Quirky Dreaming

Day three

No one at home this evening so had to find a still life to draw. Here is my mug of brushes and a very old teeny tiny hand painted teapot that I love.

Day two

Today's sketch, long-fingered daughter number two concentrating hard on origami via instructions on her iPhone.

Also, most recent paper cut commission completed and delivered:

Not forgetting a little technical help given to Pat Albeck this morning, and a new leaflet almost designed (well, first proof anyway) for the Walpole Arms, Itteringham. If you are in north Norfolk, go to the Walpole next time you want a meal out. Very nice.

A drawing a day for a month

I know that I should do more proper sketching so I am going to attempt to do a drawing a day for the month of August – a challenge laid down by inkpaintpaper.com.

The rules are:

Draw something, anything, from life – an observational drawing, whatever your style, and then post it somewhere on social media, either on your blog, facebook page, instagram, wherever you usually post things. The twitter hash tag is #ippdailydraw, so you can see what other people are doing.

I'm not particularly proud of my first drawings, done after dark of my dog Willow trying to sleep, but hopefully as the month goes on things will improve!

Why not join in?

Working toward exhibitions

I have taken on too much – I always do – but after this coming weekend things should get a little easier.

The Aldborough Creative group, of which I am a part, is exhibiting with the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios event in May and June. And I offered to help organise a 'Taster' exhibition for the artists in the North Norfolk and Broadland areas. There is a private view this Friday evening and the exhibition then runs over the bank holiday weekend. We have over 70 artists who will be delivering over 180 pieces to us at the Atrium in North Walsham on Thursday afternoon, and then a team of 8 of us will be hanging the exhibition on Friday. I like organising things, but the number of hours I've put into organising this exhibition is verging on ridiculous.

One of the disadvantages is that I have had considerably less time to do any artwork myself. But I did knuckle down to some work last weekend.

I have some lovely thick hand-made Indian cotton rag paper and managed to create a series of pieces in different sizes generally on the theme of 'Under a Golden Moon'. Here is a little 'taster' of my own.

April

It has been a busy month.

Firstly, a deer ran into the side of my car and wrote it off. Not a good start.

On Easter Sunday I was lucky enough to go to the Hockney exhibition with a friend and my daughter. I particularly liked some of his charcoal drawings and the huge series of seasonal paintings in Woldgate woods. I was quite taken aback by his artworks created on an iPad. I wouldn't have believed it possible for him to create digital artwork that was so close in style to his oil paintings.

Lizzy and I went back into London later that week to the private view of an exhibition of artwork by a young artist friend who died a year ago. It was a lovely celebration of his life.

We had a one day auction of Wisdens in Leicester on 14th April...

And the next day, the 15th, was my husband's birthday. His favourite thing to do is to cook a large rib of beef for lots of friends, so that's what we did. I had to put the table diagonally across the room and add a garden table at the end to get everyone in.

I finished my windbreak for the Crab and Lobster Festival and it is now on display at the Henry Blogg museum in Cromer. I must get there to take a photo of it in situ. Here were just a few of the decorated windbreaks at the official launch of the Art Trail.

My chicken run has become incredibly muddy in this recent rain – and it is an enormous run for just four hens so if you only have a small run, don't think that enlarging it will make it less muddy in wet conditions. On a positive note, my scraggy hens are now looking much healthier and coming back into lay.

I have been sharing the organisation of a taster exhibition 'Artipasto' for two of the regional groups of the Norfolk Open Studios event in May/June. This will be held at The Atrium in North Walsham on 5th-7th May and it has taken up quite a lot of my time in terms of getting information from artists, designing a poster and private view invitation, getting them printed and sent out, typesetting all the exhibit cards, planning the exhibition layout, organising an invigilation rota. I have to find three pieces of my own work to show there.

The main taster exhibition started in the Forum in Norwich last night and my exhibit, a paper cut of a moon-gazing hare, sold immediately, which is at least encouragement for me to keep going! 

I had the opportunity to replace the sold piece with a new piece of work, which I did this morning, so my exhibit now looks like this, alongside some very nice work by other artists. The exhibition continues until Thursday 26th April.

I have been trying to make more work to sell at the two Aldborough Creative shows that we have got booked as part of Open Studios, in the villages of Aldborough and Blickling. As well as papercuts, I have been working with acrylics on canvas. Here is something I painted a few weeks ago, and I am continuing to work on a similar theme.

In addition to all that I am enjoying rehearsing 'The Importance of Being Earnest' with the Aldborough Players on Monday and Wednesday evenings in preparation for the production on June 14th-16th. 

A windbreak...

Having been declared the joint winner of the poster competition for the Crab & Lobster festival I also decided to have a go at decorating a windbreak for the Art Trail. I have teamed up with the RNLI Henry Blogg Museum and decorated a windbreak for them. I was inspired by the idea of painting a shoal of fish, but felt I ought to also include something relevant to the museum, which happens to hold the old lifeboat, the H.F. Bailey, which was the boat used by Henry Blogg.

The rest of this blog will be a series of images showing you how I have got to where I am now. You will have to click on the images to get a full view I think. It is almost finished, but I suspect I will be doing more detail on the individual fish.

The background in place.

Over-spraying the shoal of fish.

Ready for some detail.

Nearly finished I guess.

I believe there has to be a crab or lobster in the design, so mine has found a button painted with the RNLI logo.

It has been the best part of two days work, so I I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the museum like it.

Just for birds...

Last night my friend Fiona and I were taken out for a meal to celebrate our birthdays by a very generous girlfriend and we had a lovely time. My birthday was last Saturday, but it wasn't until last night that Fiona surprised me with a homemade gift. If you follow my blog you will know that I have one of Fiona's wonderful felted hats – and I have worn it all winter whenever it has been cold, or even slightly chilly! But this wasn't something for me to wear. She has made me a felted bird house to hang in the hedgerow in my garden and we HOPE that it will make a cosy home for a family of blue tits this spring.

It is beautifully made, and really far too good to hang up in the garden almost out of view, but on the other hand, I want to encourage a bird to use it. So I have been outside this morning, before the predicted torrential rain gets to our corner of Norfolk, and found it a snug place in the crook of a tree stump that is covered with a mass of ivy.

It is high enough up that I had to stand on a chair on the bank below to secure it. I hope that tucked in here it is deep enough in the hedgerow for a bird to take it up, while still allowing me to take a peek occasionally to see if there is any activity.

Now for the rest of the day. I need to make a card for my daughter Jenny's 21st birthday on Wednesday. And I have to make a trip into Cromer to pick up the blank canvas of a windbreak to decorate for the Cromer and Sheringham Crab and Lobster festival. There will be an art trail of decorated wind breaks from April till July – all I have to do is decorate mine in time.

Just for birds...

Last night my friend Fiona and I were taken out for a meal to celebrate our birthdays by a very generous girlfriend and we had a lovely time. My birthday was last Saturday, but it wasn't until last night that Fiona surprised me with a homemade gift. If you follow my blog you will know that I have one of Fiona's wonderful felted hats – and I have worn it all winter whenever it has been cold, or even slightly chilly! But this wasn't something for me to wear. She has made me a felted bird house to hang in the hedgerow in my garden and we HOPE that it will make a cosy home for a family of blue tits this spring.

It is beautifully made, and really far too good to hang up in the garden almost out of view, but on the other hand, I want to encourage a bird to use it. So I have been outside this morning, before the predicted torrential rain gets to our corner of Norfolk, and found it a snug place in the crook of a tree stump that is covered with a mass of ivy.

It is high enough up that I had to stand on a chair on the bank below to secure it. I hope that tucked in here it is deep enough in the hedgerow for a bird to take it up, while still allowing me to take a peek occasionally to see if there is any activity.

Now for the rest of the day. I need to make a card for my daughter Jenny's 21st birthday on Wednesday. And I have to make a trip into Cromer to pick up the blank canvas of a windbreak to decorate for the Cromer and Sheringham Crab and Lobster festival. There will be an art trail of decorated wind breaks from April till July – all I have to do is decorate mine in time.

Meeting the deadline...

Last week I was having some work done by the Sheringham photographer Chris Taylor and he asked me whether I was planning to decorate a windbreak for the Cromer and Sheringham Crab and Lobster Festival this year. A couple of years ago he took an amazing photograph of my decorated lobster which was sited on top of Beeston Bump – probably one of the maddest things I've ever done.

Last year, the competition was to decorate a deck chair – a little more accessible than a lobster! I didn't get around to it but Chris created the infinity deckchair.

So when I got home, I looked up what was happening this year and (apart from the challenge to decorate a windbreak) I discovered that there was a competition to design a poster for the weekend. And today, 29th February, was the deadline.

The poster artwork had to be supplied on paper, not digitally, so that was a good prompt to abandon the computer and start paper-cutting. I spent last Sunday drawing shapes, cutting paper, sticking bits down... It took a few more hours in the evenings this week to finish it off. And I began to wonder WHY I always start these things... I just can't seem to be able to help myself. Anyway, I finally delivered it today and, as the lady I handed it to said, 'I'll add it to the pile, I'm glad I don't have to judge them,' I am guessing there will be some stiff competition.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hare at Blickling Hall

Back on the 7th of January, which was a particularly bright and sunny day, I went for a long walk all around the Blickling estate, taking photographs for inspiration for a new series of paper cuts for 2012.

The rest of January flew by, taken up by 'important things' such as filing my tax return in time, rehearsing a pantomime, entertaining my mother-in-law and my daughter on various visits here and the mammoth task of producing my husband's auction catalogue.

But today, with only a few urgent things on my 'to do' list that I managed to ignore, I finally got around to drawing and cutting out a new design.

It's not the paper cut I thought I was going to make. That one has a barn owl on it and the front of the hall. But this one sort of designed itself without much interference from me. It is here in it's raw state, freshly cut – I will spray it black tomorrow and leave it to dry for a few days before framing it.

I have three exhibitions coming up in May and June, so I need to produce a lot of work over the next couple of months. I wonder what the next one will look like!

Random Spectacular

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the limited edition publication 'Random Spectacular' published by St Judes at the end of last year, but I have only just found the time to sit and look at some of it properly. I had a quick flick through the pages over Christmas, but there were so many people in my little cottage that there was no quiet time to sit and concentrate on something like this, so I tucked it back in it's cardboard sleeve and put it to one side until... mid-February!

And now I am savouring it a bit at a time. I have deliberately avoided reading all the reviews of it so I can just 'enjoy' without someone else's opinion clouding my view.

Firstly, I couldn't resist devouring Mark Hearld's 'Menagerie of Selected Creatures'.

There are eight pages of Mark's loosely drawn/painted/collaged creatures. Apart from the Little Owl, a page I am very tempted to cut out and frame, I think my favourite sketch is the wasp.

His work with the pen on those wings is just so free and flowing. I also love his handwriting. If it was made into a marketable font called 'Hearld Handwriting', I'm sure it would be a winner. Good handwriting fonts are so hard to find.

As a total contrast, I then read the article 'The Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life'. This is about an apparently anonymous author who started his blog back in August 2009 with the words, ' In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London'.

The Gentle Author has challenged himself to write ten thousand stories about Spitalfields life at a rate of one a day over the next twenty-seven years. This, of course, led me to find his blog at www.spitalfieldslife.com. Last night's entry is about a photographer, John Claridge, and includes some fabulous grainy photographs from the East End in the 1960s. This is one of my favourites; grey and grainy, industrial and thick with smoke/dust/fog. And then you spot the bird.

There are also some of John Claridge's portait photographs of everyday people, again from the 60s; a flower seller, a child looking through an upstairs window, an ex-boxer... Take a look.

Looking back through the Gentle Author's recent blog entries, I also particularly like the one titled 'Tif Hunter's Maltby St Portraits'. It is a series of portrait photographs of people working in Maltby Street today. Really good portraiture and a good complement/contrast to the work of John Claridge.

Next I am going to properly read the article (which I have skimmed) about an artists' residency in Andalucia, and enjoy the artwork that Angie Lewin produced there. Here is a slice of it!

Chicken in the porch, goldfinches in the kitchen...

Oops, I haven't started that invoicing yet. I am useless.

It has been like WW3 in the chicken run since I added three new rescue hens to my existing clutch of three last Sunday. Mostly LoobyLoo, otherwise known as 'the one with the white arse' has been at the top of the pecking order, not allowing the new hens, otherwise known as 'the scraggy hens', out of the coop in the morning and regularly pecking and chasing them away from the food.

Two of the 'Scraggy Hens'

But things seem to have taken a turn for the worse for LoobyLoo. She has taken a serious peck to the eye from a scraggy hen who is determined to replace her as 'the hen in charge'. Apparently, once a hen is pecking hard enough to draw blood, things are only likely to go downhill, so I have temporarily isolated LoobyLoo in a dog cage on top of the freezer in the porch to recover in peace.

Unhappy hen

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen I noticed my goldfinch lino prints have dried, so I have signed and numbered them and put a few on my Folksy Quirky Dreaming shop.

I have also tried embellishing some of them with a pearlescent pigment. What do you think?

I am in awe of Jeremy James' new lino print 'Spring Lapwings'. How does he get his edges so crisp and his ink so even? Note to self, must try harder. And that goes for the invoicing too!

Tempted by beauty...

It has to be said, that Facebook has it's uses! When I logged on this morning I discovered that Tamsin Abbott was about to have a sale on facebook of some of her gorgeous stained glass. Just after 10am she put up a whole series of items with good discounts and, having been pipped at the post for the first piece I wanted, I did secure this lovely little piece entitled 'Alice and the Moon'.

I have a tiny window in my kitchen where it will look lovely and I can't wait to hang it there.

If you take a look now, there may still be a few pieces left.

Meanwhile, I have finished the challenge of producing my husband's 136pp auction catalogue, (also available online).

So the rest of today is devoted to invoicing work I've done over the last few weeks, and then I can finally allow myself the time to make the artworks that are buzzing around in my head.

Norfolk Christmas

Here comes one of my 'quick catch up' posts. I was busy just before Christmas making commissioned work which I couldn't show you for obvious reasons. But I guess it is safe now!

I was really pleased with this cutout picture which was commissioned for Marilyn at the Norfolk Children's Book Centre.

I have shown a boy reading with his back to a pear tree, a hare in the foreground and the bookshop and wind turbine in the background. Anyone who knows Marilyn and the book centre will appreciate the references.

I did another pre-Christmas commission which was not in my normal style. One of the most exciting things about it for me was when I sprayed the artwork next to the one above on a sheet of newspaper. When I lifted off the paper cuts I was left with this – too interesting to throw away!

Once my commissions were finished and safely packed off to the new owners, I began decorating the house. Nothing too 'over the top' or artificial this year, just nice natural foliage and flowers mixed with lights and a few stars and snowflakes.

Above, my lovely eldest daughter decorating the tree.

Below, what my friends have irreverently started calling 'Claire's bush'. It is a self-seeded hawthorn tree between our cottage and the road, that I am topiarising into a sphere and which makes the perfect place for some Christmas lights. I usually leave the lights on this tree from the Winter solstice 'till the Spring Equinox – the darkest most depressing months of the year.

I tried to get a photo of the moon tonight – did you see it? It was amazing; orangey, very slight, tipped almost to horizontal. But my camera wasn't up to the job.

Yesterday afternoon and today my youngest daughter and I have been working with Jamie Shawcross at the Emma Bridgewater sale in Aldborough. Yesterday we sorted and set out hundreds of pots.

Today the doors opened at 10am and the eager collectors flooded in.

We had two tills on the go each with a 'wrapper' and the four of us worked solidly from 10am 'til noon before the queue stopped! Phew! It continued with a steady flow of customers all day. There are still plenty of pots left, if you feel like a more relaxed look around tomorrow!

'Lights up' in Cromer...

...and the mulled wine was flowing from the RNLI ladies in the kitchen. But the punters weren't buying much. I sold one card, one postcard and 4 packets of Christmas tags – oh, and two stems of holly – a grand total of £11. I donated £4 to the RNLI for wine and mince pies, bought a stained glass star for £4.50, two pairs of hand knitted socks for £6.75 each, someone else's card for £2.50 and a bag of left over mince pies for £1. A grand total of £25. Plus the £5 it cost to have the stall. So I'm £19 worse off than I was before I went!

I was pleased with the look of the stall though.

I took some of Fiona's scarves and jewellery, which added some variety to the stall.

It's just a shame no-one was buying. I may have picked up another commission though. I'll let you know if it comes off.

 

Mugs have sold out!

My running hares mugs have sold out!

I have just sold the last two from my online shop. I think I'll come up with some new designs before I order any more.

A commissioned cut-out...

I have just finished the artwork for a card commissioned at our recent Aldborough Creative exhibition. Anyone who knows me and where I live will be able to guess who commissioned it! I do hope she likes it.

I have also found time today to draw up a new design that has been in my head for about a week, ever since I spotted a particular bit of hedge on my regular dog walk. I went back later without the dogs and with my camera to record the tangle of branches and berries.

In the design in my head, there was a robin sitting on the main cross branch.

It was a fiddle to cut out, but I think it has potential, and I am now planning some Valentine's Day cards in a similar style. 

What I really want to do next is to make a two colour lino print in black and red. I haven't done any lino printing for, oooh 29 years, so I expect to be a bit rusty! I picked up a tip from Jeremy James' recent facebook post on how best to transfer the image from the paper sketch onto the lino. And I need to think about how best to register the two 'plates'. Apart from that... it should be easy!

But before I embark on that adventure, I need to gather together things to sell at Friday evening's Christmas Fair 5pm-9.30pm in the WI Hall, Church Street, Cromer, when the Christmas lights are going to be switched on. I have Christmas cards, gift tags, a few packs of Thank You cards, two mugs left out of the fifteen I bought, and some original framed cutouts. If there is space on the stall I will also be selling some gorgeous felt scarves made by Fiona at Tizduster – so if the bracing wind is particularly cold on your neck on Friday evening in Cromer you know where to come!

Bringing the last of the roses indoors

We are nearly at the end of November and yet it is still mild enough to go into town without a coat. The wind has got up today here this afternoon in north Norfolk, and has been swirling the leaves around on my lawn. As it got dusk, and chillier, I decided it was time to cut the last of the roses in the garden and bring them indoors.

My trailing geranium is also in full bloom again and my Malus sieboldii is heavy with berries.

Most of the trees in my garden have lost their leaves leaving skeleton branches silhouetted against the sky.

Our Aldborough Creative sale last weekend was great fun. The private view on Saturday evening was heaving with people. The mulled wine flowed, mince pies were devoured and sometimes it was difficult to make sales because it was too busy! We also had a steady flow of people through the doors all day Sunday when it was easier for people to see the stock properly and have a chat with the artists and makers. 

I bought far more things that I should have. This lovely necklace was made by Fiona Morrison. I have hardly taken it off since I bought it.

These earrings by Dawn King look like droplets of water when you are wearing them. Lovely.

And this ceramic brooch by Paul Jackson is decorating the beam in my kitchen when I'm not wearing it.

Paul is going to start some evening classes in ceramics in the new year, in the Aylsham/North Walsham area. Do get in touch with him if you are interested.

The pièce de résistance of my buying was this print by Heather Tamplin. I love it!

I bought a few stocking fillers for my girls too, but obviously I can't show those!

Roll on the next Aldborough Creative on 3rd and 4th June next year!

This morning I went over to Holt to buy some of Celia Hart's cards and ended up having a chat with her about lino printing. I was surprised to discover that she doesn't use a press, just prints by hand... very interesting. I went straight off to Picturecraft and bought myself a piece of lino, so watch this space!

I also met Emma of Silver Pebble. She sources tiny vintage buttons, glass beads and gems and puts them all together as the most delicate necklaces, earrings etc. She also had bird and tree motifs made from silver clay which were made into brooches, earrings and necklaces. She runs courses on how to use silver clay – something I'd love to have a go at.

Then I had a browse around the Bircham Gallery. Some lovely things, as always, but you do have to pay such a huge premium to buy from a gallery. I don't know about you, but I'd rather give the money direct to the artist...

Taking orders...

I think I'm going to have to start taking orders for these mugs. I'm selling out already and the exhibition hasn't started yet!

If you'd like to order one email me [email protected]. They are £7.50 each.

Moon gazing

I'm still cutting away tiny bits of paper in preparation for the show this weekend...

Aldborough Creative

is on Sunday

20th November 10am – 5pm

at the Church Room, Aldborough, Norfolk NR11 7AA

FREE ENTRY

Fresh coffee, tea and cakes available too!

Running with hares...

No time for words... My kitchen table is covered in running hares! I'm getting through the scalpel blades on this one.

So what's new?

No posts for eight months, then two on the same day – I can only apologise.

I thought I would give you a little taste of what I have been working on recently to show and sell at the Aldborough Creative weekend.

Here is one of four designs of Christmas card this one featuring Erpingham Church on Christmas Eve, a 'Trio of Hares' mug (I only have 5 of these so you'll have to be quick if you want to snap one up), and a framed gilded watercolour painting.

My stall will also feature framed original paper-cut artwork, some Christmas gift tags, some Thank You cards and something to brighten up your mantlepiece this Christmas.

Everyone else will be showing a variety of painting, jewellery, sculpture, letter cutting, cards, feltwork, creative textiles, etc etc. Who knows what lovely things there will be to buy!

Aldborough Creative is on Sunday 20th November 10am – 5pm at the Church Room, Aldborough, Norfolk NR11 7PR. There will be 12 exhibitors and we will all be demonstrating our working practice during the exhibition. The exhibitor list is: Elena Beimborn, Alison Haynes, Tracy Hindry, Paul Jackson, Claire Knight, Fiona Morrison, Alice Mumford, John Paley, Heather Tamplin, Teucer Wilson.

Most of the exhibitors welcome commissions – just ask. It might not be as expensive as you think to have something made especially for you.

There will also be fresh coffee and homemade cake for sale in our 'pop-up' Aldborough Creative Café run for us by Tracy and Toni.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Quick review of my year

OK, so I haven't posted anything here since February. I must get back into the habit. I will try to give you a quick precis of my year so far.

March. We started rehearsals for an amateur production of Hayfever. I went to Southwold for the weekend with friends, which we do every year. I made paper cuts to sell at the first Aldborough Creative which was to be on the 30th May. I started planning an auction of Studio Pottery to be held in September.

April. My youngest daughter flew off to the far east for 3 months, so I didn't really relax again until the end of June when she got back! She had a fabulous time and apart from missing her, I thoroughly enjoyed following her around Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as she posted her photos up on facebook.

I worked on promoting Aldborough Creative, advertising the auction of Studio Pottery and learning my lines for Hayfever.

May. I designed some greetings cards and had them printed. Framed my paper cuts. Put up posters for Aldborough Creative and invited people to the private view. My dad had a heart attack – the low point of my year. Thankfully he seems fit and healthy again now.

Our Aldborough Creative exhibition was a great success – this was my corner.

June. After many hours of rehearsals Hayfever finally hit the stage for 3 nights. For many years I couldn't bring myself to go anywhere near the stage, but enjoyed being involved with the props, set and costumes. Then I got sucked in, and now I love it! I think that, because I work at home alone most of the time, I really appreciate achieving something as part of a team for a change.

We started planning the next Aldborough Creative to be held in November as a pre-Christmas show.

July. My daughters, family and friends came and went. This was one particularly lovely day.

I went to the Lounge on the Farm festival in Kent, which was a breath of fresh air after Latitude which has recently become so horribly crowded. We discovered Ellen and the Escapades, a great young band.

They are coming to Norwich in January if you like their sound. 

Also discovered Dry the River who are a lot more intense.

Then I came back from my festival and Tim went to Perth in Australia for 10 days on business. Lizzy went to Turkey with friends. Jenny came home from Uni and then went back again. I met up with old school friends in Framlingham. I went down to the west country to collect Studio Pottery for the auction in September.

While away I sold some of my greetings cards to a gift shop in Newnham, and they have ordered some of my Christmas cards too. Maybe I should put on my 'salesman' hat and go round chatting to some card shops locally. If anyone wants to buy any of my greetings cards they are £2.50 each. Wholesale price available for 30 or more.

August. I went to the Art in Clay exhibition at Hatfield House, talked to lots of potters, advertised my auction. Jenny went to Portugal. I went to the Edinburgh Festival with friends. We had such a brilliant time – 19 shows in 4 days! Exhausting, brilliant, exhilarating, eye-opening, fabulous. Got back and straight into producing the catalogue and website for the Studio Pottery auction. www.knightsdecorativearts.co.uk

We had a really lovely picnic at Blickling to celebrate a friend's birthday.

September. Then it was my first auction of Studio Pottery. Nerve-wracking. We sold the best stuff, but I definitely need to build up my client base of both buyers and sellers before the next one in April.

Fabulous fancy dress party to celebrate 25 years of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre – http://www.ncbc.co.uk/NCBC/Home.html

The Three Musketeers – it had to be done! Any excuse to dress up and drink too much wine!

Then Lizzy went off to start her degree at Leeds and we became a household of two for the first time in 20 years! Plus the dogs, of course. And both girls come back often, which is lovely, but they both complain of an empty fridge when they get home – we don't seem to need very much food these days.

On 26th September we went to Venice for 3 nights. I've never been before and it really took me aback. It was visually stunning, and not always in a pretty pretty way. What an incredible place. It was like going back in time, or finding yourself on a different planet. I took over 500 photos – just couldn't help myself. I'll restrict myself to 3 here!

Fabulous ancient buildings on Murano.

Classic mask shop. I like the way Venice is reflected in the glass.

The Grand Canal. Big boats, little boats, gondolas, taxi boats, ferry boats... And the most amazing architecture as a backdrop.

On arriving back in Britain I discovered my youngest red setter, Nutmeg, had a very sore toe.  

This transpired to be a tumour, which meant £275 worth of toe removal and a lot of crashing around the house in a very large Elizabethan collar for a couple of weeks. But she seems to be all better now.

October. The month started well with a trip to see Ellen and the Escapades at the Bicycle Shop in Norwich. It was the very warm week and gosh it was hot in the basement there, but we enjoyed the small venue and the band managed bravely on the tiny stage. Then Jackie Morris came to the Book Centre and launched her new illustrated nursery rhyme book, which made a good birthday present for my nephew, especially with the hand drawn cat and personal inscription. Then I went to Centerparcs for the weekend with a group of seven girl friends – our 13th year. As the particular property we had booked was being re-decorated, we were upgraded to a top of the range 'games' chalet, which meant on top of the hot tub, sauna and steam room, we also had a pool table and a cupboard full of board games. We had a great weekend catching up with each other, eating, drinking and window shopping in Cambridge.

In addition to all of the above, my husband has held five auctions this year, for which I do all the imagery and catalogue work. Here are our two auctioneers in action last weekend at our final auction of Sporting Memorabilia of the year.

David Robinson, on the right, manages our website as well as being our main auctioneer, so if you ever need a freelance auctioneer or a website developing do get in contact with him.

And Sean Cannon, on the left, is our second auctioneer, and is just about to put all his energies into an exciting adventure that he and his brother have been developing over the past year or so. Cannon & Cannon sell quality British artisan charcuterie, and have just been granted a pitch at London's famous food venue, Borough Market, starting at the beginning of December. So visit them there for your Christmas cured meats, or order a hamper online.

 

Oh, for a dog's life!

My dogs have an easy life and although they are NOT allowed on the settees, they do their best to sneak into the living room and onto a comfy corner whenever our backs are turned. All this despite the fact that they have their very own comfy armchair in the hallway. Nutmeg makes a nest in the back of it.

Her mother Willow prefers to snuggle down on the seat at the front. This is what I call Double Decker Dogs!

Oh, to be a dog... Life would be much simpler.

I have discovered in the last few weeks, as our penniless country starts an inevitable descent into even more doom and gloom, that my biggest client has replaced me with an in-house graphic designer. I have to admit that I'm surprised they haven't done it before, but the timing isn't good. Not only will I lose over half my income in one fell swoop, but the chances of me being able to replace that quality of regular work in this economic climate are very slim.

Suppressing the panic about not having any money, I optimistically realise that this leaves me free to explore some other avenues of work, one of which is my paper cuts. If you have followed my blog you will know that I have been doing paper cuts for some time, as greetings cards for friends and notoriously to decorate a 6' lobster... So now I am looking at producing some paper cut work that might be more commercial and ultimately profitable.

A friend sent me a link to Suzy Taylor's Blog where she has cut a lovely alphabet tree. I liked this idea very much and decided to design and cut something similar, but in my own style. I wanted to get away from the A4 format, make the tree more fluid and include some quirky asides.

I had already bought a large black frame with another paper cut in mind, so I drew out my tree on tracing paper to fit the frame, and then transferred it in reverse to the sheet I was going to cut from. I cut the image out from the back.

Then I turned it over and sprayed the front black. I bought a strong yellow card to mount it on and some double sided sticky foam, and set it just off the card so the branches would throw shadows. This is one of the things I like best about paper cuts – the shadows add an extra dimension; they change in position, depth and density depending on where you stand and what the light is like, giving the image a life of its own.

Here is what I have ended up with.

 

And for now this paper cut is for sale in my Folksy shop. But I am working towards an exhibition, so if it doesn't sell on Folksy you may see it on a wall near you soon!

 

Grey January dog walk

We regularly walk our dogs around the same fields and this morning I was pleased to see some deer tracks at one of my favourite spots, where four fields meet. I have surprised roe and red deer there in the past, so it is nice to see that they are still around.

The following two photos show how grey the sky was this morning at this muddy junction of four fields. The two fields nearest the church have been planted with oil seed rape, and the two behind the tree with wheat.

Hardly pretty pictures, but I hope to put up comparative pictures later in the year, when the tree is in leaf, the corn is ripe and the sky is blue.

The reason I consider this unspectacular spot with such fondness is that when I was there one day a few years ago I saw three nearly full grown hares lolloping towards me. I assumed that they would see me and scarper, but to my disbelief, they started to chase each other in a circle, round and round, before breaking off across one of the fields. There was an amazing moment when before my eyes was a real live spinning circle of three hares, which, as you may know, is an image that has been reproduced across the world since ancient times.

In this image each hare has two ears, yet only three ears are drawn in total. In the above example from The Three Hares website, this pottery fragment is from Egypt or Syria c1200.

A much more contemporary example is this watercolour from children’s author and illustrator Jackie Morris, who I am looking forward to meeting next month when she comes to Norfolk to show and demonstrate her work.

So although the month of January has been dull for me in more ways than one, I am beginning to get a sense that there are good things just around the corner. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to crochet granny squares for Kitty's blanket, learning my lines as the Snow Queen in the village pantomime and planning the design for a new paper cut that is forming in my head.

A new beginning...

It's not exactly the turn of the year any more, but as I haven't posted any news since last October this feels like a new beginning to me.

In the last fortnight I have learnt to crochet, thanks to my friend Alison.

Alison has nearly finished crocheting a beautiful bright blanket for her granddaughter. It is an array of all my favourite bright colours making a patchwork of the tiniest of Granny squares. It has taken her an age to sew it all together, but she is now working on the edging and the end is in sight.

Having recently been given the honour of being godmother to my newest niece Kitty, I decided a good godmotherly thing to do, would be to crochet a blanket for her first birthday in May. So Alison showed me how to start with a basic chain, and how to make a standard Granny square, and then pointed me in the direction of the Attic 24 blog where, after undoing my work at least 6 times, I finally mastered the art of crocheting one of Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Squares. Then I couldn't wait to be off to Cromer to buy some yarn.

Oooh, what colours to use? I love mixing colours together, looking at all the options, what happens when you take this colour out, or add this unexpected colour in... I pulled a selection of balls off the shelf and laid them out on the floor side by side, mixing and matching different pinks and purples, trying reds and greens... It took me ages and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Here is the selection I ended up with.

I decided to use pink, magenta and purple as the main colours, but in order to give the blanket a bit of a vintage look, to mix in some grey, beige and green. I think this is what my sister-in-law Lucy would like – pink for a girl, but not too pink – I hope I am right.

And so I started on my squares...

I have set myself the rule that the middle two and the outer rounds are always in pink, magenta or purple, and the third and fourth rounds are always in grey, green or beige. This hopefully means that the brighter colours will dominate without the overall effect being too garish. I might change my mind and break the rules later on, but for now, this is how it is looking.

So far no two squares have the same colour combination – it is surprising how many variants are available within my rules. I think, if my maths is right, there should be 108 different variants. I am working my way systematically through the options, which is why there aren't many squares with purple middles in the photo above. I haven't got to them yet. It will change the overall balance once I have.

I am feeling very pleased with myself for already learning a new skill this year and being well on the way to completing a blanket which I hope my niece will treasure for a long time.

I have other projects planned for later in the year, so I hope I can soon get myself motivated to get started on some of them. You'll be the first to know!

Egg-straordinary...

Finally my Speckled Maran has laid her first egg. She made so much noise about it she set the dogs off barking. But then, looking at the size of the egg I'm not surprised.

It's an egg and a half! It looks ridiculous in an egg cup.

She is a much bigger hen than the other three, but I hope for her sake she doesn't continue to lay eggs this size!

This is more like it...

...don't you think?

My second woodcut, the first in a series (I hope) about 'Friendship'.

Lessons in print

I make my living by designing and preparing artwork for commercial print, but I have been doing this for so long now that I barely think about how the tiny different sized dots of four colours, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, make up the full colour images that we see in every newspaper, magazine and book we pick up. The process is so precise and prescribed that I know exactly what rules I have to follow to give the printer what he needs to produce the perfect result for every job.

Not so with art printing. I has been over 20 years since I did any art printing. I remember lino printing at Ipswich Art College and doing some etching at Farnham, but that is as far as I got. I enjoyed both very much but there was not the time to do more. Until now.

When I went to DrawEast nearly three weeks ago now, mono- and linoprinting was on the curriculum for the second day, which I missed due to illness. A friend of mine in Norwich has been exhibiting some collographs, which I am jealous of. So, still being classified as 'ill', as I am still not well enough to drive, I seem to have turned the kitchen into an art studio (sorry Tim)!

I tried the collograph first, taking a square of mount board, cutting layers off it and adding more layers to it. I wasn't terribly experimental, but then this was my first attempt. I inked it up with Indian inks and hand printed onto watercolour paper. The results weren't brilliant, although I like the moon in this one. Ideally I needed a press to take a good print off this type of plate. I decided to draw with a stick of spaghetti and black Indian ink over the top of this image to define the owl.

Now to monoprinting – so called because you only ever get one print off each plate, so no two are the same, each being uniquely hand drawn. This involves inking up a plate, in my case a sheet of glass, with oil paint or similar, placing the paper on top and drawing through the back of the paper to get the ink to transfer. My first attempt at this was the best I think.

I was struggling with a roller that was much smaller than the plate, hence the vertical lines, and I used some linseed oil to thin the paint, which has caused fortunate variations in the depth of colour achieved. This is what I like about printmaking – the unpredictability. Lifting a print off a plate is like opening a kiln when you are a potter – exciting, always with some disappointments and some thrills.

My next experiment with monoprinting was to cut out shapes in paper and after inking the plate, place the cut shapes onto the inked plate before putting the printing paper down, thereby creating a solid area of resist. I like this one and it is ripe for working on top of, but I'm not sure how yet. You can see where I rested my fingerprints on the reverse to stop the paper slipping on the plate.

And below is a variation on the same theme. The first pull I did was very pale, so I reinked the plate, repositioned the cutout of grasses and printed again slightly off-register. I rather like the result.

And finally to wood cut. My brother trimmed some offcuts of oak floorboarding into squares for me a few weeks ago and gave me a catalogue that sells all sorts of wonderful tools, including wood carving tools. So throwing caution to the wind I ordered the smallest set of four cutters they had and I have now managed to cut my first block. First I smudged a white conte crayon onto the wood and traced my design onto it. Then I started cutting in yesterday's sunshine.

It took me a while to work out the best way to hold and use the tools without them slipping – I have two holes in my left index finger to prove it! Things got better as I progressed.

This morning I printed the block. My research has told me to have lots of different papers and inks available, so I cut to size some very cheap paper that was packaging in a shoe box, some ordinary photocopier paper and some watercolour paper.

I started with black oil paint on the shoe box paper and was pleasantly surprised with the first pull, although I think I have cut away too much of the block leaving too much white showing. And can you spot the deliberate mistake..?

...I cleverly carved my initials into the block, without reversing them. Doh! What a dipstick! That was soon amended by cutting away the corner.

I had a similar result on the photocopy paper, so decided to try using acrylic paints for a change. These had the interesting effect of taking the surface off the paper, although I actually like this subtle print which is taken in Prussian Blue acrylic on photocopy paper. The paint is quite raised in fine lines around the edge of the shapes, where it is printed dark and the woodgrain is showing through very nicely where the printing is pale.

Finally I decided to have a go with oils again, this time on damp watercolour paper. This gave me the sharpest most vibrant result, which I don't understand because water and oil paint should repel each other, not attract, but if it works I'm not going to argue...

This is, I guess, what I was aiming for. My favourite bit is the ground around the base of the tree, where I let the cutting tools do their natural thing. I think I need to learn from this.

Now I feel I need to do a lot of drawing before deciding the theme of my next print. I want to do something much simpler, concentrating on the quality of the line rather than excessive detail in the image.

Labyrinthitis and A Bottle of Wishes

Last Sunday evening I drove to my parents' house in Suffolk to spend the night before continuing on Monday morning to Nettlestead, south of Ipswich, for the first of three days of drawing at DrawEast. The DrawEast courses take place in an outbuilding of a fantastic Elizabethan house set in lovely grounds; fruit trees, paths cut through meadow grass, vistas and sculpture. After introductions and a cup of tea, we got stuck into a day of observing, drawing and experimenting with drawing media, punctuated by a delicious lunch. I produced a few things that I was pleased with and headed happily back to my parents’ house for a roast chicken supper. Life couldn't have been better!

Then, in the middle of the night I remember being woken by a feeling of disorientation. After it subsided I went back to sleep but at 6.15am I woke again with feelings of vertigo sweeping over me, and this time I felt so ill I didn't think I would be able to get out of bed. The feelings passed again after a while, and I managed to alert my parents that I was feeling unwell. So the upshot is, I am currently in the clutches of labyrinthitis – although I haven't felt as bad again as I did on that morning, and I'm hoping that I only have a mild case that will disappear completely and quickly and never come back!

Needless to say I did not attend the next two days of my course as I wasn't well enough to drive that far. However I did manage to limp home to Norfolk on Thursday, with lots of comfort breaks along the way. So here I am, taking the tablets, sometimes feeling normal, then doing too much and feeling unsteady again, in an unhappily teetotal tipsy sort of way.

Frustrated that I didn't get my fair share of creativity last week, I've been in overdrive this weekend. My friend Fiona very kindly took me with her to see an exhibition at the Imagine Gallery in Long Melford on Friday (yes, I know that is right back down in Suffolk where I was to start with, but she drove and I just relaxed). We particularly went to see the work of Jackie Morris who is an illustrator and author of the children's books The Snow Leopard and The Ice Bear. She paints beautifully. I particularly like this piece One Cherry One Cheetah. 

So, when I couldn't sleep on Friday night my brain was busy creating and I had to switch the light back on and do a quick sketch of what I had in mind, lest I forget in the morning.

When I was in Suffolk my brother was doing some work for my parents, putting up new guttering at the back of the house, and I asked him if he had any offcuts of hardwood that I could have, as I am itching to do some wood cut printing. He found me some nice pieces which he cut into neat 16cm squares for me. (Thank you Patrick!) I have in mind to do a wood cut Christmas card in a similar vein to the Valentine's card on my very first ever blog post, with a single present hanging from the branch of a tree... Well, anyway, the point is, I had a square format very firmly in my head.

And on the way back from Long Melford, Fiona and I were plotting a future venture which I won't bore you with here, but somewhere along the way I conjured up an image in my head of a barn owl on a square golden background carrying a bundle/bag/present. So, that is what I was remembering when I couldn't get to sleep and above is the first basic sketch for it.

I am always in awe of barn owls. They are such beautiful creatures. And some of us are still mourning the loss of four barn owls that were shot by someone in our village this summer.

I still couldn't get to sleep and put the light on again to sketch this bottle which in my restlessness I had imagined as a dark blue glass bottle with gold painted decoration and a cord around the neck, so it could be carried.

I imagined the bottle to be full of wishes and to have a round bottom so it can never be put down. It has to be passed from one person (or animal) to another, on and on, with new wishes being added all the time... 

Saturday was a bit of a disastrous day for me. I felt fine when I got up and drove my daughter into Norwich. Then, like a missile programmed into its target, I headed for the packets of gold foil I had seen in Jarrolds a week or two back. About a hundred yards from the car I began to feel wobbly, and although I persevered, bought the gold foil and got back to the car, I didn't dare drive home and had to be rescued by my husband and my good friend Elaine who drove my car home. (Thank you Elaine and sorry to have interrupted your chutney making.) We then had a party to go to in the afternoon, and I shouldn't have done that either. In the end I just had to admit that I wasn't well, I wasn't being sociable, I was having a bad day and no amount of positive thinking was going to stop me feeling dizzy, so I went home early and snuggled up on the sofa in front of our first fire of the autumn.

So then I started Googling images of owls... And I sketched a page of images to work from.

The other thing I had bought in Jarrolds was a small 140lb rough grain watercolour pad with the pages glued at the edges to make a solid block. I happened to take all these things to bed with me on Saturday night and when I couldn't sleep again, I sketched the final design directly onto the watercolour pad.

And so to Sunday. I slept till 10am – bliss! Felt a bit wobbly when I first got up, but felt better after the medicine started to kick in. Cleaned the kitchen table, piled my 'stuff' neatly on the dresser, swept the floor (dogs are moulting), washed all the dogs bedding and basically made the kitchen a nice clean and tidy place to work in for the rest of the day.

I finally got out the watercolours, acrylics, battled with the gold foil (nightmare!) and added a bit of glitz with a tiny bit of glitter and a couple of seed beads. And here is the end result.

The photograph does it a lot of favours – the light reflecting off the gold obviously changes according to the light available. But I'm pleased with it nevertheless. And as I said before, The Bottle of Wishes has a round bottom so it can never be put down. I wonder who will get it next...

If you like the artwork please give it a nice high score on Saatchi Online. Thanks!

Damson jelly, sea glass bracelets and Wisdens galore

Usually I have a slack period work-wise in August, but this year I had to work most of August and am now enjoying a few weeks without the usual deadlines looming. There are so many things I should be doing – clearing out the porch which has somehow become a dump for holey wellies and a store for animal feed, decorating the bedroom where I discovered one rather mouldy looking patch of wall a few weeks ago (I have bought paint...), or giving the window frames a coat of wood stain before winter sets in again. But no. There are other things I need to get out of my system first.

I always find it difficult to ignore so much free fruit in the hedgerows and this year I am enjoying making jellies rather than jams. The good thing about making jellies is that it seems more relaxed. You just boil up some fruit with a bit of water until it is all soft, and then leave it to drip from a jelly bag (a scalded tea towel in a sieve) into a bowl overnight. Then the next day, whenever it suits you, you discard the pulp, boil up the drained liquid with some preserving sugar for about 15 minutes until it starts to set and bottle it up in sterilised jars. The Cottage Smallholder has lots of good recipes.

On Friday I picked some damsons and collected some windfalls in a friend's garden, so on Sunday I made two jars of damson jelly. Then yesterday I picked blackberries before the rain storm ruined them and today made four jars of apple and blackberry jelly.

I love the clear jewel-like colours. I am now tempted to make apple and rosehip jelly, just to see what colour it comes out – I'm guessing a delicate honey-pink. And that will, I think, be my preserving gene satisfied for another year!

Meanwhile, I had bought some pieces of drilled sea glass from a seller on the Folksy website and was desperate to make them into a piece of jewellery. I was originally planning to make them into a necklace, but I felt that just stringing the glass together on its own wasn't very successful. I gathered together all my bits and pieces of wire and beads and catches, and eventually made three bracelets by threading and knotting the sea glass, some green beads and spacers, some wooden beads and some irregular silver spacers together on a waxed linen thread. 

The three bracelets look particularly good all together and I shall wear them all for a while before deciding whether to sell two of them or not.

What I really want to do now is buy a little drill and work out how to drill my own sea glass, carnelian and the few bits of amber that I have picked up on the beaches of Suffolk and Norfolk over the last four decades...

Now to the Wisdens. I spent my bank holiday weekend photographing Wisdens and typesetting an auction catalogue, and I shall spend next Saturday in Leicester at an auction of Wisden Cricketer's Almanacks – not my thing really, but my husband's. So if you know anyone who has an interest in cricket, or a collection of Wisdens of their own, they might want to take a look at the full catalogue on the Knights website. Just to give you a taste, here is what looks like being the rarest item of the sale, an 1864 1st edition rebound in brown boards... estimate £5000/£7000.

And to put things in perspective, lot 1 is a 1973 hardback, estimate £18/£25.

Once the auction is over I shall look forward to Sunday and hope the weather stays fine for the Ingworth Trosh – a few Norfolk folk, a stubble field, a few old tractors and engines, a threshing machine on the go, Olive's tea and cakes – a sort of harvest festival in a class of its own.

Oranges and lemons...

Just a quick entry (because I'm very very busy!) to announce that today I have opened my own Quirky Dreaming shop on the Folksy website – http://www.folksy.com/items/769829-CITRUS-shopper-by-Quirky-Dreaming.

Folksy is a place where people who make original craft items can sell them – and other people who might be looking for something original to buy can find things they wouldn't find elsewhere.

There is a lot of different stuff on there... jewellery, knitwear, greetings cards, wood carving, all sorts ...and although the majority of it is not to my taste, occasionally I'll see something that I think is stunning and original.

I only have one item for sale, but it's a start! I thought that by opening the shop I would force/frighten/activate myself into making something in my own right, something I can put my name to that isn't created at the request and to the criteria of someone else.

I'll leave you to follow the link to find out what I am selling.

Patience pays off...

As I mentioned a few days ago, I picked up a free Singer sewing machine this week, from someone having a clear out. 

I've never had a sewing machine of my own before. I did borrow my mum's old Singer (a 306W I think) about 10 years ago and inadvertently blew it up! I had left it plugged in and switched on, and the foot pedal must have been stuck down slightly because the motor overheated and the machine started to exude foul-smelling smoke. I quickly unplugged it and put it outside the back door, where it promptly burst into flames! I've been wary of them ever since!

My new-old machine is a 513 (1980s) model and it is far from pristine. One catch on the lid is broken, and the handwheel has cracked, but a couple of substantial rubber bands have solved that. When I first plugged it in and switched it on the light came on, so I knew at least I had power to the machine. There was already cotton on the machine so, I grabbed some material scraps and had a go at sewing...

...as you can see, although my top stitch was looking OK, this is what I got underneath. I spent a couple of hours rethreading the machine, adjusting the pressure knobs, putting the bobbin in one way, then the other, all to no avail. The needle wasn't picking up the first thread properly from the bobbin, so I decided to take the bobbin area apart and clean it out.

Judging by the amount of fluff and dust that came out of there, I doubt it had ever been cleaned in it's lifetime! It took quite a while to get in all the nooks and crannies, and by the time I'd finished I was less than certain how to put it back together! Then I wasn't sure if I'd got the bobbin holder in the right position, and how much movement it should have, so went online and found the original manual as a pdf. That was a godsend, as I realised I hadn't quite been threading it up properly either.

I got it all back together and sewed some more. Things were looking better but the needle still wasn't picking up the first thread properly so I started to wonder about the tension of the cotton on the bobbin and fetched one of my daughter's bobbins to wind some new cotton. Things began to look better, in a loose sort of way...

Although there was an improvement, I realised the borrowed bobbin, was the wrong size for the machine – it was much too high, and I still hadn't got the needle to pick up properly. So as I had to go into Norwich yesterday I decided to buy some new bobbins. I have just wound and inserted a new bobbin and LOOK...

...a proper stitch!

You can't believe how pleased I am - grinning like a Cheshire cat. Investment so far, £1.20.

Now, the next question is, what shall I make?

Sketchbook work

And so, having put the house sign back where delivery men can't miss it, I decided to have a go at drawing with Indian ink using a stick of dried spaghetti as a dip pen, as recommended by Gina.

It happened to be a rare dry weather moment in North Norfolk – we haven't had many lately – and my washing line was swinging with Jenny's last load before she headed back to Keele.

 

I couldn't resist adding a pale ink wash behind the drawing, to make the shapes stand out more.

Then the sun moved round a bit and I found myself sitting next to an impressive Euphorbia, so I challenged myself to draw one of the stems – I'll admit I was expecting this to be a bit of a disaster with the spaghetti pen, which went from a thick wet line to faint nothingness very quickly, so I was surprised to achieve something that looked quite lively.

Then the weather changed and I moved indoors with some cut heleniums and poppy heads. Again I drew with the spaghetti pen, and then tried out a little tin of watercolour paints that I bought for £1 at a car boot sale last weekend.

First I went for the natural bright orange colours. This is a bit overworked I'm afraid – couldn't stop myself.

Then I had another go, including some poppy seed heads and using more subdued colouring.

I decided to focus on the top of the poppy seed head and did a more detailed sketch (using a fine fibre tip pen this time), and then did a page of loose repeated pattern.

 

Poppy seeds that rolled all over my table every time I moved one of the seed heads inspired the dotted lines. And that is as far as I got. So thank you Gina, for getting me to experiment a bit. I'm hoping to do some more over the next week or so.

And the good news is that I picked up a FREE Singer sewing machine from a Freecycle member this afternoon. It still needs a bit of patient fiddling and tlc to stop the cotton jamming under the bobbin – I'm getting a good stitch on top and a great mass of cotton underneath at the moment – but I'm sure once I've solved that problem, it will serve me well.

Smarter house sign

I repainted our house sign earlier this year…

…but I was a bit rushed at the time, and found myself disappointed with the silhouettes of the birds every time I arrived home and had to walk past them. Last week I came to a point in my work where I could justify some time off and one of the first things I decided to do was to see if I could improve on my first attempt.

I got out my bird books, pulled some images up on Google and I sketched my new shapes with pencil on the back of some junk mail! Then I painted them in with Indian ink. I cut them out with a scalpel and arranged them on the sign to work out where each should go, and traced round them before painting them in.

I think these are much more realistic – although maybe now it is too busy – I'm never happy!

Having bought a summer sketchbook with hopes of joining in Gina's project, I decided to use the first page to display the successful silhouettes.

I think they look better in the book than on the sign!

I'll show you what I did with the next pages of the newly christened sketchbook in my next blog. I'm off now to pick up a Singer sewing machine from a freecycle member – let's hope it works.

I've always wanted to keep a few hens...

...and now I've got four.

It all started when a good friend showed me the new hen coop her husband had made for her. It was sitting up on four sturdy legs and painted a nice duck egg blue with a wooden heart over the door. 'That doesn't look too difficult to knock together', I thought (I have always been an optimist). New hen coops are very expensive to buy, and I'm not the sort of person to go out and spend £200 on one when 6 free range eggs only costs £1.40. Seriously, where's the sense when you can get 857 eggs for £200 and not have all the hassle of feeding, watering and cleaning them out? So if I was going to keep hens, it was going to be 'on the cheap' (pun intended!).

Anyway, the next day I had some work I was trying to avoid(!), so I started looking around the garden eyeing up any bits of wood that looked as though they might 'come in useful' and I found a not so old blanket box which I had lent to the Aldborough Players last year for a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace. One of the actors had to jump into it, and he went through the bottom of it, so last winter it acted as a cold frame keeping my geraniums and chocolate cosmos out of the frost. 'Hmm,' I thought, 'that is almost a chicken coop already...'

I turned it on its side, so the missing bottom became the front and the hinged lid became the back. I went out and bought a couple of planks of shiplap and knocked the front together with a hole for the door at the bottom. I added a hinged door that doubles as the ramp up into the coop. I went out and bought a piece of board (£1, cut to size) which I nailed onto a couple of lengths of wood to make a sloping roof and covered it in roofing felt that was left over from reroofing my office. This just sits on the top, but it should keep the rain off. Then I gave it a good coat of deck stain and sat the whole thing on a couple of upturned crates to lift it off the ground. Inside I tacked a low board to divide one end off into a laying box, and added a broom handle for roosting. Here is the result.

The next thing was to make a secure run. I had the remains of a roll of sheep fencing which I unrolled across the lawn and then stood it upright in a circle round the coop. This stuff is made of very thick strong wire and it stands up pretty well on its own without any posts. Easy! So I shaped it into a square and then attached some chicken wire that I removed from the boundary fence between us and next door – defunct now Doodle the terrier has moved house! Now to position the whole set up in the shade of some trees, and go find some hens.

I had already seen some hens at the Ark at Roughton, but I felt they were a bit pricey considering I didn't really know how secure my Heath Robinson set up was going to be (I was tempted by some Bluebells but they were £18 each). So instead, I bought two Isa Browns from Mary Wilcox in Erpringham who has 350 hens and buys a few extra each season for people like me who only want two. They are a brown and white hen, a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Rhode Island White, and were £7 each. 

The one in the foreground has a big white arse and is quite friendly, she almost purrs when I talk to her. The one in the background is browner and just squawks and glares at me with indignation every time I go near her! But they seem reasonably happy with the accommodation!

They have laid an egg each every day since I've had them. I had the first two boiled for breakfast:

Having had the two Brown hens for a week with no mishaps, I couldn't resist adding a Maran to the flock, as I'd like to have some brown eggs too. (Why? There's no logic to that I'm afraid. They just look nice!) So I went off to the Ark to do a deal on a Maran hen. But when I told him I wanted to add to a flock of two, he said that if I just introduce one new hen the other two will bully it and peck it half to death. I thought he was just trying to get me to spend more money, but decided my coop was probably just about big enough for four hens, so went with the flow. I ended up with a Speckled Maran and a Copperblack Maran. He was bit vague about how old they were, but I think they're about 16 weeks, so I'm not expecting them to lay just yet. 

However, as soon as I put them into the run, Vera, the squawky Brown, cornered them and started pecking them quite viciously. Then Looby Loo had a go too. It wasn't long before the two new arrivals hid themselves away in the coop. So I came indoors and Googled 'Adding new hens to your flock'. Clearly I should have done that before buying them! One piece of advice said, 'Always add new hens to your flock after dark'. Well it was too late for that. The best advice for me by that stage was to make a barrier within the coop, so they could see each other but not get at each other, which is what I did. Then I put some food down for the two new hens to entice them back out into the open.

The 'pecking order' at the moment seems to be that Vera is definitely the boss, then Looby Loo, then the Speckled Maran, then the poor little Copperblack Maran who seems very timid and terrified. Here she is, wondering if it's safe to come out of the coop.

And here is the Speckled Maran:

I think this one might give Vera a run for her money in the long term. She looks as though she's going to be bigger than the Browns and has a very determined look about her.

Anyway, about an hour before dusk I took away the barrier and let the hens mingle again. The Browns pretended not to notice, the Copperblack was already hiding in the coop and the Maran sidled round the edges. I went indoors and didn't hear any major squawking. I went back out at dusk and all but Looby Loo had already gone into the coop for the night and she followed without any bother, so now they are all shut up together. Four hens in a blanket box!

Evening show to make you laugh out loud...

On Friday and Saturday this week the Aldborough Players are presenting Outside Edge, a play written and set in the 1970s. This was an era when certain wives of certain cricketers relished the challenge of making the best cricket teas in the county, and of presenting the 22 sportsmen and affiliated officials with a steaming teapot the minute the first innings was over! Timing was everything!

Our cast comprises Anne Bettany, Kevin Batch, Richard Leeds, Heather Attew, Nick Wade, Paul Jackson, Dee Jupp, Alison Haynes and Brian Grieves. Their timing leaves little to be desired, although their characters betray flaws and weaknesses that have us by turn laughing out loud at them and feeling sad for them.

We have just had our dress rehearsal, so here are a few photos from the pavilion at Old Scarrow CC as the match against Lowestoft Railway Veterans progresses.

 

 
       

Tickets are only £6 (£4 for under 16s), available from Aldborough Spar (open 8am–8pm) or Aldborough Post Office.

Jim has fixed it!

The Beeston Bump lobster has been miraculously rebuilt, patched up and retouched, so despite looking like the walking wounded with his bandages and plasters, he will make an appearance at this Sunday's auction of Crab and Lobster Trail Sculptures on Cromer pier from 4pm.

Many thanks to Jim Bond for his reconstruction work and to Chris Taylor for the photo below. 

I think it will be well worth going down to the prom on Sunday afternoon just to see all the crabs and lobsters together, especially those that have been hidden away in the more obscure locations. And you never know, you may end up taking a unique sculpture home with you...

The auction will be conducted by professional auctioneer Martyn Fox. If there is the remotest danger that you might want to bid, please remember that you will have to register your name and contact details to get a bidder number. This can be done on the pier on Sunday 30th May before and during the auction.

Struggling with thatch

I am co-producer of this year's summer production by the Aldborough Players. We are putting on Outside Edge in the middle of June, and from the start I have had a vision of how the cricket pavilion in which the play is set should look. Having visualised it, the challenge is then to achieve it.

I wanted the verandah at the front of the pavilion to have the effect of old ornate iron railings. I bought some mount board, divided it into equal sections, drew a curlicue repeat pattern to fit each section and started the slow careful cutting with a scalpel. I then used some scrap wood to make a supportive frame which I nailed the mount board to and tried to paint the result to look like rusting white painted iron. Here is the result.

Now I've just got to make the matching one for the other side.

The other thing that I felt would really help the stage feel as though it was showing both the inside and the outside of a cricket pavilion, was to have a thatched roof above the procenium arch. I found an almost perfect sized length of white material in the players stores and dyed it brown to start with. Then I pegged it to my washing line and started painting over it. I marked out a typical pattern along the apex of the supposed roof, painted in a name board for the cricket club, and created a shadowed strip at the bottom where the ends of the straw are sharply cut at an angle and shaded from the light. Here is stage 1, looking decidedly two-dimensional, with my dog Willow in the foreground:

I then started working over the background with some straw-coloured emulsion – 'spare bedroom yellow' mixed with a good dollop of 'living room red' to warm it up a bit more! I worked on the patterned apex first, and worked up from the bottom with yellow strokes over the brown – but as you can see below, I ended up with three very distinct areas that weren't hanging together – the yellow at the apex, the brown in the middle and the almost black at the bottom. Aaargh!

 

More paint needed! I realised I needed a lot more yellow over the brown and went to get a bigger brush. When you are working on something of this scale you really do have to be brave and generous with the brush strokes. After a lot more yellow paint working from the top down, I think this is now looking a lot more like a thatched roof, and hopefully we will be able to get it up tomorrow morning to see how it looks in situ.

My favourite bit is the song thrush that I have painted perched on the corner of the club sign.

In addition to all this, I have been helping my daughter with her A-level photography today, helping her to set up some self-portrait shots inspired by the work of Jacob Sutton.

Most of Jacob Sutton's work is studio shot, meticulously planned and carefully set up; someone pulls a huge barrel of water over themselves; someone runs in slow motion through a wall made, presumably, of polystyrene bricks and some sort of dust or powder. Lizzy doesn't have the facilities for such contrivance, but used what she did have available to inspire some work of her own.

So we have been on the beach at Weybourne where she sat in the surf of the incoming tide in anticipation of the waves breaking over her. It wasn't terribly windy, so the waves were not as big as they might have been, but we got some very good sequences of repeat exposure shots.

And with her boyfriend Jacob's (coincidentally the same name) help we set up another series of shots in which Lizzy sat in a black dress in a chair above which Jacob poured flour through a sieve. The sequences show her getting more and more covered in flour, and her facial reactions to this.

With Lizzy's permission, I will perhaps show some of the sequences in a future blog.

James Bond to the rescue!

I have had news that the disparate parts of my broken lobster have been gathered together and are possibly going to be re-assembled by no other than James Bond!

Cromer's very own James Bond, who understandably goes by the name of Jim, is an architect who just loves making things – or in this case, mending things. He has my lobster propped up in his garage, and a large box of bandages nearby!

So, all being well, it looks as though the Beeston Bump lobster might make an appearance on the prom at the Crab and Lobster Auction on 30th May after all. I'll keep you updated.

Meanwhile, my most recent project has been a poster for the Aldborough Players summer production. We are putting on 'Outside Edge' by Richard Harris, a comedy set in a cricket pavilion in the 1970s. Tickets will be available from this weekend at £6 (under 16s £4) from Aldborough Spar and Post Office. And if you do decide to come along you will see lifeboatman Richard Leeds from Randalls Electrical in a new light!

A sad day...

Read the full story: http://quirkydream.typepad.com/quirky_dreaming/

When everyone told me that my lobster would be vandalised in its semi-remote position at the top of Beeston Bump I hoped to prove them wrong. That was my mistake.

As far as I can gather, late on Friday night at the start of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend someone, or a small group of someones, decided to climb the Bump and wrench the body of the lobster off its stand (which was securely fixed into the ground). They then took the carcass to the edge of the cliff and threw it over.

I had a message on my mobile from Sheringham Tourist Information Centre on Saturday lunchtime saying that it had gone missing and had 'totally disappeared'. My friend Toni and I went to investigate and found it inevitably at the foot of the cliff. It was in a sorry state.

Was it drunken local teenagers on an alcohol-fuelled spree? Or bank holiday visitors to one of the caravan parks on the cliff top? Or someone local who for some reason had an emotional objection to the presence of the lobster on top of the Bump?

Beeston Bump is without doubt a more natural place without it. Although the location is untidily scattered with memorial benches and a little inappropriate planting of non-native flora, the views from up there are great; from Cromer lighthouse in the east round to the steam train puffing towards Sheringham from Cley in the west, from shipping vessels on the horizon of the cold grey/blue North Sea in the north, over the Runtons to Roman Camp to the south.

My lobster was only a temporary fixture, a bit of a fun, part of a local project aimed at encouraging more people to visit the area, enjoy exactly these views and spend a bit of money to boost the local economy, so I am disappointed that it 'bit the dust' in what appears to be such a thoughtless, futile and violent act.

 

There is nothing more to say really, except that it is unrepairable and unsaleable, so any potential money that might have been raised from its sale will not now go to the local RNLI. We have cleared the unsightly wreckage away from the beach.

I just hope that the person/people responsible feel grateful that they did not, by some accidental drunken slip of the foot in the dead of night, go over the edge with it and fall those 200 vertiginous sandy feet to land torn and broken at the bottom, good for nothing.

Read more about it: http://quirkydream.typepad.com/quirky_dreaming/

Emerging from a fug...

I feel as though I have emerged from a dense fug.

The lobster is finished, but more importantly, the three forty page Summer catalogues I've been working on (not without problems) since the end of February are finally all signed off at the printers. And I am finally sitting in my garden office after a long cold winter of working on the kitchen table with my back to the woodburner and the dogs nudging my arm to be let in, or out, or for a chew, or a cuddle. My husband will be pleased when I've finally cleared the house of the last piles of paperwork, hardware and ink cartridges!

As I look back towards the house the sun is catching a huge lime-green Euphorbia that set itself a couple of years ago at the corner of the patio, perfectly hiding the water butt, and I can see all my favourite perennials thickening up in the flower beds as the daffodils die and the tulips come out. Thanks to my friend Dawn who enjoys a couple of hours a week keeping our garden in trim (it would slip back to a heliganesque state without her), it is all looking beautifully tidy and spring-like in green, yellow and white. The deck desperately needs a new coat of stain, the strawberries need some straw around them and I'm quite sure my compost heaps are home to at least one nest of rats, but apart from that, I'm pretty pleased with the way things look out there.

Which is in sharp contrast to how things look in here. My office is a tip of magnificent proportions. It is worse than the inside of my handbag, which is always 'interesting' and about as tidy and filed away as the contents of my mind! I have taken 'stuff' (archive CDs, reference books, reams of paper, print samples, files etc etc) backwards and forwards to the house, always just dumping down a pile when I get it back in here. So my own lovely space, which I promised myself I would keep orderly and clean, is a mess. But everything has its place, in theory, so if I just work calmly and logically I should soon have it all put away again. Then I can do last year's tax return and maybe this year's at the same time – or is that a bit ambitious? Although I ought to invoice the work I've just done first, and then the girls' passports need renewing urgently as they've both booked holidays and their passports ran out last month, and there are still a few small jobs that I have had on the back burner (one, embarrassingly, since last November). And I have to go to a meeting this evening, and to Leicester tomorrow until Saturday evening. And it's already gone 6 o' clock.

The trouble is, all I really want to do is develop some of the artwork I used on the lobster; cut paper, overlay the colours and textures, and frame it. Or print it as postcards, or put it on canvas shopping bags, or or or...

Handwritten

Despite most of my words recently having been hand-cut rather than handwritten, I've decided to join the Handwriting Game on the blog Dog-Daisy Chains which suggests people post handwritten blogs this week rather than the inevitable typewritten sort.

My contribution is to reveal which words I finally decided to include on the back of my 6' fibre glass lobster which is now installed on top of Beeston Bump (anyone new to this blog please continue reading the entries below to find out what I am talking about!). Here then are the words, on another of my notebook pages:

I hope those carefully chosen words will encourage people in the area to climb Beeston Bump both for the health benefits of simply walking, and for the joy of the view from the top. I'm not sure my lobster adds anything aesthetic to the natural view, although I am very grateful to the photographer Chris Taylor for taking this wonderful photograph of the lobster at sunset.

If anyone feels like visiting Cromer and Sheringham in North Norfolk over the coming weeks, you will find a trail of Crab and Lobster sculptures all over both towns, some far more skilfully decorated than mine. They will all be sold at auction on Sunday May 30th from Cromer Pier to raise funds for Cromer and Sheringham RNLI and Help for Heroes, so it's all in a good cause. The crab season has just started too, so you should take the opportunity to sample the local delicacy for which Cromer in particular is renowned (although I can guarantee that Sheringham crabs are no less tasty!).

There's a lobster on Beeston Bump...

THANK YOU very much to Cromer RNLI for getting my lobster to the top of Beeston Bump and securing it.

I came up the opposite side of the Bump, so by the time I arrived I was embarrassed to see that all the hard work had been done. And I found that the battery in my camera had just run out, so thanks too, to John Morgan for sending me these pictures.
 

The lobster looks dwarfed by the Cromer lifeboat crew, even though half of them are kneeling down!

He looks quite impressive really, in his jewel colours with the full sun on him.

Here is the first pair of 'proper walkers' to pass by. They were keen to know how long the lobster would stay on top of the Bump, as they had plans to bring a group of children on the walk in May.

There was a reporter from the EDP taking notes and photos, so hopefully we will see a story in Monday's paper.

Now, to get back to that painting on my very first blog, and see if I can work out how to use those acrylics!

Ten o' clock tomorrow...

Well this is exciting. Two blogs in one day! And I've been given a time... The attempt to get the lobster to the top of Beeston Bump will take place at 10am tomorrow. I imagine it will take a couple of hours to get it a) up to the top and b) secured down to our satisfaction.

Look out for photos in situ tomorrow!

Getting a lift...

Thank you to Richard Leeds, from Randalls Electrical in Cromer (and also a member of the RNLI), who came along yesterday morning and loaded my lobster up onto his trailer on the first leg of it's journey up Beeston Bump.

As he was doing a 3 point turn it nearly got taken out by this van...

  ...which did manage to stop just in time!

And the next instalment? Well, all being well, and I've heard this word every day so far this week to no avail, it will be going up to the top of Beeston Bump TOMORROW. That is Sunday 18th April. Hurrah!

Thumbing a lift...

Well, my lobster is finished, and has been since the weekend, but getting the right people in the right place at the right time to get it on top of Beeston Bump has proved more difficult.

It is currently sitting at the end of my drive in Alby, desperately thumbing a lift to Beeston from any suitable passing vehicle – you can see the tail lights of one car which shot past without stopping. I hope the sight of its big black claws doesn't cause any accidents overnight!

The aim of my lobster was to get people walking. Well, if you leave the National Trail/Coastal Path at Cromer and join the Weavers Way, you can walk the footpaths through Felbrigg, Sustead, Lower Gresham, Hanworth, Thurgarton and Aldborough Green to Thwaite Church. A short detour along the road will bring you to the end of my drive – but hopefully, by the time you have done that it will be safely installed on top of the Bump.

There's a lobster in my living room...

I apologise for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. Needless to say, every minute that I haven't been working or doing the necessary chores that make family life run without too many hitches, I have been working on the artwork for the lobster.

I finally persuaded my husband that it was going to have to come into the living room, as the weather outside was so wet and windy that I hadn't been able to start sticking the artwork down. So I had a major session indoors one evening, sticking down everything I had cut out up to that point, using spray mount which is repositional. It was a fiddly task but it felt as though things were beginning to come together. The next morning I realised that the disadvantage of spray mount being repositional, is that the pieces were not stuck very securely, even after drying overnight. I began to panic. What if everything just fell off?

So much of it was clearly not stuck very securely that I was beginning to feel like crying (I still had to draw and cut out the artwork for some panels), when a good friend of mine volunteered to go round everything that was loose with PVA glue. Thank you Toni! I stuck down any new artwork with PVA from the start.

Then came the varnishing. Because I stupidly used a gold spray paint that is intended for indoor use only, and usually has no need to be varnished, I found that it wasn't compatible with the polyurethane varnish that Blyth and Wright in Sheringham recommended. The gold paint just dissolved into the varnish and made a smeary mess. Plastikote had recommended their own spray-on clear varnish, so I used that first, giving everything two coats. But I really wanted to use a thicker brush-on varnish as a top coat to help keep all the collage work in position. Luckily the polyurethane seems to be happy over the sprayed layer – let's hope it doesn't all crack up once it's been in the elements for a few nights.

I made a right mess of the tail of the lobster with the first attempt at using the polyurethane varnish. It dried all smeary and messy. And the whole front of the lobster was looking a bit plain and boring. I knew I had some black gloss paint in the shed, and even though I have no idea whether the varying layers of product will be compatible, I painted the tail black, and then some of the knobbly bits up the middle, and then the crown on it's head, and then the claws. Although it looks good, I have a nagging feeling that this was probably a big mistake...

So here is the lobster in my living room last night. It should be going up on the Bump either this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon, courtesy of the RNLI.

A diary of the weekend...

Well, it's Friday lunchtime, and the phone has been quiet for once, and the emails are all junk. So the weekend starts here! It is 2pm and I have just cut out the very first word for my lobster inspired by Jonny Hannah's work, and traditional seaside posters. It's just one word, but it's a good start and I'm pleased with it!

By Friday evening I had drawn and cut out all the words for the topmost section…

…and drawn most of the text for the 3rd section:

Saturday didn't start well, the entire morning seemingly taken up with a few chores and with driving to Sheringham to pick up my daughter who then drove me (learner driver) to Norwich for her weekend job and then, of course, I had to drive home again. So I didn't start work until after 1pm. However, I drew the figures and seagulls onto the artwork above and started cutting. We were out for dinner on Saturday evening, so I only got as far as cutting these words in a mix of fonts and colours…

So, now it's mid-afternoon on Sunday already, and yes, I've done another trip into Norwich to collect my daughter from another shift, and given the dogs a good walk, so again the day hasn't been entirely mine. I've cut out the rest of the words for the 3rd section, and the seagulls. I just need to cut out the people and the waves now, and that section will be done.

I'm afraid I underestimated how long this was going to take! I sense a long week ahead...

Well it's now 7.30pm on Sunday and I've finished the pieces for section 3. Here is a taster of pieces laid out on my gold paper. I'm not going to show you it all, otherwise there will no point in you climbing Beeston Bump…

Words...

I have been so busy with my work, and away with friends last weekend, that I haven't had time to move forward with my lobster designs yet. But I am hoping to cut everything out this coming weekend.

Curiously though, I have been cutting out a lot of paper words for one of my clients who has asked me to include some of my papercut work in their forthcoming catalogue. Here are all the words I have hand-drawn, cut out, scanned, reduced in size and included as headings and logos in their Summer catalogue. No wonder I've been short of time!

All this has meant that the lobster has had to wait, but it is never far from my mind. One image in a typography book that I was browsing through for inspiration (New Vintage Type by Steven Heller & Gail Anderson) made me think immediately of the work I have to do for the lobster.

The multi-coloured words in a whole range of typefaces used in the image above were inspired by neon street signs. It is the work of illustrator Jonny Hannah, and I think it is from his children's book 'Hot Jazz Special' published by Walker Books. I would like to include an equally exciting variety of typefaces and colours in the few words on my lobster.

Hopefully, there will be more blog updates, and some signs of actual progress (!) over the weekend.