Happy New year !

More like Happy New several years as I see that my last blog post was in 2016… well, it’s been a busy time helping to grow my daughter and watch her blossom into a beautiful, crazy 5 and a half year old.

And looking back at the last wire work I put on here, so much has changed. It’s really interesting to see just how much it has grown and developed and I feel that its also gained strength and narrative.

Last year I gave myself the challenge of joining the Devon Guild of Craftsmen as an associate member, which I achieved in September (hooray!); it gave me real incentive to think carefully about what I was making and the stories behind it.

I’ve really loved seeing people’s reactions to my work recently, and it genuinely does seem to make people really happy and brings joy. So in this world of ‘stuff’ and the feeling that I’ve had lately of just contributing to it all and wondering where’s the justification in my making more dust collectors (!?), surely making people happy is a good justification. There really isn’t anything else I can do so I am stuck with making more stuff !

I’m just going to keep this brief with a few pictures of some of my favourite things that I’ve made this year. Let’s hope it’s not another 3 years til my next post on here.

It would be lovely to hear your thoughts so please feel free to comment…

Good evening!

Doodle on envelope 18th May 2016

It’s been a while since I made any completely new work as I’ve been so time poor for the past few years, but here is some I’ve been working on. Some is available in my shop and some is already sold (yippee!) and I’m also still very happy to make commissions. So if you have an idea for a special gift (I’ve just completed a beautiful wedding present commission) please get in touch! I’ve had lots of fun on the beach with my daughter searching for lovely bits of driftwood over the past few months and some of it is coming up here…

Kite Flying! Click here for more details

Roosting Birds. Click here if you want to see in more detail

Chicken – click here for more details

And this is a larger wire drawing – go here for more images and details

Because it’s pretty much impossible to 1) not get addicted 2) make it sound rubbish 3) make you forget about all the things you don’t want to have in your head ?

http://tonematrix.audiotool.com/

I MISS the Beta Band!

I haven’t heard any of Steve Mason’s (Beta Band’s lead singer) solo stuff until just now, and have just watched (most of) this video. I like 🙂

I had a fun morning yesterday playing with some new ideas that have been floating about in my head for aaaaaaaages. A long time ago I started collecting the little round offcuts from my husband’s woodwork – apart from being lovely tactile shapes they have so many possibilities in my mind! Stacking blocks, oversized beads, stands for my work at shows, and plinths for little tiny works of art.

My 18 month old daughter is *obsessed* with balloons at the moment and I imagined her grabbing hold of one and floating off on a little adventure, and this is what I came up with:

I’ve also been playing with little wire 3D birds for a while but kept them hidden from everybody – but here is one I made yesterday:

Based on my favourite chicken at the moment, Great Aunt Eleanor (because she looks like a Victorian Great Aunt!) I forgot to give her any eyes, but as an experiment I think she works quite well!

I’m looking forward to making more of these and putting them into my Etsy shop asap.

Oh by the way – I made some lovely new mobiles which I’m ever so proud of, here is a picture of one:

Which is available to buy from my Etsy shop HERE

Now I’m off to have another look at the beautiful ‘Line Up’ which I went to see the other day and can highly recommend a visit to – but hurry up as it’s only on until March 6th.

I accidentally came across this beautiful video made by artist Luke Ramsey when I was searching for Alexander Calder’s mobiles on the internet.

Hmm, the photos are not quite how I saw it in real life, but the condensation on the inside of our vintage up-leaky and down-leaky greenhouse (in estate agents terms a lovely conservatory) was looking particularly beautiful this evening.

It was nice to see some spring blossom in Totnes on Friday. And I love this graffiti which I think looks a bit like a line having a dance!

I’m ever so excited today as I’m making some mobiles for a shop in London – I’ll post more details later – and they’re asking for some lovely new colour ways. I took my camera out to my studio today to snap some of the plastic bottles I’ve been sorting out. I need some nice silvers, greys and dark black to contrast with them now. I’m going to have to do a trawl around my local hairdressers!

As my camera was out there I started snapping some of the things that are in progress / generally just lying around and here are some of the pictures I took. My studio is always so busy and full – and a real mess to anybody else! – that it’s nice to see little areas sectioned off by themselves on their own, not surrounded by everything else.