Drawing and Photographing Typewriters

Olivetti Museum Windows

I did these four thank you cards just before we went on holiday as a personal/speculative project. The top one is Dennis's Dad's typewriter which sits in their conservatory in Northumberland and his Dad still uses regularly.

When we got to Piazza San Marco in Venice Dennis teased me for turning my camera on the windows of the Olivetti Museum bordering the square....rather than the over photographed square itself. Though when I turned back I found him taking a close up of some cigarette butts on the ground with the towering Campanile in the background - which seemed far more sacrilegious!

Our Afternoon Visitor

Mr Foxy was curled up in our garden this afternoon! I called to him and asked him up for hot chocolate and toasted fruit bread but either he was ignoring us or very deaf. I'm hoping he was just feeling bold lying there and not poorly.

Below is an inky fox drawing I did last autumn.

Scotland

Gathering reference for more fabric ideas.



One of my favourite places - Plockton on the west coast mainland, in a sheltered inlet near Skye. It was here where much of "The Wicker Man" was filmed but even without the film's connections the place has an unusual feel to it - so sheltered and with palm trees on the main street and tropical looking plants - it feels very different from it's windswept neighbours along the coast that face out to the Atlantic.



A village close to Plockton where the Highland cows graze freely amongst the houses and wander on the road.



When at school I did a test on learning styles. The thing that I remember coming up was "can't see the wood for the trees". It's certainly still true with my camera - I can't stop myself focusing on all the close up detail whilst surrounded by the most amazing vistas!



A beautiful dog with an amazing job. We were told he'd been coming to work on the little four car ferry for six years linking Kylerhea on Skye to Glenelg on the mainland.He seemed to think his main duty was to run round and round the outside edge of the ferry and bark at the seals as we crossed!

Bluebell Time

When it comes to flowers I know I'm fickle...in June my "all time favourite" will be floppy pink peonies and a couple of months ago my most loved flower was blue hycinths...but for May it's always bluebells.

A couple of years ago we had a picnic in this bluebell wood. Although there are many at the moment growing in clumps in the parks and gardens of London, I'm hoping we'll make it to the countryside in time to see a forest full!

Snow Dog

We built this snow dog at my parents at New Year. My Mum said now he is just a lump of snow a foot or so high on the newly revealed grass.

Photographs from our Snowy Trip

Northumberland and Scotland in the snow over Christmas and New Year. We walked every where and left the car in Northumberland and took the train to Scotland as snow was so deep and the roads so dangerous. I took so many photographs....I hope at some point they'll feed into my work. I was obsessed by the patterns that bits of grass and bare twigs made in the snow...somehow it reminded me of calligraphic marks.

Design*Sponge Sneak Peeks

This week our previous flat is featured on design*sponge's sneak peeks. The shoot was done by friend and interiors photographer Jon Day - we had a lovely day in the summer taking the pictures (it started with coffee and cinnamon buns - a perfect start to any day!)

We moved into a new flat a couple of months ago and due to work and life we still haven’t unpacked all our boxes or hung any pictures so seeing these photos makes me nostalgic - but I have to remind myself it didn’t look this tidy every day!

Premiere Vision and Paris

The week before last I went to Paris to Premiere Vision - the massive fabric trade fair. It was fascinating - a vast seemingly never ending expanse of little cubicles populated by fabric companies from all over Europe.

I went to research fabric manufacturers....however the two bits I loved the best were a stall selling vintage buttons and The Potterton Books stand which had several fabric sample books from the early 20th century on display. The sample books sell for around £2000....so I bought some buttons!



I love the one on the far right of a pixie on a toadstool smoking!

I spend the second day wandering Paris.

I love it at this time of year as it reminds me of the autumn I spent there in 1990 working as an au pair - just after leaving college. It was a time when everything I saw seemed new and exciting...I was constantly discovering artists I hadn't known about and Katie (my friend from college who was where at the same time) and I spent all our free time in museums, galleries, cafes and fleamarkets.

This was just my third time back since and the first time on my own. What surprised me most is how little the city has changed in comparison to London...mainly because they haven't surcumbed to Starbucks on every street like in London.

I had breakfast with Anne of the wonderful pretavoyager blog who has just moved from Paris from Baltimore. She looked so parisian chic some tourists stopped us in the metro to ask her for directions!

Then I spend the rest of the day wandering and photographing and eating chicken soup in a cafe and browsing in small galleries and visiting the Musee des Arts Decoratifs and a wonderful exhibition of dresses designed by Madeleine Vionnet until it was time to head for the airport.

A very different sort of day from my usual desk bound days!


Some shop window photographs....








This was a beautiful old style haberdashery shop full of yarns and ribbons.

Some Photographs from the Calligraphy of the Pine Trees Workshop

This is going to be my last post about the "Calligraphy of the Pine Trees Workshop" - just a few of my favourite photographs below. The bird's nest was found by Leila - a sculptor who was also from Britain but now lives by the sea in Mallorca with her boyfriend who is a boat builder. Every day we went on a trip she found something amazing - the rest of us were gathering pine needles and cones - and she found two beautiful birds nests, the bones of an animal we think was related to a pine martin and the parts of a huge stag beetle!







This was my favourite of all the places we visited - it's Menut - a tree nursery in the Tramuntana Mountains. I think a little may have got 'lost in translation' but my understanding was it was the equivalent of the UK Forestry Commission. They held a seed bank as well as growing the pines to be used for re-afforestation. What I loved about the place was the contrast between the wild nature / earth and sky outside where the small trees were growing and the clinical feel of the laboratory were the seeds were kept.

Beautiful Cafe in Palma

I found this peaceful cafe just off one of the main bustling, touristy pedestrian streets. I had a clementine sorbet and espresso and sat for a long time in the cool, dark interior drawing up ideas in my sketchbook. A perfect afternoon!