ENAMELLING EXPERIMENTS

I have at last found time to complete this enamelled concertina book.
I set myself the challenge of combining transfers with drawn images and experimenting with a variety of contemporary enamelling techniques. The construction was also a challenge, making the hinges and riveting the black moth onto the piece.

The copper is first etched in ferric chloride and the wings are cut with a piercing saw.

With so much going on with the shapes, textures and drawing I thought it would be best to keep it all simple and keep to black and white. I am so relieved that it all folds flat on itself.

It is the little triumphs that keep me going!

SKETCH BOOK EXPERIMENTS

Finally I have found a couple of days to work through some ideas in my sketch book.
When I am really stuck I start the blank page with a gum arabic transfer,

then using acrylic, ink and pencil work into the surface.

Metallic oil pastels add glamour, but tricky to photograph.

I have also spent some time creating enamel work to show in the Cheltenham Open Studio event at the beginning of June. It seems along way away now, but time soon passes so the more I can get done now the better.

A FLYING START

For a couple of years now I have had a strategy in place to beat the post Christmas blank page. In the build up to the festive season making plates and deliberately starting work that needs to be finished goes hand in hand with my mince pie and decorating routine.
I am pleased to report that it still seems to work. I timetabled days in my studio leaving family to do creative things with left overs.

This left me time and space in my head to rework and resolve these crow collagraphs.

A family trip to Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust fired me up to create more bird compositions.

I even had the energy to do some experimental enamel. I received some eBay purchases of pocket watch parts before Christmas, so I have been itching to make things with them.

With steel moths and an etched copper disc I experimented using my new riveting skills.

I am finding if I look at something long enough ideas pop into my head, so using small but powerful magnets I attached this moth construction to a previously enamelled fork. If I add text to the cutlery and do a little more work on the moths I may have a set of work I could use...can I hear you saying spoons?

With a brisk return to college in the first week in January I have been able to start a new enamelled concertina book. Very much a work in progress, but again all the components were prepared before Christmas, so I just have to continue rather than try to start again, psychologically it works for me.

Happy New Year everyone and here's to a creative continuum.

FOR CAROLYN

Happy Christmas to everyone and here's to a creative 2011.

DECK THE HALLS

Every year I start to decorate for Christmas gradually, I like to enjoy the camp glamour for as long as I can. I will always start with table decorations and paper lanterns.
This cake stand I made gluing vintage plates and charity shop glasses together. I did not make these cakes though.

The lanterns get hung around the 10th, these are vintage and have been collected from charity shops for years. They remind me of the ones that never got hung when I was a child, Mum was into the new foil decorations and these looked too old fashioned.

Most years I make an advent calender for my offspring, this year each envelope holds a chocolate coin and a reminder of what is to come. To give it that wintry feel I hung the crocheted snowflake I made last year.

These go back a few years. I got sacking from the local health food store and Father Christmas would mysteriously fill them on Christmas eve and yes they will still get filled this year.

In a former life I painted objects made from birch ply, I made several of these wreaths to sell and put up the prototype every year.

I have a penchant for vintage decorations and this Father Christmas was given to me by a dear friend last year.

This little chap however is from my childhood, a proper 1960s Christmas object.

In the past I have taken part in Christmas sales and never quite had the confidence that pictures sell, although they did, so I would always make some Christmas items for my table. One year I made a load of stockings from old jumpers, no knitting required. I now hang it every year in the hope that Father Christmas might notice this one...?

Last but not least, a new tradition in our house is our macabre decoration. Rudolf now comes out every year. Surreal, humorous or just scary...you choose.

Happy preparations.

CROCHETED SNOWFLAKES

I feel at my most creative this time of year, I have always found myself making Christmasy things ever since I was a child, but now I find that I am in a complete making frenzy. I am working on new collagraphs, experimenting with enamel and ....whizzing around the house putting up twinkle. Looking at the work I am blogging today I can now see the seasonal influences.
These collagraphs have a wintry feel to them.

I wish I could attract more birds into my garden, these are blackbirds from Hampen.

This is very experimental. Copper and steel moths enamelled, the steel left bare to rust. I have more to do to this piece before I am completely satisfied.

But the red...am I thinking poinsettia here?

I am happier with this piece, less is more with the addition of colour. I am now finding that making enamel work is not as quick as it was when I first started, I am becoming harder on myself about the finish to the surface.

I am also getting a bit complicated about the forms I am using. Is it a book? Is it a sculpture? No it's an experiment!

Etching, pierce sawing, cutting, bending and a variety of enamelling techniques. My biggest thrill is that it collapses into a closed concertina book with ease, but the etched lace is in danger of snapping off.

So where are the crocheted snowflakes, have my textile followers been cheated? Although I will be locking myself in the shed for another few days, finishing off stuff and starting things that I can go back to after the Christmas break when the glitter has settled, I promise to post a Christmas blog with things I have made just for us at home.

CITY

I know we are all up to our ears with Christmas preparations, but I urge you to take an hour off and go to the RWA in Bristol and visit the exhibition 'City' in the New Gallery, www.rwa.org.uk.
The show is hosted by the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and is a selected contemporary exhibition of work made in response to the urban environment.

I have to say that it is a gem of an exhibition with beautifully made and thought provoking work.
A number of pieces are enameled, often stretching the medium to it's limits. The drawn elements in this brooch by Fionna Hesketh make for a textural finish to the enamel and I like the inclusion of the red thread.

There are enamelled panels by Sarah Braun, photographs do not do them justice. Delicate stenciled enamel describing the intricate metal work of Bristol Temple Meads Station.

Stacey Bentley is showing these delicate and vulnerable looking pieces which stem directly from

her sketch book work. I find it very inspiring to see the workings out of a project.

The exhibition is all about the Bristol urban environment and the work shown by Jessica Turrell maps her personal history in Bristol. This process using symbols to represent stages in her life connected to the places has produced a sensitive and simple necklace. Kirsty Summerling has made this experimental piece describing the effects of time and decay and exploring the unpredictability of the enamel surface.

In contrast this colourful enamel by Kathleen Reeves represents Bristol's nautical past. Ship shape and Bristol fashion. The message spelt out in international signal flags. Both witty and skillful, it is hard to make smooth, even enamel pieces and control the unpredictability.

Sally Medlicott made 100 small copper foil boxes, enamelled each individually and placed them to give the idea of a birds eye view of the built environment.

Each box is a small work of art, abstract compositions showing what enamel can do.

These are just a few of the exhibits, there are several more I like, but I only have so much time to devote to blogging, I could go on and on and on!! The show also contains more than enamelling, you are just witnessing my current obsession. It is not a big exhibition, but it is worth a visit.