The Circle Garden

This is why I have not been blogging for a while. As a result of my first mosaic commission I was asked to create a mosaic as a 60th birthday present for a private garden. The garden in question is the most beautiful Circle Garden in New Malden in Surrey - my clients are avid gardeners and very talented! It was quite a challenge to come up with a design that reflected their own design ideas.

I have to admit I had two goes at getting this mosaic completed! But I learnt much along the way about material use and colour which I will use if anyone ever asks me to do another design. In fact I ended up by drawing on my Grandmother's embroidery designs as inspiration. I blogged about them earlier in the Spring. The colours and structure just fitted in beautifully. Whilst sitting constructing the circles I suddenly realised that it was very similar to gem-setting (and took me back to my jewellery-making). I absolutely love making these mosaics.

The grand unveiling was at the 60th birthday party on Saturday - and yes I now have another garden mosaic commission as a result!

Some pictures of the mosaic under construction and the influences...

 A photo of part of the garden full of circle lawns, topiary and amazing planting.

 My initial design for the main mosaic circles, but not entirely happy with the result...

 Fortunately the client have a fabulous studio space at the bottom of the garden so working there was just wonderfully peaceful. These are some of the first discs - the whole family got involved and created some of the smaller discs and leaves.

Maybe you can see where some of my ideas start to come from...

 This is more of what I wanted it to look like.

 And feeling much happier about the finished result - just need to grout them now.

And up on the wall at last.

And now I have to start thinking about lizard and dragonflies...

A change of direction

It is quite amazing how life just changes when you say 'yes' to something you are not so sure about. A good friend asked if I would like to re-make a mosaic for the school where she is head teacher. The previous mosaic had unfortunately become the victim of the extreme frosts in the winter.

The school brochure had been re-designed by a very talented local graphic designer, Dan England (great name!). The design was to be a reflection of the new school logo of a newt. A newt because they have many of them living in the school wilderness area.

The site visit revealed that the mosaic footprint I was to follow was 4 metres by 1 metre! Slightly bigger than I had imagined but this was my first mosaic so in for a penny, in for a pound...

My 'studio' was a couple of trestles in a main corridor which turned out to be a brilliant idea as children and the school community could drift by throughout the day, monitoring progress and volunteering suggestions and comments. The children really enjoyed seeing the four plain marine ply boards change into a sparkly, tiled newt. They were horrified when I applied the black grout - it was interesting to watch them want to say 'but you have ruined it all by putting black all over it' but still trying to be polite to an adult!

All the children from Nursery through to Year 2 plus teaching staff all came to put some tiles on the boards - and there was an element of the design changing as we went along. Here are some photos of the Newt's progress...

 Literally the bare boards!

 All the tiles ready to go...

 Mixture of cut ceramic tiles, mirrors and glass tiles.

 The children helped with the red and mirror circles.

 The original design proposal

 Have to admit my heart was in my mouth as the boards were screwed in place!

And then I cried when the last panel went in place - with relief!

Etsy shop up and running!

A recent rush to the creative parts of my brain means that I have now tackled the techie stuff and actually put some handmade items into my Etsy shop Redportfolio. If you would like to visit then please go to http://etsy.me/h2WFF3

It's just recent embroidery and knitting stuff but there will be more in the pipeline... and more inspiration this time from my Grandma.

Historical Hats

As part of recent museum education project I was looking at historical costume to inspire schoolchildren whilst on an outdoor trail around Abergavenny Castle. I think I may have had more fun than I ought! A very local piece of historical clothing I discovered was the Monmouth Cap or as it was also known, Statute Cap.

Apparently the statute or law was passed during Tudor times as a way of ensuring people bought caps made of wool from England and Wales to help keep the indiginous wool trade alive. Men, women and children over the age of six were to wear a woollen cap at all times and they had to be made from wool from this country. Many of the knitters were from Monmouth, and interestingly, men. As Monmouth is near to Abergavenny it seemed appropriate to include some itchy wool hats for trying on.

I managed to locate a knitting pattern from the web which was based on an example of the Monmouth Cap on display in Monmouth Museum. The wool was from the Rown Purelife British Sheep Breeds range which they rather brilliantly produce in Black Welsh! Also known as cochddu meaning brownish, which it is and wonderfully hairy! I tried felting a couple and left the others unfelted as a contrast. Having now knitted six I think  have had enough of that pattern for a while.

I am now quite intrigued about historical knitted headwear, or even hats in general, and wonder if I could engage in some research. Guessing the best place to start is the V&A?

The loop at the top could be used for hanging the hat to up to dry - I had to learn how to make an i-cord on double-ended needles, which is a bit like french knitting (using a cotton reel and four nails and making endless lengths of knitted tubing!). The alternative was to sew on a small knitted button.

Inspiring ironwork

It is amazing what you walk past and never really stop to admire properly. These gates are to an office on Newhall Street in the centre of Birmingham. I believe they were recently restored with funding from the Prince of Wales. They are truly magnificent and I feel they could be the start of some designs, although not sure what at this stage.

Hopefully off to see the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition of drawings and poems at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery so there may be some more inspiration to be had over this weekend. 

... And someone actually asked if I was interested in creating a jewellery design for a friend of theirs - will have to brush some cobwebs off for that but it would be lovely to revisit my original training. I had such high aspirations when I left college. Thought the jewellery design world would fall at my feet after winning a De Beers Diamond competition and an interview at Aspreys - oh what might have been if I had been more 'out there' instead of being a mouse!

Beside the seaside

It is truly amazing what a couple of days away by the sea can do. The husband whisked me away on the 5.50 am train (!!) to Brighton for some R&R.

What a lovely place it is too. I loved all the beautiful and intriguing independent shops in the New Laines area and the Lanes themselves. Wonderful and unusual things to buy. And so many tea and cake shops, which was not so good for the waistline. The weekend was topped off by a walk along Brighton Pier where we indulged in shove ha'penny (or two pence in new money) and several sticks of tooth tingling rock. Bracing but brilliant.

The cultural itch was scratched by a whirl around the Royal Pavilion which I really enjoyed, particularly all the explanation about the conservation projects that have gone on. Bit of a busman's holiday but who cares?

It all helped to feed the creative spirit and so, on my return, I have finally managed to crack on and finish two of my tea cosy projects. Below you can see the fruits of the past few Diamond Knitters Group here in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. I now feel a patriotic version coming on to celebrate the wedding. Aplogies.

Creative people

A query from a fellow museum educator on GEM (Group for Education in Museums) made me think about some of the lovely and creative work produced by children who come along to workshops. This image shows the most amazingly sustained piece of work by a little girl and her very helpful Mum! This was a family-friendly workshop billed as making fantasy furniture. The museum was the Gordon Russell Trust Museum in Broadway in Worcestershire. Full of the fabulous furniture designs by the Gordon Russell Company, there was lots of speculation about what could be produced from some junk modelling boxes and bits of paper. We used sheets of paper using the wood pattern fill on Office - cheap but effective!

One boy made a beatiful wardrobe complete with sparkly pipe cleaner coat hangers - his father had been an apprentice at the furniture fractory and still worked as an upholsterer.

I just love the detail by adding a lampshade with electrical flex and the beautiful cushions.

I really should go back and look at old photographs to remind myself, when projects are hard going, that I have been involved in some lovely and rewarding work.