The Liberty Best of British Open Call 2013

Since I was very young I have loved visiting Liberty in London. It isn't only the most beautiful shop, with gorgeous architectural details and a wonderfully serene atmosphere but it also has a bedazzling array  of luxury designer merchandise in its many different departments. It is food for my creative soul just to visit and to wander.

Even when I have been almost broke its been such a treat to buy a little something scrummy and take it home in its distinctive, gold lettered, purple bag.

So after many years of admiring the work of the other designers I thought I'd register to show mine! Being BRAVE remember!

I registered in the summer last year and before Christmas I got a letter inviting  me to join the other 2,000 designers and artists to show my work to one of the panels of experts from Liberty. 

January 12th arrived! The day  for The Liberty Best of British Open Call 2013!

It was a freezing cold winter's day. The doors opened at 10am but people were queueing from about 6am. By the time we got there at 10, the queue reached around 2 sides of the store.  We would waiting for hours in the chilly British weather so we wrapped up well. We were asked to bring only what we could easily carry and to have protection from the rain.

I took my DH with me for company. He is such a great support but he hates queueing! However, it was lucky that he promised  not to complain as we eventually had to wait  for 5  1/2 hours!! (2 hours outside, the rest going up 4 flights of stairs and in the waiting area) We did get to go away and have lunch at a lovely little patisserie for a treat though. 

The great thing that made the time go faster was that there were so many interesting people to watch! All kinds of artists, all ages, all kinds of products. It was fascinating to see some of them practising their pitches, revising their prices and talking about their inspiration.

We did get a peek at some of their designs: Gold jewellery, screen printed scarves, and lots of different designer cushions.

I took 3 different kinds of things and was registered to see the buyers of the Home department. When I got into the room where I would be doing my 3 minute pitch I was so thrilled to be told that I would be seeing Julie Hassan the Senior Buying Manager for Home, and Harriet Patterson the Style Director of Living Etc Magazine.

The lovely thing about the Liberty Open Call is that although they only take about 10 out of the 2,000 designers they see on the day, everyone is treated so nicely. It isn't scary like Dragon's Den at all!  The staff are so friendly and helpful throughout the whole process.

This is a real chance to have your designs seen by some of the top professionals in the industry and get an honest and constructive appraisal of your work. They were so interesting to talk to and gave me some great feedback. I was there for longer than 3 minutes because they asked me lots of questions but it went like a flash! What a great experience and well worth waiting for.

The youtube video link below will show you Liberty's own clips of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LJGFNTwDA0&list=UUxUf2HdD5Se6biJzxc_xeWw&index=1

  

Happy Brave New Year!

A couple of months ago I was having lunch with two of my lovely friends and we were discussing New Year resolutions. They are SO hard to keep and in the last few years I have only made 2 in the hope that I could keep myself firmly stuck to them!

One of my friends said she was going to make just one! Be Brave!

It was such an amazing moment because we could see, in that second,  that for all of us this meant really different things but to each of us this would be such an important resolution. We all decided right there that this was the one for us!

As we talked about it we realised that that we all feel scared about some things and that everyone needs a little bravery in their lives. Not only to cope with some of life's challenges with things like health or family worries  but also because we all choose the easy option sometimes, rather than challenging ourselves to take risks. Without stepping out of our comfort zones a little bit every day (or even from time to time) we don't know what wonderful things could be waiting for us, what talents we could find, and which new friends we could meet.

I have mentioned this to quite a few other friends since then and each time it made such an impression that I think many people will join us in being Brave!

We have decided to have a Bird as our Badge of Bravery! because they are beautiful, brave and have wings to fly! The bird in the picture above is a doodle I have started in my journal. It isn't finished yet but I may leave it to show how the doodles are formed for the journalling classes which will be coming up later in the year.

So I wish you a very Happy New Year and if you wish to join us in Being Brave that you will find that surprising and wonderful things will happen for you this year. And that you will find your own wings!

Christmas Paper Patchwork

On the Mixed Media group I belong to we decided to do a Christmas patchwork panel swap.

We all got assigned different dimensions for our panel and as there were 10 people in the swap we each had to make 10 identical panels- one for each member of the swap.

At the end we each received one from each person and a diagram of how they would all fit together.

I thought I'd do a little tutorial of how I made mine because lots of people have been asking about how to make the paint effects, how to use the products and how to piece it all together.

This may take a while so get a cuppa  and lets get messy!

1. My panel is 4"wide by 5" high so I chose some black card and ran it through the Sizzix Bigshot in a Snowflake and a spotty Embossing Folder. It turned my cardboard into  deeply embossed  patterned cards and I painted them with Gold and Copper Jaquard Lumiere paints which is rich and metallic and perfect for using on fabric, card and anything you like. LOVE this paint!

I also cut some birds and reindeer in the black card with the Sizzix. I know they were all supposed to be the same but I got excited and can't make decisions when I'm excited!

  I wanted the panels to look vintage, so although the bright metallics look good I wanted more depth to the paint effects. When  you are making your own painted backgrounds you can choose your own colour scheme so I decided to make 3 different versions of vintage metallics.

The first one is Verdigris which is the look of copper when it has been aged by the weather. It gets lovely blues and greens mixed in with the copper and metallics.

The second is much brighter with more of the metallic colour showing through.

The third is more like an Aged Bronze.It is darker and has a white bloom on the surface.

2.You can do a mix and match of all the finishes and stop when you like the look of your backgrounds. There are no rules and it is fun to just play with the paints.

We start by putting a blob of lime green, turquoise and white on a plate. These look quite bright but we are going to be blending them and mixing them and between these 3 colours you can make all kinds of different tints, shades and depths of colour.

You can mix the colours on the brush and on the plate but it it really important to have a really dry brush before you paint so when you like the colour you have mixed rub most of it off on to a paper towel so that it looks like there is almost none left. Not like the brush above!

3. Now really lightly brush the colour onto the texture of your card. Try to brush over just the  top of the textured surface. Add some patches of the other colours and mix them together a bit but make sure your brush stays really dry.

4. Wipe some of the paint off with a paper towel to make it look old and worn and to buff up some of the metallic colours and make them shine.

Time to make the reindeer and birdy embellishments! I wanted a crackly vintage finish on these. Ranger make a lovely crackle paint called Rock Candy which produces  transparent glittery fine crackles with just one step of painting. I painted all my shapes with a fairly thick layer of the crackle and let them dry.

Because it is transparent it doesn't really show on the black so I needed to put something over the top to show off the lovely crackles! I used Copper glitter Stickles. I put a little bit on my finger and rubbed it over the crackles which picked up the texture really well. I also used some Treasure Gold on my finger to rub over the texture and give a bit of shine..

Before sticking my shapes on with PVA glue I rubbed the outer edges of the panels with black Treasure Gold to finish them and make them look aged. I then stuck on some gorgeous bronze metal snowflakes with Ranger Multi Medium in Matte finish which disappears when dry and holds really strongly, and some little berry wreaths which I made from a berry pick that I took apart.

Here is a closer look at 4 of the panels. Have a go at making one yourself but if Christmas is too near you can use this technique all year round to make lovely textured artwork for cards, journals and scrapbooks etc. Try using different colour combinations to make them look completely unique each time.

Boxmoor Craft Fair 2012

The Annual Boxmoor Craft Fair is happening this weekend!

This little fair is small but perfect. We have the happiest stallholders with the nicest crafts and a Kidzone where the children and adults can come and be arty, making Christmas decorations and Artist Trading Cards.

Some of the children come back year after year to add to their collection of cards and have made some beauties!

There are lovely refreshments, hot and cold, and some great stalls to visit.

This year I will be selling off some of my vintage ribbons by the roll for only £5.00. Some of the rolls have 20+ metres on them and would sell for £1.50 or more per metre usually.

I will also have pick and mix buttons and beads and fantastic leather festival jewellery. and I have found some amazing holographic cards with the solar system and planets which would make fab presents if you can part with them.

There will be felt bags and recycled silk purses and all kinds of yummy stuff so come along if you can.

Sunday 21st October, 10am 'till 4pm.

The Parish Centre, St Johns Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead. HP1 1NR

Next to the 3 Blackbirds.

The famous Conker Festival is also on that day so come and make a whole day of it with me!

Ready to Fly!

One of my earliest blog posts on the 17th May had a doodle  from one of my sketchbooks that I had used as inspiration for a piece of handmade felt. 

I had a lovely time laying out the felt fibres using some of the colours in the sketch and then because I was so busy with my teaching schedule and because I had covered every available space  with art stuff I rolled up the fibres in their net and bubble wrap  and left them till the summer. I originally intended to add the details from the sketch into the final piece with stitching. I was going to 'doodle ' with the sewing machine to add the final touches.

I finally had time to finish felting it and here is the finished piece! at last!!

 I am so pleased with the way it has come together. Because it was made by wet felting, it has  a really dense rippley texture and the pattern on it has stayed in relief. Because I am an embroiderer and I am addicted to stitching I had to really make myself resist stitching this piece. I think it has enough detail now that it is finished and it is a good note to myself that I don't need to stitch on everything . 

You can see in this detail that it has a variety of different fibres on this panel Thin mohair, silk, curly hand dyed Wensleydale, hand dyed roving and lots of coloured merino. Just like painting with fibre! Hmmm What shall I do next???

Racing into a new teaching year!

Today I was in a meeting to schedule my teaching for the coming academic year. There are some very exciting new courses coming up!

We will be designing courses in Fabulous Felt part 1 and advanced felt which will include a seamless bag, a Cobweb felt stole  and a Nuno Felt scarf!

There will be Christmas Crafts which will include felt decorations and the White on White wall hanging that every one has been desperate to make. We will also include some fab pop up snowflake cards.

We have been planning some more Jewellery and Vintage Crafts courses too. These were really popular last year and we have lots of new techniques up our sleeves.

Artist Trading Cards are so very popular with everyone that we will be doing courses in these little beauties all over the county! I know lots of people have been waiting for the next round of these classes so they can learn new techniques to add to their collections.

This year I hope to be teaching many more Mixed Media techniques with Altered Books and Book Art of all kinds.

I will have some great things for sale too and some tutorials coming up to go with them so watch this space for all of those.

If you are interested in any of the coming courses, contact me as soon as you can. Last year so many people missed out because the classes filled quicker than we could publicise them.

Hertfordshire Open Studios

It is September!  It must be time for Herts Open Studios!

This is a wonderful event where artists from around the whole county open their studios to the public to promote their art and  teaching and demonstrate their techniques for visitors.

It is a great opportunity to talk to the artists about their work and to buy the work of emerging and established artists who may live just around the corner from us.

This is my 6th year of exhibiting with OS. Each year I try to have a different theme or I base my work around a technique that I have been exploring. It is a great opportunity to stretch myself to develop new techniques and to talk to people and see what they think of my work.

This year my artworks were based around my studies of Lace. 

I love vintage lace and marvel at the way it is constructed with open areas that give texture 

and play with the light. I love the way you can look through it to partly see what is beneath.

I have been making my own lace! A 21st Century version of an antique textile. Embroidered, layered, beaded and made from very contemporary materials!

I also have  some of my handmade books and altered books on display in cases. I can take them out and show them to people in quiet moments. There are a couple of book out of the cases for people to look through. There is a lot of interest in book art and last year when I showed the books, the exhibition  led to many classes because every one wanted one of their own!

Herts Open Studios is on until Saturday 15th September. From 11am till 4pm at the Paper Trail in Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead. Hurry if you want a peek!