LET IT SNOW!

Our New Year window dressing in the gallery reflects our desire to have some cold, bright weather, rather than the grey and damp Winter we have had so far!

ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS!

This year for the gallery windows we have opted for a Christmas woodland theme with natural branches and fir cones painted white, sparkly lights, and stars.  Below are a selection of the Christmas cards I made this year...

MERRY CHRISTMAS to anyone who reads this and a big thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me this year.  I hope to be able to devote more time next year to creating artworks and writing my blog!

LET IT SNOW!

The latest window at the One Craft Window is a wintry scene with LET IT SNOW as the theme.  White bunting, white skeleton trees and an old fashioned wooden sledge contribute to the look.  At Shepton Mallet we have had plenty of rain but no snow!

SNOWDROP CARDS FOR THE GALLERY!

This is what my garden looked like last Friday!  We don't have snow very often in Shepton, so it was quite a shock!  Perhaps it was appropriate that at the time, I was working in the studio on finishing some snowdrop cards - as seen below.

I used the painted backgrounds that I had made when doing my urban valentine cards.  On top of them I painted stems and leaves with various shades of green acrylic, and then collaged on paper petals.  A few details were added with a black marker pen before they were mounted onto 6 inch square textured card stock.

The cards are for sale in the One Craft Gallery and are part of my contribution to the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival 2019 which is taking place on the 16th and 17th February.

A HAPPY AND CREATIVE NEW YEAR!

We are now into 2019, so a happy, creative and productive New Year to all who read this!  The weather has turned colder so it is appropriate that the gallery reflects this in our latest window display.  The letters read LET IT SNOW!  We are not wishing to actually have snow as it makes it difficult for our customers to visit, but we felt the simplicity was a great contrast to the excesses of the Christmas window...

LET IT SNOW!

Twelfth night is now over and all the Christmas decorations have been taken down, so a snowy scene is our current window dressing at the One Craft Gallery.  LET IT SNOW is written in large white letters.  White trees and suitable crafted items, such as, fur hats, needle felted polar bears and snowy landscapes complete the picture...

LET IT SNOW!

After having a Christmas spent mostly in bed, ill, and off my food, it is good to get back to normal!  All the Christmas decorations have been taken down in the gallery and I have just been helping to create  a 'LET IT SNOW' window...

This may by a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the weather forecast for next weekend is for possible snow!

SNOWY WINDOW

As an antidote to the red and white Christmas decorations, we now have a white snowy window with bare trees and snowflakes at the One Craft Gallery.  Red was banished, and we put on a display of goods that were mainly green, blue or turquoise.

Ironically, we have just had one of the warmest and wettest Decembers since records began, although this morning when Caroline, one of the jewellers and I did the window, there was a frost!

CHRISTMAS WINDOW

This year we have kept to a simple red and white colour scheme for the One Craft Gallery's Christmas window.  The white stars are handmade by me and have a sparkle!  The large cardboard letters were painted white, and the white trees were left over from one of our members son's wedding! There are also transparent red dishes full of shiny red baubles, white twigs and fir cones.  In the other window we have a large branch of twisted willow mounted in a white box so that we can hang tree decorations that are for sale.

Christmas has arrived in Shepton!  The streetlights are in place as is a large tree in the Market Place.  This pic (top right) was taken before the big switch on of lights on this tree.  The middle pic on the left shows Kilver Court which is on the outskirts of the town.  It's lights look very classy!

The High Street is getting into full Christmas mode and it seems as though red and white is a popular colour choice this year!  The two montages above consist of photos taken on one of my early morning walks which are documented in my other blog - Walk the Talk!

SNOW WINDOW

Snow is our latest theme for the gallery window - white snowy peaks and snow covered vegetation.  In Shepton Mallet we have had small flurries of snow with nothing settling.  However, the weather is certainly very cold at the moment so the fur and woollen hats and scarfs sell well as everybody tries to keep warm!

WINTER WINDOW

Now that all the Christmas decorations have been put away, we have given the One Craft Gallery a wintry window.  We haven't had anything but rain lately, so we have made snow our theme, with white trees and snow flakes. Not that we want snow, especially not the appalling conditions that is being suffered in the USA just now.  Those extremely low temperatures must be dreadful and make life so difficult.

I went onto YouTube and watched a video to learn how to make paper snowflakes.  I made some in several sizes and then coated them with melted wax from my wax pot. This made them stronger and translucent so they could hang in the window.  The snowflakes and two white cutout trees were combined to make up our Winter window, as seen below.

WINTER HOUSE

Carrying on with the snowy theme, here is my Winter House.  I picked up a wooden house, which was all in pieces, at a junk shop and used the gable end with windows for this mixed media work.  The wording says, 'baby it's cold outside' and 'I really can't stay.'  Often when I am working on a piece lyrics of a song come to me.  There are shadowy figures behind the windows.  The first layer is text and then lace and net with paint.  Other bits and pieces, including, a watch face, buttons, a ceramic number, a tree made from model magic and punched out shapes have been added. When the Spring comes I will do one for that season and then Summer and Autumn until I have a complete set!

'Winter House'  mixed media (28cm x 21cm)

NEW YEAR, NEW START

This is the time of year for reflection on what has been achieved in the past year and looking forward to new projects.  Every year I try and set myself new challenges.  Last year it was to have a presence on the web which I have done through this blog.  Next year I want to have more interaction with others doing mixed media, so I have signed up for a workshop over the web starting in March. I also have invited a friend who is a very good artist, to come to my studio and try some techniques which are unfamiliar to her and create some mixed media art together.

I also want to do more with my photography, using photoshop elements, to create digital collages.  I need to use my 35mm digital camera and tripod more, instead of taking the easier option of using my small everyday automatic one.  To illustrate this post I wanted to go out and take pictures for a montage of wintry weather but, as we have had so much wind and rain lately, I have used photographs of my house, garden and the centre of Shepton Mallet from a few years ago, when we did have a white Christmas!

And finally more decluttering and organisation is needed in the studio. Trouble is while I am doing that I can't create!  Happy New Year to all who read this.

BARE TREES

Before we get too many leaves on the trees, I want to take a look at the wonderful shapes that bare trees make - strong silhouettes in the landscape.  I am particularly fond of woods where the atmosphere changes dramatically from season to season.  Here are some samples of my work using bare tree shapes.

 

I have started to learn how to make collages digitally, using photoshop elements.  I hope to feature more in the future, but here is a start. In this picture I have taken a photograph of one of my sculptures, a small musical box ballerina, taken her off her base and placed her in my musical wood - so called because I have used musical scores for some of the tree trunks.