Just noticed that the previous entry shows the completed 'tree' not to the side, as my narrative says.......instead its the bottom pic............no matter where I opt to place pics, this blog seems to put them where the hell of likes..
So here are my latest little somethings, and they are great fun to make, no idea if they will sell but who cares, when they are fun to make! I found about 16 more old teacups last sunday, some well over a 100 years old too.
Short and sweet today but please do look at www.martinwaters.co.uk. Martin makes artwork out of what is washed up on shore at the simply wonderful, and barren, Spurn Point here in East Yorkshire. It is a spit of land that has the north sea on one side and the marshland Humber river estuary on the other side.
What Martin does with stray dummies, rubber gloves, plastic labels, old shoes and other discarded rubbish is mind boggling. It is also a shameful comment on our habits and wastage, to see so much of our junk on one place and know that it has washed up on our shores.
I went along on saturday to see his latest local exhibition at the Beverly Art Gallery and it is well worth going to see his work. Martin was artist in residence on Spurn in 2007 and his website shows many of the works of art he made on the beaches, on the wartime concrete bunkers and using what was around him at the time.
I love the sand crop-circle-come amonite!
So inspired was I, that this evening I went river foreshore beachcombing...
I now have a(nother) big bag of sea glass, odd bits of broken and sea washed crockery and rusty bits of metal......watch this space lol
:)

Trees 'growing'

One tree, here to the left completed, and two others in progress but skew whiff........ I forgot to adjust the blessed pics before I saved them! And several shapes, fabric wrapped ready to become more trees!

Am not too sure about the red and black leafery yet............it does need trimming and shaping but may need another branch in there. Though I was thinking of hanging a 'something' within that obvious space between the branches..... just not sure what it will be yet.

The completed tree has had strips of fabric tied into position, the other two I stitched strips into place, using invisible thread. I have a sea scene in mind for one of these shapes but am still fathoming how to put the sea in place to my liking. But, I now have so many ideas on this theme, I may have to give up work to get the half of them made!

I watched the Kim Cattrell ( Sex in the City) in the 'Who Do You Think You Are' tv prog last night and it was very sad. Her Grandfather had left her Grandmother, her Mum aged about 8 and her 2 sisters in 1939 and simply disappeared. They lived in abject poverty and never ever knew where their Dad had gone.

The programme showed that he took off, stowed away to New York, where they sensibly sent him right back home to the UK! Then he married again, bigamously and had several children by this unsuspecting woman who years later he dragged off to Australia on the £10 emigration scheme. It was very sympathetically done since the family in Oz hadnt known that a bigamous marriage had occurred, which must have been upsetting for them lets face it. But it was a closure at long last for Kims 70+ yr old mum and two sisters, leaving them angry but an explanation at last. Though seeing photos of their Dad on the beach with his other children and knowing they had no such loving childhood memories in their lives must have been a hard thing to come to terms with.

My own Dad's Mum, had put him to bed one night when he was about 8, and his sister about 3 years old. Their father was on night shift at the pit and by the time he came home in the early hours, he found both kids sat on the stairs crying because their mother had left the house and them......... Dad never talked much about it but I know it caused him and my Aunt, much pain. My Grandad had wrapped both kids up in blankets and clothing, raised my Aunt onto his shoulders and walked them the 5/6 miles to his own mothers home, where they then went to live by all accounts.

It seems their Mum had run away with a musician, so you have to wonder don't you, was it bravery to walk away like that leave your children behind?

I am tracing my family tree, with much, much help from my great pal Mary over there in Perth, Australia, so will now have to see if my Granma also went on to marry bigamously!

Okay............. a glass of red wine and back to my trees!

:)

More trees!

So square lampshades work just as well as round ones!

This has worked out okay I think and the darker pic was taken with the work laid on a light box to see how it would turn out.......well silhouetted of course but it struck me as funny the way there appears to be ears and a tail peeking out from behind the tree trunk!

It is of course the broken broach/pin...that I had painted with nail varnish to tint it salmony-pink, but proof of what you see, isn't always what your seeing!

I stitched a piece of heat gunned, patterned cellophane into position on the 'ground' folded fabric, for an extra bit of texture and interest.

Summer and swallows

So okay, its not exactly Hampton Court, but its a reasonable size for a terraced house, town garden. I have to say this is not Fergus's best angle as he plods up the garden... but my horses head looks okay sat, sitting there, like a gigantic chess piece. I bought him for £25 several years ago, from the local tip, in the days you were allowed to buy bits of 'rubbish' that folk had brought in.

The head is normally in my living room and yes, it takes 3 of us to lift him - but when the wreckers came in and gutted my home through.....after the floods...he went outdoors and I have left him there for at least the summer. I watched the swallows swooping above my head yesterday, squeeking away as they dived and aerobatically chasing presumably flies..........or maybe they were just so full of joy at being alive. Then last night I sat out back, with a glass of wine to watch the meteorite dust that earth was passing through....did I see anything magical?

No ..... not a shooting star of any size or shape ... but I have now got a neck ache lol

This is the lastest tree, a little smaller than the others, which are a good 12" diameter.

This is only about 7". Crappy pics sorry, the lighting wasnt that good. Am taking all the trees to a new shop tomorrow with a view to them maybe selling them for me. Want to see what commission they intend to put on them though first.

The one shop I use at the moment, puts 100% on top of my prices which is unfair to anyone buying I think........so I have to cut my prices accordingly. I price as to what I would be likely to pay for an item.......but never having enough money to get by, maybe I price too cheaply to be fair.

Was going to make up a couple of the tea cups to take along too, but am still toying with exactly how to do them as yet.

Short and sweet this evenin, off to watch Who Do You Think You Are?......struggling as I am with my own blessed family tree........I need all the help I can get!

:)

Car Booty

I live round the corner to a large car boot venue. After all the years of cat rescue, where we had a regular sunday car boot stall to raise funds, its very hard to stay away from them lol ...........some of you may suffer from the same syndrome.

Mostly I go to buy my fruit and veg for the following week and cruise past the plant stall to see what he has to offer. This week 2 x 3' high Rosemary bushes, at £2 each! Bargain!

But yesterday I went specifically in search of old fashioned china tea cups, so I could make pin cushions/paper weights in them. This is not my original idea, see http://www.lollishops.com/ for example, and there are some for sale on Etsy for instance, but I just love the notion of using odd china cups for a re-purpose.

So off I went, fully expecting that I would find nothing at all, since isn't that often the way, when your looking for particular things, there's none to be found?

But such bliss!

I paid very little for my haul and came home thrilled to bits with my goodies.

I even found a china tea cup for a man with a moustache, well...... or a lady with one for that matter!

That has to be a treasure in the making, that one!

I found a sweet little night light, probably from about the 1970s/80s for a £1.00 to use when grandson Jack stays here and then I stumbled on the cutest little cloth doll, sat on a stool, with sewing in her hand.............for 20p........I could not leave her in the box amongst the broken crockery and dead spiders... well you know how it is don't you....

She now sits on the kitchen window sill, so she can watch the clematis as it blooms outside.....

So the tea cups are washed and now I'm in planning mode, deciding what fabrics to use, what colours to opt for, will I use lace, velvets, satins...........life is so full of decisions to be made, at least are thoroughly enjoyable ones!

I also paid 20p for a drum that had tears in its stretched velum, but it has yielded 3 large rings, one of 2" wide wood, one of half inch width metal and one very narrow width metal......so they will be very useful.

And not only was it a profitable morning ambling round, but the sun bathed us all in it's glory whilst a slight breeze kept it from being uncomfortable.............delightful!