The Fight Against the Blank Canvas

Blank space does funny things to my brain. Whether it's a blank page or blank walls, the long I stare at it, the more my mood spirals downwards. That's why I'm a fan of that basic and beautiful design skill - the collage. Everywhere I've lived, the collage has followed. The colour and design of each individual piece transform the entire canvas into visual candy.



At university a like minded friend and I collected fliers. Being students, we collected a lot! At first we created a simple collage covering an entire wall, but one lazy Sunday we decided to step it up and make a flier rainbow. This is probably the best collage I've had a hand in making!



I've also used collages to jazz up boxes, folders, notebooks and such. Here are a couple of boxes I worked on as gift boxes.

Untamed Menagerie

On one of my many internet adventures I was led to the Etsy store of Untamed Menagerie. Being a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, I fell in love with the 'Curiouser & Curiouser' necklace, which arrived in the post today. I thought I'd share that, and one or two of the other wonderful acrylic jewelery designs.

Point and having pointed, pounce!

The triptastic Beatles film Yellow Submarine holds a special place in my heart, as it was probably one of my most watched movies growing up. It's been a family favourite since I can remember and that's why I made this little plush Glove to give my mum on Mother's Day.

He's 20cm long and made of felt. All hand sewn.

Material Girl

On a recent trip to London I was taken to a magical place: the largest Paperchase store I'd ever seen. It was a delight to explore the shop's three storeys of art supplies, trinkets, wrapping paper and gobsmacking array of greetings cards. With mixed media canvases in mind, I bought a few sheets of handmade textured paper, among other things.



Recently I also found some Japanese postcards my Granddad had sent my mother during his time in the Royal Navy. They're quite beautiful. I may end up using some of these in the canvases too.

She Won't Let Those Robots Eat You

Out of everything I have ever made, this is my favourite. Meet Giant Happy Robot! He is 50cm tall, but his little brother is a wee 18cm. Made from felt and PVC, he has a wire frame and all he wants to do is hug you. GHR is completely handsewn (I love machines but machines hate me!), and even has posable arms and legs!

The three basic body sections were made by using a basic box template, so these came together quite quickly. The trickiest parts to sew were the hands with their three claws.

Giant Happy Robot currently resides with a dear friend of mine, where his friends include No Face and Nobby the Night Gaunt. Tiny Happy Robot lives with me.

If you love GHR as much as he loves you, watch this space as I plan to make and sell more!

To Me, Tutu

I created this for a party I was going to, with a twisted Alice in Wonderland theme. The method is so simple, and didn't cost much at all. I got a belt (elastic works too), multiple strips of black and red dress netting and some suedette which I had lying around. Each strip measured double the length that I wanted the tutu to be and couple of inches wide.

Each strip was doubled over and loop tied around the belt. I looped the other strips, of which there were around 100 in total. And that finished the basic tutu! I glued some hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds as the finishing touches.

You can find detailed instructions with a quick search of youtube or google.

Colour Me In

I bought myself a new camera for Christmas, since my old one was getting on in years! It's a simple slinky Sony W110 and I've been playing around with it. I wanted to go out and about but it was so miserable outside I stayed in and made colour grids.

x

We're Number One!

Welcome! This blog is intended to be my creative journal. I'm interested in a variety of creative media from plush toys to website design to freehand doodling and prose writing. Creativity is a messy business, so in an endeavour to apply some sense of organisation to my creative life, I'll be documenting my projects, loves and inspirations in this journal.

As a first piece, in ode to this being my first entry, a little doodle dedicated to that most important of numbers, the yin to 0's yang.