The beauty of random objects

Ever had something you really wanted fall into your lap? I have an imaginary shopping list for craft materials in my head, and occasionally the thing I’m least expecting to obtain will be the thing that appears out of the blue. For some time I’ve longed for a hand full of beautiful vintage cut glass chandelier drops to make jewellery from, so I was chuffed to bits when a dear friend gave me these beauties, a whole bag of them, from her broken chandelier. They go so well with the selection of old keys I’ve amassed over the years. I’m going to be very busy making over the next couple of days, making necklaces for the shop.

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My painting muscle needs exercise…

From now on I hope to do a little bit of painting or drawing every day. I’ve lost my edge; if you don’t practice, your painting, drawing or whatever becomes stilted and the style suffers. I find it doesn’t take long to get it back though, and the more you do the more you are repaid for your efforts.

These are not finished by any means but I thought I’d show them as cheerful proof that I am at least trying. I think I’d like them to be much more stylised, so we’ll see where I go with this idea. They are painted on salvaged birch wood ply. What will I do with them? That is the last thing in my mind. Trust me, you’ll be the first to know.

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Cutting some vinyl

One of my favourite art materials right now is old vinyl records. I was looking through our collection of much beloved albums and singles one day when I discovered a bonanza of unexpected trash. “What the hell? We have a haircut 100 single? WHY???” It turned out that some of R’s previous housmates had less than glittering music tastes and would occasionally leave their more embarrassing choices behind when they moved on to pastures new. Not wanting these to go to landfill inspired me to see if I couldn’t do something with them.

My first pair of vinyl earrings I just couldn’t part with and I’m glad I didn’t, they are one of my favourite items of jewellery. There just doesn’t seem to be a limit to the ways I can use it for necklace making, and anything made using vinyl fragments immediately adds edge to whatever else I’m wearing.

The trouble with using vinyl record fragments for jewellery is that vinyl in this form is brittle and difficult to cut; it’s taken me an age to figure out the best way to do it. It’s not rocket science but if I told you my method I’m afraid I’d have to eat you. The other problem and the worst one by far is that no matter how lousy the record, cutting one up gives me terrible pangs of guilt and nostalgia. I love records. We still have a turntable and often give our old vinyl a spin, so when I’m scouring charity shops for suitable material I’ll only buy the scratched ones that no-one could listen to anyway. With careful cutting I get rid of the damage, have something fun to wear and keep some vinyl out of landfill.

Want to see more? You can buy my recycled vinyl collection “Put Your Records On“ in the shop!

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Why “The Birds In The Meadow”?

As a child I was a tomboy. I spent entire summer days belly down in the dirt of the local pond, scrabbling for tadpoles and sticklebacks and dragonfly larvae. Other days would be spent looking for skylark and lapwing nests in the meadows near my home – not for any destructive, nest robbing purpose; this was pure fascination and the thrill of discovery. One day I went to the pond with my plastic bucket and jamjar to find it being drained – living things drowning in air and mired in mud flopped helplessly at my feet. In the coming months a housing development laid waste to the meadows with the birds in them; the pond had been drained to ensure none of us kids would fall into it.

As an adult I am still a tomboy. I’ll still spend an entire day crouched staring into any gnat infested body of water if you’ll let me, and I still notice the little things. Sometimes I’ll write about what I’ve seen, just to try to make sense of it all. I may appear to think small, but my aims are big important ones. I want to make sure that there will always be ponds for kids to fall into if they want, and I think there should always, always be meadows filled with birds.

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