Sadness and reaching out

For several years now I've been reading the beautiful blog of Gretel Parker, an artist, illustrator and maker of exquisite needle-felted models. Her tales of the ups and downs of living in the countryside and struggling to make ends meet by way of creating have always inspired me.

Recently, Gretel has suddenly and tragically lost her beloved partner. Now left with not only the most unimaginable grief, she faces the worry of losing her small cottage (after only recently moving).

I have found artists and illustrators to be the most caring and generous community of people,  and some fellow artists have set up a fund to at least ease Gretel's financial worries for a few months. People worldwide have contributed. If you can, please consider donating by clicking here. There's also a raffle of artwork here.

I don't know Gretel but my heart goes out to her.

"The gift that you were once given will always be yours".

Never Ever

 Here's a trailer for the fab new picture book by my dear friend Jo Empson. It's so funny and beautiful and great to read aloud too. Buy your copy here or even better, from your local independent bookshop!

Life & Lampshades

I have been trying to keep busy, though probably not with things I should have been doing. I have been trying to deal with one task a day, fitting this around my main pastimes of crying, laying on the sofa, and blowing my nose.

However I did go on my work Christmas party on Friday and remembered how therapeutic dancing all night can be...even Gangnam style with your drunken work friends. I can't very well do that at home though - in fact, I haven't even been able to cope with much music at all when I'm on my own, especially Christmas music, with one exception...I can only listen to strange and lovely Sufjan Stevens.

Enough of that...no drawing to show, but I did make something today. Fed up with looking at this dreary sight in my kitchen...

I took a vintage plasticTupperware jelly mould, (99p from Ebay), some bath plug chain (from B & Q) and some cup hooks...

...and made this lampshade!

"Make do and mend" is alive and well here at Fluffycloud Studios. I like to think of myself as a downmarket Kirstie Allsop.

Mum

 As the sun rose on the morning of Remembrance Day, my lovely, brave, funny, glamorous mum died. It is impossible to imagine life without her at the moment, but as a family we are helping each other through it.

Thank you to my friends for your cards and messages. Unfortuately I have misplaced my mobile phone (now having taken the place of Chief Loser of Stuff) so I apologise if anyone has called or texted and got no response.

 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Graduation....well, nearly.

For various reasons I couldn't attend my MA graduation ceremony. But I was there with my lovely classmates in spirit! I can't offer you a photo of me in a cap and gown so instead I give you the fabulous Grayson Perry, who received an honorary doctorate, and whose speech, I hear, was fantastic. Congratulations everyone and I miss you!

Doodles

I've had a welcome week off this week after an exhausting few shifts, which left me physically and emotionally drained! Here are some drawings I did - just good old ink. More to come.

The book is Bambert's book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung, and published by Egmont, as far as I know still in print. It's a quirky and sad book much liked by me, so I decided to illustrate it myself!

( Oh and happy 3rd birthday to my lovely pooch Poppy!)

4 Days Left to Pledge!

Want to see a brand new, independent comic for 9 - 12 year olds, packed with scrumptious words and pictures from emerging and established writers and illustrators? Want the 9 - 12 year olds to be able to come to workshops and see their work in print too?

Yes? Well head on over to the Loaf Magazine People Fund It page and pledge what you can afford (in return for treats). There are four days left to get this project up and running.

No? Then I cannot help you.

Niceties

 I love September. It's my absolute favourite month of the year. The weather is usually golden and lovely, and the air smells nice, with memories of summer but promises of winter. The best month to take the dog for long walks. It's a new year too, really, for everyone going back to school or college. And you know what that means...new stationery! Sharp pencils, fresh exercise books, exciting pencil cases...all things that have made me very happy over the years (and still do!).

Of course my years of official serious studying are over. I still started a new sketchbook though. Seawhites print these for schools, and sell off the ones they do wrong cheaply - I got this one for 25p. The Mister went to Langdon Park School so I was especially pleased with this book! Because it was so cheap I could be breezy, even daring, about the first page.

In other news I spent an  afternoon with a very dear old friend yesterday. And today I made Career Plans. Hurrah for September!

Pugh! Pugh! Barney McGrew! Cuthbert! Dibble! Grubb!

After living in our house for seven months, the Mister and I decided we needed dining chairs. So we headed off to the local secondhand furniture shop. I wanted the funky sixties ones and he wanted the posher-looking ornate ones. I convinced myself I could recover the seats of the posh ones and make them look Indian-y, so I relented.

While the Mister was paying for the chairs, look what I found lurking in a battered box in the corner...

Being a sucker for 3D models and all things retro, these were irresistable to me. The Peter and the Wolf record is in really good condition so I'll give it a whirl when I get a turntable. The Trumpton one looks more scratched though, so I may never actually hear the town clock "telling the time steadily, sensibly, never too quickly, never too slowly", or dance to the three o'clock waltz. (Readers under 35 or from overseas...I haven't gone mad, really...)

The Mister did not share my excitement and was very disapproving of my purchases. I told him he should think himself lucky that he's with the sort of woman who is really happy with two scratched LPs for a mere quid, rather than demanding of spray tans and Jimmy Choos. (And anyway, his chairs are huge and awful and don't fit under the table).

Sleeping

It's been an exhausting few days - mainly through work. But I did have a day in London last week with the Mister, joining some of my lovely uni friends to see the wonderful, talented, inspiring Shaun Tan, who was giving a talk and doing a drawing demonstration here.

Of course we couldn't go to East London without having pie and mash. The incredible Maureen's in Chrisp Street Market was closed but we had almost as nice a lunch at another one round the corner.

It was the day of the opening ceremony of the Paralympics, so East London was filled with important-looking people with badges and pink tracksuits.

Olympic fever is still going strong.

Team GB stand a great chance of gold in the London 2012 Men's Freestyle Sleeping Event.

OPEN HOUSE - OPEN!

 

 Here are some images from The Paper House, our Open House 2012. If you missed it at the weekend you still have two weekends to catch it!  The Wishing Tree from last year has come to life and sprouted a face and some very psycadelic foliage...

 

 Why not come for tea and cake, and doodle on our Drawing Wall! 

Or, have the best Facebook profile pic by coming to our Surreal Photo Booth...

 

 Or go through our hot tunnel into our igloo...but listen carefully...you may not be alone...

 

Don't forget your purse because there are things to buy too! Cards, jewellery, hand bound sketchbooks, papier mache dolls and of course art for your wall.

 

 

11 Bishop's Drive, Lewes. 

www.intopaper.co.uk

Hope to see you there!

 

Coming next week...GIANT POP-UP BOOK!

Fifty Shades of Collage

This couple were at it in lots of different positions and settings in my studio yesterday and almost got consigned to the bin before they settled here in the forest.

The printed paper came from a really old "Mills & Boon" type book I got for 20p from a charity stall. It's great; full of raising of sardonic eyebrows and nipples stiffening against blouses.

USE YOUR LOAF!

The super-dooper talented Cambridge artist Becky Palmer is teaming up with other illustrators to launch a brand new comic for 9-12 year olds. It's called Loaf, and if Becky's uni projects were anything to go by it promises to be absolutely ravishing.

The Loaf creators need funds to get this off the ground. Please consider pledging - it will be fab, I totally promise you. We NEED brilliant comics in this world. Have a look at Becky's blog for more details! I can't wait to have a slice of the action!

Butterfly Murder

Today's blog post is multiple choice. I will write two versions of today's events, and you, reader, may decide which one you choose to believe.

a.  I sang contendedly whilst completing these necklaces in readiness for our forthcoming Open House. Meanwhile, The Mister was outside mowing the lawn; so that later we could sit upon it together and share a glass of chilled white wine.

b. I constantly dropped things, screamed  and wept, yes, wept, whilst completing these necklaces in readiness for our forthcoming Open House. Now and then, I broke off to shout at the Mister to hack a few inches off of the shoulder-high jungle we laughingly call a garden. Later, we stood together on the butchered battlefield looking down in horror at the butterfly he had accidentally cut in half with the shears.

Olympic Fever

 At my mum's last week I watched a bizarre cycling race which involved groups of three people cycling extremely closely together, wearing hilarious pointed helmets. Every now and then, one of them would veer out and let the other one go in front.  I found it very strange. But it did awaken my interest in the Olympics, which until then had meant nothing to me other than that it stopped Casualty from being on and made Eastenders be on BBC2. But by that afternoon, I knew what a Champions Tiebreak was, and by the evening I was cheering for Mo Farah (and uncharacteristically, staying up til after ten). By the next day I was chanting "GB" at Andy Murray and punching the air. (A bit awkward, as I was serving afternoon tea to extremely old people at the time).

I wish I could have drawn those cyclists but I know I wouldn't have done them justice. Instead I give you my dream bike - an old-fashioned one with a basket. I have always wanted one, but my mum won't let me have one. ( That's a whole other story...)

 Normal interest levels have been restored. I haven't watched any of the Olympics since that day, and have noticed that Casualty is not on tonight.

Book Bound

I have a precious day off today and want to sort out my workspace so that I actually have some space. I've got a piece of perspex and want to try some drypoint, which means I need my little press set up. But my problem is I am physically unable to put down The Other Boleyn Girl. It's so compelling and everything I do other than read it is just getting in the way! If our history books at school were written this way then maybe I would have gone down a whole different career path. (If only Phillippa Gregory would write maths books too...)

Paper Capers at Artwave

Come and see me and my work along with three super-talented artists every weekend during Artwave! (There will be cake.)

And Another Thing

I've just finished this book, A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. It's the really moving story of a boy whose mum is suffering with cancer, and who is being visited by a huge monster. The concept grew from an original idea by author Siobhan Dowd, who sadly died of cancer herself before the book could be written. The illustrations were done by Jim Kay, who I wasn't familiar with before. They're absolutely stunning.

The book has quite rightly won every award under the sun for both the the writing and illustrations. Hurrah for them...very well deserved.

PS As I was pasting in the link I noticed you can get it on Amazon for only £3.99 now. Blimey!

Goldfish

I must say I am missing my old studio with all its funny smells and below zero temperatures. Working at home has its advantages of course (like being able to feel your fingertips) - but one big disadvantage. I. Don't. Work. Or at least when I do, I have the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD.

Ten minutes at my desk, (which, by the way, is far too small) and I wander off and fret about my ironing pile. Ten minutes ironing and I think about the weeds that must have grown over the ground I recently dug in my garden, so I venture out try and dig, all the while thinking I should be at my desk. Ten minutes back at my desk and I notice it's time to start making the kitchen marginally less unhygenic in preparation for dinner. Even the dog looks at me with a pitying gaze.

I need a deadline and some self discipline. Ah well.

Here's a papier mache doll I made for our upcoming Open House.

Happy Bloomsday!

A craft project I was trying out required some puzzle pieces, so I bought a Hannah Montana puzzle from a charity shop. Putting it together was more fun than Charlie & I hoped...

(By the way, the craft project failed.)

It's Bloomsday today...June 16th, when all the action of James Joyce's Ulysses took place. There have been lots of literary shenanigans going on, which here at Fluffycloud Studios amounted to me listening to people eating kidneys on Radio 4 until it was time to go to Sainsbury's. But here's a pic I did of good old Leopold Bloom. (Or how I think of him, anyway!)

 Coming soon...hilarious pics from an old St John Ambulance first aid book.