Trip to the British Museum

On the 6th Feb I joined a textile trip to the British museum to see the Grayson Perry exhibition. I thought the exhibition was brilliant and as a maker and (hopefully) a fellow crafts person I understood the thought process behind it perfectly. It has been called a 'defining exhibition of our time' and I do hope that it has done something to bring the craftspeople and the skill behind the art into the spotlight.

On a lighter note we also got see Alan Measles stunt double and the bike that him and Perry rode through Germany on.

The museum itself is a wonderful mix of classical and contemporary architecture and is a wonderful space to be in.

It was a brilliant, thought provoking and inspiring day. The British museum is definitely worth a visit, and its mostly free!

Snow day!

On the 4th and 5th of February we awoke to 4 or 5 inches of snow! I can be very childish when it comes to snow, including checking outside the window that it's still there during the night and being the first one (not forgetting my dragged out of bed other half) outside at half 7 in the morning! Even more impressive when you learn I live at a school and in the same house as several under 10s (some of which had never seen snow before!)

These pictures were taken in the school grounds, we basically had a private park all to ourselves all day! After playing in the snow, making snow angels and sledging all morning we retired to snuggle in the warm with a bacon sandwich. Perfect!

Amongst many other animal prints in the snow, we came across what we presumed to be a very confused moorhen!

3d Paper Mushroom Experiments

These experiments were made at the end of January (sorry its another late one)

The first selection of experiments are made using an origami technique called crumpling. I really want to look into this further and perhaps use the technique to create a large amount of multiples somehow attached? Food for thought.....

Paper pulp made from brown paper, shaped and scored. This is really quite effective, I like the idea of doing a series with the lines and textures inside the vessel rather on the outside.......

Small experiment using simply folded handmade paper to create a mushroom shape.

First experiments with embossing mushroom inspired shapes and lines into some handmade cotton linter. These have given me lots more inspiration. Watch this space.......

And another one.......

Seems ive lost any track of order teehee! Another post written at the beginning of January and slightly before the finished curtains! O well, here goes.....

Had the greatest weekend with the man.

We've had many jobs we've been meaning to do around the flat for some time now and this weekend we finally did them! (including cleaning my troublesome but now lovely metal framed windows) just a few bits of furniture to buy, a micro oven and a lick of paint and we will be finished! I can't wait for adam to move in and to make it officially our home. After this weekend it's definitely getting there!

Today was another quite typical day as an art and textile technician but involved more walking than usual! One of the main teaching corridors in this school stretches for just over 1/3 of a mile and I have been up and down the entire length of it at least 5 times today. Its display changeover time at the moment including all the garments on mannequins! Plenty of pins involved today!

I did aim to be in the studio this evening but have been so tired I couldnt face it. Instead I picked up my fabric and lining for my curtains and brought them back to my flat to iron and pin ready to sew. I'm using some of my favourite fabric from ikea, a white on grey starburst design. I will post a picture when i have managed to get them sewn and hung!

Well as is custom with the new year I have made a resolution and decided to try and improve my fitness. Tomorrow I will be attending my first kick boxing class. Although I am concerned I may die a death I'm actually looking forward to it! So let's see how it goes!

Heres one I made earlier......

This post was written on the 9th January, my first day back after the Christmas break. I'm only just getting round to putting it up here. Apologies!

First day back at work with the kiddy winks. Forgot how much I love my job!! Yesterday's efforts clearing the textiles (messy) cupboard have already been paying off! I should have taken a before and after photo!!

A typical day today as an art and textile technician. Putting up new artwork, ordering supplies, designing posters, general sorting and paper chopping. Then after a lovely lunch finished with a warming crumble (mmmmmmm) it was off to textiles. A spot of finishing and displaying swimsuit designs, folder organising, more paper chopping, general helping out and discussing girls portfolios finished my day.

Crafting wise I just want to get back into the studio and sort and make! Will hopefully make it in tomorrow after work. This evening and yesterday evening I have made a couple of needle felted birds, one of which was a request from my friend inspired by charley harpers illustrations of red cardinals. I think they are so lovely and I love the process, I'm going to invest in some more supplies and different needles so I can experiment further.

On a separate note I must get my mushroom project back on the road, 3d here we come!

Another little resolution for this year is that i must make more of an effort with the little winks that live downstairs, they are just so lovely!

I will end this with one last comment about the weather. As I live in an attic flat I seem to feel the weather more than most and am wishing the typical british weather of wind and rain would go away!

It's been a while.......

It's been quite a while and I have a lot of things to update! Luckily I have been taking small notes about what I have been up too so here goes!

During the winter term at the school the art department has been running a life drawing workshop. After much thought I realised that I hadn't done any life drawing since collage which was a good 5 ish years ago (scary stuff!) At first it did feel like I was back to square one but I soon got into the rhythm of things and loved it! The classes were great and I had great fun trying out different techniques and even painting (another thing I haven't done for I don't know how long!)

I have included a few of my favourites.

Another little project I finally completed over this week (12th Jan) was to make a pair of curtains for my bedroom using some ikea fabric that has been sitting on my pile for ages. The fabric was the perfect size and I'm so pleased with them!

Well that's it for this post, have much more to come......