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  

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. 

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.

Rag Rug Basket

I decided to explore some more rag rug/ half-hitch knot applications, so now I'm working on an enormous basket (measures approx. 85cm across) which when completed will be used for storage in my studio.

It began with a hoop (hula hoop to be precise) which forms the base of the basket, I'm now knotting my way around and up to form the tube (what would be the sides if this was a square basket) and then later I'll make a round rug for the base of the basket. At some point I will probably have to add vertical supports (doweling or similar) to the main body of the basket to maintain its shape, especially considering the extreme size will result in more weight.

As with many of my long process projects I will post some progress photos later.

Glazing bottle caps

More bottle cap experiments, these are glazed with various gel paint mediums I have in my studio, some have a solid finish and others are soft enough to leave fingerprints in (and all have to be applied in thin coats or risk obscuring the drawings etc). 

I'm going to try some varnishes/epoxy next.

Bottle Caps

My local pub has kindly collected a sizeable bunch of bottle caps for me to create recycled art accessories with, these are my (very) early experiments:

I'm quite keen on turning the rims down by hand but have yet to perfect the technique, but I've also got to work on creating holes for findings (my plan is to produce pendants, key-rings and maybe some magnets) and settle on a finishing/varnish method. 

Once I'm happy with the overall look of the cap I'll turn my attention to the images inside - I've got a feeling the miniatures I produce will be quite intricate and involve cross-hatching...      

A combination of ideas

A combination of catalogue drawings and the decorative motifs I've been sketching recently, this is most likely the starting point to a series of works that feature a fusion of decorative elements and household items.

Stuffed Shell

Another stuffed experiment, continuing on the sea theme I guess - mostly I just wanted to give the ridges a try... 

Sewing Snaps

In the midst of sewing...

Patterns - Ball Experiment

Continuing with my pattern drafting experiments I've constructed a roughly shaped ball, mostly I made it to see if I could but also so Amba could have a new ball toy...

Amba - after playing with toys

The First Page

As promised in this post here is the first page I've completed in our collaborative book project, technically its been nearly finished for quite a long while but I only recently got around to doing the last touches on it...

I have a second page already underway so shouldn't be too long before its done and posted up.

Please note: even though this project is collaborative between me and Duncan I will only be posting my  own pages on this blog, its up to Duncan to post his finished pages on his own blog.

Stuffed animal prototype

This is the stuffed fish prototype I mentioned here, its a little worse for wear since Amba (a.k.a my mischievous puppy) got hold of it but I plan to make more decorative versions now that I'm happy with the pattern.

Amba - playing innocent 

Knitted bags

These knitted panels will one day be knitted bags... One day...

Patterns - stuffed animals

A while ago I started altering various teddy bear patterns, making small changes to lengths and shapes that adjust the overall look of the  bear. Those alterations have been the stepping stones to drafting my own simple patterns, again I started with a bear but I've also been getting quite excited about other animals like dolphins and fish.

Its all very experimental and so every time I've made a prototype to test the pattern my puppy Amba has got a new toy. I leave out details such as eyes and use tough fabric for the toys/testers but eventually I plan to use the patterns I'm happy with to make more elaborate, decorative stuffed animals using plenty of interesting fabrics and nice finishes such as embroidery.

I might post up one of the prototypes later - if Amba hasn't playfully destroyed it by then...

130 Splat Bears

 Remember these? 

Well I've recently finished cutting out a hundred and thirty more splat bears (to be precise: 130 complete bear patterns or 260 pieces/ half bears ) from various piece of scrap fabric in several sizes. Needless to say its going to take me a very long time to get round to sewing them all, especially since they will mainly be hand sewn due to their small size and the stretch of the fabric, but keep an eye out for future posts featuring splat bears - hopefully not too far in the future...

Scrabble Collage Collaborations

Ages ago me and Duncan stumbled across a communal/ collaborative project called book - for thirty-six weeks a sketchbook was sent between 4 artists - inspired by the idea of a collaborative sketchbook we decided to start one together... call it about a year later I realise that between us we've done half a page each, forgotten all about the sketchbook and subsequently buried it in amongst all my piles of art stuff.

Now considering how well me and Duncan work together and how often we work on our own individual projects whilst in the same room you'd think we'd be able to manage to do such a project, but I think we were over ambitious/ enthusiastic when we first saw 'book' and so failed to give ourself a theme or plan to keep the project together, plus you've probably noticed by now how much I flit between ideas/projects (He's just as bad for it).

So when the other day he described a project he'd heard about, ( something involving uni students being set a project where they could only work with lined paper, masking tape and white paint - he was a little vague on the details so they might have been allowed glue too) I had a bit of a brain-wave : I fancied starting a collage project where the media I  allowed myself to use was decided by a random external source (rolling of the dice, flip coins etc). A couple hours of animated discussion (with Duncan of course) produced a plan to use scrabble letters and the alphabet to dicate my mediums, each letter of the alphabet would be assigned a medium ( A for Acrylic...) and I would use scrabble tiles to decide the letters for each collage.

Since we'd hatched this project idea together it was fairly predictable that we'd both want to give it a go, each of us planning our own sketchbook of scrabble collage, but then a little thought occurred to me ( spurred by the fact I'd just unearthed the poor abandoned volume) why not revive the collaborative sketchbook? It's the perfect project for it, so thats what we're going to do : a collaborative scrabble collage sketchbook... if we ever get more than half a page done I'll post them up.

A sample of my cunning plan to avoid losing scrabble tiles whilst working on this project = photocopy and laminate them! ( I've been near teachers too long - the addiction to laminators must be contagious) 

Rag Rug - the big one

This is the mammoth rag rug I'm working on ( as mentioned - briefly - in the tutorial I made a couple weeks ago on the technique), I have to work on it in dribs and drabs because I want to avoid repetitive strain/ straining my sanity but I do find it relaxing (perfect for doing whilst watching telly). It currently measures at approximately 33 inches - but I'm aiming for about 5 - 6ft
I'll post another photo when its grown significantly so we can watch its progression, but for now wish me luck...

Drop Spinning - spot the difference

As you can see in roughly two weeks (during which I've snatched the occasional 5 minutes for spinning) the amount of spinning has noticeably grown! ( well its a bit spot the difference but I think its got quite a bit more on there) i'm also getting the hang of spinning from "tufts" instead of preparing lengths to spin with - though only time will tell if I'm goot enough to do it straight from a carded fleece ( the wool tops I'm currently using is pretty damn easy to work with - that is when its not felting itself together at odd moments)

before

now

Drop Spinning

Started back up with my drop spinning today, its one of those processes I pick up and put down ( much like rag rugging) as the mood takes me.  Really its a long term project because I intend the finished spinning to be knitted into a hooded jumper for my friend and fellow artist Duncan, truthfully he's the one that got me started on spinning in the first place so I think its quite appropriate that my first big project using the process should go to him.

Anyways its a very long way off from being a jumper, here's how far I've got: