Monday 6 March 2017

Another day, another skill...

So this year, with a lot more spare/free time from not having a full-time teaching job, I'm trying to increase the subject knowledge I have by doing more creative and versatile skills.  I'm really lucky to not only have a lovely man by my side, but have a man who has a clever dad!  Malcolm is an experienced joiner who is now retired and keen to pass on his knowledge to others.  He has a lathe in his workshop that we made a dibber and bowl on.  It was an amazing experience and I loved learning a new skill that was so much fun!  

 

The first go I had was making a dibber (I did actually make it with his guidance, it just looks like he did all the making as I couldn't photograph myself doing it as well as do it!)  This was an easier feat than making the bowl as it used less tools, it was a great way to get to learn the tools and movement and a good present to give my mum for her birthday this year!


We used Mahogany wood offcuts Malcolm had laying around which had a lovely golden orange finish to them.  We had to make the piece of wood exactly circular first and the begin on the base. 


Once we had finished the base, I sanded it, sealed it and then used some beeswax to shine it up.  The other side of this piece isn't a hollow bowl, it was still a solid piece of wood. 


And here's the finished piece.  Really fun to make and a perfect nibbles bowl!  My brother, who is a carpenter, is very keen to have an attempt at this too.  With all his knowledge, I'm sure it'll be a tad better than mine, but it's not a competition now is it!


And my finished dibber...looks slightly butt-plug like but I am still proud of it!

Wednesday 1 February 2017

It's been a long time...but it's time to start from another beginning

So, it's been a long time, a lot has changed...since I last posted I have my QTS as an Art teacher, I live near Camborne rather than Bude or Plymouth or Launceston or any of the other places I may have landed in the past.  Life is good.  I've come to realise I have far too much time on my hands now, with a job that finishes at half 3 to have any excuse to not get back into my creativity and arty exploration...so here it goes...I really hope this is the start of something new, positive and happiness provoking.

Before I go into too much about what I want to do, I will update you with some (I haven't got many photographs as I am bad) illustrations and creations...


I'm totally into patterns.  I live for patterns.  I've been doing a number of lino print patterns...I will load some of the prints on soon.  I particularly love the 'natural' pattern thing...lots of leaves, shells, feathers etc.  This repeat pattern was a beginning of a design for Christmas paper but I never found anywhere to get it printed...it may be something to screen print?


An old owl board design.  This is currently up in our house as my dearly beloved fell for it, plus I like the little fella too.  Something I did when I was working at a gorgeous ice cream shack in St. Merryn a few summers back.


A more recent piece, going back to my cutting roots when I made this for Della, my good friends newborn.  It's a cover to her Baby memories book.  Again, showing my love for natural shapes and leaves.  I want to do more of this...


Another board design.  This one was my brothers Christmas present to go up in his new house.  It was originally a design for a tattoo, quite simple, monochrome.  Once it was finalised and sent to a tattoo artist to finish, my brother decide better of it, so rather than wasting a good design, I applied it to a board.  This board stressed me out and I still don't feel it's quite right, but he was happy.


And finally, another nature based image, the Christmas card design I drew up of a pine cone.  I really enjoyed drawing this one.  The original now sits in a frame on my mums mantlepiece in her sitting room.

So yeah, I've done lots of lino and life drawing on top of these, I've done lots of gift drawings, half finished pieces and work relating to work so this is me getting back onto the artistic wagon...and I can't wait, let me show you why.

I've booked in to go to Particle Press' open studio, where I can an almost free reign on screen print resources and get some of my ideas printed!  I have wanted to do this for a long while and I am excited to find out that not only do Particle Press do an open studio near me, so do kiwi print studio, and both of these artists I've had the pleasure of being alongside at art fairs.

So the next couple of months I hope to get loads of ideas down and prepped for May (it seems such a long way off, but it's only 3 months!)  I shall keep you updated.  If I get some good work sorted, I will be sure to get myself back into the art fair books.