Its Christmas time...

...and there's no need to be afraid - apparently.

The few weeks before Christmas I usually feel like I'm being chased by bears. This year is no different. Please don't think I'm being a humbug. As soon as the girls and lovely man are on holiday, I love it. And once all the work is done, I am as excited as the children. It is probably the dark days. Living in a village with no streetlights really doesn't help. At about 5ish the day is done. I can see why people in the higher latitudes turn to alcohol at midwinter. 

This year, like every other, I'm excited about a few decoration ideas. I cut out the green foliage with my paper robot and pimped my mirror with lights. The dear came from a craft sale at a friend's house. I suspect he'll be up all year.

I'm feeling brave putting this up here. My living room is quite strange. You could call it vintage but I think probably not. A combination of original 1968 carpet and wallpaper (which don't go together) and our inherited chintzy sofa and furniture. Not a place to hang out with a migraine! But, its got an open fire so that makes it okay by me.

I'm working on a mistletoe decoration. I might even get it finished before Christmas! Still got hopes for some sort of retail situation for my paper mobiles and other stuff still in my brainbox. Next year maybe...

Now I'm off to sip something by the fire.

Playing with scissors

Well, I actually finished it fairly quickly!

Its going to the framer on Friday along with another one not started yet - I am on an over optimistic roll here!

Inspired by my fun with scissors, I made this. Eight pairs in various states of openness. It is quite long so not very practical.

I'll be selling them along with my other mobiles from this Saturday 24 Nov - 2 Dec at Wrington Arts Trail.

The venue is Glaisters, Church Walk, Wrington. My stuff is for sale in a gorgeous pop-up shop along other locally made things. You can also see beautiful paintings by Amy Shiner.

I'm off to get started on the other one now...

Arts trail part 1 - paper mobiles

I have been playing with my paper robot again .

This is a remake of the 1st complex cut paper thing I made. I blogged about it here. 

This is based on another thing I blogged about here. 

I made a few mobiles  to hang up along with my pictures for the Chew valley arts trail. It was an experiment to see if anyone might be interested in them. Surprisingly, I sold loads and still have orders to make! A good friend will be selling some other similar designs at a local craft market in December.

Sorry my pictures are ropey!

My workspace

I thought I'd post something about my studio. Its the old dining room of my house. Our kitchen is big enough to eat in, so this room's mine. We got the house a year ago and the room looked like this - you can't tell from this crappy picture but it was mouldy, both the the brown walls and the brown carpet.

I moved all my clobber in and set to work amongst the mould and dust. Then one day Bill and I cleared it out and pulled the carpet up. Two weeks later it looked like this. I painted the lino pale blue so its a lot lighter in there now.

I'll happily admit to being into house porn. I buy Elle Deco monthly - its a lot cheaper than doing my house up! And I look at websites full of inspiring workspaces. Mostly very sparse with a carefully placed mid century/vintage nik-nak or two. Inspiring to look at but I wouldn't get much done in that sort of room. 

My space is no shrine to design. Its functional. And its not very tidy. The making process is very fiddly and precise but I tend to chuck paper around and rummage through drawers looking for stuff. I'm sitting here with 2 cupboards, 1 drawer and a toolbox open right now, and that bureau is never closed! 

Here is a work room that I could work in. Fleur Cowles was an artist, philanthropist, publisher of Flair Magazine, aircraft pilot, and a lot more. This is her study. I think she probably had someone else do the dusting!

My studio is open for the Chew Valley Arts Trail this weekend 13 - 14 October. 

Along with my framed pictures, I'm hoping to have some paper mobiles for sale like this red and yellow one in my studio picture and also some a bit like this based on my Womans Realm pictures.

Come along and see.