St.Ives Memories...

I'm sat at my computer on a bleak and rainy Sunday and I find myself scrolling through my summer holiday photos.

I thought I'd share a few snap shots of my beloved St.Ives.

This is Mistral's window that I walk past on my way to the Tate St.Ives Gallery.

Every year I promise myself that I'll pop in and have my palm read,

and every year I chicken out!

Here's Middie outside her favourite bakery!

(Do you think she can read?!?)

Every year I also find myself photographing these dustbins.

They make me laugh every time!

How I wish that I was the lucky owner of this little gallery...

I loved these words by Ella Frears...

Sigh...

Elizabeth Shorrock At Hope & Elvis:

Yesterday I spent the most wonderful day at Hope & Elvis and was astounded by what you can create with a humble piece of paper!

Elizabeth Shorrock creates the most beautiful hand made books that are truly works of art.

I can honestly say that I've never had such a good time folding paper and learning all about 'mountains and valleys' (Louise even found mountain-themed songs to play as we merrily worked away!)

Elizabeth was so generous with her knowledge and we made so many samples so that we could look back on them in the future.

Just look at Elizabeth's amazing work...

This is actually the whole of Shakespeare's work!

And then, in the blink of an eye, it was dinner time!

Magie did her culinary magic again and we had the most delicious soup with a cheese scone, still warm from the oven!

And the chocolate, caramel and bramble tart was so delicious that I nearly forgot to photograph it!

After dinner we began to make our own books, so using scraps from my left over prints that I'd brought from home I began to create a collage.

Louise and Elizabeth having a good old chat and laugh...

Then I started to snip away...

(sorry chucks, I've forgotten to take a photo of my book!!!! I'll pop it on later!)

Let's have a little mooch around the beautiful Hope & Elvis studios...

Louise looked after us all day and spoiled us with tea and Tunnocks!

And just look at the stunning work created by the very talented ladies on the workshop...

Isn't it amazing how different everyone's turned out!

Thanks so much Louise and Magie for such a lovely, lovely day and thank you Elizabeth for such an inspiring workshop.

X

Fancy A Day At Hope & Elvis?

Last year I taught a drawing and collaging workshop at the lovely Hope & Elvis called

 'Mrs Bracken, Miss Briar and Long Eared Ladies: Drawing and Collaging With Vintage Papers'.

We has SUCH a good time, and I felt so honoured and happy to be invited back to do it all again!

Woo! Hoo!

There are some places available for Sunday 13th October, if anyone fancies it (and there will be LOTS of cake!)

And please, do not fear if you don't feel confident about drawing as I've made template kits, and if you do feel confident and want to draw and collage your own creature or character then that is absolutely fine too.

(Did I mention that there will be cake?!?)

I'm really looking forward to it, Hope & Elvis is a beautiful, beautiful space to work in and meet kindred spirits.

This is Mrs Bracken...
(You can read her story if you'd like.)

And this is Miss Briar...

I promise I'll blog about it too if you can't come along and join the fun.
Have a fab week chucks X

Leicester Street Art Love!

Last weekend we visited Leicester and I was blown away by the friendly, creative atmosphere.

The sun was out, everyone was smiling and we had such a great time exploring the city.

The first thing that struck me was the incredible street art that seemed to be around every corner.

Just look at this!

I spotted these decorated Open Reach boxes as I wandered around and then I found out that they were commissioned artworks by Sibomana and Farhad Berahman, which are part of the Journeys Festival International Leicester produced by Art Reach.
This is an annual arts festival that commissions artwork from the refugee and asylum seeker community in the city.

I became quite obsessed with spotting these around the city!

It baffles me how anyone could paint on such a large scale.

How I love this magpie!

Wherever you looked there seemed to be art, I loved these tiny graffiti artworks too.

How happy does this window display from Urban Outfitters make you!

Think it's time to put me feet up now, I'll show you some more next time chucks.

X