Fashion illustration.

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Some time ago we explored fashion illustration through the use of mixed media whilst using other artists work to influence our own.  We worked three series of three paintings each, these works are my final series of paintings.

I am not quite sure where I got the idea to do such large pieces, although on my second series my paintings were getting longer and longer.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to show you for quite a while and on Friday I managed to get some proper photo’s to show you, with me in scale, all 5ft 10″ of me.  And just so you can get the full experience of what I was thinking at the time, I shall recreate my labels as they appeared when displayed under each photograph.

Winter

This picture conveys the icy glare and barren trees that often accompany winter days.  The first of a set of three pictures illustrating my skirt have in themselves become a means of exploring time and travel.  The skirt or rather the model is exploring her space in the picture and because of this is travelling through the pictures showing different aspects of her clothing, however whilst this is occurring the passage of time continues as we know time never stands still. One can see where the influence of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man has influenced my work through the use of many limbs, to explore movement.  Gustav Klimt’s work in his gold period gave me the inspiration to use the aluminium foil. Julie Verhoeven’s use of line, especially her changing medium mid stroke and David Hockney’s changing seasons which he so often uses in his work.

 
Spring turning to Summer
In this picture one can see how the trees have burst into life, smothered in blossom.  At her feet there are spring flowers blooming, heady with their scent with which to attract the first of the insects.  Rays of the sun are streaming through the trees behind her portrayed with the use of collage,  she appears happy and content.

Autumn

In this picture one can see how the trees are now filled with fruit, all of the spring flowers are gone and one can feel, almost imperceptibly the changes that will culminate once again in the barren time that is winter.  Behind her we can see the darkness that is growing accompanied by the autumn fogs that lay gently on the ground often bringing with them ground frosts that kill the last of the summer plants.  We also see the full width of her skirt, which symbolises a dandelion with ripened seed, ready to release its offspring to the next sharp wind.  Maybe it is too late in the season for these seeds to develop before the hardest of frosts, one can only wait and see.

Ultimately the series reveals the circle of life and the way that no matter what we are doing, we are moving through it.

I hope you enjoyed that little interlude, I must get back to my knitting. 
And for those in the know, not long to go, my portfolio is very nearly ready!

She lives!

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I am so sorry to have left you for such a long time.  Hubby read my blog the other day and reminded me that I have been gone for a while, lets just say its been intense, but in a good way.  You know I am loving it, right? The joy of learning at my age, is so wonderful.  I just want to shake them (the other students) and say ‘look, its great, did you know that was going on, that was amazing for that time, the history, look at it, imagine, just imagine’. I am starting to sound like one of those weird poems they tried to open up our consciousness with when we were twelve, (like we knew anything then!) remember the ones that didn’t rhyme – I get them now, I didn’t then.
So my Easter holidays were pretty.. trying to think of the right word,… busy. I hardly ventured out of the house, the computer was on 24/7 (slight exaggeration) I typed, alot (not an exaggeration). So on the last weekend, hubby took the reigns and whisked me off to London, to visit some exhibitions he knew I really wanted to see. 
This is the start of the Ice Age Exhibition at the British Musuem, where you can photograph it freely.  It is the reproduction of the clay bison from Tuc d’Audoubert Cave, Ariege, France. 
They found footprints dancing around this deep, actually very deep into the cave. Its about 15,000 years old, sculpted to such a degree you even have an anus, which may seem rather rude in today’s world, but I suspect it was without thought at that time and you’d certainly not want to eat around the area that delivered waste. 
 Ice Age Art was amazing, thought provoking, emotional. 
 40,000 years ago, people were producing art that we can relate to, 
when you think about that, they had the same emotions, imaginations and worries. 
They were the same as us.  
Just looking at the female figures that were sculptured, – very few were of a size 10, they were cuddly, child bearing women, with boobs that had fed children and a tummy that would provide a great hot water bottle for their partners, bearing in mind it was the ice age.  These women were venerated, just the way they were.

We stopped for coffee and cakes (excellent coffee, really good!) in members before venturing forth again. 

We whipped around the Pompeii and Hurculaneum exhibition, it was exciting to see some of the works that I had studied so carefully in books. The mosaic black dog was seen in all its splendor. Having only seen small pictures of it, I was transfixed to find that even the dew claws of the dog were clearly visible. There were horrors, you know a Pompeii exhibition will contain a few of those, I hurried past those as quickly as possible.

And then I found Elgin’s marbles. Now previously on many a British Museum visit, there were so many marbles, it was so tricky to understand it all.
But now I do, partly at least, so it adds to the fascination of them all.
Shame the British Museum didn’t know how to clean them in the early 1900’s and mistakes were made, but the beauty of them is still there, the room was built to house them which I feel adds to the feeling of awe and wonder about them.
We quickly toddled off to what is fast becoming my favourite fabric shop in London Cloth House, or should I say shops, 98 and 47 Berwick Street, worth going in both as they have different stock, my favourite linens are at no. 47.  And then happily toddled around Berwick Street, stopping for lunch then toddling some more.  One day I must go to Berwick Street before seeing an exhibition, I would feel alot more lively.  Of course I bought just a little linen for a summer skirt, which I am hoping (the summer) will happen soon.
On the way to the tube we stopped off at Carnaby Street to see what was what.
We found this amazing shoe shop, with completely whacky shoes, it gave me some ideas for old sandals, its amazing what you can do with a silk flowers and a bunch of grapes.  There were some beautiful shoes for the younger generation, they were selling very well. 
Party shoes!
And absolutely shattered we decided to catch the train  home and find somewhere to eat. 
Having read another blog I was desperate to try Kayal which is all about the Kerala cuisine.  So we booked reservations, which even though very early on a Saturday night they only just managed to squeeze us in at 9.00 p.m. When we came in we were ushered into the back room, which was delightful it felt really cosy.
The food was amazing, I finally got to have my first Dosa, which is ground rice and lentils to form a very smooth paste which is then left to ferment overnight and made into a very light pancake and then filled with a potato dish and served with dips made from coconut and lentils. I’ve often looked at Dosa’s being made in cookery programmes and wondered about them, it was delicious and light, a little plain perhaps, but no worse for that.  I feel it was like the Indian working man’s equivalent to our Cornish pastie. It was worth the wait of the many years I have wanted to try it.
 and soon our mains had come.

I can’t remember the names of the dishes, mine was a prawn dish as I felt I should go with the fish theme that Kerala is so famous for served with coconut rice and hubby’s chicken something with steamed rice balls served in a coconut sauce.  The food is nothing like we have got used to, it was a real treat to be served authentic Indian cuisine. 
And so we went home, happy, tired, joyful and content. 

Skirts, Skirts, Skirts!

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Well actually only two. 
Braving the snow on Saturday I took the train to the NEC for the spring Sewing for Pleasure, Stitching, Beading and Knitting and Hobbycraft (and everything else thrown in) show. 
It was wonderful, I met old friends (hi Belinda and Ruth)  and made new ones – hi Pauline, who ran after me to say hi as she remembered me from my blog – it was lovely to meet you and yes, you should get to Woolwarehouse – it is wonderful. 
My shopping list was to find inspiration for my next brief at college, a dress, inspiration taken from the seventies.  I decided at the last minute to listen to a lecture and was absolutely transported to a time of crochet and flower power, but in a much more contemporary way.  I have ideas that I need to test out to see if my ideas will work,  its all very exciting.
And the other item on my shopping list was fabric for summer skirts.  Whilst on the way to my very favourite stall, more of that in a moment, I saw this fabric and it really made me giggle.  I showed son no.2 through the medium of skype and he said it looked like Easter Egg Skulls which I thought was very descriptive.  Should you wish to make a skirt or a pump bag out of this it is from “alegria” Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection 2012. 
I altered my straight skirt block by cutting up to the dart and fanning the bottom of the skirt out whilst at the same time closing the dart to create a skirt that would fit on a 44″ width of fabric by the length of 1.5 metres. (I wonder if anyone else uses imperial and metric in the same sentence?)  So that I had a nicely A-line skirt. It took all of twenty minutes, which was a complete redraw.  A couple of hours later I had this. 
It still makes me giggle, its going to be such fun wearing it. 
And then I went to my very favourite shop, Eternal Maker. 
I so love this shop.  I particularly love the Japanese linen and linen blend fabrics, they are a lovely weight and just so wacky.  You’ll have to wait to see the other fabrics that I bought but watch out for the retro clocks and penguins, they are just such fun. 
 On Monday, I washed, dried and ironed this fabric whilst waiting for the engineer to repair the poorly dishwasher, and then in the two hour window before hubby came home whipped up this skirt and was nearly finished apart from sewing on the facing and understitching it.

I see lots of skirts in bright and wacky linens in my future and possibly in yours.

At last – Townsmen costumes finished.

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 Just a quick peek at them, I should have even better photographs soon.  Son no.1 came into the studio just as I finished sewing the last few stitches on them so I grabbed him and asked him to model them for me.  These have been made to look big on a smaller frame, which is why the arms are so very small on him.  He liked them though and I am hoping to be able to buy them back to put in my portfolio.  If you’d like to come and see all of our lovely costumes, Playbox theatre are performing Ramayana in April and seats are selling fast.

This was alot of work, with much research, I for one am very pleased with my outfits.  I think all of the outfits have come together very well and I have to tell you that Sita’s outfit (who is the main princess in the story) was finished this week and it is absolutely gorgeous.  
Can’t wait to see the show.

Quick taster

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Just a quick taster of what I have been doing for the past few weeks. 
At the moment we are designing and making costumes for Playbox production of Ramayana.  I am making two costumes for characters called The Townsmen, they are important to the script as they open the play and narrate it all the way through. I didn’t find this out until after I’d designed their costumes, having said that, I think the costumes work well enough to go all the way through the play, although the actor with the full length sleeves may end up being rather warm, these costumes certainly hold the heat. 
Since this photograph the hood has been taken off and lined and resewn back on as I wasn’t happy with it. So have the arms, they weren’t right.  This one is just about there now and I am working at full speed to finish the other costume. 
All of this is my own design including the print. 

But tonight, well tonight I am knitting, I haven’t knit or crocheted for nearly two weeks and I desperately need some down time.  Tomorrow I am back to homework and starting my personal statement for UCAS. We had a quick trip to London yesterday to look at a University, they have a few places left for this September,  I probably won’t be successful, but if I don’t try I will never know. 

Clandestine Cake Club.

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This is just a quick post, I’ve been meaning to tell you about it, it was really good fun.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I was reading a blog the other day which directed me to an old radio clip about the Clandestine Cake Club, which in basic terms to you and me, means a guerrilla cake eating opportunity.  You don’t know until two days before where you will be meeting and then you make your cake of your choosing, sometimes with a theme, and go along and meet complete strangers and eat cake, and then share cake and go home in a two hour window.
I was asked to come along as snow meant that some people couldn’t make it. I found that email at 2 p.m. for the event that night,  Eeeek !!! I have lemons, (I am really into my lemons at the moment) eggs and butter, so I think a lemon sponge with home made lemon curd will be nice.  I reckoned that it would be light relief as the theme was Valentines, and as I surmised there was lots of chocolate cake.
 Lovely lemons, unwaxed of course.
Then I had an epic fail,  I was using new tins and had thought that I wouldn’t need to line them, that was a mistake.  Started again very quickly and made another lemon sponge, had to send son no.1 out for  eggs.  I made the lemon curd in the traditional Mandycharlie way, shove everything in a pan together with some cornflour to stablise and bring up to a burbling simmer.
 One cake, pretty enough I think, but I still don’t know where I am going, and its five o’clock!
A quick message of ‘help’ on the website and they get back to me with the details, a quick shower and then I’m off.
It was amazing to see all of these different cakes come through the door, we had two tables in the end. 
Made some lovely new friends whilst eating cake and drinking tea, we divided up the cakes and then we departed into the night, as though we had never been there. 
Although they make it quite clear it is not about judging cakes, all cakes and skill sets are welcome. This was a lovely cake, it had a truffle chocolate centre that was really chocolatey and I think it was this cake, (rather like the last pint was the bad one!) that made me feel quite ill,  next time I am going to take more home to sample in the following days. I don’t know how the others felt because most were taking much bigger slices than me!

The Hobby and Stitch International Trade show.

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Had the most amazing day at the Hobby and Stitch Trade show, but first I must show you hubby’s Valentines roses to me, plus the balloon that was romantically given over dinner.  I am only showing you all of this as I had bumped into Angie Quilts who I met about three years ago.  Her first question to me was “Have you cloned him yet?” Whereupon she reminded me that she had left a remark to that effect on my blog, then turned around to her Mum and told her what a fantastic husband I had,  how I always had beautiful roses and trips to London, then saw hubby, laden down with bags and admonished me for letting him carry all of my bags, how we laughed.  So just for you Angie, my latest lovely roses, I promise as soon as cloning becomes doable by a follow the numbers kit, your first on the list.
And those of a sensitive disposition should look away now.
The last words Holly of Wool Warehouse (whose business I was representing) said to me were, “Its a trade show, you can’t buy anything”, “that’s okay I said, it will be great fun anyway”
As you can see there were free magazines,  this is nearly all of my magazine collection, I have a good few weeks reading there.
 And the rest of them along with some (not all) of the trade magazines which will be fascinating reading for Holly and I, I know there will be lots of gizmo’s and books I’ve never seen and will want.
 Fabric Freedom were being a bit naughty and were actually selling at the show, (it was a huge scrum to get near the fabric)  I bought some fabrics for quilts, at £5.95 for 6 fat quarters and £9.95 for a full sized jelly roll, it would have been rude not to.
 I found this amazing yarn and they gave me a sample to show Holly.
 It makes pretty flowers as its being knit up. Great fun.
 I was given a pen that is a pretty metallic gold and a handmade button to show Holly.
 And some gorgeous Blue Faced Leicester by the UKHKA,
 Oh you did notice the needles. 
They are absolutely dreamy, they are HiyaHiya, in their interchangable sharps range and they gave me a pair as a sample to show Holly, how generous is that!  I’d noticed these needles being advertised in some of the American knitting magazines that I read so have always been curious. I was not disappointed, they are yummy, the join is extremely smooth and the cable rotates freely from the needle so it doesn’t unscrew them, I like them, alot.
It was a great day – thank you Holly.

Making a skirt on a rainy day.

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 Yesterday it seemed to rain and rain, well whenever I poked my head up from the task in hand it was.  I however was cosy in my large kitchen, all set up for a day of sewing. A work counter was cleared for cutting out, on one side of the kitchen table sat my sewing machine and the other sat my serger.  My fabric was primed and ready (ie. pre washed) and I was ready to go.  I started about midday and at about five thirty I had this.  A lovely long, fitted,  tweed skirt with a kick pleat,  fully lined with an invisible zip.  It fits as nicely as it looks.
 
 Full length of the back.
 With a detail you can barely see (sorry about the photography) which is to cover the line of stitching you need for the pleat, decorated with two handmade buttons bought from Debbie Abrahams at a show.
 An invisible zip, which looks wonderful, but we are not going to talk about that because I am still having nightmares about it.  Lets just say it looks good now, but the dog was keeping his head down at one stage during the afternoon.
 The front.
 A good view of the interfacing which is under stitched which is a nice trick when you know it and the lining is attached to the interfacing.
 A kick pleat in the lining so that it works fully with the skirt and allows freedom to gaily skip down the road showing off your new skirt.
 A close up of the very pretty button,  I like the contrast. 
And a quick peek at the hem, which is overlocked and then flipped up and sewn by machine. I was considering hand sewing but the thread so closely matched the fabric that I don’t think the skirt loses anything by the hem being machine sewn.
I have enough fabric left to make a jacket – hopefully this will be something I have mastered by this time next year,  they may never be worn at the same time!
But at the moment I am enjoying skirts, there is more fabric prewashing as we speak.

Of haircuts and cakes.

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My beautiful 1st born son told me that he was going to have his head shaved.  
So I asked if I could come with him, which he said I could, but was told that I was not to cry. 
I hadn’t felt tearful, more curious. 
I kept a lock of his hair to put next to his first curls in his baby book, after all he may never grow his hair again. 
And there was much banter. (as you might imagine) 
We laughed so much.
 
And he went from this,  
 
to this.  I think he looks gorgeous (but I may be a tad bias)
“Mother and Son”
Did I mention that things are getting really lively at Wool Warehouse since the Drops order has arrived, or should I say started to arrive as more and more is coming in every few days – keep your eyes peeled on the web site, February is going to be Sockalicious!
So to celebrate the most recent arrival of Drops which had some really stunning yarn in, I made more cake – lemon drizzle –  and to keep the party theme going, Paula our lovely Saturday morning crocheter made buttery shortbread, which was truly delicious.  From the buzzy chatter and laughter I think our Saturday morning girls loved every moment of their mini party – and they loved the Drops even more!

I have a soggy bottom!

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After watching a cookery programme recently featuring terrified contestants running around in a tent trying not to let their lemon meringues leak onto the floor, it set me to thinking about the last time I made a lemon meringue pie.  And it was quite some time ago, a good couple of years. 
I studied Home Economics for ‘O’ level, two years of cooking and theory, which was fun, apart from the boring theory, there is only so much a girl can learn about the different ways of treating milk to make – insert product off your choice.  But the cooking was great, and what happens is you have all these different ways of doing things at your finger tips.  We also had a teacher that wasn’t afraid of teaching us things, we learnt all manner of french techniques, roux, choux, puff pastry, rough puff pastry, flakey pastry and short crust pastry.  We made eccles cakes and Christmas puddings, lemon curd, jam, stews and casseroles, pizza’s, bread, egg dishes, Victoria sponges, Swiss roles, biscuits,   creme caramels, fantastic sweet flans of epic proportions, Easter bonnet hat cakes, yule logs, Christmas cakes, you name it we made it. 
Generally we were quite successful as well, apart from when I was making biscuits, because I would toddle off with my washing up to the sink around the corner, get carried away with the banter until someone came running up to me, tea towel flapping in the wind, telling me there was smoke pouring out of my oven.  Eventually I learnt to stay near my oven when cooking biscuits, I now use a timer.
Today I decided to reward hubby with a lemon meringue pie, well really it was an excuse to play with my Kenwood, but you knew that didn’t you. 
The Kenwood made the pastry with the K beater, that was fun, I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty. It worked quite well as well. 
I think I made the lemon curd a bit thick, and I didn’t cook the pastry for long enough after the blind bake section. 
The Kenwood worked magnificently on the whites of the eggs and soon we had
 White fluffy peaks all over the lemon curd.
 Just out the oven cooling.
 A precarious landing on perhaps not the best of plates.
 First slice for no.1 son before he went to work.
 And yes it has a soggy bottom. 
Hubby’s verdict verbatim. “I like soggy bottoms” 
Which is good because he married me!