Ronnie Bear

The prototype of a bear pattern I'm drafting/designing - He's called Ronnie after my dad

Produce Patterns

I came across these earlier in my photo stash, two of the reference photographs I took for the original produce patterns painting.

Design Decisions

Its little wonder it takes me so long to finish artworks when I start contemplating design decisions such as ribbon composition, I do prefer the angled ribbon layout though...

Produce patterns

More progress, these sugar snap pea pods will be joined by a few more in various media

Felt beads

I don't usually felt, its not my favourite use for wool ( though I do admire the felt creations of other practitioners/ artists) I prefer to spin with it. But I had some old felted samples and scraps of yarn cluttering up the studio so in the spirit of recycling I decided to make some felted beads...

Produce patterns - progress

Here's a little taster of how the lime is progressing...

Stamp Carving

My hand carved stamp collection has grown by one

Produce Patterns

You may remember this post about a painting I started several years ago and always intended (road to hell etc) to finish yet never quite did. Well I still haven't finished it, but it has dramatically moved on from my last post...

I decided that the undertaking of finishing that big canvas was a little foolish on my part, the painting had past its moment and there were practical reasons to abandon it too.

So instead i've hatched a plan to complete the work in a different way:

Salvaging the sections of the painting I was most happy with (and discarding the remainder) and using them in a series of new mixed media works. 

(featured above are two "in progress" shots of the salvaged sections) 

Leafy Seasons - Bottle cap centers

Four sets of seasonal leaf motif bottle cap centers

 (spring, summer, autumn and winter colour palettes)

Fineliner & applied pigment inks  

"square" Rag Rug

approx. 50 x 40cm

As a change from rag rugging in the round I decided to attempt a square rug. I didn't quite get the tension/stitch ratio right however so the top of the rug is somewhat curved, lesson learnt for next time though...

Denim Bottle Cap

In addition to creating paper based pieces to go inside the bottle caps, I'm exploring using fabric such as this denim. I may also embellish fabrics with embroidery or applique in later experiments. 

Lace Earring organiser

 Tired of scrabbling round my jewellery box for matching pairs I decided to make this to keep my earrings organised

(Approx. 25 x 30cm)

Bottle caps and Blossoms

A set of 5 blossom themed bottle cap centers

(Brown cardstock, watermark and white ink)

Bottle Caps Continued

The experimentations continue...

The biggest development in my bottle cap experiments is a switch from bending the cap edges in to bending them out. It is a more consistent method of "flattening" than in my previous experiments and I find it more visually striking.