Skip to main content

My top 10 - A collection of beautiful things

I regularly visit exhibitions and fairs and often lust after things that I see but can't quite afford. Sometimes I make a note of them and put them on my Wish List for birthdays and Christmas and sometimes I throw caution to the wind and indulge myself there and then (making sure that I am very thrifty in the following weeks or months, depending on the price!). Obviously there are many items items that are still on my Wish List, and I shall refer to these later on, but firstly I thought I would share some of the pieces I own that have been created by some wonderful artists.

1. First up is my pair of Long-Tailed Tits by Barbara Franc (barbarafranc.co.uk). Barbara is a sculptor who uses recycled materials to make unique artworks inspired by animals and the human form. I was lucky enough to be given these as an unexpected gift by my sister-in-law and brother and I love them.




2/3 . Last year my lovely friend Sam gave me a present for letting her stay with me during her 'Art in Action mini break'. The ceramic gold leaf piece on the right is made by Juliet Walters (www.julietwalters.co.uk) a ceramic artist showing at Art in Action, I felt very spoilt. It sits perfectly next to the textured ceramic pod that I already had on my shelf (which I was given years ago by a Ceramics student at Farnham Art College). 





4.   Next is my Sarah Morpeth papercut (www.sarahmorpeth.com) I first discovered Sarah's lovely work in 2010 at the Origin  Fair that was held at the lovely Old Spitalfields Market in London. Sarah's work really inspired me and I often refer my students to her fabulous website to be equally inspired.



                                               
5. Janine Partington (janinepartington.co.uk) creates some really effective enamel pieces in which she uses contemporary colours and shapes. I bought three of these fabulous mini panels and begrudgingly gave the third one to a friend!




6. This rather wonderful ceramic bowl was made by a very old French friend of one of my brothers who it turns out is rather talented at making these fabulous pieces.




7. My Charlotte Bezzant necklace. I have always loved Charlotte's work (www.charlottebezzant.com) and this piece is inspired by a trip she did to the Arctic - the silver disc reads 'the snow fell like dust and sparkled like glitter' and is gorgeous. I'm not sure my photo does it justice but trust me, it's lovely and is often admired by my friends.




8. Sally Cutler often works with the Southbank Printmakers Gallery   (www.camberwellarts.org.uk/sally-cutler) . I bought this piece called 'The Chase' several years ago at one of her exhibitions.  It sits on one of my kitchen walls and I love it.

 


9. Now I have added a few pieces that are on my 'Wish List' - Sue Brown's brilliant enamel pieces are divine (suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.co.uk)  and I would very much like to own one!





10. And finally....a Jane Crisp trug. I saw Jane exhibiting at Art in Action last year and she was struggling to keep up with demand for her gorgeous trugs. (www.janecrisp.com) Their simplicity is what makes them so desirable and the copper rivets add that something special too. This is definitely going on my Wish List although I don't think I'd want to use it outside! 




                                                   




Comments

  1. So many beautiful things, I had not discovered Sue Brown before so I am now off to look.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the kind comments.x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wendy Dolan talk on Art, Architecture and Stitch

I had a lovely evening at Chiltern Embroidery and Textile Group in Tylers Green earlier in the week, it was good to be back there after giving my own talk back in March. I took my Mum and a friend to see a talk given by Wendy Dolan on 'Art, Architecture and Stitch' which was right up my street! Wendy is a textile artist who uses fabrics and threads to create textured designs with some wonderful results. I have met Wendy several times before as she is from Sussex (where I grew up) and we also have some mutual friends.   Wendy's talk covered how she develops her work from sketchbooks through to her final designs and she showed us photographs that had inspired her from a variety of places such as Barcelona and Venice. My work is also very sketchbook led so I could easily identify with her thought process. I am also drawn to textures but Wendy's work differs from mine in that she starts with plain coloured fabrics, stitch and thread -

How to start a sketchbook project - Part 1

Since I've started a new sketchbook recently I thought I could do a diary of sorts to explain how I have put the various sections together. I chose the theme of 'Layering' as I was looking through some old A-Level Art & Design question papers and this topic appealed to me. If you want to create your own sketchbook obviously you could choose any theme you like, just make sure that it's something that interests you and you will find plenty of inspiration. I favour an A3 size sketchbook but there are no hard and fast rules on this, and it's best to go for a scale that you feel comfortable with. I started out with a title page and a 'mind map' of written ideas of anything that I felt could relate to the theme of 'layering', a brainstorm of sorts. This is a good way to get over the dreaded 'first page fear' when you just can't bring yourself to start your pristine book and any mark you make is overly scrutinis

Putting it all out there - Illness and Art Therapy!

I've recently discovered that I haven't written a blog post since last July, shocking! The truth is that I've had a pretty bumpy ride recently and I haven't been sure whether to talk about it on social media or keep it to myself and carry on (thinking that no-one will be any the wiser and that wouldn't be such a bad thing would it?).      The problem is, being a 'Creative' my feelings and thoughts go hand in hand with my work and it is not so easy to compartmentalise these things. I think I need to start being a bit more honest with myself about how events have affected me though so that I can grow stronger and move on in a positive way.  I hope that putting this out there in the ether will help me to stop worrying about telling people and whether they think any less of me as a result, it is what it is. This is now sounding overly dramatic and I apologise as it is just related to my health issues.      To sum up: I have had Rheumatoid Arthritis for about