Ciara Healy

Ciara Healy- Butterflies

Georgia Russell

Georgia Russell- Portrait I and II

Karen Logan

Karen Logan- scalpel cut wallpaper

Yesterday I was lucky enough to take a train trip to Chichester with my good friend Heather. We visited art galleries, cook shops and cafes. I'm going to post some of the photos I took at the first gallery- The Otter Gallery is housed in the same building as Chichester University library- it's a small gallery but it's hosting a show that's well worth checking out. "Cut it Out' features work from a selection of contemporary paper cut artists and runs until 19th July.

there wasn't much info about the artists at the show, but i've just noticed that Karen Logan has also created a series of hankies with embroidered text on them:

I wish my embroidery was that good- she has recreated the handwriting from original letters and used backstitch to stitch the messages onto hankies.

ps- it's just dawned on me that the reason i've not been blogging much (apart from the exhibition and Uni deadlines) is because my mouse is pretty much broken- it means that everything takes so much more effort and I get frustrated if I spend too long using the computer. I know the solution would be to buy a new one, but in the mean time i've stuck it together with gaffer tape and keep my fingers crossed it holds out.

Cross posted from Calm Air All Ice

You can pick a set of 4 hand screen printed 1" badges for just £3 by clicking on the image above, or heading over to Folksy. I'm giving Folksy a try for a while as dealing in my own currency is so much easier! However- don't be put off if you don't live in the UK, I ship to everywhere on the planet and accept Paypal in a multitude of currencies.

These badges are made in a limited edition of 24 sets, and as several sets sold during the week of our exhibition if you want to get your hands on some you better act fast. Each set is slightly different due to it's hand made nature.

I'm going to be listing more items for sale over the next few days, soon as I'm 100% recovered from the show!

Thanks to everyone who came to visit us- it was lovely to meet some fellow bloggers, and the feedback we both got was really positive...now we just have to wait until October until we do it all over again.

whilst i'm not at room212

As well as getting things organised for Calm Air All Ice, i've had this project on the go- it's a dirty screen, hiding dirty hankies. My deadline for Uni is tomorrow, which meant some juggling when it came to making work for both shows, but both are up now and it's just a matter of wait and see how things turn out. Tonight I think I should really just have a nice bath and early bed, but of course there's all those last minute tweaks to be done before I can head to bed.

Claire is in the gallery tomorrow- do pop in and say hello if you are in Bristol. Full details are over on our blog, including transport details and a map.

Calm air all ice- open for business

I would've updated these yesterday, but after getting home I was just about fit for a bath and bed. Claire and I have both taken photos, some of which are on our blog, others in our flickr sets- we've had bad weather which hasn't made photo conditions that brilliant, but I hope you get the feel of things. Claire will be in the gallery for Wed and Thurs, and we'll both be there on Fri and Sat- on Saturday I shall be providing a big pile of paper, coloured pens and instructions on how to make your own fortune tellers- i'm hoping that by the evening's closing party we have a window full of them. I'm equally happy to teach small children and grown adults, so please come and join us!

Installation day

I'm worried I don't have enough work to go up, i'm nursing a burnt finger and it's horrible weather today. Other than that it's all systems go for installation of our exhibition- this time tomorrow I shall be sitting in the gallery surrounded by Claire and I's work and hoping for visitors.

In a break from my normal programming...

I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about an upcoming information session about how to join the London Rollergirls. If I lived nearer London i'd be at every bout cheering them on (especially Grrim Rita), but as it is I try and get to as many bouts as I can. I don't think i'd ever be able to make it as a Rollergirl, but maybe YOU could?

We will be holding an information session for anyone interested in joining the London Rollergirls as a new skater. It will be held at 4:30pm on Saturday, 23rd May, at Duke of Edinburgh pub in Brixton. After the info session, you are invited to stay and watch our practice at Brixton Leisure Centre, which will start at 6:00pm.

Topics to be covered will include the following:
- Intro to the London Rollergirls
- Structure of new skater training
- LRG membership/policies
- What skates/kit to get and where to get it
- Answers to your questions!

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to info@londonrollergirls.com

so that we can get an idea of how many people to expect. If you can't attend this info session but still want to come to our new skater intake/training, send an e-mail letting us know.

Our new skater training will start on Sunday, 14 June, but you will get all the details of that at the info session!

Venue details:
Duke of Edinburgh
204 Ferndale Rd
Brixton, London
SW9 8AG

Thankyou Mr X Stitch!

Thankyou to the wonderful Mr X Stitch for a most excellent post about our upcoming exhibition (opening in just three days!). It's super nice to see how other people view our work- looking forward to hearing from more people over the next ten days.

Thankyou Poppytalk!

A big thank you to the lovely Poppytalk for mentioning our exhibition- Poppytalk is one of our favourite blogs so it's super double nice to get mentioned on it. You can also check out an interview with Claire from a while back.

I really loved how these hankies looked as they were drying in the evening sun. Shame I still have to iron them all.

All the rage magazine

Some of my photos are in this month's All the Rage magazine, which you can check out by hopping along to the website, or by downloading the pdf.

wash day

I have nearly 100 hankies that need to be hand washed, dried, ironed, starched and sorted into neat piles in time for the exhibtion next week. I can't believe it that in just one week's time the show will be up and open and it will be too late to worry about it any more! Today I spent part of this morning washing hankies, and now the first batch are drying in the sun. I wish I had a washing line about a million miles long- you'd be surprised how much space 100 hankies take up when they are put end to end.

The exhibition is one of the reasons for lack of updates, the other reasons include migraines (not good), making power point presentations (not brilliant) and acquring a new cat (very good).

Tabitha came from the RSPCA and at the moment has decided she is perfectly happy to just live in the conservatory. I hope that she becomes a little braver over the next few weeks and ventures in to join me in the rest of the house, but at the moment at least I have an excuse to eat breakfast out there in the morning.

Thinking in colour

I tend to think of myself as working mainly in monochrome, but recently it seems I have branched out into colour. Over the last few weeks i've been busy screen printing some red/yellow/green/blue prints and I surprised myself with how well I adapted to working with colour. I hand mixed all the inks and I was really pleased with how well they came out.

The top image is the sheet of paper I used when I was cleaning the excess ink from the screen- each new colour was overlaid and what started off as just a way to clean up has ended up being a piece of work in it's own right.

The round circles are on their way to be made into 1" badges that will be available at the Calm Air All Ice exhibition, and I loved how they looked all laid out ready to be made up. I also loved how the scraps of paper looked in a pile on the floor- they really reminded me of the books that Mark Pawson makes from his badge making left overs.

The incredible print show!

There's lots happening today- one of the things happening is the opening of The Incredible Print Show at artstream. I'm delighted to be part of this show- I have six prints included and am in really great company. All the work is available for sale via the shop and the show runs until the end of June so if you are in the Rochester, NH area please pop in and visit.