Xmas cards

Decided to make cards this year from the scraps that the school kids had rejected. One man's meat.....and all that. I always go through the bins after workshops. Great stuff to be found.

When I was a little girl this was called being a midgie raker and for some people it was a full time career. Today it's called recycling. Hurray, permission to scavenge!

Next step, the sewing machine

Irresitable

We played with disperse dye in higher art school today. Don't those paper doilies make great resists? Sometimes the doilies looked so good once painted that we deliberately bonded them to our fabrics too. Makes a change from errrr 'bonding' them because the iron is too hot!
Because our fabrics were synthetic they melted very obligingly with the soldering iron allowing us to melt them together in a kind of non-stitch applique. For some people it was their first time out on a sewing machine. It's just like driving I told one girl. Fast with the feet and slow with the hands. She looked at me with a terrified expression. I don't drive.

She does now!

African inspiration

I have a splendid book with which to inspire the would-be jewellery makers in my next school. I particularly love the thing that looks like an irate hedgehog. Seemingly every time two people came to an agreement they drove a nail into this figure to seal the deal. Must have been some peaceful place man with all that harmony going down!

Quick on the Draw McGraw

Big Draw was indeed a big draw at a primary school on a local island this week. 41 kids and parents squashed into a small room and did their thing with sticks and feathers, bits of card and candles. At the end of a happy evenings drawing we played Quick on the Draw. You draw something, I guess what it is. I kicked it off by stepping up to the blackboard, chalk in hand and saying 'I'm going to draw something very important to the people on the island'. Before I had time to squeak my first mark the answer came en masse. The Ferry!

Show and tell

Couldn't you just eat them with a spoon? I could. They were the most delightful, well behaved, interested children I've worked with in a long time. They boys willing to model the jewellery we soooo sweet! This is going to be a fun project.

Begining again

Wow, is it really three months since we last spoke! I'm kicking off the winter season with three nice schools and projects and I will do my best to bring you progress reports. They are
1. Big Draw
2. African Jewellery
3. Higher art student extravaganzas.

Watch this space!

Whose that lady?

Sadly my bro has gone home but he leaves behind him a wonderful talking point. Makes me think of the moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. I have a comments book in my shop in which the many people admiring the mural are writing their comments...and you can add yours here of course!

I've included some close ups of her jewellery. It was made by embedding beads in wood filler. We started in a very orderly fashion becoming a bit chaotic towards the end. I do love the result though. Here's a link to the range of jewellery that inspired the project.

More mural

The mural is progressing a-pace. Today we began on the jewellery. We decided to embed beads and sparkles in wood filler and then paint over them. I tried a kind of pebble dash technique with sequins. The street was strewn with them. Looked like the residue from some kind of punk wedding. Tonight we painted over them but you'll have to wait till tomorrow for the pics.

The accolades continue from everyone from the above mentioned punks to Lord Glasgow himself, he of the the grandly graffitied Kelburn Castle although the word graffiti doesn't sit well with Lord G who prefers to call his a mural too.

Progress

Starting to look really groovy. The artist has filled in bits of the rough cast where he wanted to achieve greater detail. More soon!

Something fishy about the big picture

My big brother is visiting and has kindly offered to paint a mural on the side of my shop.
This poster is out source of inspiration
Meanwhile inside the shop it's business as usual.

Suddenly we had other fish to fry....

Don't you hate being caught with your mouth open? It was this guy's lucky day and 'splash' back he went.