Wednesday 29 May 2013

Let's Go Retro!

I have a real love of car boot sales and charity shops, you never know what you're going to find. Last weekend I had a good haul. Saturday morning at the car boot provided me with a beautiful piece of screen printed fabric (1970s) and Sunday I was lucky enough to come across a 1970s floral tea tray and... some Mills and Boon books. Ok, I bought the books purely for the cover art work. I am trying to read one at the moment but I must admit I'm struggling. I love 1970s design and artwork but I don't like 1970s attitudes! Enough said. Mind you, I have got 3 books so maybe I'll try a different one and see how I get on. I wanted to like the story inside the book, I really did...

Stunning design, puts me in mind of the Biba fashion house

As you can see its a big piece of fabric!
I've not decided what I'm going to make with it yet
 
My lucky finds from the charity shop
 
Classic Mills and Boon cover art
I really should have removed price stickers before taking this photo!


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Jewellery from a found object

I'm trying to get out and walk more so instead of taking the car to my local shops if the weather is agreeable I will walk instead. One of the benefits (apart from the obvious health/exercise of course) is that sometimes I will find interesting objects discarded on the ground. One lucky find was a heart shaped key ring, I couldn't just leave it there, as soon as I found it I saw a dramatic piece of jewellery, so here it is...

 This is the heart exactly as I found it,
I'm guessing it was a key ring in a former life
 
Creating the pendant bail
 

Add a selection of beads and charms
 and a piece of jewellery is created

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Spring is here!!!

I have a tendency to "hibernate" during winter, hence the lack of blog posts recently (3 months is it?!) But Spring has now arrived so its time to get back out there! Now that the weather is a bit warmer I've been able to move into my new workshop (it was just too cold this winter even with the heater on full blast) I've re-decorated and I'm planning on spending a lot of time in here creating :-) Its been too long!!!!

My lovely new workshop
 
I've made an effort to personalise my workspace and make it a nice place to spend time, I brought down some of my favourite pieces of artwork to make me feel at home and to inspire me creatively. I'd like to draw your attention to the picture under the siamese cat, I was lucky enough to win this back in February. The artist is Anna Watkins and you can see more of her work here
www.annawatkins-artist.co.uk
 
Artwork by Anna Watkins
 
I found Anna via Facebook, one of my friends was a fan of her page (social networking actually does work!) You can follow this link to follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/annawatkinsartist  I highly recommend that you take a look. As well as creating beautiful artwork Anna promotes self development, well being and positivity through creating art, and her blog The Creative Path makes interesting reading ( I recommend her post "Spring Cleaning" for all you clutterbugs out there, I found it most useful) She also runs courses and workshops at her studio in Buckinghamshire - see website for details. So why not see for yourself and take a look at her website now, you'll be glad that you did.
 
Miniature picture that Anna very kindly painted for my Mum 
 
Oh and one more thing to prove that Spring really is here... Today just before settling down to write this blog post I was lucky enough to see a deer right outside my house, I just happened to have my camera to hand because I'd been taking photos for this post.
 
Beautiful - I feel very lucky to have seen him!