cut + stick.

I love sketchbook time. Most of my best work is laid out on paper before it becomes a pot. 

I don't get as much time as I would like to sit with my sketchbook, to draw, paint, or cut and stick. 

I'll work on that.

witching hour.

More and more I've been staying up late (late for ME at least - I used to go to bed by 10pm...) into witching hour, sitting in bed and drawing. It's marvellous. 

july.

[forever spooning]

[swedish inspiration]

crown.

Taking inspiration where I find it; my grandparents' wedding china.

[crown devon, circa 1930s]

[chilly hands]

[big journeys (all of 40 minutes drive!) to see friends]

create.

I've read in several books and a few places on the interwebs that a good way to tap into creativity is to record the nature of our situation when we are creative. So this is a note to my future self. Write to yourself in a little notebook or on scraps of paper or backs of receipts, keep them safe then transcribe the notes into your sketchbook. Re visiting the ideas will create even MORE thought process. That is when your best ideas come. Especially when sitting in bed after 11pm at night.

Also: don't be afraid of drawing. Let your sketches be messy. That's totally okay AND often you will look back that at crappy drawing in a month and see something awesome.

3 days.

Monday: throwing.

Tuesday: painting.

Wednesday: sketchbook time.

Thursday = Mud Colony! Thanks Adriana!

miro time

Saturday night/Sunday morning creative time with Monsieur Miro.

The Constellation Series makes my mind pop! All those interlinking shapes and the way each overlap creates a colour change. I'm itching to paint these designs on cups!

indian ringneck

Making studies of some exquisite Indian Ringneck parrot feathers from a very generous friend.

Thursday: Our Creative Spaces + Mud Colony.

my (egg) creative space

Inspiring me this week: sparkling blood orange, sunshine, jacaranda blossom and discovering a new (to me) potter.

[sketchbook]

[lorikeet nests?]

 

[plates/shallow dishes]

[sliiiightly larger bowls]

More creative spaces over here.

my (home work) creative space

If you don't already know, I grew up on the Isle of Man. It's an odd, tiny place. I spent most of my childhood playing in a national glen called Silverdale - my family has strong links to it, as my Grandfather owned much of the land from the 1930s - 60s. Over the years it has become affectionately known as 'The Children's Glen', with a boating lake, playgrounds, water driven carousel and ice cream shop, as well as the beautiful woodland walks along the Silverburn river. I think Silverdale is magic. Of all my childhood memories, the strongest are of Silverdale. Leaving it 4 years ago to travel was heart wrenching - as much as I love Australia and intend to stay here, I still feel that pull back to the glen. For various reasons, I've been thinking about home more than usual recently and it's crept into my sketchbook - and of course onto my pots.

This brainstorming is probably highly self indulgent, an expression of my homesickness, and likely won't progress much further than these experiments.

Using teeny pinch pots to test colours

Bluebells grown in abundance, as do daffodils at Spring time.

One of the key motifs I used was a sun, though it certainly rains more than anything else in that part of the world.

All of these pots are Southern Ice porcelain, so I will leave the exterior unglazed.

[goodness me, look at all that writing!]

More creative spaces over here.

watercolour feathers

sticks

Early this year, a good friend gifted some stick insects to me as pets. 2 spiny leaf stick insects to be precise. One boy (known as Boy) and one girl with a missing leg (known as Girl). They live in a bunch of eucalyptus leaves on my coffee table and are terribly civilised; they only wander off when they run out of leaves and their poop smells like gum leaves! I've been wanting to draw them for months and last night, finally did:

[click image to enlarge]