Holiday?

Where did my holiday go? 4 weeks and 1 day til I move back to sunny Preston.

I got a confirmation of my place on the textiles course this year (yay!) and in the envelope was also my holiday project....(grrrr, how could you, UCLan?)...and a letter saying that the uni are running a trip to New York in February/March next year! Better get saving, since it's £600!! Very exciting, I've never been abroad! :D

Going for lunch at my brother's new house with the parents tomorrow, then a friend's birthday party in the evening, then to a festival in Bedfordshire next weekend - hopefully it won't be this rainy! Busy busy busy! My knitting is progressing very slowly.


The holiday project is fairly naff, though...we have to collect things that reflect our personal interests and experience of Summer, put them in a bottle, then do a sketchbook based on the objects. I was thinking of holding it outside in the rain. But that doesn't really reflect my interests... and wouldn't be very fun to draw.

Here are a few bits and pieces I've done so far -

Print blocks

Prints


Ink and Glue

Productive week!

I've felt very lazy since finishing uni for the Summer, so I gathered up everything I've made in the last few weeks, put it all together and was surprised by how much of it there was!! So feeling a lot better about myself now! All the cakes, tea cup and pot were made in the past week.


Spent a fair while making toys for April - little folded stars on card streamers to hang from the roof of her cage - they should keep her busy for a matter of seconds.....mad little creature.


One night of before bed reading and half the book is gone...Eeek!


Went to Wenlock today, looked in the bookshop, the little antiques-y place and twenty twenty gallery, and stumbled across Ippikin, which is one of the best shops I have even seen. Knitted sheep tea cosies, yarn, hand knitted clothes, all kinds of beautiful textiley things.


Must go back with money!

Sorting

Spent the morning sorting out my laptop, I'm really disorganised about where I save stuff. Going through my art folder and found this!

Lazy day

Have been lying in the garden just watching the clouds and listening to Lungs all day. Smothered in sun cream of course! Submitted an piece of illustration for an exhibition in Oakengates a couple of days ago, but not sure if it's been picked to go in or not... Oh well, I'll find out on Monday.

Got a 2:1 overall for this year. Couldn't have hoped for more as I did massively muck up a couple of projects... so very definitely doing Textiles in September! :) Considering mooching down to Ironbridge for a walk by the river, but think it'll be flooded with tourists. Will have to go when it's raining.

Aaah!

I just got an email from uni, saying results get posted up online tomorrow, terrified even though I already have an unconditional for a textiles degree in September. I need to distract myself!


Thinking of entering the young people's open exhibition in Oakengates on Sunday - but I'd have to get the piece of work framed up before then - I'm not sure how to frame a piece of felt? It can't really have anything pressing on the surface of it, as the embellishment is pretty delicate... I'll have to phone up Maws, they're usually pretty helpful :)

Been making some new items over the past couple of days, and working on my Autumn/Winter range, too. Sneak peeks and new listings soon!

All packed and ready to go

I've been packing and cleaning the flat since Wednesday. I'm finally done with my room, and just a couple of things left to do in the kitchen before I go. My brother's coming up with a van to come get me and my masses of stuff on Tuesday, and I can't wait. Going to miss the sunsets from my Kopa room though.

Sleep?

I'm utterly shattered, been cleaning our flat and packing up all my random belongings for the past three days, but for some reason cannot sleep. I think it's something to do with having one of those dreadful plastic-coated mattresses, and the lack of people in the block..?

So as a last resort, I'm watching endless films, in the hope that I'll fall asleep.
First up, Bridget Jones' Diary and a nice hot chocolate, surely that'll do the trick?


We shall see.

Sorry, this is going to be a huge post!

Well it's been quite some time since my last post, but I've been so busy! Making these -

Mixed media wall-hanging based on the Harris Museum, Preston.


Wire prawn mini sculpture.


Textural ceramic pieces.



Made into a little sculpture.


Piece of ceramic 3d illustration work based on The Snow Queen, designed to have a light source behind it.





Textile orange with multiple layers - wrappings project.

- what do you think? All comments and criticisms are welcome!


When I've not been making stuff, I've been drawing, and spending far, far too much money on this book... ...trying to convince myself "it's research for my essay!" and being thoroughly unsuccessful... I just wanted it because it's beautiful. I do love Jan Pienkowski's work.

Back page from The Nutcracker.

Also found a whole fairy lustre tea set (minus the bread and butter plate, but I can live with that!) in a little charity shop, along with 4 tea cups and saucers - £4.74 for the lot! Bargain.



In between all the work, I've had a couple of trips home to Shropshire...

Braved the Ironbridge floods...

...to get some Queenie's Cupcakes!

Which are absolutely gorgeous, my family and flatmates agree!

You can find them on Facebook, or visit their website for more info.




Yum yum yum!


Also found a lot of lovely vintage glass baubles in the Severn Hospice shop in The Gorge - 10p each! They look very sweet on our tree.

More lengthy posts to follow soon...

A rather *Special* week.... :)

This was what was outside my flat window a couple of days ago -

Right now I can't even see out of my window for rain!! Hope it's gone by tomorrow!



Had a brilliant night on Thursday, went to see The Specials in Liverpool with a friend. It was amazing, despite the fact that drinks were hideously over priced!We missed the last train home, too, so had to wander round Liverpool for a few hours until the trains started up again. Found a sweet little Chinese though, depressingly a really nice eat-in meal for two from there cost us less than 4 drinks at the Olympia! I was pretty shocked!

Ended up mooching around outside Lime Street station until 3:20am, then catching the Manchester Piccadilly train.... then more waiting there.... didn't get home until about 7am. Good times were had though!

Well..

It's been an embarrassingly long time since my last post, hasn't it? Sorry to anyone who actually read my blog!! I've been infinitely busy with uni and all the things that go with it... such a lot of fun!

I finished my first project last week, based on the Harris, and got 69% for it (a 2:1, 1% off a first) and was so chuffed!! Will get a picture soon. Feeling a little under the weather today, and just waiting for a friend to pop round for a brew, so I can go do my laundry and have someone to talk to while I'm waiting for the washer :)

More interesting artier posts to follow soon, I hope...

First day off

since Sunday! I'm completely shattered!! Just my luck that my course started this week too (a week earlier than all my flatmates :( ) so I'm currently getting back into drawing and spending days here -

- since I picked it to study for our first project.. (it's the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston).

Also, you might have noticed some new brooches in my various shops, this is them in progress a couple of weeks ago, not looking too promising...

..but now look! Magically transformed into lovely, frosty, metallic leaves! :D

Large Silver Oak Fallen Leaf Brooch - $19.00/£11.00
Available on Folksy, Etsy and Coriandr

All packed up & ready to go

Really should be sleeping now, as I'll have to get up at about half 5 tomorrow to be in Preston for 9 to collect my keys... scary stuff!!! Have so many photos from Staffs and a little trip to Lake Vyrnwy in Wales, will post some up here soon, just haven't had the time! Been packing and tidying since goodness knows when! Anywho, I probably won't be posting for a little while, and won't be adding anything new to my shop for a bit either, since I can't fit my masses of felt, threads and other things in my little student room, I don't think..

Bye bye Shropshire, bye bye Bun, bye bye April & Chin :(

"Congratulations! ...

... Your place at University of Central Lancashire (C30) to study Art & Design (Foundation entry) (WW12) has been confirmed."

Thanks for that, UCAS. Now onto the slightly worse bit...


C E E B B - sort of my initials, haha! But all passes so I'm pretty happy :)

A completely undeserved C in AS Fine Art (really did not put enough work in to get that mark.), a high-ish B in Textiles (a bit gutted about how they marked my personal study, I thought it was my best unit, oh well - got an A for my Snow Queen illustrations!! :D ). Got an E in A2 Physics - I couldn't have expected anything more really, and the same for A2 Maths. Got a high B in AS Maths though, which I am extraordinarily chuffed about, since last year I got a low E!


Off to Preston in 3 weeks and 2 days. Eeeeeeek!

Fear

I have so much to do this week, but can't concentrate on any of it because the much dreaded and awaited a level results are looming tomorrow. I'm really not expecting good or even half acceptable grades, last year was a bad year. I just want to get it over with! So glad I had an unconditional offer from UCLan, one less thing to worry about!

I've also booked a table for a craft fair on the 5th September - the week before I have to leave this town, and the day of Catton Hall Festival of Fireworks in Derbyshire, which is usually a nice night out, especially since we got some free tickets - am a big lover of fireworks. :) Going to be a busy week!
The table at this craft fair's massive compared to any I've had before - 6' by 2'6" or something along those lines - I'm sure most people wouldn't be phased by it, but I'm a bit worried about how best to display my brooches and jewellery... any tips anyone has would be lovely!

Baking has featured in a fairly large way this week - mainly cookies. The sort that morph into odd shapes when baking -


Was digging around in the harddrive of my laptop earlier and found this picture I took for the compostion of one of my final paintings for art, had forgotten how much I liked it until now.