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Two shops you should visit today
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Feeling slightly rubbish today so have spent a little bit of time on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve spotted these great offers from two of my favourites and, being a generous sort of person (Ha. Actually I’m struggling to resist buying them for myself my friends), I thought I would share them with you:
Sarah Waterhouse Textiles (left) – Sarah is a great friend and a fantastic textile designer, she is celebrating the re-stocking of her Etsy shop with a sale on some gorgeous hand printed coin purses. This particular print is discontinued, so get them while you can!
Andrea Joseph (right) – Another opportunity not to be missed! A supremely talented illustrator and maker of zines (and one of my sketchcrawl buddies), Andrea is listing some of her amazing original drawings in her shop this week.
Image credit to the artists.
(click on the images to go directly to the item page)
No need to thank me.
Sketchcrawl: IWM North, Salford
On Saturday, Sketchcrawl North went on a fieldtrip to the Imperial War Museum North at Salford. It is a crazy building based on a smashed up teapot stuck back together, designed in order to disorientate visitors so much that they are unable to leave without buying a amusing-when-you-read-it-out-of-context wartime postcard, apparently. I may have got that wrong.
Anyway, here are my sketches of the exterior of the building. I loved the shapes, it was like something le Corbusier might have designed if he had turned to the Dark Side. Ronchamp meets the Death Star? No? Just me then…
Inside the building are exhibits covering ‘every major conflict since 1914′.
On the hour, visitors are plunged into darkness and the ‘Picture Show’ projected onto every surface. It’s a surreal, moving and chilling moment as the chattering crowd stops and is captivated; their eyes fixed upwards as horrifying personal stories of war are told over background images and sounds of conflict which bombard from all angles.
It’s a pretty sad place, to be honest, as it should be. The notes displayed on the walkway into the cafe are devastating, especially knowing that they are written by serving soldiers… I’ll say no more. You’ll have to go and read them yourself.
I’ll leave you with this image of a creepy up-lit gas mask:
Don’t have nightmares.
Green and Pleasant(ish) Land
Let’s just take a moment to reminisce about this sunny interval that I viewed from my desk on Monday. I’m glad I captured it, because it’s been perpetual-dusk and raining cats and dogs ever since. But at least the plants are happier!
These days, I work from home 90% of the time (I’ve worked outdoors and lived in freezing cold damp houses, kudos to those of you who still do). So I feel very lucky to have stayed warm and dry today, with the added bonus of having a new DVD to watch while I worked. Usually I work with the radio on as I find TV/DVD too distracting, but I couldn’t wait to watch this:
Hope you’ve not had to venture too far today!
Monday Catch-up
Have you all been on tenterhooks awaiting the results of the GSAS selection? Well, I am pleased to say that all six paintings have been accepted, so they will be for sale at this year’s Art Show at the Octagon 29th June to 1st July, along with all six of my Dad’s paintings too!
So, catch-up catch-up:
I had my first day in the new office last week. It is a very cool building. At least, this part is… (Sorry, I’ve already posted this image, but look at the Ws and the art deco and the yellow – doesn’t it match this blog post nicely?):
I have already discovered a new friend living in one of the walls:
The weekend was surprisingly sociable and fun-packed, and included catching up with my homies, and going to a Sophisticated Ladies picnic in Derbyshire with actual Ladies and actual cheese and pineapple on sticks (More on that later? Except that I forgot to take photos, so probably not). I also went to see the Sheffield Steel Roller Girls Roller Derby at Ponds Forge, with yet more of my lovely and super talented friends, Sarah and Kelda (More on that later? Except that I forgot to take photos there too). It was all amazing and I might take some photographs next time, but in the meantime you’ll just have to get off that Xbox and use your imaginations, young lady.
Then, after a slow start this afternoon which, frankly, I was embarrassed to tell you aboot, I had a late flourish just in time for me to miss Neighbours and Home and Away. But I quite like this one so I think it was worth it?
THEN I discovered Channel 5 +1 so it was winwin.
*edit* + daffodils because they are yellow too
wwwordless wednesday
GSAS Work in Progress
First of all let me say that I am annoyed with myself for not remembering that I have installed iCloud and that I no longer have to transfer images from my phone to my computer in order to blog them. Of course I have just remembered that I can also blog them directly from my phone, but let’s pretend that wasn’t an option for technical reasons.
Organised chaos?
Anyway, now that I am here, I wanted to let you know that I haven’t just been being dim and grappling with technology, although admittedly that has taken up a lot of time. I have mostly been busy preparing for the Great Sheffield Art Show*, because next weekend is selection day! Here is a sneak peek at what I will be taking to be assessed. I still need to finish one of the six paintings that I will be submitting, but that is why I am here, avoiding it.
Framed up
I even managed to find myself some ‘siansburys (bile) green’ frames, they’re a bit rancid but I kind of like them. At least they will make my paintings stand out? That is, if they are selected, obviously.
*The Great Sheffield Art Show is an annual event held at the Octagon. This year the exhibition will be open from 29th June to 1st July 2012.
Thankless Thursday
Hello – I just thought I’d drop in and say ‘hi’ before Easter is upon us and anyone wonders why I haven’t blogged since the depths of Winter*
(* I like to imagine a world where that might be an issue for anyone, not for any egotistical reasons… oh, hang on, yes, for egotistical reasons. Here’s a photo of my own name, all Big):
It feels like a year has passed since we last spoke. We’ve seen Winter come, and Winter go. We’ve had a quick burst of Summer and then suddenly we were snapped back into Winter again. And now, are we back to Spring? What is this?
Anyway, I am mainly here to tell you that there are a few changes happening at Siansburys. Back in those heady days of 2007 I opened my Etsy shop with grand plans to sell my painting and drawings, but the sock monkeys sort of took over (possibly because my art was crap?). That was great and I’ve had a fantastic time, but recently, what with one thing and another, I’ve begun to feel awfully drained. This isn’t anything dramatic, there will still be monkeys, DON’T PANIC! But what it does mean is that there will be ‘art’ (in the loosest sense of the word) and plush mixed all together in my shops again, and it does mean that I will no longer be taking any kind of custom/personalised monkey orders. At all. Sorry.
And breathe.
I have emptied all of my shops to give myself a bit of space while I dream up new ideas. In the meantime I will (or at least intend to) be blogging about things I love, and random stuff like doodling and pottering and going out into the real world to do sketching of real life things. I hope you decide to stay with me – I can’t promise anything wonderful will emerge but it’d be nice to have you along for the ride!
Haha… maybe see you in 6 months with some photos of my cat?
THANK YOU
(the title of this post doesn’t have any significance, apart from my love of alliteration, but thank you all the same!)
and HAPPY YEASTER – have a ruvvry time :)
Wednesday, like a river (photo stream)
I’ve been slightly obsessed with Instagram this week (find me @siansburys), so apologies if I have flooded your stream!
This week has so far mainly consisted of organising my life through the power of Post-it notes, apple tree pruning, painting at my newly positioned-under-a-window desk (my previous set-up involved staring at a wall in a dark corner, and wasn’t the most inspiring of workspaces), and pancakes.
What did you have on your pancakes – tell me, I’m interested. Unless it was gravy. Actually no, I am interested if you had gravy. Apparently some Sheffield people think this is a normal thing to do. Discuss.
What’s that? What did I have? How nice of you to ask. Well, firstly I had traditional jif lemon & sugar, then I had maple syrup. Finally I pushed the boat out and combined jif lemon & maple syrup. I know, I’m crazy experimental like that. If you’re interested, it tasted somewhat like Buttercup Syrup (cough mixture), perhaps I will try that next time.
I also found myself on a blancmange-pink bus today which was slightly unnerving, and I was introduced to some early Miyazaki, but I might tell you more about that in another blog post.
Plush Pinks
Hello! Did you have a lovely Valentines Day? Did you get some beautiful flowers? I am glad.
I’ve been wanting to post something on my shiny new blog all week but I’ve just been too busy with important works such as re-arranging my workroom (and getting trapped, briefly); deciding against spending £80 on a real one, and creating a poor-man’s Fil-o-fax (“Fil-no-fax”?) out of a notebook and post-it notes; synchronising Not-filofax with the Big Whiteboard of Everything; watching the Godfather Part 2, etc., etc.
I would like to start doing a kind of weekly finds type post, so today I thought I’d begin by sharing some recent listings from members of the Plush Team*, which I like to do occasionally as they are wonderful, talented folk. This selection is in festive Valentine-esque pinkish purplish colours:
Plush Pinks
So here we have from left to right (photo credits to the artists):
- Green Elevator
- Plush Riot
- Deadly Sweet
- Brian and the Wonderful Craft
- Susarto
- Yermit
- *might
- Nonesuch Garden
- Scrumptious Delight
(I’ve got to say that Survivor Yermit isn’t SO recent, but I had to include one Yermit as I have slightly fallen in love with them this week – see Your Boyfriend is a Fox – and he was the best fit)
Enjoy!
*The Etsy Plush Street Team is a group of artists supporting and furthering ideas behind plush dolls, toys and all the soft areas in between.