A Swinging Christmas!

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. Personally, it is one of my favourite times of year; mulled wine, family, friends and LOTS of food. This year was particularly busy as we had an exhibition at the end of November which lead on to a few commissions which I was frilled about - the thought of someone opening one of my pieces on Christmas day! Eeeek!

A while back, my boyfriend Jay and I discovered electro swing at a festival and since have been hooked. We went to a 1920's night in November and the classy flapper costumes, feathers and art deco era really inspired me and I have began designing and making pieces inspired by this. First piece is shown above...Watch out for more. 

A look back on 2013

Well I did not blog much last year but that will all change this year.
However,  my lack of blogging is no reflection on the amount of blood sweat and tears that went into last years work.  Confidence has been something which I have lacked within my work, but this seems to be strongly improving due to the support and following from friends, family and locals.
As part of the Parched Artists, we smashed 3 exhibitions last year and each and every one of them was a success.
The collection which you can see above is one that I produced at the beginning of the year for our exhibition at AKA in Banbury. I embroidered laminated pieces of paper and fabric with metallic threads and beads. I then attached these to doily shaped silver pieces.
This work was inspired by household objects at my Nan's house - floral wallpaper, doilies and glitter.

Another project which I put together was a small collection for our summer exhibition at the Wine Vaults, again in Banbury. These pieces (shown below) are influenced by the festival season. As a festival goer myself, there is a certain style of clothing and fashion which can been seen during a weekend camping in a muddy field and jewellery is a huge aspect of this.

Brooch So Far (..not so good!!)

 

How this piece did not end up in the bin, I do not know. I spent all day on Sunday dedicated to my workshop. And something as simple as this nearly gave me a heart attack!

 

The soldering all went well and then I accidentally melted one of the metal flowers...not good. But all is okay and I have an almost complete piece. Just a few edges to clear up and rivets to hammer.

Come to The Parched Artists exhibition in order to be able to pick up varied pieces like this one, most on a smaller scale.

The Parched Artists First Ever Exhibition! Eeeeeek!

Soooooo...I've been a tad lazy on the old blogging front but only due to a certain exhibition taking up ALL of my time. However, that aside, I am sure it will be worth it!
I decided to set up this group myself as I was getting frustrated what with having been to University, learning a skill, and never using it. I realised that I was not alone in feeling this way. Many of my friends from art college, friends I have grown up with, people I have worked with and now work with have a creative background which just isn't being used. And so I thought we could spur each other on and put on a good old knees up of an event.
Organising has been a little stressful, but the meetings in pubs take off the sting a bit. I'm very apprehensive about how it will go, hopefully if it goes well, we will be putting on future events. I'll let you know.

Check out our posters made by collective member Hayley Jane.
If you are local, get down to Banbury Canal Day on Sunday
7th October 2012 to check out art from textile art to illustration,
painting to jewellery and more importantly, a free cuppa
and a slice of cake!

Another Great Inspiration

http://www.sallycollins.co.uk/

How amazing is this....

http://sianhaighbrown.com/
Check out Sian Haigh-Brown's work, it's AMAZING!!! Stumbled across her beautiful collection on the internet and I can't believe that I didn't know of her work before. I am definitely going to check this out at the 'Donning Oxford' exhibition at the O3 Gallery in Oxford in June. A defo must see.

I finally completed my collection Friday night. I bagged it up and labelled it, ready to hand in. I had to have great discipline Saturday morning, as I was rather tempted to take it all out and continue filing and cleaning. However, Jay sensibly advised me to leave it be and hand it in, so I guess we will see how it looks tonight!!