It's raining it's pouring

Oh my- well these last few days have really been pouring with creativity and ideas, as much as the rain has been falling outside! Everyone is past the stage now were we say 'oh isn't it nice, a drop of rain, just what the farmers need...' and have started to complain. Except me of course, I love it! Rain rain rain, bring it on. Until Wednesday through to Sunday, because we got the house and I'd like to move then!

We're so excited- everyone is bouncing up and down for us and we can't wait to get in there and get up to our picture rails in antique textiles and faery bits, and up to our elbows in mud. Phoebe, in her earth-goddess way, doesn't quite understand my love of heat-stained ironware and dinted pewter, so that's all going to be stacked in my room, draped in my most precious rotting textiles and looking fabulous. I'm happy about that though because there's a different look for each room. So far this is what we envision the lounge to be like...

More of a mood board than an actual representation...the lower right corner from Curious Sofa; lower left from Cabin Creek Farm, upper left corner is a still of Lemony Snicket film, and the crystals are from Bjorg jewellery, who have since changed their website! The peacock and the ridiculously huge bed were the result of long-time-gone Google searches.)

And the kitchen will be all iron, pottery, wood and stone- like the Burrow in Harry Potter:


I'm trying to get as much sewing done here while I have the chance because I have a feeling I won't have much time for it for the next month or so! Fixing up the outside bungalow to become a large shared studio is the first priority- hopefully we can do that by summer. In the meantime we shall squish our craftings into the 3rd bedroom (to eventually be the massage room/guest bedroom) and I'll keep my work basket of rags near the sofa. The house will be jam-packed with stuff, as we both have an uncommon amount of it- vintage furniture, lighting and prints, antique textiles, weird curios, tribal jewellery, museum-piece wackiness, Lowbrow Nostalgic, Victorian Tribal, hippy splendour and general bohemian chaos. You will have pictures!

Inspirationally, my brain has been on over-drive. Not just with house plans, but art-wise too. I've been trying to find a way to push to higher ground with my chain-based jewellery while at the same time not ending up looking too much like everyone else. I know what I want- I can picture it perfectly in my head. But getting out here in reality, that's a different matter. I'm getting eager to try out a few new 'crafting' skills- wood carving, mould making and polymer clay I can teach myself, but silversmithing and ceramics I'll need to find courses for. I'm at the point now where I want to be making my own pieces, not just assembling found objects together. (Which I will still be doing, not to fear!)


Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons are 'object crafters' from New York, who make necklaces from antique ivory piano keys, and are something similar to what I want to pursue. I love the flimsiness of the large link chain and the general antique/occult feeling. This combined with the Rachelle Varney locket from the last post is coming very close to what I want to make.

Black Sheep was discovered via a new blog that's come to my attention- Lady Lavona. I've spend goodness knows how long trawling through page after page of her blog, and I'm not done yet! Really beautiful, interesting things with a slightly dark edge. Her shop is great as well.


Another inspiration that came to me from Lavona is Coccia Costumier, who aside from making to-die-for clothing has constructed a miniature set of historically-themed outfits using fragile bits of nature such as beetles' legs and snakeskin. Amazing, heart-stopping things that I studied for ages and have been rather helpful in my back-of-mind ideas about combining my textile jewellery and chain-based pieces.

There's a fantastic and enormous 5 room gallery in the new town, so I'm thinking about having another exhibition at the end of the year- and these images have me thinking about painting again...





(top image- Light Locations; other images- Location works)

Since moving out of my little tumbling-down cottage I've found it hard to tap into the bleak decrepit Georgian tones and overgrown decay that I want to reference in my work (hard to conjour that up in a neat flat in suburbia!) so hopefully that will be another bonus of moving into the new house. I've no doubt the faery is still strong in the near future, but if I can just get the two to meld out here in reality and stop just playing in my head...

Dear oh dear, I do take on so many projects...