rockpool candy

It's Christmas in my studio!

In more ways than one!

I've received a very interesting commission, which is a massive present in itself.

It's for a Christmas-themed creation. Wheeeeeeeee! The snow is literally drifting in my studio.

And the commission is from a wonderful company that has stringent ethical codes with regards to its packaging (amongst other things). Hark! I think that's the sound of the Earth putting its Christmas titfer on, too.

So whilst Norn Iron has finally banished its rain clouds and embraced a blue sky split with sun, I'm in my elf outfit, getting all jingle bells.

I shall post pics of my work once the whole shebang has been released to the press.

So HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Mince pie, anyone?

My living reef

I had an accident with my reef a few weeks ago; dropping it to be precise, sending everything tumbling. So I tried to put it back together tonight, only I've got so much whizzing around my head at the mo, that I can't quite remember how it looked. And there are new editions, too, so it's growing and morphing all of its own accord.

I swear I can't quite remember making some of them...................

From water bottle to water dweller

Almost all of us use water bottles, clocking them up at a great rate. We drink a lot of fizzy water in our house and tried to be environmentally friendly by getting a sodastream, so that it was, if you'll excuse the pun, on tap. It cut down our plastic usage enormously. But sadly, our local stockists took the gas cylinders off their shelves. So I find myself in a dilema. I'm recycling about 10 2 litre bottles a week, but a lot of plastics here are shipped to China to be recycled, which ain't that green.

Surely these bottles could become something more beautiful.

Then, whilst looking back through old photos, I found pics of jellyfish washed up on our nearby beach. And the waterbottle jellyfish was born.

Hope you like it. Watch out for the jellyfish cloud that is forming in my studio.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Ahh, Sunday, nearly mid-day, middle of summer, on the beach. Just makes you want to strip down to your swimmers and leap in doesn't it?!

Even the sea anemones were closed up tight, clinging to their rocks and refusing to come out in the cold water.

But I got some great inspiration for felted seaweed and an even better hairdo, due to the heavy sea mist.

Norn Iron, we love you!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

There are some Inga's-head-shaped holes in my ceilings today, due to all my excited bouncing around (not generally recommended for my post-operative recovery).

The IFF they say Yay! They've invited me to contribute. Check out their amazing reef project at http://www.theiff.org/reef/

So now I just have to get really busy with the fingers. I only hope that they can keep up with my brain, which is whizzing about my head like a mad thing.

Here's to LA in January.

Woo HOoo!

WIP today includes some packing-strap fan worms on a polystyrene block


inspired by fan worms we saw at our local aquarium.

Embrace the mad cap

If you read my previous blog, you'll know that I can't bear things needlessly being thrown away. But it never fails to amaze me how, for many shops (but not all), my desire to take their rubbish away, or empty their skip for them a little is at best a little suspect, and at worst, just too much bother. It's so disheartening. I even began to question, "Do we really distrust people so much?"

But you know, when I do meet someone who helps me out, they shine and I'm eternally greatful.

There's the girl at the electrical store who checked all the boxes for me for foam sponge. When she found none, she remembered that she had a small square at home and brought it in for me the very next day.

The bike shop guy who went out the back and unwrapped bikes so that I could have the foam.

And today, I was SO chuffed to meet a shop assistant who was not only good enough to let me through the back of the store, out to rummage around the skip, but was keen as mustard to get in amongst it and help pull out plastic strapping, wrapping and packaging. Hurrah!

So here's to them, for shining out and for keeping even more stuff from the big 'ole dump.

SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA TRUST
I know we live in a time of suspicion due to terrorism etc, but let's not let that get in the way of embracing mad-cap ideas and flights of fancy. If someone has a weird request, it might genuinely mean that they're up to something, or a bit cuckoo. Or, it might just be that they've had one of those mad-as-a-tree, left-of-kilter ideas that just has to be tried out for a laugh. And if you help them, their life, and yours could be that bit richer for it.

Cherishing the unloved

Is there anything better in the world of 'creating' than finding a hitherto discarded fibre, or an un-loved, unwanted piece of trash and turning it into something that you find beautiful?

I'm a terrible hoarder of injection-moulded polystyrene and weirdly-shaped packaging. One reason being that I know that the energy and resources that were used to create it count for more than the small job it's done so far. Another being that I just don't think that we spend enough time to see the beauty in the detail of the simplest things any more.

I just can't bear to fill my bin with these interesting colours and forms; so they sit, staring at me, from my stash (which now near enough fills my studio). Begging to be given a second chance.

Maybe I can put it down to long days of making crafty somethings out of nothing when I was a kid. Or maybe it's the influence of my Aunty, for whom whilst trapped behind the Iron Curtain for so many years, necessary thrift and re-cycling became a way of life (I'm talking washing and re-using the same small plastic food bags for twenty years here, People).

And now, here I am, making my own art. Keeping my fingers busy and trying to send less to landfill. Putting it out there for others to see is the next step. Maybe people will like it; maybe they won't. But if by viewing it, it gives anyone a moment of the pleasure that I've found whilst exploring its creation, then makes me even happier.

THE BEAUTY IS IN THE DETAIL:
Pick up something mundane today, something that you use EVERY day, and look at it. Now, REALLY look at it. Try to find something about it that's really beautiful. It might surprise you.