Ceramic inspiration

I went to Ceramic Art London at the weekend which was really interesting.  A wide variety of ceramics, some functional, some weird and wonderful and a lot of them inspiring. 

Photo from: http://www.jamesandtillawaters.co.uk/images/lidded-jars/

The friends I went with were unanimous in our liking of James and Tilla Waters' work.  I love the muted blue grey east coast seascape feel, which is put into beautiful relief by the bright orange.

I've been playing with fluorescent orange quite a bit recently, and so their ceramics inspired this sample - not sure I'd have thought of putting these colours together previously, but I do like them and it's definitely something I want to pursue.

Silk shading

I'm trying to convince myself that I like the new technique we started learning last week: silk shading.  It's so tiny, ridiculously small, which means it takes forever, and then the finished piece is just ... flat.   

I know, the whole point is to create light and dark through shading, but it just does nothing for me.  I have consoled myself by choosing colours I like for this exercise (inspired by agave and echeveria plants), but I'm still not sure it makes up for the fact it took a day and a half. 

Beatrix Potter

Quite some time ago I promised Beatrix Potter 'name' pictures for two young friends of ours.  I have finally got them finished (who would have thought hedgehog spines would be quite so time-consuming?).  The second one has yet to be framed and stretched, but I'm awaiting any last-minute suggestions from OH, and wanted to blog about them now.

The lettering is done using Caran D'Ache water-soluble pencils (so in effect watercolour paint), overlaid with seeding. 

All of the figures are appliqued, padded with toy stuffing and then embellished with stitch.

Jemima Puddleduck's bonnet was a piece of shaped felt folded and stitched into place and her 'coat' is a piece of printed cotton fabric with detached chain stitch.  The hollyhocks are more Caran D'Ache, with embroidery on top. 
 

Mrs Tiggywinkle is more applique, her bonnet and apron are from a recycled laundry bag and her blouse (and bloomers hung out to dry) are from an old bra(!).  The laundry basket was a variation on basket-weave stitch and the socks on the washing line were my first success with needle-felting.  After much trial and error and suggestions from many different friends (various threads, wire, paintbrush bristles, wood splinters ...) I used bristles from a (brand new) scrubbing brush.
 

Penguin plethora

Have been meaning to post all Christmas and it's not happened, so thought I'd do a Twelfth Night post.

Both of these were Christmas presents - the lovely Scandinavian tree from a friend, and the penguins from me to OH, courtesy of the V&A shop.  Both are my kind of design - I like the foldable, interlocking elements, not to mention the clean lines and simplicity.

Happy new year.

Happy Thanksgiving

A happy thanksgiving to American family and friends.

Apparently these decorations are the type of thing young American kids make for Thanksgiving.  The tail and wings are made from hand shapes, and the body from footprints (needless to say, I made these smaller than my own hands and feet!)

Birthday bunting

Birthday card for my god-daughter, machine stitched fabric scraps on textured paper.  The design was inspired by Just Another Hangup's makeup bag.

Peapods

This is from Day 2 of my print-making workshop, more lino-cutting. 

The image is from an Elizabethan design book: apparently peapods were a popular design motif at that time, in common with other plants and flowers. 

Plants were often used not just for their aesthetic appeal, but as metaphors for all elements of life.   In keeping with the more bawdy portrayals of Elizabethan society, peapods were reknown for their phallic symbolism.  I can almost hear the Blackadder theme music striking up.