Brighton, Treats and New Skills

Mr D and I finally managed to get down to Brighton on Tuesday, we gave up waiting for the weather to pick up, we had to pre book our (bargain £12.50 each return) train tickets and the forecast weather had been so unpredictable we took a chance, which turned out to be an overcast but warm one.

We had a nice enough day, but I do think you need the SUN to shine when you're in Brighton, especially when you're wandering around The Lanes with all the wonderful bistros, wine bars and cafes. Anyhoo I managed a few purchases, the vintage Kokeshi dolls, from a brick a brack store.

And some cards, that are destined to be framed.

I really like these monochrome cards, they are prints taken from a printed cloth. I think they are going to find a place in my workroom. Talking about workrooms, I have been having a great time printing my own papers, destined for gift wraps and Journal covers.

Part of the reason for creating my own printed papers was to continue on from a brilliant bookbinding workshop lead by Janine Pope. The first half of the day was spent printing our own papers, cutting and folding folios and assembling sections. After lunch we assembled our books/journals.

The front cover, is suede offcuts and one of my printed papers.

The inside pages, which are made up of printed papers, watercolour papers, old envelopes, sketching paper, pockets, peep holes and what ever else I could lay my eager hands on.

I know what you're thinking, the women's obsessed with circles, just to prove you wrong, here's some squares.

The back cover

Ooops! time for bed, good night all.

Ahhh! craft time

Remember I told you about my Raku session I had coming up? well it rained, no actually it was grey, stormy looking and p***ing it down, but the tutors went ahead, yay!. All the glazing was done in the barn exhibition gallery (no exhibition was on at the time) and when it was relatively dry and quite bizarrely sunny we ventured out to load the kilns.

Some of my work ended up cracking and some I wasn't so happy with the outcomes, so they were discarded, this Raku firing can be a bit hit and miss.

The tall Hoopla vase and the Turquoise and copper bowls I am most pleased with and I am hoping to concentrate on producing ranges of dishes and vases with the same patterns to sell, off course they cannot be identical, as they say in the Raku world 'you can make a sister but not a twin' .

Now I have been working on a secret project which has involved me picking up my paint brushes again, but I have reached a bit of a standstill with the weather being so dark and glum, I prefer to paint in natural daylight and the room I have been using can be a bit the dark , so I have been twiddling my thumbs a bit, Monday I colleague invited me to a Pop-up bookmaking workshop.

Needless to say I said YES PLEASE!!!!

Resulting in the creation of................................

The Circus! pop-up book. The front has been covered using used envelopes and collaged with vintage music sheets/books.

Two of the cut work pop-up pages, also made using vintage song sheets/books.

A folded page book.......

blank waiting for some artwork perhaps?

It was FAB! it was lead by Lizanne Van Essen, first of all she showed us some basic pop-up cutting then some pop-up folds, then we were left to cut, fold and glue to our hearts content.As you can see from above I even made covers for the pages (more pics on my flickr) I knew I'd enjoy it. So much so in fact I continued into the evening cutting into used envelopes I raided from around the house.

Are creative people naturally obsessive when it comes to crafts?

Bye for now

x

The visit

Things have been a bit manic around here, All those decorating jobs that we started last month had to be finished.

You see my little sis was visiting us in the UK for her annual hols all the way from, of all places gorgeous Hawaii.

She has brought her two boys Devon and Davis and her lovely future mom in-law Kay. Its been a FUN! couple of weeks so much so I'm not looking forward to waving goodbye this Sunday. I have really missed her being around, because not only is she my sister she was also my shopping/clubbing (well, socializing)/creativity sharing, buddy, also the boys have been getting on like they have never been apart, I'ts really great to see.

That said her being so far away is the reason I started a blog, plus her impending arrival made us get our butts into gear and finish decorating the bathroom and boy what a difference the soft green on the walls, the wood and cane accessories have made, the room feels warm and welcoming, the original wall colour was stone/putty and it always felt cold, brrrr!

Needless to say not much designing/making has been going on, however things are in the pipeline starting with a Raku firing workshop I have booked onto next week. I have only attended one before and I am hooked. To the point where I'm going to make my own Raku kiln in the garden, hey, you would too, it is that addictive .

All these pieces were fired in a Raku kiln, I particularly like the dish below ( now SOLD, woohoo!) the picture doesn't do it justice, the brown band is actually copper in colour and the turquoise is really rich, I'm not sure whats up with the quality of the pics, you'll find more from the firing on my flickr.