Wednesday 14 November 2012

Goldfinch, Oystercatcher and Waxwing




Been having a lot of fun painting these brightly coloured birds on my computer recently though I think I need to return to the more naive style of the first painting of the Goldfinch. What do you think?

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Oak Tree Paper Cut





I don't often think that I need a laser cutter but today it would have saved some very achey fingers. Here is my Oak tree... 100% Hand-Cut by me! Off to the Harley Gallery this weekend.

Friday 28 September 2012

Arts Council Meeting

A few weeks ago I was invited by the Art House in Wakefield to attend an Arts council meeting about craft practitioners & designer makers, the challenges they face and how to develop this sector in the North of England

 The meeting was really useful and I had the opportunity to meet up with fellow makers - here are a few of the people I had the pleasure of meeting


Helen from the wonderful world of Memo Illustration


Helaina Sharpley - Wirework


Judy Tadman - Rope Sculptures


Laura Slater - Textiles




Monday 24 September 2012

Slow it Down

Slow it Down is an 'Ezine dedicated to making time for the more thoughtful, imaginative and subtle things in life'

A few weeks ago the creators of this lovely website asked if I'd like to do an interview about me and my birds. I said yes of course.


Here are my wonderful Llanberis Choughs, a private commission I did a few years ago and one of the images you can see of my work over on Slow it Down, check it out!

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Stitchbird

A good friend has recently asked me to produce a very special wedding present for one of her friends. The commission was to be a Stitchbird.... 'a what?' I hear you say. Well unless you have been to New Zealand or are a keen ornithologist you have probably never heard of one. 

They are an incredibly rare and beautiful bird and coincidentally I have been lucky enough to see one on the protected island of Tiritiri Matangi.

This has been such a lovely commission for me to produce even if it has made me eye-wateringly nostalgic for NZ... I'm not sure I'm allowed to let you see the work in progress in case it spoils the surprise so in the mean time here is a lovely photo of a Stitchbird


Thursday 6 September 2012

Decisions decisions



I'm enjoying playing around with some new ideas and work for this weekend's Saltaire Makers' Fair

 These Sandwich Terns flying over The Wash have appeared but I can't decide which to frame, the cut out birds or the background map with the bird-shaped holes, I only have one appropriate frame. 

If anyone can help I'd love to know which you prefer?

Monday 20 August 2012

Redshank Repeat

Oh dear, it's been a very long time since I've made any sort of blog post, sorry. I do have the excuse that it is summer and I've been out and about keeping my eyes on the birds.

No redshanks spotted recently but I've been brainstorming some design ideas for a new gallery on the coast in Kent and thought this wader (not technically a sea bird I don't think) might make a nice silhouette. Of course I got a bit carried away....


Got my surface pattern brain on, I'm going to work with these little redshank's a bit further, watch this space!

Monday 25 June 2012

Kingfisher Papercut

Here's a preview of a brand new piece of work I'm making for 
'Birds Don't Need Maps' a Holmfirth ArtWEEK fringe show event... to see
the completed piece and many others come along to Lost & Found in Holmfirth Sun 1st - Sat 7th July 10am - 6pm

20% of all sales through Holmfirth ArtWEEK go to Macmillan Cancer Support, this is a great opportunity to purchase some really unique work and support an important charity at the same time!

Thursday 10 May 2012

Saltaire Spend

Well we had an amazingly succesful weeked at the Saltaire Makers Fair, it's such a great event, lovely atmosphere and talented makers... so I thought I'd share with you a few of the people I shared my takings with... A lovely cyanotype print of a woodland scene very similar to the one above by Hunt and Gather Design

A very cute blue fish baby laser cut creature?!? from my friend Debbie Greenaway I'm not sure what it is but it makes me smile and is very at home on my cardigan!
As usual my husband was very supportive and helpful over the weekend so I bought him these 'Lo Res' apples he had his eye on as a thankyou! Available from the lovely guys at loglike.. 

I also bought a handbound portfolio from the very talented bookbinder Heather Dewick, unfortunately I've been unable to source a picture, but Heather makes fantastic books using very nice papers and fabrics, new and old.. in fact she made our wedding book with a fantastic 50's style paper! Much like the journals you can see here on her Flickr page. 




Thursday 3 May 2012

Is it a Swallow?





No... it's a Swift and as with the Swallows, I like to record my first yearly sighting of these amazing migratory birds, so 2nd May it was!

They don't get the name Swift for no good reason, the larger species can fly up to 169 km/h and are amongst the fastest flyers in the natural world. They rarely touch ground even mating and sleeping on the wing, though not at the same time I expect.  So if you see a screaching speedy black bird darting about overhead it's probably a Swift not a Swallow, though they are pretty quick too!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Three dimensional landscapes





A slight departure from my normal flat collages, I've gone slightly 3D with these new fantasy landscapes made up from old postcards from around Europe and mounted into deep box frames. They were really fun though fiddly to make. Let's see how people like them at this weekends makers fair at Victoria Hall in Saltaire

Friday 20 April 2012

Lost in the computer





Here's 'Dove Postcard' a small postcard size collage I made last year. This is not a great scan but I like this design with the flying dove and impressive stained-glass windows.

Saturday 31 March 2012

First Swallows 2012

It seems very early to me this year but whilst out walking today my husband and I saw our first pair of Swallows returning for the British summer. I've just looked back on the blog to check the date last year and it was 7th April so not that different. Here are a few images I've picked out to celebrate!
'Swallow' by Baggelboy
Lotus & Swallow, Chinese Watercolour Painting from 1865
Birds of Uganda Postage Stamps

Thursday 23 February 2012

Trip to Manchester

Quite excited about a trip to Manchester on Sunday for a bit of research. I plan to visit the Whitworth Art Gallery to look at their fantastic collection of textiles, then on to the Museum of Science and Industry to the textiles gallery to find out all about the process of producing textiles... I've got textiles on the brain!
Palisade by Lucienne Day

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Hand-drawn origami desgin





As well as creating designs on the computer I have also got my pencils out and worked on a few hand-drawn origami paper designs. This design was drawn, scanned and then coloured digitally, there are lots of variations of colourways but I rather like this one.

Thursday 9 February 2012

Origami Paper Designs


I occasionally use origami paper in my collages and really love the surface pattern styles the Japanese create. This year I've started working on my very own repeat surface patterns and of course they had to include my feathered friends somehow.

This is my very first design, watch this space for more!

Monday 6 February 2012

Ted Hughes and Hebden Ravens






It's always a nice surprise to discover something new about the work you make and thanks to a kind email about my Hebden Ravens card, I have discovered quite a lot. 

The card incorporates (unintentionally) many key locations relating to the famous poet Ted Hughes and features the silhouettes of two Ravens. One of Hughes' most well-known poems is called Ravens and so the coincidence of using this design with this map is, well, a little bit spooky!

Friday 3 February 2012

Donna Wilson Talk

I went to a great professional practice talk by Donna Wilson at Huddersfield University on Wednesday.

It was really great to hear directly from Donna about how she has grown her business, stuck to her guns and still has complete control over all aspects from designing to manufacturing. It's reassuring to know you're following a similar path and it works. Have integrity, value your work and support local/british designers and makers!
 

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Hibernating with Hockney

Firstly I'd like to say hello 2012 and a happy new year to you, I know it's February but I have been hibernating.... I've now stepped out into the chilly new year and got it creatively kick-started with a visit to the fantastic David Hockney show at the RA last week.... My oh my it was most enjoyable. If you can. Go!