So after Christmas I had a few Amazon vouchers to spend. I bought a book on papercutting with them and after looking through the suggested designs tried a few card cuts of my own. I decided to cut the designs into black card with a coloured card backing. I drew the original design in chalk Read more about First steps in card cutting[…]
This weekend at the Ashmolean was the last viewing of the Henry Moore and Francis Bacon exhibition that has recently been held there. While that exhibition was drawing to a close however a selection of bejewelled loveliness created by renowned goldsmith Kevin Coates was just opening. Zoe and I headed along to see the pieces. Read more about The bejewelled world of Kevin Coates[…]
A new year and time for a new challenge! Just before Christmas I saw the call for participants in the puppet challenge over on Clive Hicks-Jenkins artlog, a puppet challenge being curated by Peter Slight, the theme of the challenge is fairy tales, folk tales & myths. I was thinking I might come across inspiration in my new Read more about The puppet challenge – the beginning[…]
I’ve been thinking of opening an etsy shop for a little while now, but having thought about it each time I got scared by the thought that I would do something wrong or that actually no one would want to buy the things I produce (my friends have been receiving my handmade jewels ever since Read more about We are in business![…]
There is no rest for the wicked and so I spent most of Friday night in the kitchen making pink vanilla cupcakes with very pink icing. The reason was Against Breast Cancer were taking over Abingdon market place and they were a bit short on cake. So I put on the oven and had a Read more about More cake and curtains[…]
So we are back in Oxford! I was lucky enough not to go straight back to work but go on a needle felting course with the lovely (& fantastically talented) Gretel from Middle of Nowhere at the Queen’s head pub in Eynsham. We were all due to make a squirrel but the first task was Read more about Making felty squirrels[…]
As well as our homemade wedding present (which I will blog about soon) I decided to make something a little more personal for Maddie. There was no subtle way of getting a leg measurement other than asking if I could take one, I made sure this was a couple of months ago over some wine so there was Read more about DIY garterment[…]
So on Thursday and Friday instead of going to work I went off to frolic in the fantastic Ardington School of Crafts for 2 days of learning from the fantastic Ray Slater. Our task was to make contemporary cloth dolls and by gosh we did. Our first task of the day (after tea and biscuits Read more about Creating cloth dolls[…]
I’m holding my baking friend Carol completely responstible for this purchase. At the weekend we went to visit a antiques/everything you ever wanted yard that she had recommended near Wantage, Haynes of Challow . We went because we were looking for a fold down table for the dining room (our table in their at the Read more about The one where I buy two antique chairs…[…]
For the past week here in Oxford something rather extraordinary has been happening, artists situated in and around Oxford working in all kinds of varying media have been opening their homes to the general public. I was lucky enough to get hold of a programme before the week kicked off and spent a happy evening Read more about Oxford art week and the amazing Rachel Ducker[…]