Do you also have a habit of arranging temporary still lives on window sills and shelves?
For me, these sometimes kick start new design ideas, always make me wish I had time to stop and draw or paint, often give rise to new colour combinations and definitely make me feel happy when I look at them. They are also a really handy way of making the place look cared for when there's no time for rigorous housework... when is there ever!
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| lasp gasp bouquet! The Scented Broom smells amazing. |
I was buying flowers from a street stall, because they stopped me in my tracks, because they filled me with desire to gaze at them more, and it made me think about how I really choose colours for my designs. In class I often get asked about colour, and try to explain how I soak it up all day long, and relish in colour with feeling. Yet somehow people see my work and say, 'Oh, those are so your colours!' The florist stall has a brilliant 'last gasp' offer on bunches of flowers that are past their best. So for pennies you can have glorious blooms, usually hugely expensive ones, if only for the briefest while. These are the ones I chose.
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| paper bag vase |
The table cloth is a linen tea towel, I seem to collect these along with my china and they make cute backgrounds for photographs, far to nice to use for the washing up!
Anyway, you can see that I'm definitely getting back into softer colours and pink again!
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| bead stash for a new project idea |
I had a morning off this week, to visit my friend Zoe's bead shop in Frome in Somerset. This is a shop you definitely have to go to and relish, with at least half an hour to spare and any significant other parked in a coffee shop until you are done.
It is a real treat moment for me, a perfect antidote to pre-spring blues. The walls are covered with beautifully made beady jewellery from around the world, and there are many trays of 'other' beads. In no time you'll have a packet of scrummy goodies! Inspired by the flowers, and with a project in mind that needs to be done, I chose silky matt glass long beads, little flower round beads and some in betweeny beads.
Once home I put these with some gorgeous Lucite flower beads and seed beads from my friend Lynn's store. But somehow, despite thinking I'm picking out new colours for me to play with, there is a definite familiarity about the choices I've made. But for now I'm in love with this soft spring mixture and I'll post a picture of the finished project soon.
