ust feast your eyes on this object of beauty that Margaret Harvey has created over in her wonderful studio in Cobham...made from found treasures, and deftly put together, this vintage gardening book has exploded with life! I fell in love with the lttle metal moth made from bits of broken jewelery ( I think) and the way she has produced such dainty flowering growth from bits and pieces that have been discarded over the years...
o beautiful, so like my Fin, and now so mine! I cannot believe what my friend Nicky pulled out of a brown paper bag and presented me with but this gorgeous jug by her very talented mum over in south Africa. When Gay du Toit heard that I had fallen in love with it because the little boy reminded me of Finlay, she sent it over for me.....
alentines day has brought me a delightful lavender infused paper heart from Julie all the way across the atlantic, here with another lovely paper heart all the way from vintage fairy tales in sweden.....as ever, this day brings unexpected surprises!
eautiful sketchbooks always take my breath away- and Christine Buttner's is no exception. Christine is the most talented typographer i know ! Even her handwriting is spectacular... Here are some images of the sketchbook that she has been keeping these past couple of months and she has transfered some of her typography onto a cut-out bit of perspex- the idea being to create a contemporary and modern christmas wreath. Oh such talent...
truggling to find inspiration this very grey miserable January, although no excuse really as my friend Christine, who can make the simplest things look stunning presented me with these 2 delightful hearts made from french vintage fabric, which I love....and then I found this gorgeous tin at our local flea market, and it was full of buttons, all for a fiver! I then got very excited about the potential of our local antique shops and came home with this beauty (!) of a victorian armchair which just needs to be upholstered in some chic stone coloured linen and given a lick of farrow and ball paint...........
ast weekend was great because I got to visit Margaret Harvey's lovely home and wonderful studio where she showed me some of the stunning work she has been churning out recently.....I first Margaret at Kingston uni where we were studying Graphic Design, and then worked with her at the BBC....many moons ago!
indly Di, soldering expert extraordinaire has made the marathon journey down from Manchester to show me how to solder her amazing dobbers! Yippee! I was planning to tie her to my kitchen table but she willingly sat down all day and soldered and fluxed and polished without a moan...and look what we made!
ery much looking forward to the soldathon that will take place this weekend! Di Foster's beautiful dobbers can never be recreated but I have a vision of what some of my family'd old photos could look like trapped forever behind glass....
iane Foster, my new best friend, is not only very clever with words, handy with the soldering iron, but she is extremely kind and generous! True to her word she has made all her classmates a dobber which is a jewel like image encased under a glass blob which is then soldered to another to produce a deliciously chunky pendant which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!!!
ust look at this beautiful bird that arrived on my doorstep after holiday....something this stunning could only be made by Samantha Williams, who has always been the most talented person that I know......She is having an open studio showing her ceramics from June 8th to 20th Evergood cottage, Brick kiln lane Horsmonden TN12 8ES
n amazing surprise awaited me when I got home from work, completely frazzled and stressed about going away to the factory on Saturday. A totally unexpected parcel from a valuable friend! The wonderfully talented Taylor has made me the most delightful sketch book, made from an eclectic mix of textures, papers and ephemera, all combined in her usual idiosynchratic style. Every time I look through the pages I see something lovely that I had n't seen before, like a little tick and heart shaped scribble of red cotton that looks accidental. 
ut of the blue, I got a phone call from Toronto, from one of my most favourite of friends who not only is a wonderful Typographer, designer and tapestry artist but who is now a (probably amazing) textile teacher. I met Christine all those years ago on the Kingston Graphic Design Degree course and then we worked together at the BBC amd it seems that fate will put us together again because the reason for the phone call all the way from Toronto is that she has met one of Nicks friends from when he was working over there nearly 20 years ago....now that proves that there really is only 6 degrees of separation between us all!
apturing the youthful beauty of boys has to be the sign of a seriously talented artist.....Gay du Toit who I posted about a couple of weeks ago has sent me pictures of her latest batch of beauties! Don't you just love them? The faces are what I love the most about these ceramics, they have such content and innocent expressions!
