bye bye friend

My friend Aaron is heading off to Canada to be with his lady love tomorrow, so tonight you are invited to join us at Spike Island as we listen to his band and say good bye. I hope I don't have a cry.

I made a zine!

Some pages from my latest zine- created thanks to the fact I signed up for a 2 week art zine swap over on Swap-Bot. It's the first time i've really used my printer for making a zine and i'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner- the quality is really great! I think I could probably even use this printer to print off copies of some of my paintings and they wouldn't look too shabby.

I recently finished making 25 copies of my other new zine for the Generic Zine Exchange, and nearly bankrupted myself in the process, using a colour photo-copier to do the colour pages with. If only i'd known how nice my printer is I could've saved myself a lot of money!

At the moment i've not put any copies in my shop, but if you're interested in getting your paws on one let me know. There'll certainly be a copy in the selection of goodies for the 510th post giveaway!

Giveaways and celebrating 500 posts.

A while ago I noticed that I was nearing my 500th post on this blog and I thought that really I should organise some sort of giveaway for you dear readers. Whilst catching up on reading other people's blogs today I saw that Susan is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 3 year blogoversary (here it is) and that reminded me about my plans to organise something for my 500th post.

So I checked and it would appear that I already made my 500th post (here it is) which means I need to think of another way of thanking you for sticking with me.

It's another 8 months until I celebrate my 3rd birthday here, so I decided I need to pick another number and say that in order to celebrate 510 posts in this blog I will be hosting a giveaway very soon, in 5 posts time (which given the erratic way I write in here could be later today, or several weeks away). Either way 510 it is- so keep your eyes peeled and I will let you know when the time comes.

You'll be in for a selection of zines, perhaps a print or two and of course there will be one of my lovely doll face brooches as well.

Art & Gift Sale this weekend

It's sometimes a bit hard for me to accept I don't actually live in California- I am lucky enough to know some very talented people there and in my head I sometimes forget I don't live there. If I did live there, and was anywhere near this I would be attending this event this weekend:

Where:

Center for the Arts Eagle Rock

2225 Colorado Blvd.

Los Angeles CA 90041

When:

November 30th 10am - 5pm Sunday

Who:

Michelle Caplan, Tyn Atol, Emilyn Eto, David McNutt, Madeleine Zygarewicz, Michelle Moode, Joe Carrion, Jocelyn Webb Pedersen, Random Nicole, Maria Rinaldi, Edie Marrs, Pete Carrillo, Ronn Payne, Jennifer Rowland, Denise Young,Tamera McMahon, Paul Murray, Susan Swathout, Terri Wagener, and Edith Abeyta who is allowing me to take part from the comfort of my own home, by including a selection of some of my work alongside her own.

Pie, plates, letterpress, prints, Mini paintings, collage art, ceramics, jewelry, soy candles, lotions & potions, unique knits, silk screens, eco-apparel, and more.

Live Musical performances by Chanel May on Harp, Tim Yalda & Sean Chong guitar duet, Vertigo Road, folk guitar, Will Salmon on Flute, Irene Salazar, Vocals and flute, Cynthia Speer Jazz and Ann Likes Red- Acoustical Rock Holiday Tunes!

BUST Craftacular!

It's getting nearer! More details soon, but in the meantime here's some names to keep you interested...

Tatty Devine are running a Craft Clinic
Venture into the world of Bobby Dazzler
Accessories from the lovely Anna at Custom Made
Jewellery from Lady Luck Rules OK
Handcrafted leather jewellery Love from Hetty and Dave (as seen on Amy Winehouse)
Pom-poms for peace with Amy Lamé
Monsters Made by Kate
Jewellery treats from Eclectic Eccentricity

...and then of course there's ME! I'll be setting up shop with a badge making production line where you will be able to make your own one of a kind 1" badge for a mere £1- everything will be provided for your badge making pleasure, but if you have anything you want to turn into a badge feel free to bring it along. I am going to take along a few of my own little lovelies, and some pre-made badges for those without a crafty bone in their body, but i'm not going to be selling my own work basically, which I have to say is a wonderful relief! After visiting the craft and vintage fair last weekend I remembered how much effort goes into selling at these events and i'm not sure i'm up to the job any more.

searching for colour

I feel like I really struggle with using colour. Other people seem to think i'm pretty good at it, but I feel safest when I stick with black and white. Sometimes I might veer into brown paper and off-white masking tape territory, but mainly I stick with black and white.

Today the light was amazing so as I had things I had to get done I thought i'd search out some colour while I was on my travels and this is the result. Looking at it un-nerves me a bit because it feels so unlike my normal colour palette, but I tried to stick with bright colours that were really singing out today. It's amazing how nice a bin or a bollard can look when the light is right.

The full sized images are here in my searching for colour set on Flickr.

jam packed

Busy busy busy weekend...

leaving home on Friday afternoon there was an amazing sunset over the town hall

On Friday I went to visit the ever lovely Alys P and spent the evening in the company of my new comedy boyfriend David O'Doherty. (He doesn't have a say in the matter) Alys filmed me* talking about why I liked him, and i'd have to say it was probably the dinosaurs that swung it. Anyway I was far too shy to talk to him so instead I shall just urge you all to go see him on his Uk tour and pass on the news to him yourselves.

Actually before I even got to Alys' house (which is gorgeous) i'd seen my friends Mr_Hopkinson, Mr Bugs and Tom Marshman at the Arnolfini opening for the new exhibition 'Super Toys'.

(and also Brian Aldiss, but I didn't know at the time so it probably doesn't count)

On Saturday Alys and I got taken on an exciting adventure to a village hall in deepest darkest Gloucestershire (the edge of Bristol really) where we ate a great deal of cake, drank tea and scored top finds from the vintage/crafty sellers there. I'm flattening my amazing seaweed print out at the moment- but i'll take a photo soon to show you, because i'm sure you'll like seaweed as much as me.

Saturday afternoon was spent with Chipfork visiting all the charity shops between the Downs and the centre and borrowing a tenner to buy an old Ricoh camera because it had a case with it that I liked the look of, and discovering that the camera had a nice pentax lens and was in full working order. Just when i'd been thinking about re-visiting film and paper photos this turns up- I think it's a sign, don't you?

We called in at SNAP where Lucie was just putting the finishing touches to her display of pages from her new calendar

And then back to the Arnolfini where we met up with Jane and snuck in to watch some animations as part of the Brief Encounters short film festival, these are my favourites:

Jeffrey and the Dinosaurs by Christoph Steger



Damaged Goods by one of my favourite artists Barnaby Barford

Today has been spent:

eating cold veggie sausages for breakfast at Jane's house
talking about doing MAs
almost missing breakfast with two of my favourite boys
missing two buses and one train
drawing in train stations
looking at chickens

watching Scooby Doo 2 with my nephew (who rewound any part of the film where Scooby farted and watched it at least 5 times)

I think I was more of a social butterfly this weekend than I have been for months and tomorrow I need to start seriously doing some work- I have new paper to draw/paint on so i'm going to see how I get on with creating a series of small drawings from photos- setting myself a mini target to get through and see how it goes.

*without my knowledge at the time

comedy and maths

Maybe it was because i'd fallen asleep the night before whilst reading Sarah McNeil's awesome zine ' Statistical Analysis of The Things That Happen But Don't Matter and everything else', maybe it was because i'd found a pad of graph paper on the desk next to mine in the studio that morning, maybe it was just because I was really bored...however it happened here are two graph's that I made to represent my pain and frustration over a period of two or three hours. It's been such a long time since I drew a graph I couldn't remember which axis had the constant on and which the changing- but I think I got it right?

So yes...i'm in pain at the moment, and it's frustrating, but what's cheered me up is knowing that tonight i'm going to go and see this man tonight with the lovely Alys. And tomorrow we are going to head out into deepest darkest Gloucestershire with our friend Heather to go and hunt down the Vintage and Handmade Fair

Ok i'll let you know where I was yesterday shall I? I went to Cardiff for the day and visited the Norwegian Sailor's Church in Cardiff Bay, where I had a very lovely cup of tea and a fairy cake. I've wanted to visit the Norwegian Church for years, but never made it there, but yesterday I was pottering around on my own and ended up in their cafe, looking out over the water. The Church dates from 1868 and is now used as an arts centre, there's more info about it's original history here. (Roald Dahl used to worship at the Church with his family, and there's a party every year now on his birthday)

While I was in Cardiff I also took a look at the ceramics in the City Museum and was very taken by this jug- I love how it's covered in different transfer patterns in different colours- a kind of proto-Grayson Perry from the 18th Century.

Can you tell where I went today?

dead sheep and cherry cake

Today would've been a most excellent day for taking the camera out with me while I pottered around, but without it I will have to draw the days events for you:

Don't you wish your day was as action packed as mine?

It's the season of greed and wanting stuff...

The lovely Hanna has got some wonderful collections of vintage book pages, and collage materials up for sale in her Etsy shop at the moment. Last year I bought some supplies from Hanna and they ended up being incorporated into my giant drawing:

Yes somewhere in there are Swedish book pages!

Not only does Hanna make lovely packages of paper for your creative pleasure, she has a book:



you can buy from lulu.com here. (Oh and she has excellent taste in art, as can be seen by the fact she has one of my drawings on her Etsy wishlist!)

Calendars...

As i've been helping Lucie Sheridan print up her Animal Calendar it got me thinking about other calendar's that i've got my eye on at the moment, here's three of them... Whipup.net Calendar featuring 12 talented contributors from here (£13.22/ US/CA$23.75/AU$25.00) Birthday calendar from my super talented friend Jeannette available here.

The annual treat that is a new calendar from Camilla Engman, available here.


I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that Gordon Henderson will have another calendar this year, because his Doomsday Love 2008 calendar has kept me entertained all year.

Now...how many calendars does one person need?

Things I want to buy today...

Clifton Burt's art from 20 x 200

The Election Collection from Chris Piascik

A busy weekend, birthdays, art, knitting and lots and lots of rain

Someone was one





Someone had some (old) art on show at Cafe Kino (that'll be me then)



Someone had some new work on show in Cafe Kino (that'll be Claire Platt)



someone had a very small (and mouldy) pumpkin



someone tried to remember how to knit



And if all that's not enough then today we printed January/February of Lucie's calendar



and September/October

I got totally soaked on more than one occasion today, and came home to find the boiler wasn't working properly, and neither was the toilet. I finally managed to get the boiler going again- filled the bath and soaked in HOT water for a while before using the bath water to flush the toilet. Never let it be said that i'm not d-i-y/crafty/green when it comes to plumbing! Now I need to see if I can fix the toilet, or perhaps maybe the time has finally come to bite the bullet and try and find a plumber who will magic everything right in my house and not charge me too much for it. It certainly would be nice to live in a house with constant hot water/central heating that works and a toilet that flushes...

BUST Craftacular!

BUST magazine is hosting one of it's amazing Craftacular events in London this year, and there's still a few days left to sign up for a stall at it. More details can be found here. Or go straight ahead and sign up for a stall here.

I'm really excited to be able to let you know that I will be running a workshop during the event- which means if you come along you'll get to meet me, and I will help you create a one of a kind badge for your wearing pleasure.

There's going to be stalls from over 25 contemporary makers and shakers from the crafting world, music and dancing til midnight and workshops from all kinds of people, not just me!

Quick Quick

Just a few little bits really quick: The lovely Betsy has a new book out next week, Knitting for Good is available to buy here in the UK or here in the US. This is her first book and she's a bit shy about it, but I think you should all go out and snap up a copy in time for the holidays.

I just discovered the wonderful world of Swap-Bot thanks to noticing that the Cake and Pie/ Freshly Blended holiday ornament swap is being hosted on there this year. Swap-Bot reminds me a LOT of Nervousness.org that I used to be part of many years ago (and is how I first met some very good friends of mine) and so of course I have created an account and signed myself up for a few swaps. Knowing that I have rather a tendency to take on more than I can manage I have limited myself to a couple of simple postcard swaps to get started, and a zine swap.

Look how cute that logo is!
Are any of you using Swap-bot? I have an idea for a swap i'd like to host in the future, so if you're already a member of the site let me know and i'll keep my eyes peeled for you.

Animal Calendar

I spent a very enjoyable few hours today helping Lucie Sheridan print up copies of her new Animal Calendar. It takes quite a while to print 120 things as I now know, and i'll be going back next week to help with some more pages.

The calendar will be for sale at SNAP, here shop and gallery and online at All things original.