Saturday, 19 June 2021

Hope & Elvis Mixed Media Workshop Weekender (Part Two):


And then it was Sunday... the second day of Mrs B's Mixed Media Workshop Weekender at the magical Hope & Elvis.


Louise's beautiful artwork...



Some of my paintings for sale...







My demo desk...



Amazing sketchbook pages emerging...







Some of my wares for sale...






The amazing wall decoration is by Reggie (@windowwomanrp on instagram).




Some of my examples...



More of Louise's amazing work (I have one of these at home, it's stunning).





Thanks once again Mum and Jean from t'village for the gorgeous cakes.




Can we just take a moment to admire Louise's amazing outfit...




It wouldn't be a party without a Mrs B Nanna cake-topper!




God! I love this studio so ridiculously much!!!!




So lovely to see one of my jackets 'out in the wild'!



More sampling of me Mum's lovely cakes, you know, for health and safety reasons, or something like that!!!!




TA!DAAAAA!



Such beautiful sketchbook work all around the studio...








Magie's amazing dinners - who knew that kale could be so delicious!!!!






Inspiration everywhere...





I really hope that I have everyone's work here, I apologise profusely if any is missing as there was such a lot of amazing artwork produced - I literally lost track!

(Please hum the 'Take Hart' theme tune as you scroll through these photos!)




























 There was so much incredible work made during the weekend and I came home buzzing with inspiration!

Thank you all so much to those who came along, and thank you Louise, Ruth, Magie and Sam for inviting me round to play and for looking after me, I had the most wonderful time chucks and I cant wait to come back in November!

X

Sunday, 30 May 2021

When A Dream Comes True...

 


On Friday 28th May my book 'Stitched Textiles: Animals', published by Search Press came out into the world.
It has taken the best part of two years in the making and so this felt very surreal indeed!

Working with the amazing team at Search Press has been a wonderful experience and I can't thank them enough for their hard work.
It was so interesting to see how a book is made and just how much love, care, work and countless emails it takes to transform an idea into a tangible object that you can flick through and read!

(I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to my poor editor for the endless questions I asked, you are the most patient person I have ever met!)


I thought that I would show you some of the 'behind the scenes' photos that I took on my phone as I made the artwork and embroideries for the book as I wanted to keep a record of how it evolved (I also used them as reference images for when I wrote about the techniques and processes I had used for the work.)


Q: How many foxes does it take to make a Mrs B book?

A: A lot!!!!!!


As well as machine embroidery you will find collage, printing, drawing and some of my stories.


I'd also like to thank everyone for their lovely supportive messages over on my socials - I felt very nervous on Friday and the response has just been so lovely.

In fact, I felt so happy after reading your messages that I treated myself to a mini bottle of pink champagne, which we sipped while having pizza for tea!

(Secret confession: as I am not one for fancy pants jewels or designer handbags I also treated myself to a vintage Beastie Boys t-shirt ... that's not too naughty is it?!?)