"Playing With Scissors" at Store Street

Point 35 is an exhibiton of smaller works at Store Street Gallery, London until 24 December. 

This piece is there along with some other of my things...

Playing with  Scissors

The show has been up for a little while but I've been so busy with other stuff I've neglected the poor blog!

Beginnings of some new stuff

Before I start I like to try a small section and maybe make a mistake or two. It helps me check that the scale is okay and is like a tiny warm up before I begin the proper one.

More of the little objects again. Clothes pegs...

... and scissors.

I'm on a mission to get these done quickly. Although I've said that before!

Arts trail part 2 - new things

My latest things. Finished and framed.

Small appliance 1

This is one of two pieces using a single line/cable to draw a doillie.

And a companion piece for the first curtain... 

Indoors, looking out

...Together with the first one. I probably have one more of these left to do. 

I'm also working on some completely new things. The ideas come thick and fast but it all takes time...

Small appliance number 1 - blender

It took a long time to draw and longer to cut. For a while I've been dreaming of nothing but loops, but its done. It should look better when its in its frame. 

a doillie made with a single line

Back to the drawing board, more net curtains next...

Small appliances, in progress

I'm working on some new things, involving electrical cables...

Land of the rising obesity levels

I'm Scottish. So there. Mallow courses through my veins along with Irn Bru. Perhaps not, but I grew up there and its brilliant. Lochs, mountains, castles...

I grew up miles away from that stuff in a new town made of concrete and weird green landscaped hillocks by the side of a dual carriageway.  We did have this. Chocolate, mallow, jam and biscuit. Eaten in that precise order. And of course, most amazing packaging in the world.

After Sunday school my sister and I would, after carefully removing the teacake,  flatten out the wrapper and painstakingly remove every wrinkle (working from the outside to the middle) until left with a super shiny sheet of foil,  curving slightly at the edges. Sometimes we would then mould it or fold it into a shape. Very fiddly.  Not having access to google in 1983 it would mostly be a very limited origami fortune teller. 

Japan meets Scotland -  land of the rising obesity levels.

I'm still obsessed with super fiddly detail and painstaking, high risk creations. Also all things Japanese.

This may be where it all started, so along with the other stuff I haven't finished yet,  I'm going to be making some stuff about it...

Woman's Realm - 1st big one done!

Finished finally. 

Its fortunate that the sun's come out just as I got it finished yesterday! I'm really enjoying the shadows it makes against the background..

I got through quite a few scalpel blades.  

Now to get cracking on the rest of them. As usual, I've tonnes of ideas and not enough time. Its half term now so no school run and I’ll be hanging with my small people in the day. Taking things easy and hopefully I’ll have a bit more energy in the evenings to get some smaller pieces finished.

Weekend work

I got some time and space today to get stuff done.  I started with this one. Yes I've done it before, but after yesterday's shaky start I thought it would be best to go for a familiar warm up.

The Kozo paper is very lovely to cut, but you have to go so slowly as it is very easy to mess up.  On the lightbox, you can see the texture of the paper - very delicate, super strong fibres. Its tidier than the last version.

Template in progress for the biggest hangers piece - 0.5m diameter. I have an A4 printer so its a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. Took bloomin' ages.

Piece in progress. I'm about half way. I thought it would be done but alas, things take longer than you think and I can't really rush it!

Hopefully it'll be done and framed this week...

Byee.

Aaaaaargh. No more hangers!

More hangers?
Well that's it. The final comp. Probably the final colour too. It'll be about a foot square. Just got to source some paper now.

 The other one was a bit crap. Too messy.
Seems to be that as soon as I put anything up on here I go, "Oh I know, I'll do this instead!".
Well at least the blog is keeping me motivated.

I am struggling a bit this week. Its half term. I'm bloody knackered. Too knackered in the evening to risk wielding a scalpel! I'm hoping, this weekend for some time out from my lovely children to get some cutting done.

London Plane

I lived in London for 10 years and I love these pompom trees, especially with only a few leaves left. Just a whole load of bobbles.

A ton of pom poms falling from the sky...

...well they don't actually fall off, that's why they're still beautiful in February.

Another paper cut or screenprint? The beginnings of something. I'm just playing. I'm also doing a lot of stuff with thistles and leaves too, and trees.  More like this. We'll see.

I was hoping to do more actual cutting this weekend but my eldest daughter is ill. Poor sausage. I hope she's properly on the mend tomorrow.

Hangers, hangers

I should be hanging up laundry. Instead I'm doing this...

 

 

...and to anyone in the know, yes, I am using Illustrator version 10! Hey it works. Will try and cut it out later if I can keep my eyes open after putting kinder to bed.

Vicx at Paper Village is going to show my stuff in her shop during the Bristol Southbank Arts Trail. I am very excited.

Anyways, back to the cuddling my children between mindless toil...

1st doillie

If you are a bit sick of silhouettes or circles, look away now.

Doilly version 1

More things on top of other things - draw what you know!
The idea is to cut it out of paper. I've done a couple of tests with smaller pieces (post on its way) and its doable. May just take a little while.  I'm going to do an edition of screen prints too.

This is not the finished version yet. Just somewhere on my way to it....
More to come.

F is for flowers

Fancy Font - First of February

After yesterday, I need some colour. 

I did this with daughter no.2 on my knee. Text added later. It looks like the BP logo and that logo pisses me off considering how much awful stuff they get up to.

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 31........

31? Yep 31. Bizarre....

Bear with me here, its complicated but it is interesting.

That's what you get if you start with a circle and draw 1 single dot on the circumference. One area in the circle. If you then draw another dot and join them, you get 2 areas in the circle. Carry on drawing another dot and join each dot to all the others on the circumference. Count the separate areas each time. What comes next? I couldn't be bothered drawing it out beyond 6 points, but the answer is 57.

This is what you get if you put a artist/graphic designer who's into geometry, together with a scientist and give them alcohol on a school night. Bill did try and explain the series but its a bit beyond me. Interesting though.

Baubley Christmas

Every Christmas I get busy starting various Christmassy stuff. It  hardly ever amounts to much - a card maybe if anyone's lucky. This year's been a bit "baubley".

The fiddly bit is based on a window in Notre Dame. I did it a while ago, when I started getting a bit obsessed with paper cutting and the potential of electronic dye cutting machines.... More of that to come.

 I like patterns and geometry - a fairly long standing thing. It might have started when my mum used to buy my sister and I these Altair Design Colouring Books.