Something Little...

Pendants just been made! Thank goodness for the end of term...

Ps Jem won my giveaway (but have been too stressed getting to the end of term to even have a free second to tell her..... bad, bad Kathryn)

Jem I will email you! xx

Three Gammy Knees and Some Rather Indulgent Christmas Tree Images

Surviving on cheese and Mars bars until the end of term as I'm tooooo tired to cook! But I have decorated the tree....

For Lucca

A christening gift for the lovely Lucca

Detail showing the layering of fused-glass with the inky lettering below

http://artistsinblogland.blogspot.com/2011/12/show-and-tell-saturday-15.html

Why I Still Search the Back of Every Wardrobe I Come Across...

'Bye Bye Baby' by Janet and Alan Allberg' is a beatuful and poingent story which I have read countless times. This is my favourite illustration and really sums up 'family' to me.

 It's no secret that when I was little I really, really wanted to be a hamster when I grew up... and when I realised that was not going to happen... ever... I set my sights on becoming a children's book illustrator. That has never, ever gone away.

'Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury... Love this meeting of dog and bear!

 I'm lucky because my mum read to me constantly, helped me to construct storybook worlds full of magic and possibilities. My childhood was full of playing, of magical rockinghorses, den building and making things... non-stop making things. I'm very, very lucky.

'Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury... Perfect adventure fodder

 Books are my ultimate source of comfort, especially beautifully illustrated ones... they just transport me to a place that is better... a place where anything could be... When I gave birth to my daughter 5 and a half years ago, I read to her (even in the hospital, when she had not a clue). I wanted her to find comfort in books too, to associate reading with being loved... I have never stopped sharing books with her... and the beautiful thing is that she reads me stories now too... and nothing, but nothing, makes my heart sing more (and do that little flippy thing that is rather akin to being in love). She is still far to young to be introduced to Narnia, but that doesn't stop us searching the back of wardrobes together and stomping through woods...

'Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

 As for being a book illustrator, well it will never happen for me now, but I am very fulfilled the artwork I do... and the mere dream gives me licence to indulge in reading beautiful books every single day...

'Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

'Bye Bye Baby' by Janet and Alan Allberg' And... Isn't this just the most perfect happy ending?!

My Colours of Winter

Some intense, cold blues from Harewood House with my Godmother last weekend. It was a perfect, bleak day with sparse rain, blustery, with the most amazing colours in the Yorkshire countryside, a stunning palette of muted browns and greens. I love winter, it is soooo much more fabulous than summer!

Ps am going to pick the winner of my giveaway later!

Giving my Hearts Away!

I have one of my very lonely hearts to give away to a good home! Open to followers new and old, please just leave a comment reassuring me you would look after it! Ps if you mention it on your blog, then I will smile lots and put your name in the pot twice!

The new home will be picked next Saturday (2nd December!)

Please Don't Break Me (Heart of Glass)

1. Hanging with vintage background

 Three weeks on and I'm still faffing around trying to photograph glass hearts. I've taken on board all the comments and advice that you've all offered, waited (and waited and waited) for sunny days (yes that's right... in November), but the weather has been seriously grim of recent days... anyway... this is where I'm at with the photography! I know none are perfect yet... but as a work in progress... which is best? (apologies for the terrible layout... Blogger is being a nightmare!)

2. plain white, lightly textured (I think I quite like this)

3. Rather pretty background

4. Plain white medium texture (muchy likey, I think)

5. Vintage background on a slant

6.Vintage background, pale (I like)

7. Heavy texture (Prob too heavy) but FAB reflections!

Ooooh the decisions....! (Flaps hands dramatically)

Linking to 'artistsinblogland'http://artistsinblogland.blogspot.com/2011/11/show-and-tell-saturday-12.html

Miss Pinkerton Pecker

Isn't she lovely? She was made by Jooles... I won her on a giveaway on her blog Sew Sweet Violet

I am very, very smitten

Thank you so much Jooles!

Wishing



Personalised fused-glass framed name panels, layered with an inky illustration



Detail showing the layering and stitching



Illustration detail


This week I've been mostly:

• Following the 'ch' diet (chocolate, cheese, chips... classy girly)
• Sobbing spontaenously (slightly unhinged girly)
• Stressing massively (about anything and everything)
• Swearing at my camera (poor thing... I really love it possibly more than life itself!)
• Discovering that no matter how hard I wish that I really don't have a fairy godmother (apparantly most people don't.... but it would really, really make my day) I do however have the most amazing friends who materialize at the exact moment of utter meltdown
• Rediscovering peanut butter on toast (pure, complete comfort)
• Realising that I've taken on too much (mummy, teacher, artist, MA student) and that it has finally, possibly  broken me is too, too much
• Making an idiot of myself in front of LOTS of people (Oh god, take it from me... NEVER to be repeated)
• Running and running until my hips ache
• Doing yoga (I swear it has made me a better, more patient person)
• And... driving my car into the school building... literally (stupid steps... I mean who attaches steps to the outside of a building anyway???!)

Please let next week be better (crosses fingers, toes... everything...)

On the plus side, a huge, enormous, life-changing development... After yearning for a wood-burning stove for my entire adult life... I finally had one fitted this week. And it makes me so, so happy!

Plasterwork is next on the list... then can finally paint walls and sand the floors... 'Project Living Room' is underway!

Suzie has not left the hearth all week!

Linking to http://artistsinblogland.blogspot.com/

Shiny Happy Haul

Christmas decorations and brooches fresh out of the kiln!

Thank you so much for all the support and suggestions for photographing my glass... it's really lifted me and I've spent some time today experimenting (not there yet, but so much more confident that it's now achievable)

Especially thank you to the lovely Fee from Chipper Nelly for the very practical suggestions (please enter her giveaway)... which I'm currently trying out... Will keep you all posted...

Utter Nightmare

I keep slipping into panic. I have just got to get myself sorted with regards to my artwork. Things have changed so much for me this past year and I really don't know which direction to go from here. I've developed my framed, layered glasswork, and give or take, I'm fairly pleased with some pieces. But there is so much more to what I make, wall hangings and jewellery... until April I used to sell all of this work through a beautiful shop called 'Pollyanna', but it closed and I was devastated. I also used to sell a lot at Craft shows, but I just don't have the time anymore. It means that I have never had to rely on marketing myself, taking decent photos etc. But now I need to learn how to do it.

I have spent a frustrating afternoon trying to take images of glass. It's impossible, the light is amazing in reality, but I cannot capture it. The light is the main reason I work with glass, but it just won't photograph. I also don't have a decent enough macro for my camera. (I only managed to get this close in by digging out an ancient lens from the loft after a bout of tears). But it's not good enough. Not smart enough. I need better backgrounds (this was from a Victorian jewellery box I was given for my 30th). I don't know if it distracts too much from the glass, or if the distortions caused by the glass help to show the effect?

I need to find somewhere to sell. This is terribly, terribly hard for me. The thought of walking into a shop and asking if they would consider selling my work, for me is the sheer stuff of nightmares. (The only reason I had work in Pollyanna was because one of my long-suffering friends took it in for me)

But I need decent pictures before I can consider selling anywhere.... oh god this is such a HUUUGE nightmare...

What about online shops? Is it a way forward?

Anywhere but...

(Anywhere but where you are meant to be looking)

 I spend a lot of time and energy trying to enthuse my students. And I love every single minute of it. One of my mantras is that artists are the type of folk who notice details, see beauty or interest in the little things that others would pass right on by. This week I set a photographic task for the AS levellers... they had to find 30 interesting textures or surfaces to photograph around the school site... and they did not let me down... I was so proud each time one of them spotted a beautifully delapidated part of the building and pointed it out with glee! These are some of the shots I took on the school farm...

 

Oh I would really, really love it if the fairies could magic  me a better lens for my camera for Christmas... (pretty please, I really have been so VERY good this year)