yellow bird, blue, stop eating all the bread...

I recently returned to drawing birds, sound surprising? Though flicking through some old sketchbooks recently I stumbled on some old birds- I had forgotten how much I liked them, so thought id share them. I like to draw quickly when working from them, otherwise I feel that the lines become too solid. sometimes I feel I overthink them, and draw them to death...poor birds, they become heavy and static.

He kept it in his mouth, it was after all, magic...

Today we visited a little animal/nature reserve in Mosley (of all places- who knew!) Even though the weather was excruciatingly cold, it was lots of fun. I have a newly discovered favourite animal-otters! ah- how lovely they are with their cheeky little teeth, and their chunky tails. Their eyes like little jewels, sometimes twinkly with mischief and sometimes gently closed peacefully. I liked them TEN! I took a few photos, but they move quickly! One of them had a little pebble, that would be kept in its mouth or clacked against other pebbles- I liked this a lot, It must have been a magic pebble I decided, maybe given to him by the eldest otter of the land, or found on an adventure in a deeply deep river... here are some drawings I made of the cheeky little otters...

I left my sketchbook at work! So I made this one super-quick out of some graph paper, and my sewing machine!

...like the messy Kingfisher Bird

 

I like the sunshine in my life today, and I like these prints by Banquet Atelier & workshop: OH! What beautiful colours, My favourite is the burrowing animals! little dotty hideaways hidden beneath our feet... Magic!

I found these on a lovely blog I read, you can also read it here: Automatism

Moonrise Kingdom

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilise to search for them and the town is turned upside down -- which might not be such a bad thing. This film by Wes Anderson is full of beautiful beautiful moments, gorgeous colour and sound that steals you away.The relationship that develops between boy girl, is awkward, and uncomfortable in places, but also incredibly beautiful which any-once-been-awkward teenager will understand. Tilda Swinton is utterly petrifying in her role as social services, and there are lots of little humerus surprises throughout.

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Golden Dawn

 Stumbling through blogs and web pages I found myself upon Iris Bodemer and became instantly attracted to the beautiful use of line and colour in her jewellery... I want to wear all of these pieces. The relationship between surface, line and simple injections of colour are both playful and provoke narrative between the physical space which they command, and suggested relationship with the human form. I like their potential for talismanic interpretations, especially the piece directly below.

Tea?

Today amongst the gloom and the greyness that seemed to consume me, I found time to drink tea that my good Friend brought back from Vietnam. I was excited about the prospect of this for a number of reasons: I really like tea, and I got to use the new glass teapot my husband bought for me. A winning combination I think you will agree. The tea looked so odd like little balls of grass, and when the water hit it, things escaped from the pod- it was really exciting, and tasted great. I also realised I still hadn't posted any pictures yet of some of the cups I had made before Christmas- some of them were'nt quite what I wanted, my favourite one collapsed (photo to follow), one that was supposed to be black came out dirty brown, which made me sad. I guess that's the great thing about working with ceramics, its kind of a surprise. I think it makes me like the process more, though on reflection I didn't realise how incredibly impatient I can be. I think I will call it enthusiasm.

 

The Black teacup at the top is infact the unglazed, unfired blue cup at the bottom... the dotty one (middle) was my favorite, but it collapsed in on itself, I think it was the porcelaine used. The blue one (bottom) was one of the only ones to come out as I'd planned (ish). The marks in the surface were shaved off using a scalpel and cobalt oxide was layered and removed a number of times, It was then glazed with what was supposed to be a creamy matt glaze, though they all came out shiney. I made a little experimental collection of 7. As these cups went into the kiln, they were lovingly kissed, and sang a song through the peephole in the kiln door. There is something very maternal about working with ceramics, both myself and the technish wizard I work with felt these cups became like children (she made some too), and we nutured them into being.

Lutra Lutra

Sukie

These animals make my little face smile, my favourite is the fox in the dungarees!

you can buy these here : Sukie

Tom Frost:

Last year for my birthday a friend of mine bought me a card designed by Tom Frost, since then Ive been a little hooked on his stamp prints of animals. The lovely peacful otter is the first I bought for my home, though id like all of the ones below. I love the colours Tom uses...

INK+WIT

Tuesday Designs

egg press