I had a lovely afternoon at Sennen, taking pictures of my new enamel mugs. I’m a little bit in with love them!

I’ve been pretty busy! I love experimenting and trying new things though and so I’ve been having a great time.
This tea towel took about an hour to do and although it was fun, I don’t think I will be using this technique for tea-towels again. There is no way I could price them competively when it takes so long. You live and learn though and energy is never wasted.

The next image is a glittered Rose lino cut. It looks gorgeous in real life!

I screen printed this image onto paper for the first time. I have put it on plenty of t-shirts, but I was really pleased with how this turned out - especially with the sparkle.

My hare lino print has really surprised me by being so popular! My love of lino printing has also surprised me and now I am planning on preparing a collection to display at Morvah gallery next year! It’s really exciting to have something to work towards.

I love getting commissions, especially when I have a good connection with the project. This particular project began with a customer at Sennen Market who asked if I could illustrate something for her yoga studio and gave me a sketch of a lady in a bending tree pose for inspiration. I love yoga and the name ‘wild Willow yoga’ and I felt that this would be an exciting thing to work on.

The first thing I did was research yoga studios in the same area to get an idea of the competition. I then researched Willow trees to see if there was a particular animal/insect/flower that was associated and that I could include inthe image.

I found that owls and foxes were associated with a willow trees eco system. They seemed particularly appropriate as an owl is often associated with wisdom and a fox is associated with cunning and adaptability. These creatures also helped to illustrate the wild element in the studio’s name.

I submitted the above images and waited for feedback. I was then guided to change the clothes, make the creatures less dominant and make the whole thing more magical.

The above clothes were considered to be too ordinary and I was asked to put her in a dress. My concern was that this would lose the leg positioning of the yoga pose, but the fantasy element was considered more important by the client. I was sent a few inspiration images to guide me and this led to me including the mountains in the background.

The final image has room for the client to add her own text, which she then can update as needed for different events. It is also saved in layers so there is the potential for the colours to be changed to coincide with the seasons and/or to have different elements added.

It was a great commission to work on and I love the way that the client directed this to get a really magical piece.

If you have a project that you think I would be great for then please get in touch!

It has been a bit of a strange week. Life has felt really busy and a little stressful and I finally feel that things are calming down a little. Tabitha started school last week and I was pretty worried about big struggles and lots of tears. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. She skipped into school, excited, and gave her new teacher a big hug. When I nervously went to pick her up at 3.10, I wasn’t sure what to expect. She was a little tearful and she looked a bit upset, but I remained calm and sat down until she was ready to tell me what was on her mind. What she finally told me was a big surprise - she didn’t want to come home!

I was not prepared for that, but I was really happy and relieved. It’s still early days and of course there will be good ones and bad ones, but hey, this was a good start.

Whilst preparing Tabitha for school we have also been preparing our house for a Home exchange. It’s been pretty nuts as me and my husband are both pretty busy anyway, let alone having to majorly sort out the house. It’s been good though. Our house looks much better and it will be much nicer over the winter.
At the moment we are doing a non simultaneous swap with a lady and her mother from Denmark. This means that we are not in Denmark, but actually only over the road in the barn where my husband makes his chocolate.

It also means that we get kind of a ‘free pass’ to stay in someone else’s home in the future at a mutually agreeable time. This is a good thing! The world becomes much more accessible this way as it’s a much cheaper way to travel.

I still managed to get some art done while at the barn and I’m excited about the new possibilities that are opening up. I will have more time and energy to get on with art projects and I hope that things will all click into place.

In the meantime I think I will just breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to being back in my own home.