Back Again!

It's been a very long time since I last posted on here, profuse apologies.
So, as I can't sleep and it is 4 in the morning, I will write something, which hopefully won't be too garbled!
Lots has been happening work-wise, so at least I have an excuse for hiding away from this blog thing . . . don't I??
Earlier in the year I exhibited at Ripon Cathedral with the Great North Art Show and sold my Mermaid. She was hung the wrong way but this obviously helped! I got to meet her new owner a couple of weeks ago and have been invited in to see her should I ever be passing, which was great, and as she is local, Copt Hewick, I may well do so one day.
I also showed at Art for Youth North at Queen Mary's, Topcliffe, no success at this one I'm afraid, but you can't win 'em all.
Crafted by Hand was a super duper art/craft fair organised by Josie at the Gallery in Masham at the end of October, I had a fantastic day, in fact, I think everyone did. Every stall holder was a real artist/maker, nothing bought in and the crowds who attended were obviously blown away by this as Masham has never been so busy! And all, it seemed, had come with the intent to support us by buying. I think people really are on the look out for handmade at the moment, so many art/craft fairs have become a tad farsical of late, lots of bought in work etc, so to actually be able to buy handmade off the actual makers, talk to them about what they do and see some of us demonstrating, made a refreshing change. A fantastic day!

And up to date, earlier today Sue, Emma and myself hung our joint exhibition at the Station in Richmond, pastels, felt and yours truely's papercuts. I'm rubbish at hanging my work but I hope it looks ok, it will have to as we are now open to the lovely public. or will be when today reaches a more godly hour. We have 2 weeks at this venue so fingers are crossed that we all make at least one sale apiece!
I have had several commissions on the go too and still have some to go, things have picked up somewhat on this time last year, for which I am very grateful. 
Art is the only thing I have ever wanted to do, since being a small child, so when things go badly I wonder if I made the right choice, a very panic inducing thought! when I have work coming in it makes me feel as though all these years of sticking with it have been worth it all, even when I have had to do other work to supplement my living. And the fact that people actually want a piece of work, made by me, to hang on their walls, still makes me feel hugely privileged and I hope this feeling doesn't go away, I would never want to become complacent about what I do, nor arrogant. Please knock be back down to earth if I do! Seriously folks.
For the first time ever I also have things in my diary for next year too, shows and a couple of collaborations. And I am going to have a go at a couple of competitions too, both outside my usual remit, but what the hell, nothing ventured nothing gained! My little brain is getting a challenge, we'll see how it goes. 
I will try to add something a bit more often from now on, and will now try to get a bit more sleep . . . though it hardly seems worth it . . . busy day ahead!
goodnite xxx

I'm skiving now . . .!

After all I wrote a few hours ago about being busy I am now going to add some silly dog pics I have just taken, very badly! as me and cameras, digital or otherwise, do not get on well.

After almost having a flooded porch on Sunday we are now enjoying a red hot few days. Cup of tea under a brollie in the garden, ably abetted by the setter and spaniel gang, though two of them were convinced that if they hung around the car for long enough I would take them on a trip . . . !!! ten out of ten for trying kids!!

They love it when they have us as a captive audience, not often we just sit drinking tea in the great outdoors you see, but the brightness of the day and the lush green of the garden was too hard to resist for once. 
Back to work shortly, with more tea and Radio 4 Extra, feline helpers in my studio, slightly better behaved than the dogs . . . unless they are hungry!

Where Have I Been????

Its such a long time since I have been on here, sorry folks.
I have a good excuse . . . I have been busy, honest! Commissions and work for exhibitions have kept me tied to my desk and my scalpel, so I have no complaints, just wish another pair of hands was available!
I have just started a piece for a lovely lady in Scotland, a tree hung with allsorts of things that have personal meaning to her. Have 6 pieces done for the "Great North Art Show" at Ripon Cathedral which starts in September, Jenny Agutter of Railway Children fame will be speaking on the opening night, oooh! And another 6 pieces are under way for the "Art for Youth, North" show at Baldersby in October. 

On top of the overdose of papercutting activity I have been thinking about corn dollies. Corn dollies? I was taught to make these as a very young person, many many years ago, and just recently I thought I'd like to see if I could still do them. But, just to be a bit different could they be made from something else? I tried wire . . . This is my first attempt, not brilliant but will keep playing about to try and get it right and will keep you posted.

Here are a few of the more recent papercuts that have been keeping me busy . . . 
I will try to be a good girl and add to this more often but that scalpel is keeping me busy at the mo.

A Long Awaited Update

Have been a bad blogger and not added anything for ages, apologies folks but I have been busy working . . . not skiving!
I have escaped from doing birds for a while and have been doing other things, including a last minute design for a decorated plate competition, a very tight schedule so not much sleep the last couple of nights, my poor eyes are now on a go slow!!! but being the beast I am I have kept them working. If they fall out there is no one to blame but moi!

Here is the offending design!


And as you may have guessed I didn't get in at the RA Summer Exhib, hey ho, but at least I tried. Another trip to London on the cards now to collect but this time it will be there and back in one day, no gallery hopping this time.
I'm busy with pics for up-coming shows at the moment. 6 pieces to do for the Great North Art Fair at Ripon Cathedral in September, and lots to do for a 2 woman show at the Station in Richmond in October, I'm hoping to have some limited edition laser-cuts done for that one so there will be a broader price range. I've found a laser-cutting place in Leeds and am hoping to get over there next week to discuss how it all works, costs, etc. It's all happening!
Have 2 more Open exhibs coming up too that I will have to sort work out for, one in Lancashire, the other in Harrogate.
And, of course there is "Another Spot on the Wall" at the Station, Richmond from July to September, 1 piece for that but you replace as you sell (fingers crossed!)
So I had better get off now and do some more work or no-one will believe that I ever do any : )

Out of Hibernation. . .!

Long time no writey!
But that means I've been busy-ish. My jam jar of dead scalpel blades is filling up and I have new work done, but not photographed yet, I will get round to it, I promise.
This weekend I'm doing workshops and exhibition with the "popupgallery" again, Reeth this time, the Buck Inn, another wild and wool-y northern place, splendid!
And if the weather is good I'll be at Nawton Towers near Helmsley on Sunday afternoon for an art carboot fair! If London can do them so can Yorkshire! It's called the "Hares Eye Art Fair" and is organized by Sawmill Studios and will be done in conjunction with the open Gardens that Nawton Towers are holding, proceeds to the Red Cross.
I'll be taking some of my papercuts but also paintings as they are just filling drawers in my studio/spare bedroom and if people would like to buy them that's better than them collecting dust, so prices will be down on what I'd normally ask, though most stuff won't be framed.
I've also had a look at an exhibition call in Aberdeen that is trying to get artists to use science in their work, from a geological perspective, no excuse now not to push forward with my "evolutionary" work. Think I will give this one a try. 

Mermaid. . . At last!

Well, I have at last finished my mermaid, yee ha! Or have I?

This is what I've done so far, just 2 layers, but I'm awfully tempted to maybe add another layer of a darker blue, think I shall have to sleep on this one a little. This piece is for the Guild of American Papercutters who set a challenge to depict a subject from folklore or fantasy.


   And I thought I'd put on another clump of my "fantasy" birds, the ones that flitter around in my head not my garden!

These will be adorning the walls at a little arty do in the village down the road from me this weekend, let's hope they fly home with new owners!
And Sue . . . does the mermaid get your approval me dear???

Just A Quickie!

I haven't been here for a while so just to prove I'm still alive I thought I better write something!
  Had a great day at Askrigg on Saturday with the popupgallery, was a tad uncertain as to how it would be as the weather has been, to put it mildly, rather naff, but the sun shone for most of the morning and there was only drizzly rain in the afternoon, until we packed up of course, then it came down with a bit more force!
   The drive up was stunning. I've been up that end of the dales a long time ago but had quite forgotten how beautiful it is. Swinithwaite in particular stuck in my mind, such gorgeous old houses, typical dales style, low, small windows, mellow stone, could definitely live there.
   Met and talked to some lovely people during the day, sold a lot of cards and a picture, yippee!!
   Am still doing lots of bird papercuts, there is good reason for that which I will enlighten you with in a future blog, ooh, you're intrigued now . . . !!
   Have joined the Thornborough Heritage Trust, this has been set up in order to preserve a complex of Neolithic Henges, one of which is just down the road from where I'm sat at this very moment. The landscape they are set in has slowly been eaten up over the years by gravel quarrying and this just has to stop, the Trust is trying to save what we still have http://www.thornboroughheritagetrust.org/ This is well worth having a look at, I know we are lucky over here with so many historical sites but most up here in Yorkshire are Roman and Viking, this is something older and it was created by the indigenous people of the time, this alone should make it worth saving and preserving. 
   There, my preachy rant is done, but with feeling!!!
Just words this time, I will be back with pictures . . . soon!

I Should Grow Wings . . . !!!

I have been getting on with some work this week, honest!
Though all I have to show for it is more damn birds, they are becoming a very slight obsession, as if you hadn't noticed. And I saw my first swallows of the year last week too.
In the past I could take or leave our little feathered friends but for some reason they are taking over my artistic life at the moment, what is turning out to be a rather long moment if truth be told.

These here are of the weird and wonderful variety, new species, that inhabit the space between my ears alone, if anyone else spots one I will be worried, you'll have been creeping into my head, a slightly odd place to be!

It is still my intention, at some point, to do some more realistic specimens but I'm having fun with these for now.

Busy Day!!

Tomorrow is a Richmond day! 
Drop-in workshops at the Station and an exhibition by pop-up gallery artists. So in between vets appointments and catching up with emails and doing this of course . . . can't you just tell I'm putting something off here . . . I have stuff to do. I've got little papercutting kits to put together and simple designs to get organized for my workshop. We will all be at the Station from 10am 'til 4pm Friday 6th, do come and say "hello" if you can get over there.
   It seems such a long time since I sat and did any proper pictures, I can feel withdrawal symptoms setting in. And for Sue, I will be getting on with my Mermaid this weekend, promise! I'll be back to my cutting mat after tomorrow, because, despite what they say about women being good multi-taskers, I am not! Does this make me an honorary man or an alien, who knows, and please don't enlighten me, ignorance is bliss!
   So my plan for this holiday weekend is work, I may escape to do Easter egg deliveries to my best beloved on Sunday, say hello to the pigs, geese, chucks and gorgeous little cayuga, though she is not so little these days and has laid egg number 5 already and her barely a year old, ducks do start young these days!
   My mermaid made her first appearance at the beginning of this blog a few weeks ago and the poor love has been floundering in a state of "un-finishedness" since then, neglectful artist that I am. Let's hope she doesn't put a watery spell on me so I start doing her all wrong. I actually quite like her so far so am looking forward to seeing her finished. Then I can start more birdy stuff, dinosaur birdy stuff I think. I have been reading books about fossils and evolution and extinction and my imagination has been fired, just need to get my act into gear and start doing, soon, soon!!
   And to break up all this wordiness I will put more pictures on too, ooh, that means rummaging about in my way too messy studio . . .

Pop Up Gallery and Stuff . . .

It's another sunny day and here I am, sat in front of my computer! 
Yesterday was my first stint with the "popupgallery", arty folk taking their arty stuff to remoter parts of t'Yorkshire Dales. Tunstall was my initiation day, we were set up in the village hall so no worries on the cup of tea front, phew! As well as yours truly and her papercuts there was jewelry, painting, printing and cup cakes, yummy. Quite a few people came through and tried the various workshops, talked to we artists and consumed afore-mentioned cup cakes. Sue Dewhurst is the lovely lady who runs the popups and the artists and makers I met yesterday were a great group of gals, no chaps there, so I'm not being sexist!
Our next do is at the Station in Richmond, an exhibition is on at the moment but it is workshop day on Good Friday, it is expected to be busy as we are in the Easter Hols now, so lots of locals and tourists should be around. I'll be doing a workshop and am just trying to concoct some little kits for people to take home with them in order to have a go at papercutting at home. Thought I'd do one kit with a couple of designs in to hang on ribbons. The other is a bit different, a string of bunting! How will I do it? Mmm, well, I shall create 2 designs, print about 5 of each so they can be alternated and hung on a long piece of ribbon. I haven't explained this very well so will attempt a photo when it's done. 


Due to my gadding about the countryside I have done very little work so have no pics to fluff things out, I'd better fill my mug with tea and get back to my desk now or I shall be appearing very slack!!

Birds, Still-life and Stuff . . .

Thought I'd put a few more bits and pieces on today, after all, this is supposed to be about my work even though I keep getting side-tracked! Butterfly-brained I know.

Birds, birds, birds . . .

   I have started getting a little obssessed with our feathered friends! thus far they've tended to be of the generic variety as that allows me a bit more artistic license, which translated means I get let off mistakes!! I won't have bird enthusiasts pulling me up for getting plumage wrong, or missing a claw off. But, as I have a head full of new ideas based on extinction and evolution, to include dodo's, pteradactyls, etc, I'm going to have to break the habit of a life-time and at least attempt to get things right, or do I??? They're extinct, who can tell me off?
   And here are a couple of still-lifes, just to prove that my bird obssession isn't totally taking me over, yet! After struggling to do these things when I was at school I swore blind that pots with greenery in them would never darken my desk again, so what when wrong? Well we all need a challenge from time to time, and to tell the truth, I enjoyed doing them. The pots are by Charlotte Morrisson, a local maker and their stripey-ness inspired me, so a stint parking my car up hedgebacks in search of interesting frondly things to arrange in afore-mentioned pottery eventually brought forth these two pieces, there may be more but my studio is a tad messy and they could be anywhere!
   Thankfully school art classes didn't make me still-life phobic forever, after that initial quivering fear and dread I took the plunge, alright, hundreds of years later! but I think these turned out ok.

    

A Sunny Day . . .

Something a bit different today.
   I've been a bad girl and have done very little papercutting thus far, there is time yet, as bed-time is a few hours off!
   Hit the market in Masham, a Saturday ritual, can't beat David's butter and cheeses and the veggie boys at Blands then lunch and today the sun broke through so we ate outside with big red dog. Oh, and I bought some rather spiffing bunting to put up for Queenies Diamond Jubilee, yes, I admit it, I'm more royalist than republican, we can't half do pomp and circumstance splendidly over here!!!
   Then off to Northallerton to collect my train tickets and a little trawl around the shops, for essentials only of course!! The drive over was lovely. It's been a day of hazy sunshine, almost autumnal to look at but without that chill. Fields full of cattle, sheep and lambs at various stages of growth, little jiggly new borns hassling their mums for milk, through to the stockier older youths! Birds everywhere doing their usual bonkers springtime showing off and the hedgebacks starting to green up with blackthorn sprinkling white, confetti like blossom throughout. A definite windows open day in the car, the haunting voices of the "Civil Wars"(a bloody marvellous American duo who sing country, folksy, bluesy stuff, heavenly) just adding to the afore-mentioned loveliness!  I'm so lucky that I live in the midst of all this life. Out here you feel the full force of the seasons all around you, the wildness the beauty the stillness. A walk down the road takes you straight into it, away from houses and people, surrounded by the sounds of curlews, traffic just a muted buzz off in the background somewhere. And if you're lucky the peregrine will show his/her feathers.
   I should be getting inspired by all this and creating pictures but instead here I am thinking I'm a writer and wiffling on about it in a very bad writerly way, maybe now is the time to grab another cup of tea and go wave my scalpel about!!! 
   But first maybe I should email www.yorkshire and see if I can blag some commission off them for my praise of this most marvellous bit of England! I'd do it for free any day really. 
   I should put pictures on here but you can't do justice to perfection with a camera, especially when it's me pressing the button!!!!
   I really am going now, goodnite x    

Just Finished . . .

I've been busy getting in a tiz about getting things finished this week and wondering whether this latest piece is any good! Still not sure as it is a tad different from what I usually do. It's one of two pieces that are heading off on a trip to the big city next week - the RA Summer Exhibition!! Oooh, err!! Yes, I know, horribly ambitious of me and as I'm going to be up against many and more talented folk I am not holding my breath, I can hope, but . . .

    Anyway, here is the thing itself, titled "Extinction:Passenger Pigeon".
The poor passenger pigeon was very sadly wiped from this planet in 1914 by us of course, from billions when America was first colonised to nothing. The last of these birds died in captivity and was called Martha. It just struck a note with me and I suppose this is my tribute, whether it is worthy of Martha and her species I  don't know but it is done.
   I stepped outside my rather precision edged box in this picture, tearing paper as well as cutting and I also included maps, this was hard to do as it involved brutally hacking into a book and I really hate damaging books because I love books to the point of obssession! A girl can never have too many, but I digress! A bit of symbolism got thrown into the mix too: I left the egg and the birds blank and un-detailed to show they are no longer here. The text is a very brief history of the bird but the inclusion of the name of the last survivor I think makes the whole piece more poignant.
   There will be a very excited entry on here if it gets selected but as I won't know 'til May it is now time to forget about it all for a while!
   On a more realistic note I have just got involved in the "pop-up gallery" being run by the very lovely Sue. She has decided that the remoter areas of the Dales need a small invasion of we arty types! The next pop-up will be at Tunstall, near Richmond, all are welcome and there will be drop in workshops too. I shall be doing a papercutting one. I've diversified a bit and am getting some little bits and pieces printed up from my papercuts, cards, bookmarks that sort of thing, and in colour too! Here are some rather splendidly coloured bookmarks, I do hope people are still reading proper books and haven't all gone "kindle" mad or I'll have to eat them!!!!

  

A Bit More Thought . . .

A bit of a step back in time this picture.

I cut this one last summer for inclusion in a juried exhibition titled "Invisible". It took a while to come up with something I felt fit the theme, I'm so used to just doing whatever idea comes to mind that this was a bit of a challenge, time to use "the little grey cells" to quote Poirot!
Finally an idea popped to life.
I love the song "White Chalk" by PJ Harvey - do check her out, brilliant singer/songwriter. It talks about how we come from the land and return to it in death, feeding what feeds us. I'd often listened to it and wondered how it would translate into a picture, here is my take on it. 
As well as depicting a skeleton in the roots of the tree I have included the major elements - in symbol form - that make up the physical human body. On a more romantic level the tree is carved with hearts and the initials of the families of Andrew and myself. The planets are depicted too so the whole piece is about life and death and the constant regeneration and evolution of this speck in space that we live on.
And I do like skulls and bones, so any excuse to put them in a picture, especially as this time I could really justify it!
I ended up doing two versions of this as one sold at the exhib and I was commissioned to do another, personalising it by including the initials of the couple it was for in the trunk of the tree.

In the Beginning . . .

Back again, and this time with a work in progress.

I started her this morning, ably abetted by furry friend Tiggy, pensioner Persian cat extraordinaire, who loves nothing better than walking back and forth across any papercutting I'm working on! So glad my picture framer, Dave is good at picking cat hairs off everything I take down to him, well. . .  his eyes are younger and better than mine!
Back to the Mermaid. A long way to go with her yet but I'm enjoying how she is coming along so far, especially as this time last night I had no idea how and where to start. This will be the most detailed layer, mermaid, fish and the swirly lines that depict the sea, in a very loose way. 
Little Miss Mermaid is a piece I'm doing for a challenge - Folk/Fairy Tale Illustration - put out by GAP ( the Guild of American Papercutters) do have a look at their facebook page. After much faffing about and searching on t'internet I opted for something fishy, hence, the mermaid. She is more synonymous with Cornish myth but I thought it a good subject as I love using the human, well, half human! form in my work. I'm afraid I don't know any specific mermaid tales so she is depicted in her aquatic environment and that's it! As a northerner I should have looked more into stories of the "Selkie", a human/seal character but, shallow me, I thought a bit of glam was more up my street and mermaids are definitely that!
I'd better get back to my cutting mat and the new series opener of CSI now, dying to see how Ted Danson gets on, but no-one will ever be as good as Grissom!! 

papercuttergirl: Here Goes . . .

papercuttergirl: Here Goes . . .: Well, here it is! At last I have taken note, after much telling, and am starting a blog, yee ha! Whether it will entertain, amuse or enlight...

Here Goes . . .

Well, here it is! At last I have taken note, after much telling, and am starting a blog, yee ha! Whether it will entertain, amuse or enlighten, who knows.
   Most, if not all, I put on here will be about papercutting, my one and only talent, I hope!

   A bit of general background on papercutting before I begin, and it is very general as I am new to the art and there are many more wonderful papercutters out there who know more.

   I only discovered this creative medium about 3 years ago after playing about cutting wood up, too messy and you had to us a machine. My tea was sawdust flavoured and I couldn't hear the "Archers"! Something quieter minus sawdust was needed so scalpel and paper eventually popped to mind. After years of painting and being too scaredy to try something different here we are doing something totally different!
   Cutting paper has had to make me re-think how I work. Everything is drawn as a silhoutte, though I do then add detail into this, text I do in reverse as I work on the back of black card, rubbing out pencil lines means tearing the fiddly bits I've cut and it's one more picture in the bin! and I have a full bin as it is.

   Most of my pieces are inspired, sometimess in a very loose way, by the natural world. Trees, birds, leaves tend to appear everso frequently, but I'm not always so good at realism, and it means i can use a bit, or a lot, of artistic license!