Recent papercuts

"This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with and love"

Portraits

My new 'thing' is drawing portraits, it's a really nice challenge to try and capture people on paper. 

A fairy story

Everything's Changing

Everything's changing around here. 

I've resigned from my Duty Managing job, my safety net, so now I am totally reliant on freelance work, which is terrifying and thrilling in equal measure.

We're also moving a week today to a beautiful flat with a garden and a garage. It's just down the road, but might just totally change our lives for the better.

The changes are so positive but still I'm totally thrown by them. Why that is I don't know, I'm just hopeless with change. 

One day maybe we'll move to somewhere like the house I've drawn here, but I think it may be a while. Unless we're really brave and venture beyond the M25!

Weaving for little ones

My Preschoolers produced some lovely dreamcatcher style weavings this morning. To make some at home just cut out circles of card, cut slits of varying depths in them, then use the slits to thread yarns through.
A really nice introduction to threading for little hands, enjoy!

A New York Paper Cut

This paper cut was designed for a couple's first anniversary, they got married in New York. 

It was a really lovely one as I had a totally free reign on the design.

Children's Art Ideas - Buttony Bugs

Pipe cleaners + beads + cut up drinking straws + buttons + googley eyes + imagination = some really cool creatures!

Open Studios

It's done! A lot of planning and three weekends of exhibiting are over. It's been a good year for me and my studio-mate Sam. We sold a good amount of work, received many commissions and had a lot of fun making finger puppets with our visitors.

I was a guest at Sam's lovely studio in her garden (magically converted from a garage!) Where you could see my works alongside Sam's wonderfully weird textile creations, like anemones from another planet.

On being a terrible blogger

I really am a bit hopeless at this blogging lark, I wanted to write something on here at least twice a week, I wanted to do a weekly feature on ideas for making art with children, I've failed to do either of those things.
In my defence I have been awfully busy with making and doing and showing. It's been Harrow Open Studios last weekend and this, which has been a lovely experience and has led to a number of sales and commissions. In between I've been working on paper cut and puppet commissions, running workshops and researching for a musical I'm designing which is going on tour to Australia in the autumn.
I've also squeezed in a 4 day trip to York which was wonderful, and filled with medieval art and architecture, my favourite kind.
So, I shall start my series of catch up blogs with some pictures of a fabulous installation I saw in York - The Temple of a Thousand Bells by Laura Belém in St Mary's Church. Children's art and commissions and open studios to come later.

Children's art on...erm...Thursday!

I'm not very good at this regular feature thing am I? I promised art ideas for children every Tuesday, and now it's Thursday!

Anyway, this week we made butterflies with wooden pegs and paper doilies. Just decorate them as you wish then push the doily into the peg. Nice and simple for little hands.

We also made rather a lot of bunting!

Tomorrow is the private view of the Harrow Open Studios taster exhibition in West House, Pinner Memorial Park so i've been busy trying to get my work ready and framed for that. It's the first time HOS has had a taster exhibition, so fingers crossed it goes well and generates lots of interst in the main event which runs over the following two weekends.

'What do I do now?'

Having a baby is amazing and wonderful and terrifying. When I had my first baby I spent months researching everything about pregnancy and birth and baby-care, we attended NHS classes and NCT classes. The pregnancy seemed to go on forever, the birth was terrifying, the stay in hospital afterwards was miserable.
Then we were suddenly home. With a little baby. The first night we were home we ate pizza and stared at her and thought, what do we do now?
When I drew this I was thinking of those moments.
Sorry for the lack of children's art this week, the ideas will be back next week, I promise!

Childrens' Art Tuesday - Spaghetti Painting!

We did lots of different things today, pictures with leaves, making laminated place mats, caterpillar puppets...

The most fun was had though with the spaghetti painting.

If you'd like to try it just cook some spaghetti until it's just soft, cool down, dunk in some paint and get messy!

Some of the children ended up with something a bit Jackson Pollock-esq...

Others were too busy enjoying the sensory play to worry about the image they created!

It was a big hit!

Drawing, Cutting, Sticking, Colouring

I've been working on some pieces for the Harrow Open Studios Taster Exhibition, here's the story of one of them...

First some drawing.

Then some cutting.

A spot of colouring...

then a break to watch this little girls assembly (she's a star fruit!)

Some rubbing out because those colours were a bit too bright!

Some more cutting.

(with a break halfway through for a spot of baking)

Finished!

Apologies for the not-so-great photos at the moment, I'm having to rely on my phone camera because the battery charger for my proper camera is on the blink.