It’s been a bit quiet…

Posted on 10th June 2013 by perfectly4med

… on my blog for the past couple of weeks. That’s because I’ve been busy behind the scenes perfecting the art of casting and carving porcelain ready for final project pieces for college, applying and not getting a part time job, digging and planting the allotment, settling into the new studio, researching and buying fire safety equipment, public liability insurance and registering as self-employed from the beginning of next month!

College finishes with an exhibition at the end of the month, after which I’ll be able to post some pictures of my final project pieces, and from then on I’m freelancing. The timetable for the summer includes workshop planning, sample making and a couple of studio open days for groups I’m involved in.

In the meantime, I’ve posted the ‘small print’ for the workshops so that I am compliant with all the various guidelines for internet selling as well as being as helpful as I can be! They’re here if you’d like a read. If there are any workshops based on products or projects you’ve seen on my blog (or anywhere else for that matter!) then do let me know 🙂

College – Term 6 – Final Major Project – another light shade

Posted on 19th April 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s another light shade, this time featuring cut-outs using silhouettes based on my own observational drawings. I’ve cut the silhouettes from heavy interfacing, used Bondaweb to fuse to a layer of white cotton, and then machine stitched them onto the card frame.

And this afternoon, I spent a couple of hours in a darkened room. The stress hadn’t got to me (though the same can’t be said for our tutor this morning!), but the need to photograph all my creations to date had. Here’s a selection:

Another blog milestone reached!

Posted on 12th April 2013 by perfectly4med

In just over two years, I’ve had 200,000 views of my ickle bit of the blogosphere! Thank you all!

As promised, my next giveaway will be at 250,000 views, so keep checking in – hopefully I’ll have time to make what I have planned to giveaway before then… Also keep your eyes peeled for a new diary list of workshops in my new studio. It’ll be starting with a ‘Bottle Cap Memories’ session, so start looking out those precious moments.

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – another paper craft light shade

Posted on 8th April 2013 by perfectly4med

Well after a flurry of activity over the last two weeks watching my new studio get installed, and then decorating it, constructing furniture and moving in – as well as emptying out and putting back to right the dining room, conservatory and some of the craft room – I have my first ‘working’ day in the studio.

Of the various things I have to catch up with, college work is one priority as I have a mid-way assessment tomorrow. Consequently, I have taken pics of my latest light shade in my series. This one features one of the patterns I gleaned from a visit to the Islamic artefacts at the British Museum, drawn into Illustrator, adapted for the round and then screenprinted in opaque white ink onto thick tracing paper, and then constructed onto a card frame. As with the previous post, here are photos of the shade in daylight, and internally lit at night.

Demo’ing again – NEC 23rd-24th March

Posted on 18th March 2013 by perfectly4med

Hi all – I’m demo’ing again for WOW! Embossing Powders on their stand at the Hobbycrafts exhibition at the NEC this coming weekend. I’ll be there on Saturday and Sunday either on the demonstration table or leading the classes, so do come and say hello. Here are three samples of techniques I’ll be demo’ing – and apparently there will be new moulds to demonstrate too!

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – Paper crafted light shades

Posted on 11th March 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s already March, and only two weeks before we finish Term 5. One more term to go, and that’s my college course done and dusted. If it weren’t for my new studio to look forward to working in, and the list of jobs to do in the house, I know I would be dreading the end of college. Though I was unwell last week, I did carry on with my final major project. It’s grown out of looking at Islamic geometric patterns – I’ve learnt to construct geometric shapes with a compass and ruler, transferring them into Illustrator, and then finally applying them to 3D polyhedra. I settled on a truncated cuboctohedron as my main construction, and played about with various construction techniques.

Here are just four of the anticipated dozen final pieces. Some are uninspiring in daylight, but come alive when internally lit. Others inspire in both lights. I can tell you that I got a blood blister in my finger tip from all the scoring of folds. I can reveal that the shadowfold light required 360 separate knots. And that I stuck down each of the 400 petals on the frilly one! All are handcrafted (though I did use the Cricut machine to cut out the shapes to my design!) and nothing more than fabric or paper and glue. They are roughly 6-7 inches in diameter and designed to sit over an inexpensive battery powered LED light (£1 for two in Poundland!).

Advertising update…

Posted on 14th February 2013 by perfectly4med

Hi – I have been selected for the beta program of WordPress’ WordAds. This means that should you click on one of the adverts that will now be more prominent on my blog, I will get part of the revenue from the advertisers. I do hope that this won’t interrupt your enjoyment of the blog, as this potential revenue will help my income stream and allow more time for blogging rather than earning! Do let me know if you don’t get on with the ads, as I can feed this back, or turn them off entirely. Ta muchly!

Tangle 025

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Tangle 025

I’ve not done a tangle for a while, despite my production of the various patterns! This is one using an islamic style design as the outline, and forms part of my college development work for my final major project for the course. It’s 17.5cm x 19cm, and took around 2.5 hours to complete.

Continue reading →

New header banner…

Posted on 29th December 2012 by perfectly4med

Well, it’s raining and dark. World of Warcraft isn’t letting me log in. What else is there to do except update my blog banner pic? I decided it was time to have the banner show some of my newer skills, and move on slightly from the ProMarker coloured zentangle. I’ve added ceramics, quilting, printing and painting as well as a little bit of self-promotion as artist, designer, maker and tutor. And my PanPastel playbook makes a colourful background to the zentangles that still are the most popular part of my blog.

I’ve also added a new page to let you follow the progress on my planned studio – please leave good advice if you’ve been there and done it before!

College – Textiles – Term 4 – Final Project

Posted on 23rd December 2012 by perfectly4med

The choice of final project in textiles was to either design and make three tea towels, an apron or a Cornell-style fine art box. I followed my ceramics theme and chose the box, and thus embarked on a project to include every technique I could think of to transfer my patterns from my sketchbook to my ‘panoply of patterns’. Here’s the completed box, complete with my display sheets displaying its contents:

Lots of techniques in here, from free hand drawing with a fabric gel pen, to free motion machine stitching, backstitch hand embroidery, iron on transfers, applique, fabric paint and quilting to name but a few…