AEDM day 29 and shared art

(photo by Gwen of Foxglove Hill)

I met Gwen of Foxglove Hill through AEDM and greatly admired the flowers she was making at the same time as I was making my felt ones.  So we planned a trade - my felted flowers are heading her way but her muslin ones arrived at mine today.  Thanks so, so much Gwen, they are STuNNiNG!

Not much time for art over the past few days but I did manage to get some work done on some tags.  I love circles and used some scraps of paper and my sewing machine to add some pattern.

I've been identifying patterns I like as part of my surface design course and interpreted this one using a previously inked baby wipe, some scraps of paper and my sewing machine.  Now I'm off to celebrate with my sister - it's her 40th birthday today :)

AEDM and a day at the fayre

I bought these little owl lights from Marks & Spencer to decorate my table at yesterday's Christmas market in Chorlton.  I could have sold them about ten times over lol!  In the end I wrote a label to say where to buy them from.

I was pleased with my stand, and am reassured as to the quality of my work and ideas (Malc laughed when I told him this, but I do worry!).  My owls and spoons proved popular!

... and I sold a little handmade book.  One guy made me smile when he picked up my fabric book and asked "Can you explain the purpose of this to me please?"!!!

My little collection of felt flowers looked great, but didn't find a home with anyone yesterday.

I bought a few presents from other stall holders though, including a little something for me!  

I just love these 'Tatty Betties', and when I saw one of them was an advent fairy my excuse for buying me one was presented!  The other is for my sister who is 40 on Tuesday, and the middle dolly is for my youngest niece.  The girl opposite me was selling fabulous poster style prints so I got me this too...

The wonderful wisdom of Dr Seuss!  Finally, my AEDM day 25 activity was a touch of sign writing for work!  

celebrating books!

WOYWW 129 and AEDM days 22 and 23 - craft fair prep

Yesterday, straight from work, was my last ceramic class (it was just a row of three) and I made an angel with a textured dress.  Unfortunately my phone had run out of battery so I have no pics.  I had made a small rose from clay which the teacher then used to make a small mould for me.  I created some little roses for the angel's dress.  The plan is to make some felted, embroidered wings for her :)

I squeezed some 'art time' in today for 'Art Every Day Month'.  Just a bit of doodling but without AEDM I'd have just not done any!

I'm off to work at the Bean and Brush later, teaching our Christmas ornament class.  Today I've been busily preparing for the Chorlton Arts Festival Christmas fair which is on Saturday.  Why do I never leave myself enough prep time?!!

So my desk is a little messy busy today!  Neater desks are available for view over at the Stamping Ground :)

I've finished three more pepper pot flower collections.  My minions are looking after them whilst they dry!

I've also prepped some papers to make some small journals and cards with for Saturday (when I don't know lol!!!  I can see a couple of late nights coming up).

AEDM days 20 and 21 - in the 'Drawing Lab'

Honestly, I can't recommend Carla Sonheim's 'Drawing Lab' highly enough!  It's just brilliant for getting you painting or drawing without that highly invasive 'inner critic' sitting on your shoulder whispering into your ear!  It's also full of short arty exercises for when time is limited, perfect for me at the minute.

Yesterday was mostly spent doing school prep so just before going to bed I did some one-liners, drawing animals using one continuous line.  Carla has a short video here on the Sketchbook Challenge blog if you'd like more info.

I started with pigs, then a couple of flowers followed by an owl who looks like a penguin!

I've been avoiding drawing cats as I'm not that keen on them picture wise, but finally gave in and love these manic kitties!

Then I gave some birds  a bit of a go.  For the last one I wondered what it would look like with 'walking legs'.  Normally my brain wouldn't even let me have a go at drawing something like that as 'I can't do it', but with one liners they're not going to look like the animal anyway!

It was my first day back teaching today after having bronchitis.  I was still feeling a bit wiped out so after a day with three different infant classes in a special school I came home and fell asleep!  Woke up feeling the need to do something relaxing so flicked through 'Drawing Lab' and..

...decided to finally give Lab 8: Imaginary Creatures a go....and created a moustached penguin lying back in shock at..what?!!  Hmm, that's in your imagination ;)  I love how fun he is, yet I never would have drawn a moustached penguin lol!

It started off with layers of random marks made with watercolour paints.  These yummy koh-i-noor ones were supposed to go in my eldest son's Christmas stocking - oops!  They are such handy, stackable palettes and rather nice paints too.  I bought mine whilst out in Wales somewhere, although checking online they're cheap enough to get George another set!  

AEDM day 19 - found poetry on a spoon

I love rummaging through old books and finding quirky sentences that make me smile.  These snippets of 'poetry' were a little more controlled in that I just hunted for descriptive words relating to my chosen topic!  

I started making these spoons earlier this year after seeing something similar by the hugely talented Kelli Perkins.  It wasn't 'til I just checked for the link here that I realised how similar - oops!

I've got a few more inked up, it's the word hunting that takes the time!

Prompted by Gwen's lovely flower yesterday I got started on some felted flowers that have been in my head awhile.  I added some merino wool and snippets of fabric to a piece of yellow felt, then free machined some flower outlines before cutting them out.

It was the container that gave me a bit of trouble.  I bought five pepper pots from Dunelm Mill the other day for just this purpose, inspired by Sue Pelletier's wonderful snowmen.  I just couldn't decide what to put in the jar!

I tried buttons, beads, even tiny stones, but went for snippets of fabric in the end.  It still wasn't looking right until I added some snippets around the base and some cotton around the rim.

Just to show you the back - I stitched the felted piece to some old net curtain as two layers of felt, one of which was felted on top, was a bit think for the sewing machine!  Ok, off to write more poetry.  Thanks to all for the advice yesterday, much appreciated :)

AEDM days 17 and 18 - more of the seahorses!

I've moved onto the next step with my felted seahorses, mounting them on a background.  I used my dumfing machine (that's an embellisher for those unfamiliar with this wipso and twiglet term ;) ) to add merino wool and some other bits n pieces to a piece of cotton fabric.

I then moved over to my sewing machine and added some bubbles and texture lines.  I started adding some french knots and tiny beads the other night, then realised I'd struggle to sew it onto the background with them there so stopped!

I've placed a second seahorse behind a rectangular mount.  This actually took longer to do as I felted and sewed this piece without an embroidery hoop.  Now to work out how to attach it to the mount!  Any tips gratefully received :)

I'm not selling them framed, just thought I'd try one in a frame to see how it looked.   I can't decide which type people will prefer though, the funkiness of the embroidery frame or the safety of being able to put the image behind glass.  What do you reckon?

AEDM days 15 and 16, WOYWW 128 - nice parcels and some drawing

Line drawings on my 'workdesk' today (the arm of the sofa!) of a hosta leaf and a hydrangea flower.  I'm working in a large-ish square kraft notebook from Paperchase for a change (and also as I wanted to work in a sewn journal rather that a spiral bound one!).

These pages are part of an online course I signed up for called 'the art and design of surface pattern' with Beth Nicholls and Rachael Taylor.  I came across this via another AEDMer's blog and it just tugged at me 'til I signed up!  Beth's blog 'do what you love' is fab, and she mentioned how great the latest BBC documentary 'Frozen Planet' was.  So, with plenty of time in front of the tv today...

... I did some blind contour drawings of some of the penguins.  You just hAvE to watch these guys by the way, who knew there were criminal penguins!!!

My owls are coming along too...

And I'm pleased with yesterday's journal page playing with circles.  

This is based on a photograph I took a few days ago of the bubbles in my bath water!  I printed it out A4 size, cut out the larger bubbles and sprayed gold paint through this stencil.  The other 'bubbles' were traced onto the page.  Yesterday also brought me some goodies in the post...

... so now I can peruse your article Kate :)  I also received the prize I won in a raffle at the Great Northern Contemporay Craft fair.  These are so pretty!

And today's post brought these stencils I ordered a couple of weeks ago now from the US (and had forgotten about!)

Antibiotics are kicking in so feeling a little better, thanks so much for the well wishes :)  If you'd like to see more work in progress head over to What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday at the Stamping Ground, and you can keep up with the 'Art Every Day Month'ers over at Creative Every Day.

AEDM day 14 - suffering with bronchitis :(

I've been suffering with this cough for almost a week now, whilst on antibiotics for sinusitis, but it turns out you need different antibiotics to get rid of bronchitis!  Up until today I've managed to get bits n pieces done, but today I slept the morning away and have just felt filled with lead for the rest of it :( 

So today's AED is images that were discovered blog hopping which are heading for my inspiration journal.  This was featured on Artful Interiors and is wallpaper by Ferm Living.  I adore toadstool imagery.

I love the texture in the ceramic work of Michael W Moses.  I discovered his work by searching 'ceramic art' on youtube!

This was also part of my 'ceramic art' search.  I love circles, and the contrast between the grey circles and the fired colours is fab :)

I've been asked by the school I'm teaching in at the moment to do a whole school art project after Christmas, culminating in a display of some kind.  I have no idea how I found this image but it's prompting ideas for the final display, which will incorporate felted pieces :)

AEDM day 13 - Grayson Perry at the British Museum

We watched a fabulous documentary on Grayson Perry's "tribute to craftmanship at the British Museum" this evening.  It was shown last week, but the wonders of digital tv meant we saw it on i-player after Harry Hill mentioned it on his show!  I just LoVe that Perry's teddy is called 'Alan Measles' :)

What a real, honest, fun guy Grayson Perry comes across.  Mad yes, but why not?  And he made some great points about what real art is.  And he's amazingly talented.

I've been sewing little owls today from felt for a craft fair I'm doing in a couple of weeks.  After blogging daily for a couple of weeks now it was starting to bother me that I flit about so much between media.  Would I accomplish more if I focused on one thing?  

No, I think is the short answer lol.  I am who I am for a start, and moving around different things keeps my attention better.  Then there's the opportunity for combining them.  I'm sure my work room would be tidier though, there'd be less in it for a start!!!

So today's 'art' has been mainly study and thinking :)  Like a proper student ;) !!!

Thanks for all the comments.  I spent this morning working through yesterday's entries over on Creative Every  Day.  I can't do it every day, I don't have time, but I can highly recommend it, I've come across so many blogs I otherwise wouldn't have done :)