Going Outside

This is the final one done for AAF Battersea. It was a longer haul to the finish line, than I thought it would be.

I've had a better go at describing the folds where the fabric is double in places. The next plan is to do lots of smaller pieces - both experimental in ideas and process. I never thought I could stick with one material for any length of time. But I've developed a real fetish for paper.

I'm off to London to the see the show on Saturday and also to go to Falkiners, the best paper shop in the world.

In progress for Battersea AAF

My latest paper cut in progress. I'm doing this post to try and gee myself on a bit. 

The grid like pattern is a taking a bit more patience than I anticipated. This is part of the first half almost finished.

The second half has more folds so it should take a bit less time.  In theory...

All the work while crying.

I'm showing my work with Stark Fine Art at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, London. There are over 100 galleries exhibiting and it's a really brilliant day out even if you don't want to buy anything.

Its on from 7th - 10 March.

So. After a January spent playing or "researching", I'm now working on 2 new pictures. A courier's coming to collect them next Friday so it's a race against time as usual! 

I'm full of new ideas at the moment. I'm working on lots of small things really trying to push what I'm doing in another direction. It still involves removing material from sheets of paper so not too much of a departure. 

I do love paper.

Its Christmas time...

...and there's no need to be afraid - apparently.

The few weeks before Christmas I usually feel like I'm being chased by bears. This year is no different. Please don't think I'm being a humbug. As soon as the girls and lovely man are on holiday, I love it. And once all the work is done, I am as excited as the children. It is probably the dark days. Living in a village with no streetlights really doesn't help. At about 5ish the day is done. I can see why people in the higher latitudes turn to alcohol at midwinter. 

This year, like every other, I'm excited about a few decoration ideas. I cut out the green foliage with my paper robot and pimped my mirror with lights. The dear came from a craft sale at a friend's house. I suspect he'll be up all year.

I'm feeling brave putting this up here. My living room is quite strange. You could call it vintage but I think probably not. A combination of original 1968 carpet and wallpaper (which don't go together) and our inherited chintzy sofa and furniture. Not a place to hang out with a migraine! But, its got an open fire so that makes it okay by me.

I'm working on a mistletoe decoration. I might even get it finished before Christmas! Still got hopes for some sort of retail situation for my paper mobiles and other stuff still in my brainbox. Next year maybe...

Now I'm off to sip something by the fire.

"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!

Playing with scissors

Well, I actually finished it fairly quickly!

Its going to the framer on Friday along with another one not started yet - I am on an over optimistic roll here!

Inspired by my fun with scissors, I made this. Eight pairs in various states of openness. It is quite long so not very practical.

I'll be selling them along with my other mobiles from this Saturday 24 Nov - 2 Dec at Wrington Arts Trail.

The venue is Glaisters, Church Walk, Wrington. My stuff is for sale in a gorgeous pop-up shop along other locally made things. You can also see beautiful paintings by Amy Shiner.

I'm off to get started on the other one now...

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 1 - paper mobiles

I have been playing with my paper robot again .

This is a remake of the 1st complex cut paper thing I made. I blogged about it here. 

This is based on another thing I blogged about here. 

I made a few mobiles  to hang up along with my pictures for the Chew valley arts trail. It was an experiment to see if anyone might be interested in them. Surprisingly, I sold loads and still have orders to make! A good friend will be selling some other similar designs at a local craft market in December.

Sorry my pictures are ropey!

Health and safety

I've just finished another curtain piece, so I thought I'd post a couple of work in progress pics.

I'm not sure how I managed to do the other ones without a mask. I make the holes in the paper with a soldering iron. The fumes aren't that bad but my head is about 8 inches from the paper. After a very short while on this, my nose was streaming an my eyelids were a bit crispy! I ran out and bought this mask.

The less enjoyable bit is picking out the all extraneous tiddly bits  which weld themselves to the paper. I do it in front of the telly. Its both painstaking and boring, but worth it to get to the moment when I can cut it away from the template.

Its framed and ready so will be on the Artwork page soon.

My workspace

I thought I'd post something about my studio. Its the old dining room of my house. Our kitchen is big enough to eat in, so this room's mine. We got the house a year ago and the room looked like this - you can't tell from this crappy picture but it was mouldy, both the the brown walls and the brown carpet.

I moved all my clobber in and set to work amongst the mould and dust. Then one day Bill and I cleared it out and pulled the carpet up. Two weeks later it looked like this. I painted the lino pale blue so its a lot lighter in there now.

I'll happily admit to being into house porn. I buy Elle Deco monthly - its a lot cheaper than doing my house up! And I look at websites full of inspiring workspaces. Mostly very sparse with a carefully placed mid century/vintage nik-nak or two. Inspiring to look at but I wouldn't get much done in that sort of room. 

My space is no shrine to design. Its functional. And its not very tidy. The making process is very fiddly and precise but I tend to chuck paper around and rummage through drawers looking for stuff. I'm sitting here with 2 cupboards, 1 drawer and a toolbox open right now, and that bureau is never closed! 

Here is a work room that I could work in. Fleur Cowles was an artist, philanthropist, publisher of Flair Magazine, aircraft pilot, and a lot more. This is her study. I think she probably had someone else do the dusting!

My studio is open for the Chew Valley Arts Trail this weekend 13 - 14 October. 

Along with my framed pictures, I'm hoping to have some paper mobiles for sale like this red and yellow one in my studio picture and also some a bit like this based on my Womans Realm pictures.

Come along and see.

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...

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I have 3 pieces of work in THIS exhibition at Store Street Gallery in London. They even put one in the window. Woo hoo!

Me with Su Blackwell

Here's my piece in the window, hanging out with one of Su Blackwell's book sculptures. Top Banana!

Also have had hints that my stuff may be in shows in September and December, plus some Art Fair fun in the autumn too.

Béatrice Coron

I found Béatrice Coron last year whilst researching paper cutting. Her website is a hub for links to other artists. Prolific and poetic, but what looks at first whimsical, reveals a harder edge with a bit more scrutiny.

This is how she begins her TED lecture...

"I cut stories. So my process is very straightforward. I take a piece of paper, I visualize my story, sometimes I sketch, sometimes I don't. And as my image is already inside the paper, I just have to remove what's not from that story." 

You experience a sheet of paper as a surface on which to put a drawing or painting. Its the place that the work of art inhabits, a surface which must be added to to become more than itself.

By removing material piece by piece to reveal the work of art, the paper becomes a 3 dimensional thing. More than a surface, it is the artwork.

I describe my pictures as "things", not work or pieces.

She too, uses Tyvek paper, but she paints it black. Unlike many silhouettes, hers are "a wash of black", varying in density and depth.

The First Big Weekend

I refer to this post.

Not the track by Arab Strap, but what is for me, the 1st big weekend of the year - putting my work out there in public.

It went well, lots of really positive comments and I met some really lovely people.

Special thanks to all the people I know who made the effort to come along, especially Lou from Littlegreenshed for agreeing to take some decent pictures of my work.

Special thanks again to Vicx at Paper Village for letting me use the space, and for creating such a hub of creativity in South Bristol.

Tomorrow I'm off exploring the Arts Trail with friends and family. I'll report back later...

Southbank Arts Trail

Southbank Arts Trail

A fine chance to have a nose around other peoples houses and also look at some art.

ALSO COME AND SEE MY WORK AT PAPER VILLAGE, NEXT DOOR TO THE TASTY BITE CAFE AND UPFEST GALLERY.

If that wasn't enough, come see the Origami garden, altered books by Sally Darby, continuous poetry on paper, and the amazing gorilla yarn garden growing across the road on Bemmy Green.

More shameless plugging to follow...

Curtains

My latest effort for the Southbank Arts Trail on Saturday and Sunday. I'm showing my stuff in Paper Village on North Street, Southville, Bristol.

It is still a single piece of paper sandwiched between two pieces of glass but its a bit of a departure in process; a combination of a soldering iron and scalpel with synthetic paper. A more painterly process, using heat to remove the material, but just as time consuming! I'm sort of  hoping to get another bigger one done before the weekend but I'm probably kidding myself.

Got a billion things to do, like make business cards and sort out prices and of course, actually hang things on a wall! I'll probably sell nothing but it'll be an adventure.

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.

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

Gotta love Terry Thomas

... up tiddly up, up
... down tiddly down, down.

Roller coasters,
Fear and fun, fun and fear.
Making art?
Sort of similar.

Got paper, got scalpel, got frames,
got TIME - for once!
and...
got a crisis of confidence.

The pressure to perform eh?
My very expensive new paper cuts sooo easily and its a bit scary how easy it is to make mistakes.
There is no Ctrl Z with this,
one mistake and its in the bin.

Got to get stuff made over the weekend.
Onwards and upwards...