Art Every Day - days 1-3

1st November '11

After teaching in school all day, I went into the Bean and Brush in the evening to write and decorate the boards for the new winter menu.  Not art exactly, but definitely creative!

2nd November '11

A sinus headache, and a busy day yesterday meant I had a sleep this morning rather than getting some art done.  I was in work at the Bean and Brush at 3pm and carried on painting 'Brian' the builder after Hannah had started him [he's in the children's corner and those are my paintings :) ]...

...before teaching an adult class...

...so looking forward to seeing these when they come out of the kiln as that brown glaze will be a gold layer over the green with bursts of silvery blue...

Again more creative than 'art'!

3rd November '11

Yay, finally got my art materials out tonight whilst watching 'Educating Essex'!

My new numerals stencil arrived this week so I had a good play.  The 'sum' is a '50s flashcard, and the black swirls are from a cupcake wrapper from Asda!

lots and lots of teaching, of varying different kinds!

Tuesday evening saw me teaching the staff from Moorlands Junior School.  We masked a variety of shapes on plates and mugs then added dots for pattern.  They were a great group of people, and a number of them commented that they didn't normally like craft but that they'd really enjoyed themselves.  I can't wait for their pieces to come out of the kiln as I know they'll be impressed with what they made!

Then yesterday saw me teaching a Year 5 class at Moorlands.  In the afternoon I had an hour long art lesson followed by a flute lesson.  The art I was teaching, but the flute one I got to be a pupil too!!  I can now play the notes B, A and G on the flute, how cool is that!

After reading 'Ish' by Peter Reynolds to the class I did some 'one liners' followed by some blind contour drawings aka Carla Sonheim :)  These nine and ten year olds were keener to have their drawings 'look' like the real thing but did give it a go.  Bob's one liners above were my favourite - he was the only one not tempted to trace back along the lines...and he really looked for his blind contour drawings of a dragonfly and a butterfly!

I did mine on text paper...

... and added coffee stain around the outside of the image.

I did a deal with the class, if they did one blind contour drawing, they could have a second piece of paper to do a drawing whilst looking!!

After getting my books marked at school I hotfooted it to the Bean and Brush to teach my Autumn Platter.  I love how different they all are!  How fab is that 'keep calm' one!  The lady brought  a print out of the words and crown which she turned into a stencil, then masked the words underneath (...and drink wine!)

They'll all be heading for the kiln tomorrow once the Moorlands' pieces are out :)

Now for a bit of a rest today, and some journalling as relaxation :)

What's on your workdesk Wednesday 121

These yummy slices of cake were waiting for me at work today, how kind of the clandestine cake people!  Not much has been happening on my desk at home, but I did do some exciting work at the Bean and Brush today.  When Graham, one of the bosses, saw my heart tile he asked if I could make something similar using the butterfly from the bean and brush logo across a number of tiles.  

I cheated, kind of, and traced the logo from one of the windows then transferred it to the tiles.

I then painted the tiles black, and added 'crumbles' of dried paint in the butterfly outline.  It took a couple of hours or so to finish this, and I can't believe I then forgot to take a photo!  The tiles are now all waiting to go in the kiln, fingers crossed they come out as nicely as the heart did!

Take a peek at more desks over at The Stamping Ground with the wonderful Julia Dunnit :)

clandestine cakes

Wow!  A secret society for eating cakes met at the Bean and Brush this evening!  Everyone had just arrived as I was leaving work and the cakes looked AmAzIng :)

My phone has decided not to email pictures to my laptop so they've had to go via my husband's mobile to get onto my blog, a right palaver but somehow fitting with the whole secret nature of the event lol.

As far as I can tell, everyone brings a cake, admires everyone else's then they all tuck in - how fab does that sound?  I'm looking forward to finding out more on http://clandestinecakeclub.co.uk/ .

You've been Yarn Bombed!!!

"Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk." Wikipedia

Whatever you end up calling it, I can guarantee you will have an AmAzIng time!  I have not had such fun in ages, we laughed and flirted and chatted - a wonderful, wonderful day.  Here's to the next event!!!

It just amazes me that despite the internet being worldwide, you can meet someone down the road via blogland.  This is what happened with Fiona and I, and she was more than up for helping me yarn bomb benches outside Waterside Arts Centre in Sale.  Fiona's friend joined us, along with my friend Sarah, who had an impromptu crochet lesson at the same time :)

The bench looked FaB when we'd attached all the pieces of crochet and knitting together, all supplied by friends (and the four of us of course!).  But we didn't stop there!  We added crocheted bunting to another bench, pom poms and crocheted leaves to trees, and my little owl had a sit in a tree for a little while!

All of these images are courtesy of Fiona and you can view more over on Flickr.  If you've never been involved in yarn bombing, I can highly recommend it.  We were still buzzing after working on the bench and it's surroundings so moved onto the Bean and Brush for cake, tea and crochet, and left behind a very warm tree ;)

ready for the kiln...

...is a commission for a 40th wedding anniversary

and a late birthday present for one of my nephews.

Tully was 6 yesterday and I bought him some lego but whilst at work on Sunday it suddenly occurred to me that he'd probably like something with his name on.  I decided on a bowl as the most useful piece of crockery for a six year old ...

... then added some fingerprint monkeys (design courtesy of Usborne Books!!!).

Why is it only now that I'm realising that the tail maybe should have come from the side?!!!

i just LoVe lace!!!

The lace plate came out of the kiln :)  This effect looks fabulous in black and white but I gave it a go with a deep turquoise and just LoVe, LoVe, LoVe it!!!

We're offering this technique in a workshop on 20th July 2011.  I can't wait to have a teacup and saucer with matching plate in this style - hmmm, would also make for fabulous gifts ;)  Got a few birthdays coming up in the summer :)

let's remember with a plate!

Over the last week or so I've been doing lots of painting.  The first piece was a commemorative plate for a street party held last Friday.

There's space around the edge for attendees to sign it with a special pen.  I gave the piece a bit of a 'Rob Ryan' cut away letter style.

At the Bean and Brush we all spent the weekend painting commemorative mugs for the celebratory opening party on Monday afternoon. 

We had a great production line going.

The first pieces are now out of the kiln and looking fab (pics soon!).  I also painted a commemorative plate for the opening of the cafe, which all the staff have now signed.

I have to say, I am liking all this painting!  Next on the list is a couple more examples of commemorative wedding plates, which can be signed by guests, or left unsigned.

This one uses the couples' fingerprints as the base for the lovebirds.  William and didn't have time to bob in on their way home to Anglesey so Graham and Michelle volunteered their fingerprints ;)

finally, my exciting news!!!

I have a new job!!!  And a full time one at that :)

I am going to be the Art and Craft Supervisor at our new family art cafe, 'Bean & Brush' :)  Although it's not opening until the beginning of May '11 I've got lots to do...starting with some ceramic training yesterday and Monday as we'll be offering 'paint a pot' as well as other craft classes/parties.

This is my new boss, Michelle, she's lovely.  I forgot to take pictures on day 1 but got a few yesterday.  Here Michelle is removing the glaze from the inside of the vase very cleanly...

...mine, on the otherhand, went everywhere lol!  Apparently though, the thing with biscuitware/bisque is to let any mistakes dry first before fixing them-and this wiped off beautifully once it had dried!!!

The training was very much along the lines of producing a piece exactly the same as the tutor's, something I struggled with!  This was only supposed to have one flower on it ;)  

No, this isn't one of mine, but I can't wait to play with glazes to get this kind of effect :)  And how cool and Alice-like are these coffeepots?

And guess what?  You can even stamp on bisque - how cool is that!!! :)