Juneathon Week One round up

I've had a good and busy week, in which I have exercised everyday but had no time or inclination to blog, so here's a little round up instead.

 I made a start on bigger geometric drawings in my studio. Really pleased with how they're evolving. This is about a metre across. Tricky to get a good picture. I'm going to try and make a little time lapse film of me making one. This will involve me learning how to make a time lapse film, hmmm.

 On Friday I went to a meeting in Liverpool at Open Eye Gallery. Exciting things happening, which I'll talk about later once things are confirmed! It's a great space, enjoyed the Martin Parr photographs. I went over to the Tate Modern and checked out the Constellations exhibition too.

 The weather was beautiful, I had such a nice day pottering around and checking out some galleries and drinking lots of good coffee. Went to Bold Street Coffee and managed to find the Baltic Bakehouse, which was boss, la!

 Went to the Science Fiction exhibition at FACT, which really spun me out. There were loads of little doors to go through , it was like being on a space ship (I imagine). There was this weird film with a talking lychee (or durian, who can say?) in it which I enjoyed.

 On Saturday I got soaked for the umpteenth time cycling into town to teach a screen printing workshop at Fred Aldous. Lovely group, always love seeing how different everyones prints are. Next workshop dates are in September, you can book on the Ministry of Craft website.

 I was a little late with my Weekly Word Drawing. This week's theme was 'Head'. I had a few different ideas, but hastily knocked these smug moon heads out. Trilby versus fez, which will win? (Fez, obvs.)

 I am trying to be healthy and eat well and not drink, so made a radish and fennel salad with lemon and mint dressing, to accompany delish tea made by my pal. First Saturday night booze-free since time immemorial.

 This morning Nick and I drove out to Longdendale and ran up and down a big hill. It was mega!

 Nice day for it! And by 'it', I mean a very sweaty 10k run.

Ate a bacon butty, watched the tennis, then distressed some cats.

Miles cycled: approx 70
Miles ran: 6.8
Yoga classes completed: 1
Units of alcohol consumed: ZERO!

Workspace

I am lucky/greedy enough to have 3 workspaces - my dining room/home office, pictured above in all its messy, colourful glory, my studio at Hot Bed Press and the shop at the Craft Centre.

This is the wall in front of my desk at Hot Bed. Not very inspiring is it?? Need to pop some posters of my favourite hunks up, should get the ideas egg grooving.

This is the print room downstairs from my studio. It's rad. I'm planning on getting stuck into some printing next week. The problem I am a little disorganised, so it's easy for me to get sidetracked. This morning, for instance, I am sitting here in my pyjamas, writing this blog and no doubt I'll answer some emails in a bit, which eats into the time I should be spending at Hot Bed. My computer is here, it's hard to leave this guy. I am good at being disciplined sometimes, but other times I AM NOT.

Various items being made in the Craft Centre. Badges, bibs, baby wear.

 Treats for sale in the shop.

How do you stay focused? Come on, I need some help here!

Day in the Life - a photo an hour on the hour

 8 a.m Failed to set my initial alarm, luckily trusty secondary alarm awoke me. A glorious sunny morn.

 9 a.m Nice enough for an al fresco breakfast experience of porridge and coffee in my back yard. I was filled with glee to note that birds have been eating the food I've been putting out, even though I've only seen ONE coal tit since December. Those sneaks. My mealworms bring all the birds to the yard.

 10 a.m Cycled to the Craft Centre with my sunny gees on and no coat. I love Summer! I spy Amy Wilkinson whizzing in on her bike too!

 11 a.m Printed some fox bibs and hats for a Not on the High Street order.

12 p.m A coffee, followed by getting sucked into Internet world for far too long. 

 1 p.m Freakin' delicious lunch from Oak Street Cafe. Ham and leek pasty with spicy tofu and beans, new potatoes and beetroot. Yummmmm.

 2 p.m Heat set my prints and packaged 'em up…

 3 p.m …ready for the Post Office run in the sun.

 4 p.m Did some work on a geometric drawing. I think I'm going to do this again, but symmetrical. Not very happy with it.

 5 p.m Got some hydration on the go. I love Bobble filters and am a bit evangelical about them!

 6 p.m Cycled home. My front garden is looking beautiful, if a little wild. Loving seeing new flowers blooming everyday.

7 p.m Still warm enough to sit outside with a little beer. I love to be outside as much as possible, even if this beer wasn't as tasty as my favourite, Badger's Golden Glory.

That's it! I'm going to chill out tonight, I'm working again tomorrow and am feeling the need to rest. Happy Friday y'all! x

Motivation

Sometimes I find it very hard to get motivated. I'm quite disorganised and also suffer from bouts of anxiety and depression, which make it hard for me to get started on things. I have lots of ideas, get hyper-excited by projects and then start to worry that the end product will be rubbish. The best way for me to work is little and often, then my brain feels sustained and ideas will flow almost effortlessly. I need to let go of the idea of perfection in order to be happy. It's all progress, it's all just a game.

I'm not really motivated by money, I just want to make things. But I need money in order to buy materials to make those things and also to have a nice time, which I do enjoy. Basically, I've got it pretty easy, some might say too easy!

Collaborating is a great way to stay motivated, I recently completed a project with my friends Rachel (Lines Form Spaces) and Lindsey (Lindsey Vigurs Illustration). They started Draw A Letter a Day and I gegged in on it for the numbers. Thanks ladies, more of this in the future, please!

Draw a letter a day project. Number 0.

Think 2 was my fave.

Sketchbook experiments keep the ideas a-coming.

Soggy Cycling

Easy exercise day today, cycled to the studio in the rain. Felt quite refreshing! I'm working on a few commissions and quite a large wholesale order, so I'll be busy printing over the next few days. Ordered some materials and a new screen, which is always exciting, but not so nice for my bank balance! Eek! Damn you cash flow.

Some jolly badges.

Monkeying Around on Monday

Nearly forgot to blog today! Didn't go for my 12k run as my legs are still mega-achy. Not sure if it's from Saturday's run or inappropriate dancing to Salt n'Pepa. I dropped dangerously low, readers. Instead of a run I was lucky enough to win a little freebie via Twitter this morning and took myself off to St John's Primary school for a yoga for sport session. I'd seen it mentioned online somewhere, so was pretty chuffed to be able to try it out for free and give the old legs a good stretch! I enjoyed it, but my attempts at push-ups were pretty comedy.

Cheeky Monkey!

Other than that I have started editing some of the new product photos I've been taking, you can now buy my little Monkey organic cotton hats on Not on the High Street here! More updating to come...

Screenprint Giveaway!

Oh, poor, neglected blog! I think I've had blog fear, after so long using twitter and instagram, the thought of sitting down and typing more than 120 characters feels a little intimidating! The irony is that I actually enjoy writing and looking back on blog posts. So I do solemnly swear to make more of an effort from now on! Well, I have something nice to make up for being silent for so long. A giveaway! Woohoo! At the beginning of the year I invested in a bit of new equipment - a spring-loaded drying rack and some freshly exposed screens, which make my life a lot easier and mean that I can print lovely, high-quality posters.

I have one of each design to give away, for a chance to win just leave a comment saying which one you would like, Koala, Lion, Owl or Tiger! I will announce the winners in a week's time.

The posters are available to buy from my website and Not On the High Street Store.

Crafting History

Here are some photos of the process of making my piece for the Crafting History exhibition that opens at the Craft Centre on 14th July. The tenants were asked to respond to the Collecting History exhibition that is currently on at the Craft Centre as part of our 30 year anniversary celebrations. I chose to create an intricate papercut depicting 18 fish representing our 18 studios and celebrating the past life of the building as a fishmarket. All the fish are native to British waters and many would have been served up here at some point (except the Pike!). As part of the exhibition the public sent in words that they feel represent the Craft and Design Centre. Each fish contains one of these words. I enjoyed the challenge of making something away from my usual practice and it has proved really satisfying. Come down on Saturday 2-4 to see all the work made plus ceramics by Carys Davies and help us celebrate!

FutureEverything Workshops

Hello! I'm way behind on posts, I've been super-busy running, cycling, printing and teaching workshops! Here are some photos from the HANDMADE workshop at Victoria Baths. It was a super-fun, busy, hectic day!

More photos on my Facebook page! The next workshop I'm running is on the 30th June at Fred Aldous for the Ministry of Craft. In August I'm running some workshops for 10-15 year olds, so if you know anyone who'd like to have a go at printing in the summer holidays, send them my way! Details here: Craft Academy