Shop update...

Just wanted to mention there has been a wee shop update with a few archival prints of collages...have been really enjoying just playing with paper recently.



It's funny how when I sketch things out for collages...just layering up pieces of paper and moving things about...that things look so fussy and I have to say to myself 'What is it you like most about the pieces of paper you have brought together here? Take away all of the bits you don't like...' And then it becomes an oasis of calm on paper...everything comes together.



I was so pleased with the piece titled 'Apparently...' (above) just for its minimal-ness (if that's a word?) I tried to incorporate some much more representational elements to it but it just became so overparticular to my eyes!

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend...I spent mine at work, pah! That's real work not jolly, creative work...

Tagged (slow-coach!)

Okay, Okay Kristina I know I am a bit slow in the response here - I had to go away for a few days for work and then I couldn't think of anything to write and I guess I missed my moment for 7 random facts as this tag has probably gone twice around the world since then! But anyways...

The rules for being tagged are as follows -

1...List seven random facts/habits about yourself

2...Choose another seven bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog

3...Leave your seven tagged bloggers comments to notify them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.

1) I find it impossible to finish a plate of food. I always have to leave a minimum of one mouthful. Probably some dark psychological meaning there...

2)I cannot go anywhere without my ipod. I love to have my own personal soundtrack wherever I go, without it I feel a little bit panicky just listening to the sounds in the street.

3) I have one of those faces that always looks a little bit sad. I can't help it, it's what I was born with. And most of the time I am actually quite happy in my head! But what really drives me insane is when people you don't know say 'Cheer up, love!' to you in the street when they have no idea what is going on in your life. If I walked around with an inane grin on my face 24/7 I would have been locked away years ago!!

4) I love to recycle! If I can recycle or reuse something I will. Facilities here in the uk aren't as good as they could be but I do my best with roadside collections and a wormery. On my wishlist for this year is a garden waste composter - I have a little space earmarked for it in the garden.

5)Apart from being obsessed with keeping little scraps of paper I collect glass things...mainly old clear glass vases and storage jars. I have a collection of them on top of the dining room cupboard and they look faantastic when the light catches them.

6)My favorite place in the whole world is New York. Me and the swede try to get out there once or twice a year to visit his family. It's like being on another planet, a very fast paced and exciting planet, to me.

7) Up until my late teens I really hated that my name was Olivia and vowed to change it! I think it was because that for my age group it was an extremely uncommon name and I felt like an alien. Now it has become one of the top five girls names in the uk and every other person is called Olivia! But not so many in my age range so I guess I feel thankful to be a little more individual on that front...

Okay, that was hard work! Not sure I have 7 people I can tag but I will make a start with Anthea and also Botanical Specimen X (who doesn't have a blog but will post an intriguing photograph and list in the description/comments section - get on with it sis!

Oh, and today's image to go with my 'random' facts is one of my favorite things...my tin of caran d'ache pastels...all my favorite colours...

Have a good day!

model|muse|motivation: pretty on the inside...

From the first second I saw this picture in the long extinct Sky magazine I knew I just had to hear their music. I was about thirteen and way back when it was cool to keep pictures of your favorite bands and heart-throbs inside the lid of your pencil tin to gaze at when biology got dull this image had precedence.

Hole's album 'Pretty On the Inside' turned out to be the album that changed my life. I probably wasn't too sure at that age what Courtney Love meant when she screamed 'Slut-kiss girl molasses rot black strap' but I knew that it was of great importance to my personal development. Wearing ripped vintage lace dresses, heavy make-up and never combing your hair was a must.

I love the fact that I had already developed my skills in hanging on to keeping scraps of paper at such a young age...I have had this scrap of paper for 16 years! I love that I spent time gently burning the edges to give it an aged look as if it was an image of a loved one I had tried to destroy. I love how it mimics their music by looking so worn and dirty...

model|muse|motivation: images that inspire!

I have just been doing the rounds...catching up with the blogs I know and love and was interested to find a link at port2port to Inspiration Resource: 'a place for designers to gather images and be inspired'. What a lovely idea! The images here are just so intriguing...old paper and photos, pictures of nameless people and places endlessly fascinate me and I have a box of favorites I keep close to hand.

I thought it would be interesting to start a new weekly (well, as often as I get around to it really!)post called 'muse|model|motivation' in order to display some of my favorite found images that never fail to inspire the creative urge within me!

The first image is one from a series I picked up in an ephemera shop in Red Hook, NY a couple of years ago. Isn't she beautiful? None of this size zero nonsense - it's great to see someone so visibly at ease with their body and not looking emaciated! Also loving the leopard print fabric/fur she is posing on - kitsch perfection!

Only so many hours in the day...(unfortunately)

The title says it all really. There are, alas, only so many hours in a day. How precious they are! To those of you who have been checking back for the ACEO a day - you have my apologies. I have totally slacked off in the ACEO department...after last weeks Design*Sponge feature I have been working on packaging/posting/emailing and re-stocking the shop. Another whirlwind week has passed me by...where'd it go!?

Thanks to everybody who has purchased one of my prints. Because of this flurry I have been able to ugrade my printer to an all singing, all dancing larger format printer that I can make archival prints with! This is so exciting for me as it means I will be able to offer a range of my collages, sketches and paintings, not to mention the ability to offer digital prints of original once they have sold out...which is exactly what's happening over in the Restless Things shop right now! Check 'em out!

As for new creativeness...there are some exciting new collage pieces on the way but more on those another day...as for ACEO's...well, I hope to get those back on track in the next couple of days! Keep your fingers x'd...

An ACEO a day...Day Ten

An ACEO a day...Days Eight and Nine

Slight delay there in posting the daily ACEO due to overwhelming demand for prints from the Restless Things shop after the lovely Grace at Design*Sponge posted a huge feature about my work - Thanks so much Grace! And thanks to everyone who has bought my work...

Originals of 'Rise' and 'Showed you your air' are now totally sold out however they are on my list of things to send to the giclee printers and I will look at getting these back in the shop asap...

Continuing the blue theme this week...