Gilfling's Designs

Should you wish to know more.

Good morning! Well it is beautiful sunshine here after a few days of hailstones, ever so bried sunshine and not so brief episodes of rain. I am sitting here at my laptop with my ever present cup of earl grey and I can hear the birds singing and soon I will hear the (screaming) children playing in the playground of the school across the road. Life is good.

I have some exciting news!  You can hop on over to this wonderful blog to read a really in depth interview about my work and my inspirations. Now you might feel that you have read it all here before (all about me that is), and be bored to tears by it all (!) but Waterrose really did an incredible job with the questions and I found them challenging and thought provoking in the most wonderful way. Reading back on my answers it has certainly re-confirmed in my own mind that I am on the right path however hard it may be at times.

I 'met' Rose via etsy when we were paired  together as mutual support for our blossoming shops! Featuring a series of artist interviews on her blog, it has been fascinating to read the various inspirations behind each person's work. I am also completely in love with the beautifully detailed cuffs and rings in her etsy shop, the colours are just gorgeous with an incredible amount of painstaking detail. So thank you Rose for a wonderful chance to talk about my work.

I have been working in my journal again and am really looking forward to taking some of these ideas on into larger pieces.

I did show the first pages in my blog yesterday but as a reader was curious about the writing so I thought I would type it here. When working in my journal along with the drawings I tend to just write whatever comes into my thought at that particular time. I don't worry if it makes sense or tells a story or pertains to any kind of reality, I just love playing with words and how they sound and look together and expressing my wonderings onto paper. They may even make you think I am slightly loopy and it does feel very revealing to write it out here, But oh well........here goes!

                                                 

I wish I lived centures ago.....and could view the moon and see nothing else

A vast expanse of emptiness all around

I would feel insignificant.....but would want to feel as if I am the space around which the full world carries on

No-one can see me

All the details and colours and textures surround me

As if in a Stormy Sea

                                 

                   PS - After almost a year and a half of writing this blog I still haven't got the hang of the lay-out and have wasted so much time trying to find out the most basic things! If anyone could tell me how to centre the images and my writing below it I would be eternally grateful!

Have a wonderful day!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Busy....busy as a little resting bumble bee

The show is now over! The costumes are away to their new homes and my little loft space looks a little less blue and a little tidier than a few days ago. This week so far has been a time of starting and not quite completing little jobs, boring admin, resting my achy back, neck and shoulders after a frantic sewing session lasting into the wee hours of saturday morning and then most of the day before the actual performance.

Here are the flowers I was given on the night of the performance as well as the programme - please excuse the photographs - my skills at photography are only marginally worse than my flower arranging skills - for someone who is always creating - I am constantly suprised by my lack of ability to take a decent photograph!

But now it is done. The performance was wonderful - the costumes looked just how I had imagined. In a way it was hard to visualise them on the mannequin - with their bright colours, dull, woolly cobweb felt texture - however I had hoped that on the stage they would come to life. The lights would hit them, the silks would shine an ethereal glow, the colours would dull to a haze reminscant of our planets and that they would look like little worlds far away in our night sky. And that is - I hope, how they did look. Today I am hoping to see some of the professional photographs from the evening and will show them here as soon as I can.

Even on the evening I could help but wish I had had more time to design, more time to sew these panels into wonderful shapes. In the end it had to be kept simple and there was only so much could be done in the short time we had, but now it is over and I can now move onto my own sadly neglected work. I have so many ongoing, unfinished works in progress. Half baked ideas waiting to be brought to life, a list of projects as long as my own (quite short) arm. Teaching today, tomorrow and Saturday I am impatiently looking forward to Sunday when I can take my coffee up to the loft space and work at my table and hopefully finish some of these wee projects that are sitting there, half felted and half sewn, just waiting for the finishing touches to make them complete.

I have not been to the painting studio in so long but really want to have at least a couple of days to get down there and get used to the space again, and my own way of working. So that will wait till next week - until then I shall dream and write and sketch, flexing the muscles of my imagination in preparation for 2 full days of uninterrupted painting.

(photograph 'borrowed' from the RFE shop - I hope you don't mind Gretel - it has been dull as dishwater here and I just couldn't get a decent photo!)

I have to finish by showing a new addition to our household. Lily Laguna came to join us yesterday via the wonderful place that is The Red Flannel Elephant address known as Middle of Nowhere ( a most delightful blog if ever there was one). After deciding that I needed a wee companion to while away the hours with in my loft space, Lily seemed like the perfect soulmate and she is now very much at home. I very rarely treat myself to goodies of any sort really but as these wonderful characters are never around for long in the lovely shop created by the even lovelier Gretel I just had to snap her up. And here she is just recovering from her journey along with some gorgeous cards which were included in the parcel (Thank you so so much!) - Yep again it is a terrible photo but you get the picture!

Okay off to prepare for my class - but just before I go I have added a couple of new wonderful professionally printed giclees to my very own Gilfling's Shop. One of my very favourite pieces - Isobel's Dream of Life and Light (I have got to do some more work with that wonderful sublime green) and One Solitary Moment - both atmospheric pieces. Infact Isobel might just be finding her way into a frame to adorn my very own wall I adore her so much.

Wishing you a wonderful end to your week wherever you may be! x

Get your skates on!

No post from me yesterday - I am really not doing well with the NaBloPoMa challenge. There is a reason but I shall moan about it tomorrow. Today I shall just say Happy, happy thanksgiving to all who are celebrating it today!

I just thought today as a way of doing a little UK Etsysellers promotion - I would utilise the fabulous etsy poster sketch tool and put together a few of my favourite gift ideas from the UK. Bearing in mind the last mailing dates from the UK (dates listed below) - it is time to get those gift lists out and do some shopping! I am planning on putting together a few of these lists over the next couple of weeks - it is also giving me plenty of ideas too as well as coveting all the beautiful items I would love for myself!

1. Seaurchin 2 Timelady 3. Suezybees 4. reform

5. Veronicabuttons 6. Novembermoon 7. Nonsuch 8. Beadartandbubbles

9. moocowhandknits 10. thehermitage 11. uketsyteam 12. kala

Soo the last dates for posting in time for Christmas from the UK are : 7th December (USA), 13th December (Europe) and 17th December (UK).

So there is plenty of time to get those orders in for Christmas no matter where in the world you are!

Have a great day. xxx

Wow - and wow again!!!!

Good morning my dears!!! I hope the week is going well for you and the sun is shining. Here in The house of Gilfling I am suffering all sorts of aches and pains and tiredness I am afraid. Mostly self inflicted due to me waking up yesterday morning and deciding that I absolutely have to do something about my weight. Not that I mind being curvy of course (I rather like it!) but blobby, well no that just will not do. Of course I need to lose weight for the sake of my poor old decrepit spine too. So I got up and immediately got on the stepper which has been collecting dust since way before we moved and then did exercises on my pilates ball as well as some floor work. Well I can tell you I am now acquainted with all sorts of muscles I had forgotten I even had. Also a complete inability to get any sleep last night led me to come down to the sofa where of course I drifted into a very unsettled and very contorted sleeping postition...and now... oh boy I am feeling that!

Right - enough of my mutterings about nonsense. I am over the moon this morning as I woke up to find that the results of the etsy poster competition were in. You may remember I submitted my own entry from this post.  Well etsy were overwhelmed with submissions (almost 1000 I think) and in the end 60 lists have been chosen to be printed up and used for etsy to give 'these posters away at fairs and festivals. They will be used to promote the featured artisans, the artistic eye of our curators, and a hint of the beauty to be found at Etsy.' Well my own list was not chosen but instead 3 of my items have been featured in the winning lists!!! I am chuffed to bits to have my work represented in this way.

So as a wee thank you to the wonderful sellers who chose my items to be featured in their lists I just want to feature them here.

aussiepatches is an australian artist and illustrator with an amazing and inspiring blog which tells the story of her adventures in becoming a successful artist. Gosh this girl has gone far in a short space of time!! Her dedication and hard work are really paying off and her work is beautiful. 'Her girls' are full of life in bold colours and lines and each one has such a distinct character and mood. I am completely in awe of her skill at promoting her work and the range of opportunities she seeks out for herself. I think I could learn alot from this incredible artist!!

Have a look at her amazing etsy shop to see the amazing range of work. I certainly have my eye on a couple of prints for my home.

I love the colours in her poster competition and am so pleased that my Into the Forest print was featured.

PamelaAngus featured my most popular print Baroque, Baroque in her winning poster entry. An incredible stained glass artist originally from Ireland she is now located in France. I really am in awe of her work and her ability to transform glass into these amazing shapes. The colours are beautiful and I really have my eye on this piece called the Dressmakers Floor. Of course!! What could be more appropriate for my studio!!!

Her description of the piece is just wonderful. But how could I ever choose between that and this wonderful piece. Well if you know my work then you are bound to know of my obsession with angels - they do appear rather frequently!! So of course those Venetian Angel Wings would be right at home here. Please check out her shop too for her gorgeous stained glass pendants in all sorts of delightful colour combinations.

So last but by no means least comes the poster list created by Skullknocker. Now I have to admit this is a completely new shop to me but look at these wonderful and colourful characters!! Made from recycled materials they are clearly lovingly and perfectly stitched. My favourite has to be this lovely character - Blythe Hippo. Just look at that lazy expression!!

I love those colours too. Skullknocker featured my Memory of Annabel Lee print amongst the other beautiful items feature. What a great and varied list.

So really I have to say thank you to these sellers. It is has really been heavy on my mind recently that I have to be more proactive in marketing my work but my silly lack of confidence gets in the way. I have so much to learn and don't really know where to start but perhaps this will give me the boost and motivation I need. I really have itchy feet at the moment - I feel as if I am on the cusp of something. Things need to move forward and I need to get my act together to make it happen. I just need to figure out where to start!!!

But I had better get back to that wedding dress commission which is taking up all my time at the moment as the sooner I get that finished, the sooner I can get back down to my painting studio and pursue my real happiness! So cheerio for now!!!

You can find a complete list of the winning entries here as well as honourable mentions and statistics. Take a look as there really is an incredible amount of etsy goodness and talent to see there!

Don't you just love being.....

distracted from all the real jobs you should be doing???? Like packing, cleaning and moving??? But I just had to get this quickie post in as I had a wee shot at this challenge to submit a treasury list to etsy and from all the lists submitted - some of the best ones will be printed up into limited edition prints to be given away at etsy events etc.

Well when you have a list of things to do as long as your arm what are you going to d0? Get on with the jobs in hand....or spend an hour browsing through your most coveted items and sellers to come up with what I happen to think is a beauty of a list???!! (Click to enlarge)

Right well now that I have had my moment of fun I should really get back to work!! i had every intention of going to my studio yesterday and today regardless of how disorganised we were but alas my desire to get on with the move has gotten the better of me. So back to the boxes!!!

Have  a great wednesday!!

xxx

A peek around the half open door

Just another flying visit! So much busyness going on this week and not very much of it creative I fear.

I am only now getting over this ghastly cold hence I could not do the craft fair which I had been looking forward to for weeks. Yesterday was my birthday! So over the weekend we had an overnight visit with friends and the most wonderful food was cooked and eaten, the weather was beautiful and we sat and lazed in their garden, the boys watching the grand prix and doing boys stuff, me just reading and resting and I do think it did me the world of good as I now feel almost back to my usual self.

So Mark is on holiday this week which is going to seriously hamper my schedule! Yesterday we had a treat of a day in town, breakfast at our usual, shopping for last minute necessities for our much anticipated holiday, coffee, wandering, book shopping with birthday tokens, and then a wonderful dinner at home by candlelight with pomegranate and raspberry sparkling wine and then cuddled on the sofa for my first ever viewing of Little Miss Sunshine which I loved. Aacht I am sorry this post is so lacking in photos, this is part laziness and part quickness as I have to get on!!

Well the work shy week continues with an overnight visit to Mark's parents in Lincolnshire today where we will be fed even more delights, yet more lazing in the garden, reading, possibly crocheting and enlessly chatting. Then 2 days of work before we depart for our holiday to the cornish coast and our little beach hut as detailed in this post.

So alot happening and yet not alot to report.

But really the main purpose of this post, that has unintentionally turned into a 'list of the things we are doing' post, was to show you this most amazing item that came through my door on Saturday.

Well I am sure I have delighted in telling you just what a great etsy gang we have here in the UK. A wonderful group of sellers, with endless amounts of chatter and friendship and support - and we have not ever met (although we are hoping it will happen soon). Well we recently participated in a secret swap which the wonderful Askey organised with us giving her a list of our loves, dislikes and a hint as to who we would like to receive from and she spent what must have been many hours pairing us up with our perfect swap.

Now you may remember my previous post where I told of my appreciation and love of the work of the very talented and lovely Tricia North aka Re:Form and I let out an absolute squeal of delight when I opened my parcel to discover that I was receiving one of her goodies which I have been coveting for so long. Except it was even better than that as she had made this piece expecially with me in mind. Knowing my love of costume and fabrics and all this aged and antique Tricia made this absolutely beautiful piece of art with a section of her friends great aunts wedding dress (1924) and antique buttons (my very favourite kind) and I have to admit I cried (just a little!) when I opened this. It is just so perfect for me. It is going to take pride of place in my studio and I think I may take a cream painted frame and apply some cream fabric to it as a background with some hooks and hang this on it so that every detail of this piece stands out, the gold, the texture of the slate, the detail of the beautifully beaded fabric and the sweetness of the buttons.

It will take pride of place in my soon to be new studio which itself has stone walls, so the frame will just allow this to stand out on its own. So thank you Tricia - I adore it!!

Right I best be off as many things are calling my name at the moment - posts will be limited at best the next couple of weeks but I do hope you have a wonderful time whatever it is you are doing!

xxx

Just a quickie

Now this really is just going to be a short post (I know, I know I have said that before) but as this cold/sinus infection/plague has really taken hold now and I am feebly only just managing to survive, I just thought I would pop in and show off my very first treasury list. Now this is in the beta version of the new treasury, which may be why I have finally managed to snag one. (Although I have to say as a person with only a limited amount of patience for certain things I had never really made a concerted effort to get one before).

As it was completely accidental I have to say I am particularly proud of this!

I love being reminded of the incredible talent that fills the etsy shops and was delighted for the excuse to show of yet more of my favourite sellers, shops and items in this themed list. I hope you will pop on over and browse these gems as it is actually only going to last till tomorrow (rather too short a time frame I feel but then I am bias!)

Right I am returning to my sniffling and sneezing and occassional dozing off but not before just saying a quick thank you for your comments on my blog post yesterday about my rather inadequate explanation of my artwork. For all my waffling, I can be exceptionally inarticulate and yet somehow I got the feeling that you just 'got' what I was trying to say about these odd images that I find myself creating. So thank you blog friends for that and for all your support and friendship.

A Small Change #3

Well good day my lovelies!! How are you today? Mmmm it is a good day here in Nottingham. It has rained practically non stop for around 5 days here now - but do you know what....I am actually really pleased about that!! Since being converted to our weekly organic farm delivery of fruit and veg and upon reading their newsletter last week about their desperate need for some good rain in order to prepare the fields for new crop planting, well a wee drop of rain seems like the best thing in the world!

Gosh I have so much I want to write about today, but may just save a few things for my next post otherwise I shall never get to all the things I want to do today!

First off let me introduce you to this lovely wee character and her friend. I drew her yesterday and she now resides here in my shop. Called The Unusual Companion she has already graced a treasury list with her presence which I am thrilled about! Seriously... when I was drawing her I kept thinking "why the heck am I making a heron, her friend???" but actually I love it! And that is where the title comes from....I think I may have to do a series of these with even more 'unlikely' companions....goodness knows where that will take me!

I missed out on blogging about my small change a week last week and if truth be told, I did not actually make that small change, at least not one that I was aware of...unless you count lounging around on the sofa eating chocolate, feeling sorry for myself, as a small positive change....Mmmm perhaps not.

So this week has taken a bit of thought....and I decided I needed to make a change related to my art, something in order to inspire me. Now it is probably not that great a change, more becoming aware of something I do already and harnessing it in order to move forward and develop. So change #3 is that I am going to make a concerted effort to sketch in my journals for at least 30 mins (aiming for 1hour) every day.

Now I have to point here, that this is not something that comes naturally to me. I get scared of sketchbooks and can become too precious about them. I find it difficult to abandon the fear of being able to do anything in them, that each page does not have to be a finished drawing. That I can express myself and write anything and create texture and just 'let go' a bit. So my challenge is to really focus on not being focused if that makes sense! Just to draw and write whatever is in my heart and soul at that particular moment. For each page to be my space for that particular time to express whatever I want, to develop ideas without fear of judgement or failure (and I write this knowing that the only real person that ever judges me is myself!). So what if it is a mess, so what if the drawings do not match up with my preconceived ideas of how they should look!

I actually scanned a page I was working on yesterday and am realising that it is far from the messy crowding of images and ideas that I would love to have in my sketchbooks....but I am not going to worry about that too much!

I have actually been inspired by a couple of ideas which I am going to 'borrow' in order to free up my brain and hands to create in my books. One I found on this blog which has this great idea of 100 things to inspire you. It even has them written as a pdf so that you can print them and cut them out individually.

I also have the wonderful book Pretty Little Things by Sally Jean Alexander where she encourages the artist to have an Abracadabra Collage Technique of basically encouraging your creativity  and getting rid of the dust bunnies in your imagination by writing out a selection of tasks on tiny bits of paper, folding them up and putting them in a hat! Things like paint, collage, ink, draw, smudge, stamp etc etc etc.

Well I have taken these ideas and ran with them! I have written lots of things on bits of paper, such as stitch, wings, unicorns, turn upside down, burn, etc etc and I have put them all in a tiny drawer along with the 100 ideas in another and if ever I am a little stuck, you know...... when you are just staring into space thinking what to do....what to do?? Well I just pull one of those ity bity bits of paper right out of the drawer and get to it!! Of course I cheat a little. Even at times when I don't know what on earth to do, I may pull out an idea and realise "well I know I don't want to do that!!!" But that's ok! Working on stuff all day sometimes means that I do have those moments of "what to do next" and these little notes just give me the little push that I need. (excuse the terrible photo - it is really dull light here due to the never ending rain!)

Now I am getting ridiculously excited about the impending move and I really need to try and calm down about it....after all there is still around 8 weeks to go till it happens! But most definitely in my top 5 reasons of why I am so excited (excuse the terrible grammar there, it is always the first thing to go when I am excited about something...) is all the wonderful artwork I am going to adorn my walls with (ok so our walls .... I sometimes forget that Mark will have a choice in this too....although anything he has a complete aversion to will grace the walls of my studio anyway)

So here is another beauty which I cannot wait to purchase. 

It is from this amazing etsy shop by Irene Suchoki and has been in my favourites for a while. Infact I could literally buy up half the shop I love the images so much. I adore lots of really atmospheric landscape photography, images that speak of permanent memories in the form of trees and fleeting glimpses in the form of reflections. My love of gold and texture and aged tones and natural beauty, well this image just covers them all really! Just incredibly beautiful. It will go perfectly with my still-to-be-framed purchase from Jenn who I have just realised has had a banner and avatar change in her shop - you must go and see- they are beautiful!!!

Okay so rather a long post today - please forgive me!! There was so much more I wanted to write about but I had better get back to work. I shall just leave you with an image of the Celestial Dreamers a set of 4 art cards which I just listed in my shop this morning and sold almost immediately!! I think they are quite different for me with the strong backgrounds but I do love the contrast between the beautifully neat lines of the vintage book pages and my rather messy way of drawing!

Oh and just to remind you this is the last day for my offer of free shipping on any items from my shop to my blog readers. Just put BLOG in message to buyer and as I am currently at 95 sales don't forget that the buyer of my 100th item will also get some additional goodies in their parcel.

Have a wonderful day!!

xxx

I wish, I wish, I wish.......

So we did the draw yesterday (well today in fact.... I am writing this on Sunday evening as I have a busy day tomorrow)!!! And we have a winner.......and me being the big ol' softie that I am got a wee bit upset and sad that I could not offer the prize to all of you....... I have had such wonderful comments, made such great friends and found inspiration, support and been overwhelmed by the talent, generosity and all out lovliness  in the blogging world and I wished I could have sent you all a wee parcel out!

And so the winner...... I actually discovered this beautiful blog just a short time ago and am just amazed by the talent and beauty of the images and the words. So I would love to take this opportunity to do my first wee blog feature..... on the winner of my draw......... Laetitia of Mervailles en Papier. Please pop on over to this wonderful artist's  blog to enter a world of incredible beauty, fantasy and characters who are distinguished, fanciful and as alive as you or I (or so it would seem....).

First of all I have to admit that I am just so grateful that Laetitia takes the time to translate the beautiful language French into English for philistines such as I whose french ability is shamefully non-existant.

But just look at these treasures!!! The faces are so full of life, they invite you to join them for afternoon tea and polite conversation with the best china, to sit upon velvet and gilded chairs and to delight in every perfect detail of their costumes and accessories.  Who would not curtesy and bow when offered a single beautiful carnation from a wonderful rabbit dressed in sage green and peach with an expression such as this....... 

Well you may know that I adore unicorns (although I have yet to officially meet one) but maybe, just maybe if I popped over the channel to Laetitia's world, well just maybe she would introduce me to this not so shy character......... (I mistakenly thought unicorn's would be shy.... but how could I think that when this character tips her bonnet and flicks her mane and asks us to admire her garments as she wears them with such pride.....)

I really look forward to seeing more delightful characters from Laetitia and I will also be keeping a very close eye on the wherebouts of her friends so that should I happen to bump into one in a boutique or store, well maybe, just maybe I will have the courage to ask (very politely of course) if they may like to come and visit with me in England and perhaps stay awhile and we shall sip earl grey from antique china cups, eat cucumber sandwiches and battenburg cake and discuss the complex British weather and the fine details of costume and art....to our hearts content.

So there we have it, my first blog give-away and I shall be shortly sending an email to ask Laetitia which print she would like.

I have really enjoyed doing this and as I am at 78 sales in my etsy shop I am hoping it won't be too long before I can have another one by way of celebration for 100 sales!!

So just to let you know that I now have several prints in my shop including Vivid Dreams and Waiting for the Waves and the 2 Baroque Showgirls pieces will also be availabe from tomorrow providing Etsy has recovered from it's day of feeling a bit under the weather and will be moving at a slightly faster pace than that of a snail with the weight of the world upon it's shoulders.

I wish you a wonderful beginning to your week and really want to thank-you (again- I hope I am not boring you!!) for your wonderful comments - I enjoy all your visits very much!