Wedding Hair

It is 193 days till the wedding and although that may appear to be lots of time it isn't because inbetween that I have to fit in all the other life stuff that still continues to happen. So I am trying to get a jump on everything that I possibly can do, within reason. I have started to think about how I want my hair. I know I want a vintage feel, and I also want something that has a loose windswept feel. I figure seeing how I am getting married in a run down castle on the borders of Scotland I should just embrace the windswept look. Here are some images of looks that I found inspirational, let me know what you think!

Artists Books

I am currently attending a bookmaking course with artist Lucy May Schofield. Here are a few of her creations. I am quietly obsessed with books, I love the tactility of them and the smell, you may have even spotted me in second hand book stores giving them a good sniff. My art is based in narrative and story-tellingthis in mind coupled with my love of books it was not surprising that I would venture into the realm of artists books. During this 8 week course in addition to learning new binding skills I have a special focus, a gift I am  making for a loved one, but I can't share the details with you -  it would spoil the surprse!     

I will be able to show my other small book projects. This course is not the first time I have made artist books. Here are some of my earlier projects.

Two Square Books

Concertina Photo Journal

Multiple Fold Book

Simple folded square gave it a sculptural feel

"Where is the church" from a site specific exhibition
This piece is now sold 

I created a series of books for this exhibition

The Binding from "Songs & Psalms" 

"Songs & Psalms"

Another view of "Songs & Psalms"  This Piece is now sold

"Growing Up With Scripture"

Having Focus

In these current economic times where we are thrown into the flotsam and jetsam of life it is important to remain focus. Being a creative person who's mind operates at a million miles an hour it is especially important for me to have goals to focus on. I had a cup of tea, a biscuit and made a list of goals and dreams. Some are far more achievable than others, lets see if you can guess which ones! I would love to hear your goals, leave me a comment.

A Homespun Wedding - Red Velvet Cake

This is the first of many wedding cake experiments. I thought long and hard before writing this post, it would be very easy for me to keep all of my mishaps and errors private and present you with only perfect visions of my creations. Life is not perfect, life is a learning curve and after some deliberation I felt that it was important to share the whole of that learning curve with you as it would only add to the community created by blogging. I share with you, I and the wider community learn from your comments, I try again and the learning cycle begins.

I read many American based blogs and watch quite a bit of American telly so I was intrigued by the mention of red velvet cake. I searched the world wide web and found a number of red velvet recipes. The recipe I followed claimed to be the Waldorf Astoria recipe, I can only take it at it's word.


A good cook I may be, but a great baker I am not. Brownies and Banana Bread aside my cakes are iced with mediocrity.

A Humble Start

Still doing well - lots of air!

Yeah! At least I achieved the scrummy colour.

Ready to go in a good quality Magic Line tin.

It looks like an airy cake

The still tasty but far too heavy result

So I ask you these questions and hope to receive guidance from your comments;

1. Should I have used butter instead of the shortening that the recipe suggested?
2. Is this just supposed to be a heavy cake?
3. How can I keep air in the cake?
4. Where did it all go wrong?

Loyal and wise readers, please help me!

A Rowan Wool Birthday Gift

When you make things for a living it becomes an addiction that spills out into the rest of your life. I become excited by materials and possibilities. So much so that my home is filled with as many unfinished projects as completed ones, just ask my fiance Joe. That is the is the first time I have referred to him as that and it just made me feel very soppy.

I have always loved colour and texture so it is no surprise that I love Rowan Wool. Rowan are much more than just wool, they produce numerous wonderful design books and a magazine, in addition to this they have created a fantastic online knitting community as you can see on their website on the link provided above. There are some really nice free patterns on their site also, take a look.

I wanted to make a birthday present for my friend Charlie. Charlie has a fantastic and unique style and often wears her own creations so I wanted to make her an accessory that was not run of the mill. I decided to make a scarf with a little twist. I kitted a scarf in stocking stitch from Rowan's country range. I made the scarf narrower than I normally and extra long so that it became more of an adornment than a practical winter woolie. I decided to line the scarf with a contrasting patterned fabric. A slow hand sewing task but well worth it and made it look like this;

...and folded up it looked like this

Experimenting with Colour

As an artist and designer it is important to be aware of colour. Lately I have been so busy that I have forgotten to just play and experiment with colour. I decided to rectify this by spending a rainy afternoon with my gouache paint exploring colour and inspiring myself to step out of my colour comfort zone and explore the possibilities. I hope that you feel inspired too.

I addition to experimenting with mixing colours I then decided to try placing colors by one another and seeing how they appeared differently depending on the ratios.

Treat yourself to a play day with paint it will be far from fruitless.