Birthday Postcard

It was my Dad's birthday at the week so I decided to send him a slightly different kind of card.

A hand painted postcard

I bought a pad of watercolour postcards a while back but hadn't used them until now.

The image is from a photo I took in Sheringham one of the times my parents came to visit me at uni.

More miniatures

It's new miniature time!

It's a fireplace. Do you like the painting? I did that myself. It's so small!

I made all the fire...accessories? utensils?...out of paperclips that I painted black.

Then there's a box of letters with some already in the fire. Note the burned out matches.

A glass of wine.

Are you getting the idea? Scorned woman gets drunk and burns all the letters from her ex-lover, or something like that.

That glass of wine was one of the hardest things to make. For the cup part I allowed PVA glue to dry around a plastic bead which I then peeled off and trimmed. The stem is a tiny piece of rolled up sellotape and the base is a small circle of plastic. And the wine is just paint and glue. 

Here's me installing the piece because we're having a group exhibition in an empty shop! It's very exciting.

The tiny wine glass broke on the way over to the shop though so notice my small pot of emergency glue. 

The exhibition starts on Monday until Saturday so if you're in Norwich head over to Castle Mall and have a look.

If not, don't worry, I will of course be sharing more photos later.

The Crane Maker

My friend, and fellow student, Natalie recently had an exhibition at our uni of 1000 paper cranes that she made herself.

Now she gets a wish!

The Holly Stubbings gallery is another student, Holly's, studio space which she turned into a gallery. It's pretty nifty. 

The installation of all the paper birds is amazing and I strongly suggest you head over to Natalie's blog to see more photos. You may even see a few of me!

I love the way the birds were hung and lit from above as it created really interesting patterns on the wall and made the most of the space.

At the private view Natalie showed us how to make origami cranes ourselves.

This was my attempt. Not bad for my first try.

Do Not Disturb

Here's my newest miniature. It's kinda gross. Unless your first thought was 'who spilled all the ketchup?'

You carry on thinking that. 

Just like the stairs it's designed to be displayed on the wall at floor level. 

Real blood pools have air bubbles around the edge right?

It's red paint mixed with PVA glue if anyone was wondering.

Envelope bags

I realised I've never shown y'all these bags I made a few years ago.

They're cute clutches made to look like envelopes with a chain strap and embroidered french address.

And yes, that embroidery took a very long time.

As well as these two I made a third bag as a commission for my sister's friend with her own choice of name and address.

I got the idea after seeing this picture which I've only just found out is from Bedcrumb.

They make all sorts of stylish accessories and there's loads of pretty things on their website, so I suggest checking it out.

Outside the box

For my newest miniature piece I've been thinking outside the box...cos it's not in a box! Oh, I crack myself up.

Blue front door at the top of steps.

Keys still in the door, bag abandoned on the door step.

Drinks cup tipped over on the step.

Uh-oh.

This doesn't look good. 

The staircase is one of my favourite things I've made. I think they're really impressive.

They started like this; every step is an individual box that I measured out, cut and constructed.

Then I added the sides which were again carefully cut and stuck together. Then I painted the whole thing and got to work on the rest.

New hairband: Pinwheel

Since my last hairband reminded my of a seaside pinwheel, I decided to make one that actually was a pinwheel.

Well, a felt pinwheel.

I used this tutorial from eighteen25 except I made mine slightly larger to make more of a statement and I attached it to a hairband as opposed to a hairclip.

Summer anyone?

Miniature madness

Here's my newest miniature.

It's another peephole/shoebox piece.

View through the peephole.

Bedroom; bed, wardrobe, coupla posters...

...couple more posters. Ok, that's a lot. This is weird.

It's a creepy teenage shrine!

Here's the whole thing with the lid off. Ignore the floor, I haven't committed to a carpet yet.

I'm pretty pleased with the white bed frame, constructed from wooden kebab skewers.

And there's the letterman jacket you saw last week. The girl whose room this is obviously stole it from her crush...

...to add it to her creepy shrine of him, complete with tonnes of photos, a mirror, creepy handmade dolls and a wedding drawing.

There's a lot more I could add to this, to make even creepier, but I've already moved onto my next piece.

Painting and the process

Here's my newest painting, again just for practice.

It's based on a photo of me and my Mum taken during the summer.

I thought y'all might like a little insight into my painting process, so I put together this animation while I was painting.

I used oil paints as usual and did it all in one go, over a few hours, except for the figures who were painted a few days later when the paint was dry enough to paint on top of without blending.

New hairband: Sequins

I was still in a sequin mood after making my jumper's shoulders sparkly so I made a hairband out of sequins.

I used the big circle sequins that don't really get used for much and sewed them to a circle of felt.

It kind of reminds me of one of those shiny pinwheels you get at the seaside.

It turns out I was in a sequin mood about this time last year too. Take a look. 

Little letterman

Here's a sneak peek from my latest miniature piece.

A mini letterman jacket!

I sewed the whole thing except the for the letter. I cheated with that and stuck it on with glue.

Remember that Buffy episode where it was all about the jacket?

Good times.

Spell it with your peas

I really like Holly's new header on create*loves.

Spelling stuff with hair grips. Fun!

So I had a go myself (since I recently bought a pack of 400 hair grips from the 99p shop. Yeah, 400)

Then this made me think of another time I've spelled out my name in an unconventional way.

Who's the lucky girl who once received so much Bueno in one go that she could spell her name with it?

It's me!

Spelled out your name in anything interesting lately? Alphabetti spaghetti totally counts.

And bonus points if you know what movie this title is from.

New painting

Here's my newest painting I did just for practice to keep my skills in check.

It's based on an old photo. And by old I mean 'playing around with my [then] new camera when I was 15 and I'm wearing my school uniform' kind of old.

I used oil paint and it's roughly A4.

I quite like it, what do you think?