Being Crafty

I have just finished making a flower brooch (here doubled as a fascinator, as it's just done up round a head band) Just wanted to share it with you guys as I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Perfect to brighten up any outfit and add a summery feel, and even better, super easy to make.
All you need is some felt and a brooch back, I also added some materials and some beads to add more interest.

Simply cut out four circles of equal size, just makes sure not to make it too big, as the bigger it is the more unstable it will be.

use one circle as the base, which the brooch back will be sewn onto.

Fold the other circles in half and then in half again, to make the petals, and then sew them onto the base.

 Voila! It's really that easy. I just sewed on the other fabric on to each felt circle before hand, as i thought it would be nice to have some added colour inside.

A new direction?

Well first off I have a new job :D
As of September I will be an art technician at Staffordshire University, based in the Art shop. I am so happy that I will finally be able to say goodbye to working at the Co-op, and having to work every Friday night till 10pm and Sunday morning (7am start! Eeeep)

But as with everything it has its positives and negatives. It is still part time, allowing me to pursue other artistic ventures, but as it is still 5 days a week it kind of cancels out any chance of school workshops for now. Also as I will have to travel there (currently a 5 minute walk to my work, as opposed to a 35-50 minute commute) I will not end up better off money wise, especially as it's only open term time, giving me the entire summer free! Again this means less money, but I am hoping to fill the summer months with workshops and on to another new venture......selling my artwork! I have sold some in the past but only on a commission basis.

I have just opened a shop on folksy at http://www.folksy.com/shops/littlegamgee all be it currently an empty one. So now time to work on things to stock it up with! I am thinking it will be mainly paintings, prints, cards, paper cuts and paper toys, but we shall see. This will all be under the 'littlegamgee' brand.

I have always struggled to juggle my contemporary art with my love of illustration and all things cute, so currently any contemporary art will be produced under my name and illustration under 'littlegamgee' This is how I have currently decided to sort it out in my head. Though hopefully over the coming months the two will meet in the middle! We shall see how that goes! Wish me luck!

The 50's American Diner

Over the last couple of weeks my husband (with the help of some good friends) has been doing some work on the bus (though when you have one of these beauts there's always something that needs doing or that you want to do, but that's all part if the fun!) He has lowered it, as at full ride height they do tend to get a wobble on when overtaken by lorrys! So after all the hard work we took Rhubarb (our vans name!) for a spin up to the 50's American Diner in Swadlincote, Derbyshire. If you live nearby you really should go.

It is an original 1950's diner actually from America, to keep with the theme the waitresses wear 50's rock 'n roll skirts and they play 50's music. They do an amazing range of burgers, milkshakes and ice cream sundaes amongst other things. It is amazing!

I Won!!!!

Camilla D'errico, Canadian Tiger, 2010

I am really stoked that I actually won a prize the other week! I have never won a prize before and it was really awesome!
Fresh Characters is a website that show cases the best and freshest talent in character creation. They ran a competition via twitter where you had to sign up to the website (for free), introduce yourself in a forum and re tweet the info via twitter. For these easy tasks you were entered into a random draw, where you had the chance to win one off a list of fantastic prizes, which included work by lots of very talented people. Imagine my delight when I found I had won a mystery package from Camilla D'errico
I had not really come across her work before winning this, but she produces illustrations, paintings, toys and apparel amongst other things. Check her work out on her website it's beautiful. Her work mainly centres on beautiful, mysterious and strong females. A lot of her work is sexually charged and is greatly influenced by manga, which isn't surprising, as she also illustrates comic books.

She sent me a signed t-shirt (unfortunately way too big for me, but very cool), a beautiful signed postcard book (so lots of inspiring images to look at) of her paintings and 2 key rings. So thanks so much to Fresh Characters and Camilla d'errico!

Camilla D'errico, Hello My Kitty Land, 2009