easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in crafty things, design, inspiration, jewellery on Aug 15th, 2010
The final two days of my Art Week were spent at a silversmithing course. I’ve been meaning to get around to going on a silversmithing course for more than ten years, and now I’m really cross with myself that I didn’t do it sooner. Silversmithing is brilliant!
On the first day we made silver rings using [...]
Posted in crafty things, inspiration on Aug 13th, 2010
This week I’ve been at my local school, taking part in various art courses. The first one was “Create With Clay”, and above you can see the first thing that I’ve created in clay for approximately seventeen years. It’s a slightly wonky thumb or pinch pot, with coils added to the top.
This is a slab [...]
Posted in crafty things, culture, inspiration on Aug 1st, 2010
Photo © Polly Morgan
The other day I went to see an exhibition of artwork by Polly Morgan at the Haunch of Venison. The exhibition is called “Psychopomps”, after the mythical creatures that conduct souls into the after-life.
This piece is “Atrial Flutter”, and it’s a human ribcage and spine, suspended from balloons.
Photo © Polly Morgan
Inside the ribcage [...]
Posted in inspiration, sewing, shopping on Jul 29th, 2010
During the 1960s, the big pattern companies enlisted the help of the hottest young designers to bring the latest fashions to their catalogues. This is Butterick 5912, designed by Mary Quant, whose patterns were licensed by Butterick well into the 1970s. I have a sneaking suspicion that this design is about as old as me.
I’ve [...]
Posted in culture, exhibitions, inspiration, nature, photos on Jul 16th, 2010
This is the Natural History Museum in London. Quite a typical view - looking over the central hall from the giant sequoia tree, over the top of the big dinosaur skeleton, to the statue of Darwin on the main staircase.
Usually people are so busy looking at the dinosaur that it simply doesn’t occur to them [...]
Posted in inspiration, nature, photos on Jul 14th, 2010
While we were in Devon, we thought it would be rude to go home without paying a little visit to a beach. We were told that Portwrinkle was the closest beach that didn’t require climbing down a million steps, so that’s where we went.
As you can see, Portwrinkle beach is made from stones and shells, [...]
Posted in inspiration, photos on Jul 13th, 2010
It’s a month now since we went to Devon, and we stopped at Exeter on the way down. We arrived at Exeter Cathedral at about four o’clock on a gloriously sunny afternoon, and it turned out to be the perfect time to take photographs of the stonework and stained glass.
The higher up the outside of [...]
Posted in culture, exhibitions, inspiration, writing on Apr 29th, 2010
Hopefully you can all see this embedded video of the finches at the Barbican in London - an installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. We went on a little trip yesterday evening, and had an absolutely magical time watching and listening to a room full of little birds and musical instruments.
The video is of a previous incarnation [...]
Posted in inspiration, sewing on Apr 4th, 2010
This afternoon I went and had a little look at the Vogue Patterns website, to see whether they had any patterns I could modify for a dress idea I was thinking about. Before I’d even got that far I discovered that the new season’s patterns have been released, and this is one of them.
It’s a [...]
Posted in exhibitions, inspiration, photos on Apr 2nd, 2010
The second building at the REME Museum of Technology is where all the vehicles are kept.
Obviously we saw tanks, and a helicopter (with the Easter Bunny as the pilot!), but I was particularly interested in the seemingly endless variations on the Bedford lorry. Not only were they used to transport both personnel and equipment, but [...]