Alternative Eagle

Dolwyddelan

2012-02-01T15:10:00.003Z

At the weekend, we took another walk, this time a five-mile easy circuit from Dolwyddelan, complete with large picnic. Another lovely day out in the cold, in the company of the husband and my aching uterus.

In other news, I'm getting excited about this printmaking course I'm doing. I shall post pics if I actually create anything I like, but it's been fun so far. It's just a bit of a shame that I shall finish the course, then shortly afterward become too large to pull a screen or anything, followed by being too preoccupied to turn up to the Print Centre at all. I have good intentions, though. Really I do.

The weekend – Amlwch

2012-01-18T13:25:00.000Z

It was freezing on Saturday morning, but I had been going a bit stir crazy at home all week, so the husband and I ventured out to Anglesey for a gentle coastal walk near Amlwch. Needless to say, it was stunningly beautiful out there, helped along by some magnificent sunshine. Because of the unseasonally warm weather we've been having, the gorse was in full bloom, creating a spring-like cheeriness amid the frost. Snacks were gobbled down on a rocky headland overlooking Porth Eilian, and we stopped by the little church at Llaneilian, which had some gorgeous oak carvings and other details dating back to the 12th century. It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

We lunched in Beaumaris and had a wander around the castle there, before heading off to the cinema to watch 'The Iron Lady', followed by a rather enormous dinner at The Austrian Restaurant in Dwgyfylchi. It was a lovely, memorable day with the husband, like a super-date or a glorious excursion on holiday.

On Monday I started a ten week course in printmaking at the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham as an introduction to its facilities so that I can go and use it during open access hours later on. I produced nothing of note. This first day was like a blast from my university past: monoprinting and messing it up. Now we have to think of a theme for the rest of the course and I'm stuck as usual. Some things never change.

Happy New Year! And some happy news...

2012-01-05T12:07:00.000Z

Happy New Year, lovely people! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. I am beyond exhausted already, but for a good reason - we spent Christmas in Leeds and Birmingham, followed by a house party for friends at our house for New Year. It was all fantastic fun, especially our party - the food was mountainous and seemed to please our guests, and we even managed a walk in Rhewl despite some inclement weather. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but late nights and much kitchen activity have taken their toll on me!

No, not the food I cooked, sadly. This is our Boxing Day family feast,

prepared by my super-super-talented Daddy.

In other news, there had to be a reason for my inability to blog with any kind of regularity in the weeks coming up to Christmas. True, my workload was heavy and I was feeling completely uninspired about drawing, our house or anything at all... but... I was also under the influence of a lot of hormones. Yes, that's right. I'm pregnant. Up the duff. Bun in the oven. We are expecting a newcomer to disturb our peaceful life this June and I am, to be frank, shitting bricks. My mother, as you may have guessed, is ecstatic. Her first words upon hearing the news were 'I've been waiting so long!'. I suppose it was about time I relented and got myself into trouble. Needless to say, the husband is gleeful and delighted. I swing between happiness and horror.

There you go. Forgive me if I am a bit absent or absent-minded for the next six months. I shall endeavour to behave like my old self and will most certainly NOT turn this into a baby blog. Bleurgh! (although later on there may be some pregnancy-inspired drawings, should any ideas emerge).

Much love for the New Year.
Kxxx

A Christmas hiatus

2011-12-08T16:58:00.001Z

I could make all sorts of excuses for the lack of activity on this blog but none of them are really good enough. Winter blues, work, crippling exhaustion from the busiest and craziest year of my life so far... yeah, all of those have contributed, but I'm still sorry. I am so grateful that anyone at all turns up to read or look at the stuff I put up here.

I'm going to take a little blog break and not beat myself up over it. I want to rest, to spend time with my darling husband, whose gruelling London placement ends this Christmas, to put up pretty decorations and devise the most spectacular two-day menu for our New Year party with friends. I want to see my family, eat my Dad's cooking, paint the bathroom, finish restoring a wardrobe... so many things! And I'm not going to feel guilty that some things will take second place.

Any people reading this - thank you for a wonderful year. I'll be back in January, hopefully refreshed and ready for an even better year!
xxx

Geological volcano maps

2011-11-24T17:37:00.001Z

These geological maps of volcanoes really caught my eye this afternoon on wired.com. They are like beautiful paintings. I would kill to have one of these on my wall, like our Great Britain map, geek that I am. I have a soft spot for geology from my first degree where I studied geology for two years. Click on the link to see all eleven of them.

Seen via Design for Mankind.

EDIT: in fact, there seems to be a possibility of purchasing some of these maps from the Geological Survey of Japan, although the actual mechanism of buying is somewhat cryptic! I think an e-mail might be the best start...

Christmas cards - attempt no.1

2011-11-18T12:00:00.000Z

It's that awful time of year again. I've got to come up with some ideas for Christmas cards. Here's what I've come up with so far - not quite suitable for the in-laws, I suspect...

I was kind of going for a 'Christmas brain' kind of theme, you know, good food and alcohol, the joy of family, the giving of gifts and general warm conviviality. Needless to say I couldn't summon the good will. I might have puked down my clothes.

Drawn - adulthood 21

2011-11-17T10:40:00.001Z

As usual, I am not making this shit up.

vintage anatomical charts

2011-11-16T09:38:00.001Z

I spotted these lovely vintage anatomical charts on eBay this morning. Starting bid of £140 each, or £150 for the lobster. From this seller. Which one would you have? I'd have the mole!

Hunterian museum

2011-11-15T11:46:00.001Z

It's the usual story around here: when at a loss, go to the Hunterian and draw dead things.

Well, OK, that's not all I've done. I've also been eating a lot, seeing friends, working hard and generally feeling exhausted. This change from autumn into winter has been hitting me harder every year. I just want to hibernate!

Pirate's Life

2011-11-04T15:01:00.002Z

Just a link today: stunning hand-drawn animation for a music video. I wish I had the skill and patience to make something as beautiful as this. Sadly, I get bored just doing a 30 second animation of cat and dog silhouettes. Sigh.

We Cut Corners "Pirate's Life" from Kijek / Adamski on Vimeo.

Have a good weekend, kids.

I'm not dead...

2011-10-26T09:37:00.000+01:00

So I make all these grand promises to post more drawings up and to be a better blogger than I have been during these last few months and what happens? F***loads of work piles in :-( I am wallowing in self-pity here. It's the usual story again... juggling up to three jobs at once and all of them quite demanding. Pity me. If you can.

I'm back doing some more - huzzah! - car parts. This time it's really car parts, like suspension springs and brake discs. My life is thrilling, really it is. And I'm also working on stuff for Tesco and Nationwide. In short, it's all gone a bit crazy.

Nothing much has been happening around here other than work. House progress has been slowly grinding to a halt with too many weekends away, the husband going to Miami on a conference and a general lack of energy. I think the autumnal cold and darker days are getting to me. It is lovely and sunny outside today, but I'm stuck in the coldest and gloomiest room in the house drawing a steering wheel. Someone buy me one of those light box thingies, please.

Hungry

2011-10-10T10:12:00.000+01:00

We ate a lot at the weekend. We also did a lot of painting. It was all very, very good.

this morning

2011-10-07T11:08:00.001+01:00

We were visited by this gentleman (who's been eating all of the Hungarian rye seeds that I've sown for green manure). Didn't have the heart to chase him off.

Sorry things have been quiet on the drawing front. I've recently been collared into working again - this time for Nationwide - and there's quite a lot to do. Maybe I'll be a good girl and draw something fun next week. Have a good weekend, kids.

Oh, and yes, the rug smells.

the house today

2011-10-04T18:41:00.001+01:00

Progress on the house has been slow, with weekends being taken up lately by Helfa Gelf rather than DIY. The changes have been small but significant, and mostly effected by the husband. The change that has brought the warmest glow of pride to his face has been putting new (old) doors on some of the rooms upstairs. The ledge and brace doors that we had felt too 'cottagey' for a house like this. Now we have some freshly hung Victorian four-panel doors instead and they look pretty marvellous compared to what came before. I'm sure no-one else will notice the alteration, but to us it seems dramatic.

These are pictures of our bedroom today. Remember it? We moved into this room nearly four months ago but it remains rather bare and semi-finished. There are a lot of things still wrong with it (crimson velvet hand-me-down curtains anyone?) and that rug I bought reeks rather horribly, but it is at least starting to feel more comfortable. The pictures show a reproduction vintage geological map of the UK (get it here), grey ticking stripe bed linen from The White Company, vintage Welsh blanket, bed from here, our new pair of bedside tables and a chest of drawers that were £40 from a local antiques shop. Slowly but surely, things are getting better.

In other news, I bought this antique Persian Tabriz rug from eBay for £66 yesterday. Doubtless it will smell pretty dubious too, but I am still happy. Whoop!

the weekend

2011-10-03T16:04:00.000+01:00

It was a glorious weekend here in the UK, even in rainy Wales, with temperatures in the upper twenties and sunshine to bask in. It was kind of sad in a way: like watching the death throes of summer, knowing that autumn - nay winter! - is just around the corner. Today it is bright and windy here, with the unnatural heat and humidity starting to dissipate.

Wherever you are, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Ours was one to savour - my first free weekend since August. We started off at the new David Nash exhibition at Oriel Mostyn in Llandudno, which was pretty interesting. I'm not a big fan of sculpture, but I like Nash's processes and how his works continue to evolve even after they have been 'completed'.

Photo from Oriel Mostyn's website.

Next stop was Penmaenmawr, from where we hiked up a hill for a lovely walk amidst neolithic standing stones and stunning views of the coast and mountains. We had a picnic lunch overlooking a bay sprinkled with sailing boats, before completing the walk and returning to the village.

On the main street through Penmaenmawr is an antiques shop called Perry Higgins (the website doesn't seem to be working right now!). Now, I'd heard about this place from some friends, and we passed by it in the car back in May, but nothing prepared me for how incredible it is. It is a warren of a building, with three stories and a warehouse crammed to the rafters with antique furniture, domestic ware and bygones. Everything was beautiful and there was just so much of it that we will have to make a return trip to have a proper rummage through it all. I didn't take any photos, I was so completely overwhelmed, but here are a few photos which I believe are from the website (via here).

We came away with two towel rails, a painted mid-century cabinet which we will use to store linen for now, a pair of bedside tables and a beautiful French bookcase/display cabinet that was a steal for its quality. I may take photos of these things at some point, but you know I'm not very good at that. On top of all this, the owner drove our purchases to our house on the same day! It was all very satisfying.

There. Enough of my jibber jabber for now!

a few things

2011-09-28T12:42:00.000+01:00

Damson crumble, using fruit from our trees, that was so good I nearly wept.

The last of the damsons bobbing in gin, to be ready for Christmas. The colour is jewel-perfect.

Gorgeously scented roses from Jenny - one of them smells like lychees. And flowers from my neighbour.

a long-winded and rambling update

2011-09-22T17:33:00.002+01:00

Hi kids. Yes, I'm here! It's been a hell of a month and after this coming weekend it's all going to change again. Sunday will be the last day that I will be open for Helfa Gelf - if any of you readers made it to my studio over the past month, thank you so, so much for coming.

I have had an immensely enjoyable, exhausting, humbling and encouraging time doing it. I have met a slew of wonderful people: too many to list all of them. Yesterday I mentioned Jenny, but I am also very lucky to have met local artists such as Helen Melvin, who is like a modern-day alchemist, cooking up natural dyes in her studio and making gorgeously rich images with her hand-dyed felt. Further up in the hills is Ruth Thomas, whose collagraph techniques made me wish I could have a go, and even further up are all the talented folk up at the Gales Gathering. I also enjoyed meeting Badge (blog, website), a recent graduate with a fabulously interesting and macabre portfolio of work. His studio mates, Wendy and Susie were also fun and talented.

It has been inspiring to have met so many creative people in such a short space of time. What has struck me over the course of the event is a common desire to support each other as independent artists, that all of us are doubtful sometimes of our own ability and need encouraging every now and then. A meet-up for a natter and a cup of tea is always a good thing too!

So what next? To be honest, I'm not sure. I think I need another holiday! Whatever the case, I am aiming to be back here and blogging more frequently again (don't I sound like a stuck record?).

Jenny Murray

2011-09-20T10:31:00.002+01:00

A little heads-up today for my lovely friend, Jenny Murray, who makes the most beautiful ceramic domestic ware. I went to see her at the Cymru Contemporary Art Fair in Conwy on Saturday, and her studio is just down the road from our house. I couldn't resist buying a bowl and a delightful spoon, and I am sure I will soon fill my house with her work, I love it so much. I don't think she sells online, although she has an empty Etsy shop, which I hope she opens up soon for those of you who can't make it to North Wales!

Trust Toast

2011-09-13T16:27:00.000+01:00

Ah, Toast. You never fail to make me feel better that it's the end of summer. If only I could afford your clothes. Even so, bring on autumn!

On the other hand, this article in the Telegraph about 'catalogue lifestyle anxiety' made me laugh.

All images from Toast.

spending...

2011-09-12T18:27:00.000+01:00

I still have nothing very interesting to show you! We have been spending money. Lots of it.

I finally cracked about having next to no comfortable seating in the house (fourteen - yes, fourteen - dining chairs and only one sofa?!), and bought this three seater sofa from Blue Suntree.

I also bought this rather girly antique rug to go around/under a bed in one of the bedrooms from Magic of Orient on eBay. I know I can make it work!

Helfa Gelf is going really well - I sold an original drawing on Saturday, which I was over the moon about, although I will be a bit sad that it will be leaving me. I adored the couple who bought it, though, so I am sure it will go to a good home.

The dreaded cone

2011-09-06T18:59:00.003+01:00

Something new, just for you.

lost for words

2011-09-05T12:58:00.000+01:00

Things have been a bit crazy around here lately. In-laws, studio prep, some last minute beach visits. I promise things will get back to normal soon (I know I promised a while back...).

New products

2011-08-19T10:54:00.004+01:00

I've got two new things available in my Envelop shop - a tote bag and a cushion.

Playing

2011-08-11T11:02:00.004+01:00

I don't play enough in my work. I usually stick to the things I know and the things I find easy. I am determined to play more and to experiment with new ideas because I'm in danger of getting bored of myself. I was in the studio blowing bubbles with ink the other day and getting very messy. They came out looking like little planets.

I composed an 'about me' page yesterday for the Helfa Gelf open studios next month, and wrote some rather pretentious arty rubbish about what I want to work on in the future. It sounded rather far fetched (I think the word 'philosophy' was used), but it's true - I want to try something new, to explore the ideas that preoccupy me and not to just go with things in my comfort zone. Even though the fun stuff is enjoyable to make and I love making people laugh, I know that I can try other things too.

office chairs

2011-08-09T13:57:00.008+01:00

Sincere apologies for my absence, and the absence of any new work here lately. I have been preoccupied with studio preparations, namely the refurbishment of this beast of a work bench.

Thoughtlessly, I omitted to take photos of it in its original state. Here you can see I've planed off the dark, sticky goo that was deeply ingrained in its top surface. That job took days. I've just finished waxing the top now, and am prepping the base to be painted. It's been a tough job, but it will be such a useful piece of furniture once it's nice and clean!

The other thing that has been preoccupying me at least for the last twenty-four hours is the pursuit of a half-decent-looking office chair. It's a hard life I lead, I tell you. Now I hate most office chairs as a rule but I need something that is adjustable because I have such terrible posture and spend so much time at my desk that I am in danger of damaging myself. So what am I to do? They are so ugly! Of course I like the vintage printers' style chairs, but I wonder if they are any good for your back. I think I need something at least a little more modern.

There is one that I like: godfather of all modern office chairs, the Fred Scott designed Supporto task chair. It looks terribly ordinary in standard 'office' colours of black, grey, blue, but the coloured versions are a joy. I particularly like the low wide back version. Shame that they start at about £800 for a new one, and less for a battered vintage one. Deary me.

Twenty Twenty One, £990

eBay, starting bid £345

eBay, starting bid £125

Image from Supporto.

Image from Spaceist.

my studio

2011-08-01T10:20:00.004+01:00

The previous owners of our house were two artists. One of them used the space above our garage as a painting studio. I haven't introduced you to this space yet, so here is a peek. There are two rooms - the large one at the back where he painted, and a tidier room at the front, with a window, which was more of an office. It's a lovely space, full of light: surely the perfect place for an artist to hole themselves up for a day of creativity.

However, it's not watertight or insect-tight. There is a recent leak in the asbestos roof that has soaked one of the beams and is causing me a bit of anxiety; the beam has sprung some orangey mould that I think will need addressing with some urgency.

It doesn't make me feel terribly creative, being surrounded by piles of dead flies, oil-painty floors, mouldy beams and staples all over every surface. It drives me mad. I like things tidy(ish) and clean. He left an enormous work bench that was covered in layers of oil paint and other unmentionable gunk that I have spent days planing, scraping and sanding off. There were other bits of furniture too - an old armchair, a couple of tables, a small snooker table - and a whole lot of junk including a picture of William Gladstone, piles of unused picture frames and some crockery. In a nutshell, it's a bomb site. A bomb site with potential, but I have a lot of work to do to make it how I want it to be. These photos were taken after several days of junk clearance and hard work, so you can imagine how awful it was before this, perhaps.

The studio and garage are in a building opposite our house - ours is the garage on the left, with the studio above.

In September I will be taking part in Helfa Gelf Art Trail, which is an open studios event for the whole of North Wales. I intend to be ready to welcome guests to this bomb site by then - not like 'finished' ready, but at least minus the dead flies. I am collecting inspiration for the space over on Pinterest, but right now it feels like a million years before I will be able to call this space my workplace. Give me a year to work on it. I'll keep you updated with its progress.

ok, ok...

2011-07-26T10:24:00.003+01:00

So I haven't been as good a girl as I would like to be. It's hard getting back into blogging when you've been away a while. I am off to London tomorrow for a few days of galleries, museums, food and shopping. Meanwhile, I will leave you with a link to new site, Hipshops, which lists some of the coolest shops around the world. I just wish I could visit them all!

Image above: Hay House, Copenhagen, via Hipshops.

Italy

2011-07-19T14:36:00.004+01:00

I'm back from a week in the sunshine. It is raining, but at least my runner beans and squash all survived my absence (they probably do better in my absence!). Italy was glorious, as always.

Things will be back to normal around here now, I hope!

Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore

2011-07-08T10:32:00.005+01:00

Most people know Mervyn Peake for his Gormenghast Trilogy, but few venture beyond those books to discover his talent for drawing and painting. He was an illustrator as well as a writer, bringing to life on paper the products of his extraordinary imagination. I would definitely recommend reading Letters from a Lost Uncle, a fantastically strange and often hilarious series of typed and illustrated 'letters' written by an Arctic explorer to his nephew. It is a work of genius.

I received a notification this morning of a new exhibition of some of the work of Mervyn Peake and his wife Maeve Gilmore, to be held from 9th July until 28th August at Viktor Wynd Fine Art in London. The gallery is associated with the Last Tuesday Society, which you should check out if you're a Londoner - pretty weird and interesting stuff to join in with, if that's your kind of thing.

Images courtesy of Viktor Wynd Fine Art, The Last Tuesday Society, and an unknown source (for the Letters image) on Flickr.

I am off to Italy tomorrow for a week, so it's goodbye until then. I hope to resume more regular blogging once I return - hopefully the work will ease off a bit for the summer and I can spend more time doing my own thing. Pigs might fly.

i'm here!

2011-07-05T14:39:00.004+01:00

Well, I'm here for a few days and then we are off to vegetate for a week in Tuscany. We will be staying at Fattoria San Paolo, an agriturismo with a bio-pool, which is like swimming in a pond, only a bit less murky. I am beyond excited and definitely ready for some lazy days in the heat and a lot of good food.

Everything here has got a bit out of hand - the house is a mess, my studio roof has sprung a leak, and the garden needs attention rather badly. Progress on the house has come to a standstill.

What else has been going on? We went to an absolutely delightful wedding at the weekend where I saw some old school friends. If you happen to be in Llangollen this week for the music Eisteddfod, check out some of my work at the Helfa Gelf stand. Work is easing off at last. I will be back with some more nonsense later this week.

This and that

2011-06-28T18:09:00.004+01:00

Well. I'm nearly there (she says). Merely days away (I hope) from finishing the latest crazy round of work. I have been drawing bits for Honda again, doing some Top Secret character drawing for some anonymous clients, and drawing houses and stuff for a website that I will tell you more about when it's published (which may be a while yet!).

After all this, I plan to be on holiday for a while. I don't know what I will do. I hope that it will be very little. I am bad at doing very little, so probably I'll be messing around in the house, doing a lot of window shopping for things I can't afford and generally wasting time pottering about. Hey, maybe I'll even draw something funny, although I haven't felt funny for a while. We may, if I get my new passport in time, go abroad for a week but we will have to see. I feel a strong urge to go somewhere with some sunshine. Wales is not the place for sunshine. I am finding it hard to form well-considered sentences.

EDIT: Guess what? A new job just landed in my inbox. I think I will say no. Will I be strong enough to say no?

Kate Kanzier

2011-06-21T13:45:00.004+01:00

I see the new collection is up on Kate Kanzier's site. Loving these brogues in brown, but why oh why don't they have it in my size?

Lots of other lovelies too, but I have too little time!

2011-06-21T12:23:00.000+01:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Apologies

2011-06-18T15:22:00.002+01:00

for my absence. Work has taken over my life but an end is in sight soon. Give me another week or two, and I will be back. I hope.

Varoom interview

2011-06-13T12:11:00.004+01:00

Pop over to the AOI's Varoom magazine to read a little interview about my artwork for Honda's recent press ads.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was the best I have had in a very long time - a great group of friends, lots of food and a wild walk (or two) in the countryside. Bliss.

Now back to work!

the weekend

2011-06-06T15:58:00.004+01:00

Did you have a good weekend? I worked all of Saturday and a little of Sunday, so it wasn't amazing, but at least the good weather is back after what has felt like weeks of sodden greyness. The husband worked like a trooper, cleaning, moving stuff, starting on our skirting boards, mowing the neglected lawn and generally trying to make the house feel more like a home. We have seven guests and a baby landing on our doorstep from Thursday onwards, so it will be a hectic weekend. They are friends from when the husband and I were students at Cambridge and I love them all to bits - we are very excited to be hosting our first weekend party at our new house. We are hoping that they won't mind slumming it a bit here although if the weather continues fine, I think we will spend a lot of time outdoors. In other news, we put up a bookcase and unpacked some of our boxes. It felt like a really big step forward. OK, there's no other furniture yet, but we're working on that.

checking in

2011-06-01T09:25:00.002+01:00

Hi all. Sorry things have been a bit quiet lately. I've been a bit busy/tired/distracted. Work continues to pile in. I am meant to complete 60 seconds of animation by Friday afternoon and haven't even started yet (not my fault!), but it's going to be a crazy few days. This may also coincide with the go ahead to colour another six pieces for Honda. I may pop. This could be messy. I need a holiday.

more about me

2011-05-26T11:53:00.004+01:00

I have added a new page to the blog today - you'll find it in the side bar - it's just some more stuff about me, in case you want to know! It even includes a proper picture of me, the horror...

progress

2011-05-24T08:34:00.006+01:00

We started off with a room that looked like Satan's boudoir, all black walls and gloom that rose into a cavernous ceiling.

Hours of stripping, wrecking, plastering and painting later:

Things have gotten a bit out of hand here. I will be briefed for another Honda ad this morning, then I'm off to the dentist for some unpleasantries. We've been trying our best to knock this place into a habitable kind of shape and, with a large group of friends landing on our doorstep on June 11th, we're going to have to make some serious progress quickly! Oh, and some furniture might be nice. It's all marvellous fun, though.

lost the plot

2011-05-23T21:01:00.002+01:00

again.

It's all a bit too much at the moment. I am a bit overwhelmed with stuff. Nothing bad, just stuff.

(Don't ask me why the fox is male. It just is)

DIY lampshade

2011-05-20T09:43:00.000+01:00

Remember this post, when we first found our house? I said in it that there appeared to be a George Nelson bubble lamp in the dusty loft. Well, there was not one, but two of them. Sadly, they were not the originals, just some cheapo copy with nasty gilt nipples on the bottom (instead of the chrome ring). They were torn and the wire had corroded inside, leaving a green stain on the plastic. I was loath to throw them away because I like their shape, so after a bit of dithering I decided to strip the plastic off and to find some new way of using them. I'm always advocating the acts of re-purposing and recycling, so to throw them away would have been wasteful.

Now I've stripped them and cleaned them up I'm wondering what to do. I will certainly spray paint them to cover the corroded parts - white is the colour of choice right now, but I also toyed with the idea of using a colour (Yellow? Blue? Industrial black?) and then simply hanging them like cages over some nice bulbs. But then I'm also wondering if maybe I could get a bit more creative with them - covering them in some way - paper or fabric, plain or patterned? I rather like shades like this one (below) from Gong, so I'm wondering, with the right fabric, whether I could make something similar with my frames? Maybe I could even design a fabric and get it printed onto silk by Spoonflower and use that? Now that would be properly bespoke.

Or maybe they can just be the base for something fantastical (by Hutch Studio) or fun.

What do you think? What would you do?

malfunctioning

2011-05-19T16:29:00.005+01:00

The husband is away for the week (and will be absent weekly until Christmas while he does a work placement in London) and I have resorted to the kind of terrible behaviour that only a single girl can do, namely eating too many biscuits in one sitting and otherwise undernourishing myself. I have overindulged in lentils this week.

stuff and nonsense

2011-05-17T16:58:00.002+01:00

I know I haven't drawn anything in a long while. I'm sorry. I've been working i.e. drawing so much lately that I seem to run out of juice by the time I come to doing something to post up here. This week I'm drawing all sorts of weird things like floodlights and pigeons. Best not to ask.

Images from The Old School Studio

Meanwhile, I came across this amazing space, The Old School Studio, whilst prandling around looking at lighting. It's a photographic studio and location, but it is stuffed with the kind of things I just love - old school posters, mismatching furniture and, of course, great lighting.

If you're in the UK and into industrial style lighting, check out Urban Cottage Industries, which specialises in selling lighting parts, fabric cable and beautiful filament bulbs. I want it all! See their lighting projects (image above) on their blog.

the unmentionables

2011-05-16T12:55:00.000+01:00

Everywhere you go you find people with passions about chairs, tables, lighting, desks, sofas. I am one of those people. But today I wanted to talk about the unmentionable pieces of furniture, the ones that everybody ignores because they don't know what to do about them - namely television cabinets and wardrobes. Have you ever met anyone who has a thing about wardrobes? Have you ever found a TV cabinet, or something that can be used as one, that you really like?

We are having a bit of a dilemma about these things at the moment. We are badly in need of a wardrobe or two, with our clothes currently being rammed haphazardly inside suitcases and boxes. But I find shopping for wardrobes really difficult - they are usually too ornate, too bulky, too shallow, too expensive, the wrong wood, too big to get round a couple of tight corners in the house, or any combination of the above. I've never bought a wardrobe before, having had built-in ones in all the places I've lived since I left university. Have I found any that I love? Well, there are the early 20th century gentlemen's wardrobes with sweet labels on the shelves for ties, underwear and hats, but they are often ugly on the outside or too shallow to have a sensible amount of hanging space in the other half of the wardrobe. I do like very simple linen presses, or old school cupboards - I would just have to adapt the interior with a hanging rail. But I also have a fear of too much wood or, if the piece is painted, I get nervous about veering too close to the 'shabby chic' look. Industrial style lockers are an attractive option to me, but I wonder if they are too hard, too dark, too loft-stylee for a farmhouse? I am bewildered, to say the least.

Get this one here on eBay for £420.

The photo below is of the locker we bought the other week in Manchester. It needs a little bit of love, but I was rather taken by the cheery turquoise and those little red triangles on the front. It's currently languishing in our garage until I grow enough muscle to help the husband bring it into the house (or until we can collar one of our masculine neighbours to help!).

The TV cabinet is a different kettle of fish. Firstly, I don't like large televisions and I hate having them in a position where they're the first object you see when you enter a room, I think they are ugly things that should be put somewhere obscure. Secondly, I pretty much hate anything that is purpose-made to put them and their accompanying, multifarious boxes on. It would be OK if any old cabinet would do, but the thing is, you need at least an open shelf or a glass-fronted door so that the magic moonbeams from the remote control can get to the boxes. So annoying! I suppose you could put the boxes to the side or something, but they are so ugly I would rather have them half-hidden at least. Oh, and then of course there's the cable issue - having to have a hole, or to drill a hole if you can bear it, in the back wall of the stupid thing so you can get your cables through. These kind of things should really not bother me so much, but they do. It's how I am.

This haberdasher's cabinet, from eBay, works for me. Shame it's £700!

So. Tell me your secrets. Anyone. Please. Tell me what to do. What have you got your clothes in? What do you stand your telly on? More importantly, does it look good?

Images from various sources: eBay UK, Pinterest, Maisons du Monde, oh Hello Friend, Design Sponge amongst others. Sorry I haven't credited them individually.

self portrait in Flash on a Thursday afternoon

2011-05-12T14:35:00.000+01:00

I keep thinking it's Friday today. I think this reflects my slightly frazzled mental state.

more Honda

2011-05-10T13:18:00.004+01:00

Another of the Honda ads that I've been illustrating should appear in the weekend papers at some point... Here are some details from a couple of the images:

progress

2011-05-09T11:01:00.004+01:00

Well, progress of a sort. Sometimes you've just got to rip the crap out of a place before you can put anything back. This will be our master bedroom. Remember how it was, with the black, patterned wallpaper? Not much has been done to it since we stripped it, but on Thursday we got a chap in to rip down the walls and ceiling for replastering. Now we have a very large hole that opens up into the roof space. I call this progress.

Did you all have a lovely weekend? We went for a rainy walk to Aber Falls with some friends, ate a lot of food and tried to keep the dust at bay at home. It's a hard life...

loving

2011-05-06T15:17:00.003+01:00

this formica top on this table. It comes with some good PEL style plywood chairs too.

Happy weekend, all!

the weekend

2011-05-03T16:21:00.002+01:00

We had a marvellous, super-long weekend here. I really could get used to a three day working week coupled with a four day weekend. We entertained my family at our new house for the first time on Saturday - it was the most wonderful feeling having my own home again and welcoming guests to it. We spent a good portion of our time sprawled on the lawn in the sunshine and watching my Dad wreak havoc on some poor shrubs with a pair of loppers. He is incorrigible.

The picture above is of me berating the weeds (yes, I talk to plants) in front of the house (actually, I think I was murdering a very junior sycamore). Progress has been slow, given our work commitments and too much time spent in B&Q looking for bolts and screws. God, I hate that place!

On Sunday, we ventured into Manchester to rummage in Empire House Antiques, armed with measurements of every room in the house and with the intention of purchasing some wardrobes and storage. My favourite seller in there was a chap called Andy, who trades under the name of Euro Vintage Industrial (find a small selection of his things here on eBay). I wanted pretty much everything he had, and he kept on bringing out more and more things that I loved. We left, a few hours after our arrival, having bought a set of turquoise lockers, a bookcase from a university archive, two grey industrial pendant lamps, a row of old postal lockers for the kitchen, and - my absolute, absolute favourite - a vintage gymnastics horse like this, but smaller, symmetrical and without the pommels. "What are you going to do with something like that?" Andy asked. I waved my hands around vaguely. "Oh, I dunno, use it in the bedroom for draping clothes over or... just to look at". Read this post on Remodelista to see what I'm getting at. I'm mildly concerned that its base is too wide to fit through some of our doors though! The husband is hiring a van to pick up most of these items this week, so photos will definitely follow.

Image from Alex MacArthur.

If you are in the UK and a fan of Trainspotters, Andy may sell it cheaper. For example, he had some of these lights at a fraction of the price. Contact him via eBay or ask me for his e-mail address.

Two lists for today

2011-04-27T15:42:00.004+01:00

Currently failing to:
Keep my vegetable seedlings alive
Prepare the beds for the surviving veg
Write this blog
Unpack
Make decisions about what to do with this enormous house
Do anything but work
Keep a sensible perspective on all of this!

Succeeding in:
Berating myself for these failures
Composting
Setting up the wormery
Getting worked up about my workload
Moaning a lot
Procrastinating

Hope you are doing better than me at this life business. The poor husband is racking up his brownie points, cooking and cleaning whilst I slave away at my desk. I have a short respite this afternoon and here I am wasting time writing utter drivel when I could be doing something far more useful...

hello. I'm still here...

2011-04-25T10:34:00.004+01:00

Things are a bit out of hand at the moment - I'm working my tits off on new work for Honda whilst trying to see family at Easter and keeping our new house from descending into a wreck. Bear with me. I'll be back soon! Our internet finally started working today, so expect to hear a lot more from me from now on. Happy Easter!

Honda

2011-04-19T13:15:00.003+01:00

You may, in the UK, have seen this ad in the weekend newspapers, for which I drew the illustrations. It was fun, trying my hand at a different style. I'm working on more this week, and will put up more images when the ad has gone to print.

Meanwhile, we don't have internet in our new house - I'm using the neighbours' wireless (with their kind permission, of course!) and I haven't had a chance to get a post together about what we've been doing. As soon as I was available for work again yesterday, the phones started ringing, so I'm a busy bee this week.

Drawn - First dates 06

2011-04-12T11:19:00.002+01:00

One with my old friend, the Garlic Lover.

I'm away from my computer for a week or so whilst we do the big house move, so hopefully (if we can get our internet to work!), I'll see you back here soon! Have a good week, all.

currently watching on eBay

2011-04-09T10:51:00.002+01:00

Industrial wood and metal table from the Netherlands, £599 or best offer.

Vintage German military industrial table £685 or best offer. Ouch!

Vintage painted plaster model of ear, £40 - a good buy, I think!

Another lovely Memlite lamp - Friday's current bid was £1.20. Somehow I think it won't be that cheap for long...

Vintage French school poster £27.50 or best offer - a pretty good price, given how much I've seen them sell for on eBay and in the Paris flea markets! This is the seller.

Sorry, I can't be arsed with eBay links because they expire so quickly, but if you search under the titles I've given the items, they should appear in the listings (unless you're reading this a few weeks after I've posted it, of course!).

Drawn - adulthood 20

2011-04-08T13:22:00.002+01:00

It's Friday and I am faced with the prospect of working this weekend when I wanted to be painting the house with the husband. We move in a week today and there is a LOT to do. Eep!

Have a happy, sunny weekend, all!

life drawing

2011-04-07T10:36:00.002+01:00

Been working on some web banner animation for the past couple of days, so it's been pretty dull here. I managed to go to life drawing for the first time in weeks on Tuesday, though. Eldyne again.

Lighting

2011-04-05T15:50:00.001+01:00

The house is still in a state, but today I seem to be obsessing about lighting. In our old house it wasn't much of an issue because the ceilings were so low that, for the most part, only inset downlighting was possible. In our new place, there is a tall, if not terribly wide, space over the staircase and galleried study (photo above, ignore the loft ladder on the left) that is currently empty and could do with something dramatic to light it up. We also have a 12-foot-high ceiling in the black-papered master bedroom that has no light hanging from it either. Instead, in that room, there is a single, horrible wall lamp positioned in a useless spot. I have a horror of wall lamps, and of the UFO-type of lighting that fits tight against a ceiling. We have at least two of each of those in our new house and they make me feel a bit sick.

So I've been having a think about lighting, and wondering how we can have something fabulous in these spaces without bankrupting ourselves. One of my favourite lighting designers at the moment is Lindsey Adelman. I cannot get enough of these branching pendants: so simple and organic, I think they would work in almost any space. However, I would have to get another mortgage in order to be able to afford them, so I'm considering turning lighting designer and making my own. Lindsey's site has a DIY version of the branching pendant, in case you're a bit handy with electrical bits and bobs. I may rope the husband into this (PhD in electrical engineering? I think he will be useful).

I also spotted this rather delightful confection (above) by Winnie Lui at Rockett St George today. It costs a cool £13,148. I think I could make my own quite easily, don't you? A few trips to the charity shops and boot sales, a rummage in an electrical shop, some bits of fishing wire and hey presto... or maybe not.

In other news, this is the sitting room now. We are moving in next Friday. I get the feeling we will have to work our tits off to make this place even a little bit more ready to receive us!

Happy Friday

2011-04-01T13:48:00.003+01:00

What are you up to this weekend? We have had chunks of our house hacked away this week for the damp course and tanking on the rear wall of the living room. The image above shows the old doorway that used to lead into the house that is attached to the rear of ours. It's a bit of a mess in there to say the least. Whilst the plasterers are finishing off, we will be continuing the difficult task of stripping the stairs. We are using a solvent-free, water based paint stripper that is good, but which is struggling against some paintwork that is probably more than a hundred years old, if not much older. Other than that, we'll be doing a bit of gardening and the rest of the wallpaper stripping. Hooray!

Meanwhile...

2011-03-31T10:24:00.000+01:00

In the midst of all this destruction and rubble, I have been working. Here is a little peek at something I was doing for another car client earlier this week.

a manifesto for life

2011-03-30T11:09:00.001+01:00

Moving house and making a fresh start in a home that we hope to live in for many years (or certainly more than five :-)) gives us the opportunity to furnish, decorate and live in a way that I have been aspiring to for some years now. In our last house, we were a little restricted by space and we always knew that we would move away from it after a couple of years, so there were things that we didn't or couldn't do.

I thought I would set out here some principles and ideas by which I wish to make our home - ideas not only about how I want it to look and feel, but also about how I want to live.

I want to:
Live simply, without too many material possessions
Not be so sad that we have no money to buy expensive furniture (!)
Buy used or recycled where possible
Only buy things that I love or need, preferably both at the same time.
Make more of my own clothes and soft furnishings
Learn how to make pickles
Be better at admin
Keep up with the maintenance of the house
Recycle and compost everything that I can
Get a wormery
Keep chickens
Use fewer nasty chemicals (our septic tank will thank us)
Speak to the neighbours more
Grow more of my own food
Learn how to make sourdough bread
Not be a slave to fashion and trends (says she, talking about sourdough and wormeries...)

I believe that we could all do without mountains of gadgets and big televisions. We have too many cheap clothes, too many unwanted gifts (for the love of god, people, stop giving me idiotic, cheapo crap gifts - I just give them to charity or sell them at the car boot). I feel like I need to spend more time working with my hands, being outdoors, looking at things that aren't on my computer screen. This return to a more traditional way of life - a thrifty, humble life - is what I yearn for, even though I will still want the things that make my life better (uh... dishwasher, car, computer, books). I hope to keep these things to a minimum. I don't own an iPod, iPad, iPhone or any similar time-wasting gizmos - nor do I want one. Austere self-denial is probably a fitting description for the state I wish to live in. Sounds kinda rubbish now I've put it down, but that's just how I am.

It's a bit like this manifesto from The Idler, only less poetic and strident:

Or perhaps it's something like the Pedlars manifesto:

Hey, maybe I'll even edit mine and lay it out as a poster or something. One of these days when I get some time...

I hope you are all well. I will start drawing again soon, I promise.

the little things

2011-03-29T11:48:00.004+01:00

Things left behind, things forgotten and beautiful details, like these shutter catches, have been delighting me for a week now. I am besotted.

And of course the layers of paper and paint (whilst being a bitch to strip off) are quite charming too.

The first week

2011-03-28T10:20:00.000+01:00

Goodness... it's hard to know where to start. We spent last week gutting the house, preparing it to be treated for damp and timber beetle. The weather, up until the weekend, was glorious - weather for alfresco picnic lunches, weather for digging new vegetable beds and making friends with the neighbour's hens (as well as our lovely neighbours!). It really has seemed, despite the hard physical work, like a week in heaven. We have been ripping up carpets, stripping wallpaper and struggling to remove ancient paint from the treads of our staircase. Here are some pictures to get us started:

The room that will be our master bedroom was covered in a patterned black wallpaper. The entire upstairs was carpeted, but the removal of the carpets revealed the most beautiful old floorboards throughout. We knew it probably had floorboards, but we had no idea what condition they would be in. I nearly died, they were so good. They are a bit patchy in colour here and there, and there are random spots of red and orange gloss paint all over, but we are not going to cover them up again with carpet, oh no!

This is a different view of the same room, with some of the paper stripped and a glimpse of the floor.

This is the somewhat cavernous sitting room. It's so big I am starting to have panic attacks about how to use the space, and the fact that we have hardly any furniture. We are going to rattle around in this place!

The stairs, we discovered, seem to have been used for some kind of painterly experiment in orange and yellow. They are going to need some work!

One of the local girls bothered the husband whilst he was digging out the turf. She must have eaten about fifty worms and grubs in one go, the fatty. That said, I've also eaten an enormous amount of food this week, including some delicious scones from one of our neighbours. They have all made us feel really welcome there and I can't wait to move in in three weeks' time.

More next time!

exciting news

2011-03-22T21:14:00.000Z

Remember this and this post, in which I said we had fallen a little bit in love?

And you know how I've been banging on for months about not having a house to play with? Well, on Monday, after nearly a year of wrangling, begging for mortgages, and a lot of harrowing near-collapses (hence my emotional meltdown last week), we finally completed our purchase of a new home - a beautiful, slightly dilapidated country Georgian farmhouse. Here is a picture of the front door key, and no, that's not a freakishly small banana:

We will be very busy doing things to the house over the next few weeks (despite its pretty appearance it needs a lot of work!), but I will be back here every now and then with updates and new pictures, so please keep on popping by to see how we are doing.

Right now, I am deliriously happy and SO excited to finally have a place that we can make into a proper home.

Some friends

2011-03-18T16:02:00.003Z

Hello. Sorry it's been a rather quiet week here - I've been working and getting distracted by other things which I will tell you about next week. Here is a collection of badges that I painted just for fun - it's like a gallery of the creatures that live in my head! Maybe I will put some of these up for sale in my Etsy shop when I have a moment.

Have a marvellous weekend!

Drawn - First dates 05

2011-03-14T10:34:00.000Z

You know, the boy with the overbearing mother. But he doesn't realise she's a psycho.
This was inspired by one of Jeannine's comments on an earlier drawing in this series - the family that's just a little bit too close.

puddled

2011-03-11T14:40:00.004Z

This is a drawing of me last night. I'd say it was a fairly good representation, all in all. I'm a bit better now. A bit more pulled-together, as it were.

Have a lovely weekend!

Meanwhile...

2011-03-10T13:43:00.003Z

Here's a little snippet from another book spread I recently completed for Dorling Kindersley. Best not ask what it's about!

Excuse me while I go and hide in a corner

2011-03-09T16:43:00.003Z

I'm a gibbering wreck this week. As I'm typing now, my hands are shaking. They have been shaking all day and I feel like I'm on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I don't really want to talk about it here, but right now I just feel like I want the whole world to go away, and to crawl into a corner and slowly turn into a puddle of sweat and tears. Please excuse me for a few days whilst I have a mini meltdown. Meanwhile, thanks for visiting! (Don't worry, it's nothing major)

life drawing

2011-03-08T15:44:00.004Z

Tom.

Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was pretty lazy. We didn't even go for a walk in the end (but we did make and eat a lot of pastry)!

lost the plot

2011-03-04T11:07:00.005Z

Thank the lord it's Friday. I have had enough of this week, have you? Here's part of a little something I've been working on for my lovely agents at Jelly:

Hope you have exciting plans for the weekend. I have no idea what we will be doing. Pastry making and maybe a walk somewhere, I think!

life drawing

2011-03-01T17:03:00.004Z

None of these portraits quite capture his likeness, but the central one is possibly the closest. He had an extraordinarily interesting head shape.

Happy Monday!

2011-02-28T10:00:00.005Z

OK. So it doesn't feel like Monday to me. I've been working all weekend, which I don't normally do. I like to keep proper office hours for working - 9 til 6, Monday to Friday - or I think I would go crazy. I can't tell you exactly what I've been working on yet, but here's a sneaky peek of something I drew yesterday. Doesn't look like it from this picture but, ironically, I've been drawing car parts :-)!

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

The serious artist

2011-02-25T10:25:00.000Z

Client: Ikea

I'm in a bit of a maudlin mood about work at the moment. I'm returning to a topic that preoccupies me to an unhealthy degree - what it is to be a true artist. I know that a lot of people who stop by my blog are illustrators themselves, so maybe you will understand what I mean when I say that I wonder sometimes if I'm an artist at all.

Client: Tesco

Client: Fiat

You see, I draw a lot of animals and car parts, and I animate run cycles and dog silhouettes, all on demand and for clients, not myself. It's what I have to do to make a living and a lot of the time it's quite fun. A lot of time is is soul-sapping. When the work isn't coming in thick and fast I have the chance to work on personal projects. And that's when I come unstuck.

I have impulsively signed myself up for the open studios event in North Wales, Helfa Gelf, with the intention of building up a body of my own, what I call 'proper', work before September. It's not that I have to be a painter or sculptor to take part - being an illustrator is just as valid, but I have yearnings to paint and to make more things with my hands and this is a good opportunity to push myself. To this end, I have started to think about what I really want to do, but right now I'm frozen with terror. It's that blank canvas feeling, you know?

It's been a long time since I've seriously sat down and thought about doing something entirely self-directed. What do I want to do? Who am I? What do I want to say? I used to use my sketchbooks at uni as a kind of repository for my 'streams of consciousness' ranting and self-loathing. I wrote much more than I drew in those sketchbooks. It was a way of procrastinating about producing any artwork at all; I was 'thinking'. I'm procrastinating right now by blogging my insecurities rather than addressing them practically.

I look at other artists' work and am preoccupied by a few questions. What is it that compels artists to do what they do; to choose to paint humans or landscapes or whatever? How do they make choices and decisions about where to make a mark, which colour to use, how big a canvas to paint on? How do they know if what they have done is any good? Or is it the case that whatever you do, you have to believe that it's good enough or no-one else will either. Where on earth do I start?

What I do know about myself is that I am obsessed by dead, stuffed, pickled animals, deformities, notions of conservation and preservation, education and display. I like reading about sideshows and freak shows, the circus and the zoo. I am not a serious person and I should value my ability to make people laugh. It's not easy when most 'real' artists seem to take themselves so seriously - am I too flippant to ever be an artist?

I wonder if any of you also feel like this, and what you do to inspire your own work, to give yourself a kick start when the inspiration and self-belief are running a bit low? How do you know if what you are doing is any good, or does that not matter? Please share your thoughts!

Drawn - First dates 04

2011-02-24T10:55:00.002Z

The aggressive paranoid. I imagine that I would behave in just this way on a first date, pointing out my deficiencies (including facial hair) and then forcing them to tell me they dislike them...

Pheasant pattern

2011-02-23T18:19:00.004Z

Here's a new pattern I designed today, with a pair of pheasants in a repeat that took far too long to work out. It's not yet available for sale on Spoonflower, because I haven't approved the test swatch yet, but here's the link to it, and some colour variations too. The toile from before is now available to purchase, though.

I think, depending on how my swatches turn out, I would like to use the pheasant print for some clothes - maybe a dress or something. I lack pattern in my wardrobe, and wearing my own would be fun!

life drawing

2011-02-22T14:52:00.001Z

Dave, today.

Happy Monday!

2011-02-21T14:38:00.002Z

How was your weekend? I ate a LOT of food - at my parents' house for a belated Chinese New Year dinner with some family friends. There was lobster with noodles, amongst about nine different dishes... yum yum. (Photo by my friend, Wai Lo).

a few things for Friday

2011-02-18T11:00:00.002Z

I really should stop shopping for a house that I STILL do not own. Grrrr... I can't help it, I'm sorry. It's driving me nuts, but I can't stop looking for lighting and sofas and chairs for my imaginary new home.

So today I thought I should share a couple of non-housey things instead.

Firstly, I took part in a Secret Valentine exchange, organised by the very sweet Alicia of Alicia Rose (website, blog, Etsy, Twitter). We were each given the address of another participant, and had to send something handmade to them for Valentine's Day. I received my gift from Alicia herself, and I was stunned by her generosity and the loveliness of her gifts. She is a talented embroiderer who makes images using her sewing machine (a technique I have never been able to master) and turns them into art for your walls, cushions, tote bags and all sorts of other goodies. I received some note cards, a lovely lavender sachet and two of her art pieces. Now I definitely want a nice house where I can display these!

In Karen's sewing world, this rabbit, temporarily named Konstantin, came into being as a birthday gift for the husband last weekend. I added the silly Russian hat because his head looked a little bare without anything, and the heart because he lacked colour. All very silly. He only speaks Russian and likes to eat borscht and dumplings.

Have a great weekend, all. I'll try to be a better bunny and do some drawing for the blog next week.

currently obsessing over

2011-02-17T13:02:00.006Z

(via desire to inspire)

Bare light bulb fittings, with enormous globe-shaped filament bulbs. Easy to find over in the US. A bit tougher here in the UK, I'm finding. Here are a few sources I've found:

Muuto E27 light at Made in Design for £59 each.

This bulb in this fitting at Lighting Styles. Maybe swap the black braided flex out for something coloured from here.

Mind you, the husband has a penchant for breaking light fittings by swinging his unwieldy arms too high, so I'd have to install these somewhere out of the way. Hmm.

portraits from the museum

2011-02-15T10:37:00.005Z

Just a few of the ladies and gentlemen I met last Thursday.

Sorry, I've not been particularly inspired to draw anything yet this week.

Manchester Museum and other stuff

2011-02-11T11:27:00.002Z

Yesterday I decided to take a trip into Manchester for a bit of drawing fun, and to get out of the house. I've been working pretty hard for the last week or so, so it was a day off, if you could call drawing for nearly five hours in a museum a 'day off'. I visited the Manchester Museum to draw the stuffed animals and skeletons - one of my favourite subjects.

What fascinates me about them is not so much the animals themselves, but the way in which they are displayed, and the ideas of preservation, education and human curiosity that they represent. A lot of these animals were killed and collected for personal or scientific interest a very long time ago. To shoot some of these species just for your collection is now absolutely unthinkable, when so many are coming close to extinction. Similar ideas interest me about zoos - I have drawn many times in zoos but, whilst their ostensible purpose is to conserve and protect species, sometimes they make me acutely uncomfortable. These thoughts pervade some of my more formal work and I'm hoping that in the coming few months before Helfa Gelf that I will create a body of work that relates to it.

On more frivolous days, I imagine them having conversations with each other:
"So, how was last night?"
"Pretty wild, actually."

For lunch, I met up with the husband to check out the veggie cafe at the Eighth Day health food shop. We shared dhal and a Sri Lankan cashew nut curry, both with brown rice. Absolutely wonderful. They also have a delicious looking take-away at the main shop counter with all sorts of wraps and pies that made my mouth water even after we'd stuffed ourselves full of lunch. If you ever happen to be hanging around the universities in Manchester, this is the place to go (as long as you like high-fibre food!). They even have their own recipe section full of yummy looking dishes.

Have a good weekend!

New work

2011-02-09T14:23:00.001Z

A sneaky peek at a still from the animation I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. Flying giraffes? Oh yes.

Sofa watching again

2011-02-07T15:09:00.002Z

I have been distracted for the last week with thoughts about sofas, and how I so rarely come across ones that I both like and can afford. Even vintage models are out of my reach a lot of the time once you factor in re-upholstery, but it's that retro, classic look that I seem to be hankering after lately. I know, I know, I've written about some of my sofa favourites before, but I have a few more to add to the list today.

In particular, I seem to have fallen a little bit in love with Ernest Race's unusual, dramatically swooping DA1 chairs, especially the tall armchair (above). What do I like about it? It's kind of tongue in cheek, referencing classic features such as the button back and the wing chair, but with those exaggerated curves and playfulness with scale. These rare chairs and sofas now sell for an arm and a leg on eBay and other online sites. Buy some here, for example.

Ernest Race DA1 sofa from Twenty Twenty One.

Here's one that has a similar tidy, designer feel. This one is a 1920s design, the Round Samsas sofa by Carl Malmsten. It costs just about the same as a second-hand car, though!

Get the straight version for a little less (although perhaps not in the pink!)...

Oh dear.

Drawn - First dates 03

2011-02-07T11:28:00.003Z

When you're so nervous that you just blurt out anything that comes into your head. It often turns out to be something that makes you sound like a lunatic.

This one was inspired by one of my best friends, Kat. Anyone got any more suggestions?

Happy Friday

2011-02-04T15:47:00.002Z

Sorry it's been a poor week here. I've been animating giraffes, watching too many things on eBay and eating too many biscuits to have had any bright ideas. Have a lovely weekend.

stuff and nonsense

2011-01-31T10:44:00.006Z

I've been a bit distracted again this week. I have to get my head down and work my tits off until next week on an animation job I'm doing. Boooo... Now what was it that I wanted to say?

We made an exciting discovery last weekend: Empire House Antiques Warehouse in Failsworth, just outside of Manchester. It is a two-storey warehouse crammed with antique furniture and homewares of all kinds at very affordable prices. We could have bought a whole van-load of things if we'd actually been there to buy - a lovely early 20th Century wardrobe with little labels for ties, collars and shirts on the compartments inside; vintage school chairs and stools; old suitcases; industrial lamps. I was hyperventilating, I tell you.

I have applied to take part in the North Wales Helfa Gelf Open Studios event this September. Foolishly, I don't yet have a studio to call my own, but I am determined to have one set up by September so that I can receive visitors. I've got all sorts of ideas for things to do for it, and I can't wait to start working on new work. Hopefully it will provide an incentive and an inspiration for me to try out new things and meet some other artists too! Now all I've got to do is convince myself that I AM an artist, not just some commercial drudge...

currently loving...

2011-01-29T11:02:00.006Z

The new collection at Whistles, especially this dress.

The new collection at Zara. This dress caught my eye.

For the husband, grandad shirts by Magee of Donegal. Even contemplating altering and wearing one of their men's nightshirts as a dress. Too weird? Probably.

See more of what I'm liking on Pinterest.

Drawn - First dates 02

2011-01-28T12:40:00.003Z

The close talker. Nothing much worse than someone invading your space. Thanks to Jessica Gowling for the suggestion (website, twitter).

Have a good weekend, all!

Drawn - First dates 01

2011-01-27T16:55:00.001Z

I don't profess to know much about first dates. I've only been on one.

Truth is, I met my husband when we were students at Cambridge and we were friends for eight months before we started going out with each other. As friends, we went on a geology field trip to Arran, in Scotland, and had such a wonderful week that from then on we were almost inseparable, even though it took another couple of months to actually decide that we liked each other in that way. During those two months, I went on a couple of dates with another chap - a ginger-haired, 6'5, half-Spaniard from Girton College. It didn't last long. And that was it.

I do know, however, that it's not very polite to lunge at someone with your tongue out. This is my new theme: first dates.

need to shake things up!

2011-01-27T10:05:00.004Z

OK. Things have gotten to a point now where I'm just making excuses not to do anything proper - admin, phone calls, pointless online shopping/blog-reading. This is a new year, for heaven's sake! And it's nearly the end of January! What have I achieved? NOTHING. SOD ALL. Jack s***. It's awful.

I need a plan. I want to do so many things but I can't seem to get off my arse and do them. This year I want to:

1. Start painting
2. Work on some ideas for children's picture books (and ACTUALLY do something with them!)
3. Make more stuff for myself - clothes, jewellery and things, rather than buying them.
4. Get back into gardening - I miss my veg patch so badly!
5. Learn something new - I don't know what yet...

This post over at Modish was the inspiration for this.

Meanwhile I am trying to think of some new drawing themes.

QUIT - Loony Lungs

2011-01-25T11:06:00.000Z

You poor people who have to travel to work in the mornings might have picked up a copy of the Metro newspaper today and seen a feature in it about the Loony Lungs viral ad campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi X for the quit-smoking charity, Quit. The full article can be read here, in D&AD Behind the Idea. I was, with the help of my lovely agents at Jelly, the designer and animator for this campaign. It was a hoot making these!

Watch Sky Dive here on YouTube (links to the other two films can be found here too). Thanks to the people at D&AD and Metro.

Drawn - adulthood 19

2011-01-24T15:17:00.002Z

the weekend

2011-01-24T09:59:00.004Z

Hi peeps. I'm still sorry that I've not done any new drawings for the blog yet. Something seems to have gone wrong with my creativity. I think it's a thing called life - I am up to my eyeballs in paperwork and phone calls at the moment, and when I'm not doing that, I am trying to be inspired for a job I'm working on at the moment (failing horribly). How was your weekend? Mine was pleasant, quiet... we went to have a gander at our nearest farm shop on Saturday, and discovered that it is pretty amazing - we didn't bother to go to the supermarket after we'd been there. On Sunday we went to have a nose around a local auction house and to see The King's Speech at the cinema - what a lovely film it is!

That's all I have to report, I'm afraid. I'll see if I can come up with something fun later today.

English Rose kitchens

2011-01-18T08:30:00.011Z

I'm not a massive fan of kitsch-looking stuff, but I recently saw an interiors feature in The Times Magazine, showing a fabulously retro, stripped aluminium kitchen. I had no idea who the maker was, nor anything about it, until I stumbled across English Rose kitchens this morning. They were made in the 1950s by the CSA company, which made the nose-cones for Spitfires during the Second World War, using the excess, post-war aluminium to fabricate the distinctive, curvy kitchen units. They were originally painted in kitsch colours, but I much prefer the more industrial look of the units after they have been stripped, paired with austere tiling and accessories - no pastels, thank you! Here are some images I pulled off the internet today.

Here's a nice cream one, with horrible tiling (IMHO), from Flickr.

This set is for sale via Lassco.

Another cheesy one, but the unit is nice on its own. Via Flickr.

Finally, a stripped and polished one from Source Antiques, the biggest suppliers of these kitchens in the UK. I bet it's a pain in the arse to keep them looking as shiny and un-watermarked as that!

If you fancy some of these for yourself, there is an unrestored set of units for sale on eBay right now, or search Salvoweb for more. John Lewis of Hungerford also make a reproduction version called Crème de la Crème.

the weekend

2011-01-17T13:08:00.003Z

A rain-lashed trip to Barmouth and Dolgoch Falls.

please bear with me

2011-01-14T09:53:00.006Z

Ah. Things are going a bit cockahoop over here. I'm trying to motivate myself to start working properly but keep getting distracted by business matters and phone calls. I'm sorry I've not drawn anything for you yet this year. I promise better things next week.

For now, here's a lovely shop I discovered this morning, selling vintage and French furniture and homewares: Little Paris. Yeah, I'm on a bit of a window shopping binge at the moment and dreaming of having a house to decorate with things I can't afford :-)

I did splurge on a few things at Christmas for the husband, though. This vintage 1950s laundry box, from Country and Chic on eBay, was meant to be the hamper for all the food gifts I got him, but sadly it arrived too late because of the snow. He got it last Saturday instead, as a Ukrainian Christmas present (he's half Ukrainian and we had the whole family over for a traditional feast).

Have a marvellous weekend, all! x

Neon signs

2011-01-13T11:00:00.005Z

Today, after seeing this image from Emma's Design Blogg I'm obsessing over vintage neon signs. Yes, I should be working, but I just can't help myself! I would love a small, relatively subtle one for the kitchen or somewhere just for a bit of kitschy fun, but they aren't cheap! Here are a few I found for sale on the internet:

Oh, and I love that array of knives!

Ikea Toy Stories

2011-01-11T13:55:00.004Z

I illustrated a Facebook app for Ikea, called Toy Stories, just before Christmas. It's an interactive children's book game using five of the toys that are sold in Ikea stores. Basically, you pick a character and a story, and then you write the text to go with the pictures of each story. You can print out the story to keep, to colour in, or you can just save it for later. The husband wrote a hilarious one (at least I thought it was hilarious) for the jungle story.

It's got a few glitches in some of the illustrations but otherwise it's OK. A bit bright for me, but I enjoyed drawing it all the same.

A New Year

2011-01-11T09:28:00.004Z

Last year was pretty crazy. The husband decided to make a career change. We sold our house, moved to Wales, and are still trying to find somewhere to settle. It was a year of upheavals and uncertainty. Our hope for this year is that we find a new place to call home. That's all I want. A proper home.

These two photographs have been taken from some properties for sale in South and West Wales (nowhere near where we are looking to buy!). Isn't the first one in a perfect state of dilapidation? Call me crazy, but I think it's gorgeous.

Happy New Year

2011-01-06T17:53:00.003Z

How was your Christmas? Mine was OK - nothing mindblowing, but good in its own way. Did the usual family stuff, then saw friends for New Year before heading to London to redecorate my old flat. Now I'm exhausted...

I'll be back and blogging again from Monday onwards. Have a good weekend, all.