable chunks. Once you've conquered those then you move up to the next level. I am aiming to get to the gym but not yet . . . . must just start with what I have right in front of me now. There's a kind of Zen feeling to it . . . just putting one foot in front of the other . . . this is all I can do now . . . acknowledge the pain . . . . don't attach to it . . . . be right where you are in that moment . . . don't fret about the size of the mountain. Writing this has reminded me of something Laurence Van Der Post said . . . . I leave tou with this quote, until the next time . . . .

"I have tried to take no heed of the morrow - not in an irresponsible way but as an act of trust in a life given in trust. In that sense I go from day to day, and although I love the instant I have a sense of the immense distance and a great open horizon in front of me. It seems that the footsteps are extremely important and that, if I look after the footsteps, the miles will look after themselves. "

Notebooks, cards and other things . . .

2010-07-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is the prototype for the new notebooks . . . . I've been fiddling around with the size . . . trying to get both the front and the back page to fit onto an A4 . . . . . economics and all that you know, it's all got to be worked out. And then making a card template to use with the big guillotine which will chop 50 sheets of paper at a time for me. I've got some nice recycled paper for the inside, a slightly heavier weight at 100gms.

Every detail is important to me . . . it is detail that I notice when I buy something and notebooks have been a love of mine since I was at school. We used to get a brand new one on the first day of term. There was always a slight frisson of pleasure as I opened it up to that unblemished first page. So, the paper has to feel nice, it must be a nice surface for writing on, the right size and weight to hold in your hand. I have this one very nearly right, it needs another quarter inch in width.

These are now made up as a set of mini ACEO size cards and envelopes and listed in 'My Cool and Funky Stuff ' Etsy shop. And then there is this piece of craziness . . . . what I was thinking of I really don't know. Actually I was just randomly sticking things together . . . . that doesn't always work anymore than randomly chucking the contents of your fridge together does but it's a fun thing to do because you get combinations your rational mind wouldn't come up with!

It reminds me a bit of the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, not sure why . . . . have you ever watched it all the way through? It's mighty peculiar stuff but the colours and animation are stunning . . . . I leave you with a short clip

My Cool & Funky Stuff - new Etsy shop!

2010-07-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

O.K here we are then, the new Etsy shop . . . . My Cool & Funky Stuff!

(Check out the previous post if you haven't seen the pictures yet.)

I've been working on two strands of my stuff for a while now - my art and then the pretty vintage stuff which is what this blog has been all about. The vintage stuff I'd decided to call Every Girls's Story. All very well and good, the art is now listed in an Etsy shop of it's own, time to move Every Girl's Story forward to the same point.

BUT . . . but . . . there was something about it I was not happy with. Every new set of designs for cards, prints, notebooks etc would be printed out and stuck up on the wall for me to live with for a while and every time I found myself thinking it's nearly but not quite. Down they'd all come and I'd start again. Very frustrating but I couldn't ignore the instinct that made me do it. Never ignore your creative instinct!

So, what to do? I went back to the drawing board literally and metaphorically and took a long hard look at what I'd got; a folder on the computer with hundreds of designs. And what a mishmash it all was once I really looked at it! I think I'd gotten so carried away with being able to do all this stuff in Photoshop that I just chucked in EVERYTHING and my original idea/look/premise for Every Girl's Story just got lost. I don't regret having spent the time doing it because it's vital for creativity to develop and how the hell is it going to do that if you don't PLAY? I've had the most fun with it and I love Photoshop more than ever!!

Time to be ruthless I thought and began to weed out the sacharine and the silly . . . . back to my original premise. I knew I had it right because I felt it and felt a sense of relief. At last the niggle inside was satisfied. I was feeling wrung out but it was all looking much more tasteful.

So that should have been that right? BUT . . . . (oh gawd, here comes another 'but') . . . . I need to play!! I have likened my creativity before to a bunch of stroppy weasels. Girls may just want to have fun but WEASELS JUST NEED TO PLAY!!! So I decided to do something spontaneous and go with the Weasel playing . . . . hence the new and very unscheduled Etsy shop. If I run out of ideas or get tired of it or it doesn't work I can shut up shop. This is the joy of Etsy . . . it's just no biggie. I am going to be as silly and fun and playful with this new stuff as ever I want to be. Should have called it Whitney's Playpen but thought My Cool & Funky Stuff sounded better. I have a grand total of six items listed so far but mini cards and notebooks are coming up soon. I'll be blogging about it here and setting up a Facebook fanpage so you can keep up with ALL my work, artistic, tasteful and kitsch! Do sign up!!

More on this Story later . . . .

2010-07-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Just a taster . . . some new stuff obviously . . . and a new Etsy shop. Will be back tomorrow to tell you all about it . . . till then . . . .

Concrete Ghost - Tale of the Unexpected

2010-07-02T04:54:00.000-07:00

Concrete Ghost is an inspired collaboration between two designers Kathy Dalwood, known for her concrete figurines & friezes and DI Overton of Ghost Furniture and influential blog Designers Block, who met through their blogging activities back in 2009.

Kathy creates distinctive concrete sculptures and tiles. Concrete sculptures sounds grim but look at her website and you'll see that she takes concrete in a whole new direction. This stuff looks stroke-able.

Di takes vintage finds and turns them into new and beautiful items with a touch of 21st century eco-chic. I particularily like her Burlesque Chair. Having seen the accessories on her site, the collaboration with Kathy makes the most perfect sense. Together they have created a range of furniture and accessories each with its own sculpture. To launch this collaboration they have used antique tassels as the theme, each presented in a very different way.

French flea market frames and furniture along with exquisite trimmings from merciers and passementeries of Paris are brought together with industrial grey concrete tassels - stunningly realistic pieces created by direct casting from real vintage silk originals - to create a range of striking, one-off, sculptural accessories.

I don't think there's a piece in the whole collection I wouldn't personally love to have. But then how would I explain to my husband that I want to buy concrete tassels for the house? He's a man and just wouldn't get it.

More Mini cards!

2010-06-26T05:02:00.000-07:00

On my desk this week - a beautiful card of a japanese woodcut from Hannah to say thank you for the work done on the stickers for Glastonbury - I do like a girl with nice manners. Added to this a scrumptious rose from my daughter Madeline - it had broken off and was too short to put in a vase but works perfectly floating in this pretty cup. And last but not least the froth of pink and white lace, pearls and flowers waiting to be used in a new work next week. I find if I leave things like this out it works on a subliminal level. When I get all the canvases and bits out on monday there will already be several ideas just ready and waiting for me.

I just had to do more of these mini cards - Everything was set up, bits of paper all over the desk, glue, scissors, etc when I reached over for something and knocked the rose and cup over with the edge of my sleeve. Water flooded all over everything. I could have screamed. I didn't, I bellowed and threw the first thing that came to hand, my roller/brayer which was what I'd reached over to get. I can usually take such upsets in my stride but I was so overheated from hot ( hormonal/menopausal) flushes that morning that I just totally lost it. Silly really but the mood swings that go with this would do justice to a rollercoaster - bit like being a teenager again but without the benefit of youth. I'm thinking of painting my room black. God, I'd love to be a Goth now - it totally missed out on that when I was younger. It might look a bit alarming on a 50 year old though so maybe not eh?

After all that I found I'd broken my roller which made me feel even sillier. Anyway I did a lot of mopping and went back to it later that day. And I'm glad I did because I had a lovely time making these. I've bought some tiny envelopes to go with them, a sort of shimmery cream which goes well with the cream paper the cards are made of.

Onwards and upwards then . . . . next week, more fabric wrapped canvases . . . I've got a box of 6"x6" canvases waiting for me. You know what this means though don't you? I get to pull ALL the fabric out and PLAY!! I will need to keep the door closed to keep the cat out because he does like to nest in it and gets quite pissy with me when I try and take it away from him. I have enough scratches on my arms from him already but that's another story . . . . have a good weekend whatever you're doing!

CD artwork & Glastonbury

2010-06-17T12:18:00.001-07:00

Fingers crossed everybody - we're hoping these stickers will be done in time for Glastonbury. Apparently everybody sticks them on the back of the loo doors! The instrument used for the design is a dobro - it's a special kind of guitar that has a single inverted cone resonator in it. I know, I don't understand what that is either but you can read all the wordy bits about it here What I do know is that it sounds wonderful especially the way Phillip Henry (multi- talented musician and all round good bloke) plays it. Just have a listen to some of his tracks on his Myspace page. He's going to be at Glastonbury on the Small World Stage on Sunday 27th June. If you're going to be there do go and see him - he is exceptional.

Then there's The Roots Union for whom I recently did some artwork for an EP they are putting out soon. I'd not designed a CD cover before but there were templates to follow and I happened to have exactly the right collage for it. A provisional title was 'From the Gutter to the Stars' . O.k it does look like the sun but we reckoned that it had a kind of supernova look and feel to it which fitted. The moth ( which we ended up calling Mothra ) was originally in a different position on the collage and he had to be very carefully pried off and scanned in seperately. Then I needed gutters and was out with my camera an hour before Hannah came looking for decent pictures of gutters. Do you know there are no more decent gutters anymore. Lots of double yellow lines of course. Oh, where are the gutters of yesteryear? Now that's a good title - maybe that could be the follow up CD.

Hannah Martin the violinist and backing vocalist with the band is my daughters best friend and it was she who came and sat by my shoulder ( most unnerving to work with someone watching you ) and helped me work out the details. There was a bit of a tight deadline . . . she phoned me on the monday afternoon and they wanted it by wednesday! I got it e-mailed off to the printers on thursday morning!!!
So this is the front cover and then there was the usual blurby bits, track listing etc on the back.

And then this image went on the inside and formed the pocket for the CD ( cardboard cover not plastic ) The background colour was this blue throughout - god, I hope it printed alright! Either way it was fun to do something different. Anyone else want a Cd cover designed?

The Roots Union are also going to be at Glastonbury on the Small World Stage on thursday 24th June and you can have a listen to a couple of their tracks on their Myspace page here

Laputa - Castle in the sky

2010-06-16T03:07:00.000-07:00

My favourite song at the moment - listening it to it ALL the time - from the anime film Laputa - Castle in the Sky. The animation makes Disney et al look like amateurs.

ACEOs or Mini cards?

2010-06-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

After weeks of computer/digital stuff I sorely needed to do something more physical and soothing. Satisfying as all my digital art is there is no substitute for the cutting out and sticking down. Put a pair of scissors in my hand and a magazine to cut up and I feel like a five year old again.

I'd heard of ACEOs though I could never remember what that stood for - Almighty Chief Executive Officer perhaps? No, it stands for Altered Cards, Editions and Originals. The only stipulation is that they have to be 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Some people swap them which then makes them Artist's Trading Cards and tons of people make, sell and collect them. Needing to do something creative at the weekend I thought I'd have a go at this myself. I did some arty ones which I was pretty thrilled with. I love, love, love working small and this is right up my street. It's so satisfying to turn out these little pieces of art. I'm hoping to list the ones I did at the weekend in my etsy shop. But then i got to thinking why not do some pretty ones as well. Out came ALL the bits of paper, the stamps, the scissors, the glue and I did the four little ones you see above. But then I saw on the corner of my table four little envelopes left over from something or other and guess what? They are exactly the right size for the ACEOs. Which really makes them little notecards now. I shall do them in sets of four or six which I think makes a nice gift for a friend, popped under the ribbon of a present as gift tag, as party favours or just a little note to someone special. They could also look nice framed.

Here is another four I did this morning - I have a feeling this could be addictive.

Madeline Baker - Photographer

2010-06-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

Moo prints are wonderful. Follow the link and check them out. They do postcards, but then so do a lot of places - the difference with Moo is that they do them in packs of 20 and you can have 20 different images not just 20 cards of the same thing. They also do business cards, mini cards, stickers. The have a U.S store and a European one.

The postcards come in this nice little box and look like this . . . . . nice and shiny and glossy

And here I want to show you some of those postcards . . . . pictures taken by Madeline Baker who I think is very talented and who just happens to be my daughter. I'm a very proud mama. She had these done for a particular creative occasion but they didn't arrive in time which was such a shame as I think she could have sold them without any trouble. I'm trying to persuade her to sell them and some prints on Etsy . . . . please leave an encouraging comment - maybe she'll listen to you!

Crazy Week and a UFO

2010-06-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks I've been going round and round with a couple of designs that I just couldn't make up my mind about. I finally settled on a version I was happy with and last monday finished them up in Photoshop in 'best'. I like to play around with ideas and combinations in rough versions and then do a best version last of all. Play first, boring bits after. Intense sessions on the computer tend to leave my head feeling like a very very tightly wound spring. I'll have a couple of days away from Photoshop was what I was thinking when the phone rang . . . . it was Hannah, my daughters friend

"Whitney" she said " Could you do some cover art for a Cd for the band I'm in"

" Gosh, yes why not " I said. "When do you need this by?"

" By Wednesday" she said.

O.K. . . . deep breath "Well, you'd better come round tomorrow then"

All very well and good but then the computer, suffering from a virus, re-ran Photoshop from scratch and all my many brushes/stamps which form the basis of virtually all my artwork/designs were gone. Yes, I have got them all saved but it meant staying up till late that night reloading them all and finishing up early the next morning, not to mention the nearly-having-a- heart-attack bit in between.

It was strange to work on a design with somebody sitting by my shoulder watching and commenting. Hannah is artistic herself ( as well as being a very talented musician ) so we were speaking the same language. Luckily she had seen a collage on my other blog that she liked and we were able to work from that. It was great fun but also quite intense. I had a day to put the design in 'best' and put the text and final image together and it all got sent off to the printers on thursday! Not bad from a standing start eh?!! A soon as the CD is printed/released I will do a post about it on the other blog for anyone who is interested.

And that took me up to friday . . . the week had just flown by! I did find time over the weekend to finally finish this skirt. No, I'm not going to take a picture of me wearing it . . I need a bit more colour on my legs and I do need to move the poppers over by quite a bit now . . . it's a circle wraparound skirt which I began three summers ago and I'm a bit stouter that I was then!! I feel quite virtous that I finished this . . . . ashamed to say that all it needed was sewing around the applique flowers at the hem. Flowers were cut from some absolutely bonkers furnishing fabric. So, one UFO ( Unfinished Object ) now finished. We won't of course mention all the other UFo's lurking around the place.

And finally I turned two of the photos I posted last time into Photoshop brushes . . . don't they look adorable like this?

Kitteh and the Flowers

2010-05-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

May really is the most beautiful time of year in Devon . . . . it's warm but not boiling hot, the beaches are not packed with holiday makers yet and everything is bursting into bloom. It's usually pretty wet in this part of the country and so, like Ireland and Wales, is greener than anywhere else. The steps up to our house are now a riot of colour with the Campanula and daisies in full bloom. The daisies tend to take over and get hacked back several times over the course of the summer. Spot my Trusty Assistant at the top of the steps.

Here the daisies line the way all the way into the yard . . .

And here is my nosy little friend who did his very best to knock me off my feet while I was taking pictures and generally get in the way. . . .

" I is bein' Kitteh in de flowers " ( oops, sorry, lasping into LolCat speech!) He likes to sit in the yard and bite the heads off any available flowers and then spit them out. Thank goodness there are plenty of daisies for him.

And this is the hall rug after he subdued it earlier on this morning ( otherwise known as Rug Ruckling ) There was a lot of tearing around and skidding round corners which given his age and infirmities is not bad going. I just looked round and this is Himself on the bed right now. Blimey, it's a tough life!

Bakelite Radios

2010-05-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

We have a stack of large format art books which I go through every now and then for inspiration. Going through it recently I came across this book which I'd totally forgotten I had. It's not a massive tome by any means but has great pictures and is informative without masses of detail. It takes you through the beginings of radio to the material of Bakelite itself and even gives tips on how to avoid buying a fake.

Radios were the focus of a family's entertainment in the same way that television is today and their aesthetic design was dictated not just by having to contain all the bits but how it fitted into the look of the drawing room. Wooden cabinets were the thing fitting in perfectly with the mostly Victorian furniture that most people had. Like this monster here.

Then along came Bakelite . . . it was first produced in America in 1907 by the Belgian born Dr Leo Baekeland and was the first entirely man made synthetic plastic. It took 20 years to really become established as a material for mass production which brings you to the 30's when the the radio industry really took off.

The problem was that the buying public liked their wooden cabinets and the first designs were often Bakelite made up to look like wood which didn't really fool anyone.

(Photo courtesy of Galessa's Plastics Flickr Photostream.)

After failing to convince buyers with such fake wood cabinets an English firm of radio manufacturers E.K. Cole ( or Ekco ) decided to work at the problem from the other end, so to speak. Influenced by Modernist designers and architects they decided to work with the unique properties of Bakelite rather than against it.

It could be coloured, machine moulded into a myriad of shapes ( unlike the old wooden cabinets which were made by craftsmen and were therefore costly and time consuming to produce ), and so could be mass produced with accuracy and speed. What's not to like! Eventually it would be used for all kinds of things . . . kitchen equipment, toys, telephones even jewellery.

Here are a few of my favourites . . . .

(Photo copyright Phil Nelson )

(Photos - Galessa's Plastics Flickr)

(Photo copyright Phil Nelson)

Phil Nelson - who kindly gave permission to use some of his photos mentioned that some people take the insides out of these beautiful radios and use them as planters!! I was aghast that anyone would do such a thing! Check out his site for lots more information about all kinds of old radios and of course lots more pictures. Classic Radio gallery is another good site to check out.
I'm just hoping that one day I can own one of these beauties.

Lace

2010-05-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

The light was right the other morning so I dashed around with bits of card and board to try and photograph a couple of pieces of lace I've had for ages. This first piece is an old tablecloth found in the charity shop, the second a really lovely panel that usually hangs in the bathroom. I never tire of lying in the bath and looking at the pattern . . . . particularily by candlelight. At my age one only bathes by candlelight don't you know.

O.K, aesthetically these are dud photos but once they are made into Photoshop brushes I can do all sorts of things with them. Scanning them in wasn't succesful. the scanner picked up too much of the fabric detail not to mention the whole thing sliding about all over the place!

This blue one was done using a photo of a fan and not lace at all. The fan is a really cheesy white plastic thing - the transformative powers of Photoshop eh?

I fooled around and layered two different lace stamps together for this pale pink version . . .

and then decided that a hot red would be just right to finish off with. Wouldn't that look good in a flocked fabric?

This has a kind of 30's feel to it I'm thinking . . . .

Finally I thought you might like to see how it's done by hand . . . . . . just awesome

Laydees . . .

2010-05-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Seem to have gone off piste a bit over the last couple of days - have spent the best part of two days at the computer . . got a bee in my bonnet about one particular idea and just had to keep going until I'd nailed that baby down. I now have square eyes. Too much time in Photoshop leaves me wired and then I have trouble sleeping and then the nerves in my legs get all twitchy and then I'm awake and once I'm awake I get hungry so I have to get up and go down to the kitchen where I stand in front of the fridge drinking milk and eating bananas until I get cold and go back to bed. After about an hour I get up to go to the loo because I've drunk too much milk. So, too much time in Photoshop is probably not good for me but occasionally I say what the hell and go for it because the pull of the idea is too strong.

At the end of a really long session I coloured in this lady - no idea what made me pull this picture out of the files. I don't really work with these kinds of images anymore but it was fun. Stuck it up on my Facebook page and Heather liked it and Cristina liked it so I thought why not try another one . . . . keeping to the same colour just varying the shades . . . this lady's got kind of a Jackie O look going on.

This one is a bit rough but just coloured in on the spur of the moment . . . I think we could call it The Strange World of Underwear Models . . . . very haughty looking ladies don't you think? Not sure that I'd continue with these . . . might make fun cards and or prints . . . . not sure, will have to think about it.

Vintage Collages

2010-04-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here then is the fabric covered canvas I said I'd show . . . . the fabric rose really picks up the red in the fabric . . . an old scarf, the edges of which were nothing special. I wanted the pearls to have a casual just sort of draped look which is why they are not symetrically sewn down.

Then when that was finished I thought I'd clear the decks and cover my board in fresh paper. Isn't it lovely? It lasted all of five minutes because I then got what seemed like EVERYTHING out . . . . this is what it looks like when I'm really stuck into something. Yes, I am The Messiest Person in the Universe.

Ah, but this mess is very creative because I found all the bits I wanted for a new lot of collage canvases. It took me three tries to get exactly the right shade of Utility Green for these but I persevered . The cat was shut out of the room for the day while I painted which he was not best pleased with. Every time I left the room I had to whizz out really really fast closing the door behind me while the cat tried his very level best to get past me. Ha, my reflexes were faster than his in this instance. Sad really isn't it, playing one upmanship with the cat. Really must get out more.

Then some 6x4" collages on paper . . . I was feeling virtous until I ground to a halt with all this and got totally swept up with my other art. Really the two couldn't be more different particularily at the moment but glueing is good . . . it's a mechanical sort of activity and soothing while the mind goes whizz, whizz whizz.

Handwriting

2010-04-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

I was made to write with my right hand when I was little which I think helped to screw my handwriting up. Being the only left handed child in a small village school in Bavaria ( southern Germany ) was , I think, seen as being the mark of the devil or pretty close.

My thoughts always run way faster than I can write so that also contributes to making my writing almost unreadable at times. And I'm a naturally messy person!

My creative diary . . . . and here is one I made earlier . . . yes, I have used my Bind-it-all machine for the holes in the cover. But I thought I'd try a ribbon rather than wires. Not entirely succesful but I can just undo the ribbon and put new pages in.

I've been keeping a creative diary for years now. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way
recommends writing three pages of stream of conciousness every day . . . she calls them the Morning Pages. It's a great way of emptying your head and getting some perspective, also to work through a particular problem if there is one. And of course it saves my family from having to hear all about the finer points of Photoshop or anything else I'm working on!

I do not do three pages . . . sometimes it can be as much as 12, nor do I do them every day but because I do it regularily my mind/subconcious is tuned into it. Often something creative will be bubbling away under the surface . . . . I start to get a kind of restless, uncomfortable feeling, unable to settle to anything. Pick up my diary and start writing and sure enough what ever it is will turn up on the page. Julia Cameron has a phrase for this . . . . turning the tap on. It's a kind of mid-wife-ing process for creative ideas.

The creative process has it's own logic and needs. If we are to go on being creative and not run dry or fall by the wayside then we have to balance them with all the other things in our lives like emptying washing machines, doing school runs, cooking dinner etc. Keeping a creative diary is part of taking care of one's creative needs but also an important personal space in which you can be just your creative self.

Check out Dogdaisychain for more handwriting posts . . . .

How exciting . . . blog mentions . . .

2010-04-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

No sooner had I listed my first jar assemblages on Etsy than one was mentioned on this lovely blog here which was terribly exciting because it's the first time it's happened for me. I'm also very easily excited by things! Then this morning I find my work/blogs mentioned on this blog here. Crikey, I only found this lady a day or so ago . . . she's all the way over the other side of the world in Tasmania. How cool is that? This is one of the things I love about blogging, the connections to people all over the world.

Now I must get over so much excitement and get down to Doing Things.It's not going very well today, it's almost 2 pm and I've managed to do precisely nothing. Well, I did do the shopping list and eat enough cranberries and cashew nuts to make myself feel slightly sick and load the washing machine and look out the window at the sky. And check my e-mails, go on Facebook, read other people's blog, that kind of thing. I guess we all need days like that in between all the creativity. Till the next time then . . . .

Oh You Pretty Things!

2010-04-12T04:11:00.000-07:00

I've spent days going through a pile of old World of Interiors and Elle Decoration magazines tearing bits out and throwing away. Actually after I'm done with them they get passed to my daughter who takes what she wants and then they go in the recycling. I'd love to keep them all but I just can't though I'm thinking I might like to be buried with them. Hey, you've heard of those papier mache cardboard coffins? Well, why couldn't I have one made out of interiors magazines? And a shroud made out of vintage fabrics adorned with pearly buttons! Can you imagine some archeologists a hundred years from now finding such a burial? Imagine what they'd say . . . obviously a high status person because of the grave goods. Actually no, guys, just an obsessive collector. Anyway, inspired by thoughts of spring I thought I'd put together some sunshine and spring inspired collages . . . . yum, yum, yum!

Not only have I managed to throw stuff away ( something I thought I'd need therapy to do ) but I've also finished some stuff. This is another area of difficulty; I could start something new every half and hour but there are times when I find it almost impossible to finish things up. It's way better than it used to be but it does mean that I feel virtuous once stuff does get finished.

These keyrings, for instance. Talk about working small! Thinking about how I hold my keys in my hand I thought a loop of ribbon would finish these off nicely. It's just long enough to slip your fingers through. Very satisfying.

Then I just happened to be in one of the many charity shops in the town and I found these little treasures. I don't think I can bear to alter this adorable cup and saucer. It may just have to sit on my table where I can admire it a little longer.

This little bowl will get altered somehow though not sure yet, too kitsch not to really.

And then a bit of luck, a small gold frame, after I'd bemoaned the fact that I can't buy them anywhere. I'm just going to have to keep my eyes peeled and collect them one at a time. I wanted to buy them new but hey, we'll call them upcycled. I loath that term. Invented by the media to make recycling sound funky and groovy and not second hand at all! So there we are, that was the week that was and now I'm going to settle down to finish a couple of fabric covered canvases - a second one to match the little pink one I wrote about last time and a larger one. Fingers crossed, I should be able to show you that one by the end of the week. Till then . . .

Easter Pretties . . . .

2010-04-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU . . . .

I do so hope that wherever you are, the sun is shining . . . or failing that that you have plenty of chocolate to console yourself with! I am a totally anomaly . . . a woman who doesn't really like chocolate though I am very partial to hot cross buns.

I know Easter is ridiculously early again but I always feel that it's a kind of tipping point for the year. Feels like going down hill on a bike, legs stuck out to either side, hair streaming behind you and a feeling of exhileration that bubbles up inside and makes you laugh out loud. Getting through the winter months, particularily in this country and this part of the country, where it often rains day after day for weeks and weeks on end, can seem like such a slog. One can quite understand how ancient people worshipped the sun when finally it re-appeared. Wether you are christian or not, this time does feel like a resurrection.

I have been busy - still throwing things out - but also getting some new things done, trying to create enough stock now to start the next etsy shop. This collage had been sitting around in pieces but I've finally got it done. Now all I need to do is to varnish it and add the bits on the back to hang it up with. But, the nozzle on my nice new can of acrylic varnish has decided to block up and it's no good as it is. Curses, foiled again!

Another little sweetie I've made is this fabric covered canvas. I so wanted to put bits of costume jewellery in small gold swept frames but the guy on ebay that did them is no longer trading and I can't find them anywhere else. I did however find that a local art shop does these tiny canvases, roughly 4"x4" so I grabbed a few while I was there. The good news is that they can order more for me and post them to me if I need. It's all very well finding the supplies, though that can be challenging enough at times, but I've got to be able to count on re-stocking when I need. Sounds dreary but taking care of details like that now go towards the smooth running of things in the long term.

I'll leave you with a bit of eye candy. This is just such a pretty combination of colours sat on my table while I work, it inspires me every day, especially as I seem to be on a bit of a pink kick at the moment.

Have a lovely weekend everybody!!

Something Pretty for the Weekend

2010-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Pretty flowers bought for me to cheer me up on a very gray day . . . .

and then a bit of playing with the photo in Photoshop. I like this so much I'm going to re-photograph them tomorrow to get a better picture. Wouldn't this make a pretty print?

This one I've decided is called Grandma's wallpaper. I'm working on the principle that if one is good then more is better here!! Yes, o.k so it is a trifle over the top but hey, who cares? This is the joy of Photoshop, if you don't like it you can erase bits or all of it. Mind you, I'd be hard pushed to say quite what I did and in what order!

Crazy Patchwork Lavender Squares

2010-03-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

Along with chucking loads of stuff out and washing everything in sight, I am unpicking things I made yonks ago ( still got the odd handbag lying around ). One of the many things I tried was crazy patchwork . . . . these two pieces were cut from a little bag I made. It never really worked as a bag because the pieces were all too small. But change the scale and it does . . . these are 4" square. The same size as my lavender squares which is what these will now be. More ultimate recycling eh?

True to form I have templates for this . . . it really does make life eaasier in the long run and using this frame helps to work out the proper position of each colour. It looks a doddle to do and in a way it is but there's definitely a knack to getting the proportions right.

Yum, yum fabrics . . . I just adore this stage, playing around with combinations. I'm hand sewing the pieces and then machine stitching the backs on.

The first three little darlings . . . . the pale green fabric won't iron as flat as the other pieces because it has embroidery on it . . . . I half steamed it to death but it wouldn't play nice!

How I wish I had more of this fabric . . . . . bought about 15 years ago as a remnant in a shop that closed down. The black and orange are so striking . . . . used in small quantities it lifts whatever it's next to.

I'm doing these lavender squares in sets of three to be tied together with a ribbon . . . yes, I had a third laid out and then lost two of the pieces in the general melee that is my desk. Needle in haystack doesn't even begin to describe it so I'm not even going to look for them but cut two new pieces and hopefully finish that this morning.

I want to finish them because I have something else to play with . . . . I bought a packet of three little keyring blanks on saturday and decided I liked the results so much I'd order more, slightly bigger though. They will probably be freebies with any purchase made and also for the next blog giveaway . . . . not really sure I can sell them but what a fantastic way to try and use up all the teeny weeny bits of fabric and all the teeny weeny bits painted papers, vintage pictures, wallpaper etc which my teeny weeny house is so terribly full of. O.K. I'm off to play . . . . .

Tonight's Photoshop playing

2010-03-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

I've finally realised ( duh ) that fooling around on in Photoshop in the evening produces different and often better ideas . . . this is because I'm just arsing about and it's not serious. I'm switched off in the evenings and just playing.

Somehow being Serious and Creative just puts the kibosh on things. I've got to be spontaneous. So, in the interests of being spontaneous here are tonight's two forays into Photoshop. I guess I'm trying to see what I can get away with layering together . . . . I don't have a print or card or notebook cover in mind while doing this . . . just seeing where it leads . . . .

Superior Organisation or Control Freakery?

2010-03-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a bee in my bonnet about organising my work space - there's so little of it after all, it all has to be crammed into one room and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to work. When Madeline was at University and I had the use of her room I could pull EVERYTHING out and would end up with some pretty funky colour combinations as a result. There being a limited amount of space to get any fabric out now has really begun to cramp me creatively. So, I've been going through chucking stuff out . . . yes, even fabric . . . back to the charity shop from which it all came in the first place . . . . the ultimate in recycling I'm thinking.

I have my main stash of fabrics, all sorted out into colours and stored in large plastic storage boxes . . . and then I have bags of scraps. Now I know it seems ridiculous to keep all these but they get used. No, really they do! So, time for a whole new Fabric Reference System . . . starting with the reds I have gone through my main stash and the scraps and put together swatches of every piece I've got, stitched together in little bundles. Not only that but I have a second identical set of swatches that are loose so I can play around with different colour combinations without having to drag all the fabrics out. Phew!! Super brilliant organised eh? Picture below . . . red fabric swatches.

Then I decided , in the spirit of spring cleaning or just some kind of madness, to wash all the scraps too . . . . o.k, it was some kind of madness because being small pieces, they cannot go through the washing machine and must all be done by hand . . .

And then dried on the rack in the bath . . . tumble drying would fray them to nothing and probably cause the drier to have a nervous breakdown. And as the t.v has just died on us I don't think we need another household appliance going the same way. Besides, the drier is about 30 years old, it's now an heirloom and I intend to leave it to my grandchildren in my will.

I expect Professor Stephen Hawking could explain the particular law of physics that explains why, after taking several bags of fabric down to the charity shop, thrown another two bin liners of stuff out, I end up with slightly less room than when I started . . . . . doh! I swear I moved loads from this shelf under the table and it's still stuffed to the gills!!!!

Now . . . . back to the washing . . . .another two lots of red fabric and I can start on the blues, or the greens . . . maybe yellow next? This is going to take a very long time either way!

My Vintage Altered China

2010-03-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Finally, finally, waking up to the most glorious day; sun shining, sky the most perfect blue. I take my constitutional walk down to the harbour and back and then clear the decks to photograph these altered cups and saucers. I had the most wonderful time making them . . . I could go on for ever, I could clear the charity shops of cups and saucers and glass trinkets. But for the moment I lack the space to make more. Must sell these first. And they will go in the next Etsy shop, but more things need to be made before I'm ready. I am getting there though, progress is most definitely being made.

I'm using acrylic paint which I then scratch back into and anything else that comes to hand. The paper on these two little side plates is gold tissue paper which I have to admit doesn't photograph so well. Then a few layers of satin varnish to finish it all off.

A personal favourite . . . these are so small, about the size of egg cups.

I call these the Empress Josephine Cups . . . . they were too cracked and stained to use but I rescued them from the charity shop anyway. They had been part of a tea set given as a wedding present in the 30's. Layers of acrylic paint and a bit of gold oil stick and this gold trim and they have a whole new lease of life.

Today's picture . . . .

2010-03-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

O.k. I've really got birds and green on the brain so here is this evening's outing in Photshop.

She is so sweet don't you think?

Mamy Rock - my new Heroine!

2010-03-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

This has absolutely made my day, possibly my week and even the year!

I'd read a short paragraph about Ruth Flowers in the back of the paper about a week or so ago and thought yeah, this sound great, but there was very little detail given. And then I found this story on her today. What an inspiration . . . she's a 69 year old english granny who has made a new career for herself as a DJ.

Going to her grandson's birthday do at a club, the doorman said to her "I don't think you want to go in there Madam." To which she replied "I rather think I do ". That just cracks me up! She loved the energy of the music and the people so much, she decided to become a D.J. Under the guidance of french producer Aurelien Simon she spent four years leaning to use the decks. How many people half her age would have said, no, I'm too old to start learning that now?

Bloody marvelous I say! It really is never too late . . I'm going to tatoo that on my forehead so that I see it in the mirror every day ( although if I don't pay attention and tatoo it backwards I'll just be looking at gobbledygook every day!! ). And I am going to stick her picture on the wall for all those days when I get discouraged by too many technical details or failures, too much pain, too much grind and not enough joy.

I leave you with a youtube promo while I go and stick some VERY LOUD MUSIC on to further remind myself that it ain't over till the old lady rocks!!

Fooling round in Photoshop

2010-03-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've got green on the brain at the moment !

And every time I think I've got enough ideas for prints, I end up with something else I really like! Halp! Have too many ideas.

The First Etsy Shop - Whitney's Art

2010-03-03T03:56:00.000-08:00

O.k so this is the first Etsy shop . . . for my digital and collage art, all the stuff you'd find on my other blog. And very pleased I am to have waded through the vast amounts of information to get it up and running. At least when I get to putting all my pretties in Etsy I'll have some idea of the amount of time it takes! At one point I had the Etsy shop on the screen then another tab/window for the currency converter, a Word document open where I was cutting and pasting all the blurbs needed and finally Picasa where I had all my images stored and labelled. I am a Woman and I multi-task!