...to
http://thegiftshed.wordpress.comI got tired of having different blogs for different things, so everything is now on one single blog. I hope to see you there!
Well, this was a very unusual piece of inspiration! The envelope contained two cords (or dreadlocks) from a
komondor - kindly sent to me by some friends who live in the Orkneys and keep two of these amazing dogs.
They gave me the impetus to try
felting. I knitted a sheet of fabric using 100% pure wool, and then wet-felted it in the washing machine to produce a sheet of felted fabric. I also braided some cord using the same wool, which was felted at the same time. The result was an incredibly tactile notebook.
As promised I've made a second, final, version of this piece. I've used a proper canvas this time, and added torn strips of paper to the top and bottom (on which the text is scrawled). I've also intensified the colour of the eye to try and make it 'pop' a bit more.
EDITED TO ADD:
I seem to have lost the original blog post for this piece. It was inspired by a poem which was sent to me by a lovely woman called Claire:
NORTH OF COVENTRY
A curse be upon you
May you find yourself
trapped
in a Virgin Pendolino toilet -
the 'unlock' and 'alert driver' buttons
desecrated by my own hands.
May you shudder your way to
Bournemouth
and be assaulted by The South.
We are coming for you, with
southern gags,
correctly punctuated and pronounced.
May your excuses prove obsolete,
and your protests gagged out as
Southern electricity is passed
through your body until you are
electric.
May you awaken and love me.
May you awaken and love me again.
The overwhelming feeling from this was obsessive love... and so I created this piece (which could be hung on a wall, or placed on a shelf - who knows!).
Commissioned as a birthday present for a film buff. Features the recipient's favourite film still from a Jim Jarmusch film.
A customer commissioned this small book as a belated wedding present. The birds were originally featured on the wedding invites.
Don't they look fab? Five notebooks, each featuring a classic Hollywood shot.
Everyone needs inspiration, and I usually pick mine up randomly from the things around me. That can be limiting though, especially if (like me) you tend to live in a bit of a routine and see the same things day in day out.
How to solve that? Well, I've asked the members of the LLL forum (www.littlelostlushies.co.uk) to send me inspiration by post. It could be anything: a word on a page, a picture, an article, ANYTHING.
I think this will make an interesting project, and my aim is to select an envelope at random each week and see what it inspires me to make. I'll post regular updates here, so stay tuned...
My studio is shared by a number of other people, including a freelance fashion designer. She was preparing a proposal for a company and asked me to bind her work before she presented it to them. The colours for the cover (acid and fire) were taken from the palette she'd used.
Please click on image to view the whole photo.
