Gillian Lee Smith

In another life......

Cuff commission, originally uploaded by gilfling.

I would be a full time leather crafter. Oh yes. I know it is not for everyone. I myself was vegetarian for 11 years from mid teens to twenties and would quite possibly have been horrified at the the thought. But ever since I decided in the final year of my Performance Costume Degree to make a costume with leather armour as the feature (never having worked with leather in my life before) I was transfixed by this craft.

I pretty much 'taught' myself. My dad had been a leatherwork apprentice on leaving school and made such things as full suits of armour in carved leather, leather carved wall murals and other such wonders. We also had a table that he had made with a carved medieval hunting scene on it's entire surface. I really must try and find photo's of these things to show you - they are a wonder and he is an incredibly talented artist (a much neglected talent now I must say - I must remember and drop some 'lovingly nagging hints to take up his art again' next time I see him - in other words 'encouragement'!)

Anyhow, once the decision to make this leather armour was fixed in my mind, I of course sought advice and tutoring from my dad. Two minutes was what I got!! Ok possibly a little more - a little encouragement and the advice to just go with it and it would come with practice. So I just had to delve in and the images here and here were the result. I was proud of them and just loved every part of making that costume. It may not have seemed like it at the time due to the stresses of the course and my awful lack of time management but love it I did.

I even thought for a while after graduating that I would really try and develop my work to feature leatherwork quite prominently, hoping to work on re-enactment costumes or costumes for films (big dreams of landing a historical medieval or fantasy films etc). I attended a few workshops on leather-work and have completed a few commission such as here and here.

However life sometimes leads you in an unexpected direction and unfortunately I just cannot commit the time and dedication it needs to become a master leather-craftsmen. However I can still dream and do the odd commission as it comes up as this one did - a leather cuff with a hand crafted design - a present for a surfer/lover of the outdoors featuring his own design. A pleasure to work on and I like the result.

There is something satisfying about working with leather. No fancy machinery or electric tools - all carved with very basic, even primitive tools, completely handstitched, the feel of the material, the staining of the fingers when hand-dying (stains that remain on my own skin for 4-5 days after finishing), the comforting smell of the leather and the dye. Such a tactile craft and one that has been practiced in some form or another for almost as long as we have roamed the earth.

In another life I would be a master leather crafts-person.

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

Space - the final frontier

A new week and we are on the home straight in finishing these dance costumes. The performance is on Saturday and strangely enough I am not panicking (yet). My only complaint is that I always seem to choose the most inopportune moments to start reading a really good book - in this case The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. One of my absolute all time favourite novels, I think this may be the 6th or even 7th time I have read it! So now of course I am tortured daily by the 'read or work' dilemma and now I discover (whilst looking for the link to this book) that there is a sequel! I must be very cut off from the 'real' world to have missed that bit of excitement.

(planet earth image borrowed from here)

Anyhow the costumes are coming along well. As is usual, I am sick of looking at them and now cannot see them for what they are. I find it difficult  to stave off the despondency that comes with not being able to step back from a project and see it with fresh eyes. "The design is awful, the textures won't work on stage, will the skirts fall down mid performance, I wish I had chosen black chiffon to work on rather than blue (the leotards the dancers are wearing under the costumes will be black)" - all the worries and concerns which will be forgotten about on the actual day of the performance - or so I hope. It seems only a few days ago that I was worrying about the fact that I had no time to design and no idea of the concept! I wish I was not always so hard on myself.

Above you can see one of the skirts with the image used for inspiration (excuse the terrible photograph). All the fibres and silks were nuno felted onto chiffon panels which created wonderful hills and craters in the surface and texture and helped form this 'bubble' shape. These textures were then exaggerated by sewing elastic in random directions around the shapes which also serves to form the garment shape and create a very uneven and sculptural surface - reflecting the surface of the earth and planets.

One stroke of luck is that due to the easter holidays some of the dancers could not be at the rehearsals when the piece was being choreographed. As a consequence I have only had 20 costumes to make rather than the initially estimated 27.

Again here is a partially finished costume with an inspiration image from here

So 15 skirts are completely finished with another 5 to make at my workshop session on Thursday. Most of the panels for the tops have been cobweb felted - I just need to be sewing them into a vague semblance of a corset today - this really means just strengthening the edges with free machine embroidery and forming holes for the lacing - simple! Only 20 to do! My aim is to finish 10 today and 10 tomorrow and then I will only have the 5 skirts to finish for Saturday - sounds easy?

I do apologise for my habit of list forming in my blog - as well as my blog it also sometimes appears to be me ordering my thoughts for the day - good for me - not so interesting for you!

I still have the 3rd instalment and photographs from our trip away to show you! It is one of the best bits so I shall be sure to get onto that tomorrow in my blog post.

Meanwhile I shall leave you with an image of how a corner of my loft looked just a couple of days ago - perhaps a small indication on the reason blue planets and galaxies might be haunting my dreams at the moment?!

Have a great day!

Happy, happy Easter!

Wishing you a very Happy Easter. I do hope whatever you are doing with this lovely holiday, whether relaxing, spending time with family or friends, or working - brings you great joy.

I really have to thank you all for your incredibly supportive and wonderful comments on my last post. It is lovely to know that I am not alone and that we are all in this together in this great art, crafting and blogging community. The issues were unfortunately to do with my current work project - the dance costumes for the performance which is happening on the 12th April. I was in such a panic this week - there had been a rather frustrating mix up in communication (not helped by the easter holidays which seem to be happening at different times depending on where you live in the Midlands).

Knowing that Tuesday was the only day I had to get the materials and I was going to have to start working on Thursday with the group who are helping me put the costumes together, there was a certain amount of stress on my part. With no idea of a theme for the piece (other than the phrase 'Quantum Mechanic's - a scientist I most certainly am NOT!) - not knowing how many dancers I had to costume, or actually any idea of what kind of dance it is going to be - I was really feeling the strain. Not able to design, or prepare for the group session in anyway, I just really did not want to let any of the ladies in the group down, by either appearing completely incompetent, or causing them to worry about the logistics in any way.

However, we are all systems go now. I have finally managed to speak to the director and the choreographer of the piece. Although I can not actually attend a rehearsal until the week after next I am much more able to 'go with the flow'. It seems the whole performance is being constructed in a very organic way. The teenagers who are performing the dance are actually working on the choreography as they are rehearsing, so there are no set characters or leads which means I am really free to create the costumes in an ad lib way also. If you would like to read about the performance there is some information on the piece here. The whole performance information is here. So now that I have more information I am actually able to begin to enjoy the process!

I am working with a group of ladies (the same group I have been teaching felt making) and in order to keep things really simple (we do have 27 dancers to costume after all!) we are making panels/scarves of cobweb felt taking inspiration from images of planet earth as seen from space, galaxies and also the sun. All very atmospheric, floaty and airy. Above you can see the fibres laid out on the table prior to felting. I am picturing these panels wrapped around the figures in different ways, moving with the dancers bodies and creating the feeling of the earth and space. At least that is the idea! With only 3 x 2 hour sessions and one full day with the group, all the other costumes will be made myself in the time that I have - so there is a certain amount of pressure for me. We had a great session on Thursday and actually completed 5 panels already - and this was just in learning the skills so I am anticipating that things will speed up and we will have a bit of a production line (albeit a very creative one!) happening. The group works so well together and are very supportive of each other - which is after all one of the main aims of them coming together. It is not just the final results, but the process which is incredibly important.

So there we have it!  I am having a fairly relaxing day today, pottering and crafting as my  back is somewhat painful. We leave tomorrow morning for a couple of days in the Peak District. A wee bit of walking, meals out and time together. Just the ticket I think.

I do hope you have a wonderful few days and thank you so much again for making a sometimes rather lost artist feel as if she is not so alone in the world after all!

Onto the next project

Well another weekend is over in a flash. I spent Saturday making the necessary adjustments to the costume commission I have been busy with when the customer came to try it on and take it away and then a lovely day yesterday (after a morning of absolutely necessary housework) in which we watched movies, baked fuit crumble and I managed to get some crocheting done.

I am so excited about Elizabeth: The Golden Age which comes out here in the UK on the 2nd so we watched Elizabeth yesterday - gosh those costumes are just something else! A lovely fire going, lots of cups of tea, a wee spot of chocolate - all makes for a lovely Sunday afternoon.

So the costume is finished - see more photos on my my flickr page. I had forgotten how hard on my hands leatherwork is and my fingers and joints are still aching - so crochet is possibly not the best thing to be doing at the moment!

So just a quick post today as Mark is on a day off work and we are just off into town for me to get some more yarn and for the inevetable coffee stop.

As I won't be updating either of my shops till after this weekends craft fair I have decided to have a wee sale on reproduction prints. Just go to the section in my shop and put BLOG SALE in note to seller for a 20% on any of my Reproduction prints and I will send you an adjusted invoice. Blog readers will receive an extra wee treat in the parcel! Sale ends on November 5th.

So best be off - sorry it is so brief and not particularly interesting today - but have a wonderful Monday!!

xxx

A brand new week awaits.

The end of the weekend and I am looking forward to the beginning of a new week. A new start on a new Monday - time to create, to dream, to be me, to lose myself in my work and to savour every moment of living this life and being lucky enough to call 'creating' my job. This will be the week where I be entirely focussed on my art and the things that I make. A breath of fresh air. No clock  to look at, no deadline to meet. Just me, my easel, my sewing machine and my materials. Absolute bliss. I feel that I want to take more time to appreciate the small details of the things I am able to do. I have had so little time recently to bring to life all the ideas and images that have been growing in my imagination. So a little painting, a little sewing, alot of experimentation and sketching and we shall see what will happen!

In the last week I have finished the medieval dress which was a joy to work on. I could take my time with it and trully appreciate how lucky I am to be doing the job I am presently able to do. I could take my time with the handstitching, enjoy the feel of the gorgeous linen and the silk which I used to line the sleeves. The dress is a Maid Marion costume for a girl who is part of a troupe of actors participating in various events in Nottingham - The Merry Outlaws - and hopefully I have a few jobs to do for them over the next few months - Friar Tucks costume and The Sherrif of Nottingham. I am also hoping to work with them on some early victorian costumes for another project that is in the works.

There is also another possible commission coming up - I finally feel as if things might be coming together. However finances are not and I am trying really hard to hold off on the possibility of having to take on a part time job for a while. We shall see - as long as the work remains steady and I can take the time now to work on and promote my etsy shops, get those gallery applications in and keep things steady  - well my fingers are crossed let me tell you!

This week also saw the beginning of a new venture in the form of an evening class in bookbinding. I have been wanting to take an evening class for a while and found it so hard to choose between printmaking, ceramics and bookbinding - but I feel that I could really relate this to the work I am presently doing and combine it into some new projects. It was a lovely start and I came away feeling very pleased with my 2 small notebooks - 1 of which was to be finished with a cover added this coming week. It is only a pity that I managed to spill an entire cup of tea over it shortly after this photo was taken. So I shall feel like the school child with the transparent excuse of 'the dog ate my homework' when I return for the next class! Oh dear...

I even managed some much needed down time this week with a trip to the cinema to see 'Atonement' which in the main was just glorious and beautiful - the costumes and production design. I had not read the book nor even read much about the synopsis of the film so I really enjoyed it. We had a lovely sunday lunch out today as well as going to a local farm produce shop for some treats for the week (ouch - we can't do that too often!).

I also have a couple of new additions to my very much neglected etsy shops.

A sweet hand felted and embroidered purse in my accessories shop and a new postcard set in my art shop. I am hoping there will be a few more items to come this week! You never know - there may even be a few hand made books appearing in there soon. I know that I can never have too many notebooks dotted around different rooms in my home for when inspirations strikes and I would really love to combine this soon to be new skill with my artwork and also my textiles. Again as ever, ideas are formulating and taking shape.

So I wish you a lovely beginning to your week whatever your plans are and I shall be checking in soon! xxx

Craving a spot of normality... for another day at least...

Hello, Hello! Oh how good it is to be back… in the real world and in the blogging world. I have felt very much cut off you see the last couple of weeks. Self-imposed, but absolutely necessary. However I have managed in my infrequent tea and coffee breaks to keep reading even if I could not comment – and to squeeze every ounce of joy out of reading what you have been up to – a wonderful distraction when it has felt as if all I could see and feel was that glorious but ultimately exhausting purple, purple taffeta.

You see one of my greatest failings is my complete inability to have any concept of time whatsoever. Ten minutes turns into an hour before I know it. I get lost…don’t know where I am…all I can see is what I am doing at that precise moment. Time management escapes me. This time however I tried my utmost to plan my time ever so carefully – to have a strong idea of what I needed to do and when I needed to do it by. For the most part this was a success. Alas, however there was so much taffeta, so much sewing, which I think no matter what I had done, I still would have been rushing towards the end, at the 11th hour. I was just ever so lucky that I had one of the most relaxed brides to be you could ever meet. Even when I am sure she could not see an end to it, she kept the faith, as I had to do and it all got done in the end. 12 hour days of sewing all last week, 15 hour days of sewing at the weekend and a marathon 19 hours straight on Monday and it was finished. One corset, one wedding skirt for the day, one crazy petal layered fairy/flamenco style skirt for the evening (the main reason for the rush at the end – one of the most complicated things I have ever made!!!), one bridesmaids dress, and 3 waistcoats and a toddlers dress later it is finished. I have been breathing a continuous sigh of relief ever since. There will be more photos to follow - I don't have any of the finished petal skirt yet so will hopefull have some soon. The bride and groom were wonderful and just looked so incredibley over moon on their big day.

The last two days have mostly consisted of long baths, much sleep, reading under a blanket on the sofa (a luxury I usually cannot afford), plum crumble, a spot of gardening and taking my turn to make cups of tea for my poor darling Mark who has been ill all week with a chest infection and who has spent that last week making all the meals, insisting I eat them and climbing those ladders up to the loft to bring me energy drinks and more tea (without complaint). Only one of the many reasons I adore him so. I have to say that as much as I adore my loftish space - climbing up and down those ladders as much as I have had to the past 2 or 3 weeks - my body and especiall my back is now protesting so much!! One thing I have to do is get a table top ironing board as our ironing board is currently in our spare room - hence the many, may trips up and down those ladders.

So what now? Well I can now finally spend some much needed and anticipated time in my art studio to get on with some work – oh it has been so long! I felt quite upset about it actually. One more day today, just to get my head together, finish cleaning the loft studio (I am too embarrassed to even take photos to show you, it is that bad), possibly get together a couple of gallery applications that I have not been able to tackle up till now, photograph a couple of things for my accessories shop, reply to emails, browse etsy, and cook for my beloved. And perhaps even a spot more reading on the sofa cuddled up under that blanket.

Then I can look forward to a wonderful weekend of uninterrupted work in the painting studio where I can only hope that I have not forgotten how to get lost in my work and create and dream and apply those dreams to paper and canvas.

Before I go I just have to show you this little treat that I gave to myself – yes I have jumped on the moo card bandwagon but oh I do love them – so petite and tactile – I think I will group a few together to add into those gallery applications.

Have a wonderful weekend and I shall look forward to continuing to catch up on all your news! xxx

A new week, A new Banner, A new shop?

A new week begins! But it is Tuesday! It feels very odd but rather nice too.

How was your easter/holiday weekend? I have to say we had a lovely time. Mark was off work, the weather was just beautiful and we just relaxed, went out for short walks, chatted, I crocheted as if my life depended on it and we ate chocolate - not too much - just enough that it was good and not enough to make us ill. We bought a rather large chocolate egg to share - Green and Blacks of course!! If you don't have green and blacks chocolate wherever you are then you are missing out!! It is organic and comes in gorgeous flavours such as bars with whole cherries or almonds.

Actually if you are next ordering from my shop just put G & B's  in the note to seller and I shall include a mini bar of this chocolate just because I want you to experience it too!

Gosh I have so much to write about today so I had better get on with it!!

First off I was tagged by Jenn what seems like an age ago and I was to write 10 things (unknown and hopefully revealing in a not over the top way!) about myself. Well as you may know I only made it to #5 last week so I still have 5 to go. So here goes!

5. I went to dance classes as a youngster - a kind of hybrid between ballet and modern and the photograph here is of the wonderful lady who began these classes which ran in England and France. I was not taught myself by this beautiful lady but this photo was taken in Paris at a huge concert which was the 25th anniversary of her teaching career and various dance classes travelled over and performed infront of a good few thousand on stage. I think I was only about 8 or 9 at the time so I barely remember a thing about it. Only that we danced to the music of the Edvard Greig 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'.

6. Apart from cake, my absolute favourite foods are broccoli, cucumber and peas. So why am I not half the size I am....well because of the cake I guess.

7. As a child one of my worst fears was not making it to the bottom of the stairs before the toilet stopped flushing.....which is of course when the toilet monster would rise up, crawl out of the bowl......and eat me.

8. In my fitter days and before my back probs, I used to love hillwalking. The highlands of Scotland are my absolute favourite place I have ever been in the worls and this photo is from a long climb/walk/scramble near Glencoe. The photo was taken from about a third of the way up and about a third of the way down the photo you can see 2 tiny white specks which are about where the road is where we walked from. At the top of this climb is a place called 'the hidden valley' which is where the Macdonalds hid their cattle during some famous (although my knowledge of it is abysmal) clan battle and slaughter centuries ago.

9. Although I trained in costume design, I absolutely 'hate' dressing up!! After 2 equally traumatic occassions of 'fancy dress' when I was a child and a teenager (which are bringing me out in hives at the sheer embarassement of thinking about them now) I just cannot bear it. I can't even include photographs here as I just think I would die of shame. Which did not always go down well amongst my uni friends who got dressed up at every opportunity. Kate I apologise now for my lack of enthusiasm regarding getting dressed up and looking and feeling like a complete idiot.

10. Mark and I met on the internet. I was absolutely convinced I was going to remain a spinster for the rest of my life and was actually quite ok with this fact. I began chatting online as a distraction from the long hours at uni in my final year. But as soon as I spoke to him on the phone and way before I met him in real life, I pretty much knew we were going to end up together. And we have now been a couple for almost 2 and a half years!

So there we have it!! Okay now for the tagging! I do apologise if you have been tagged already and please don't feel like you have to if you don't want to!  I also am not sure if I can think of 10 folk - so here goes..... Ulla, Sakura, Craftymoose, Vanessa, Gypsy purple, Izabella, Aimee, Jungle Dream Pagoda, Milla, Kerry!! (and apologies if I have put your shop/blog name rather than your 'real' name!)

Okay so that is done.....

Now I have to show off my beautiful new banner for my etsy shop! (You can click to enlarge it). I have been having an identity crisis over my shop look for a wee while and Jenn so kindly offered to make one for me (I am really not computer savvy as can be told by the length of time it takes to write my blog) and I cannot believe what a beautiful job she has done!! It is taken from my Vivid Dreams piece (one of my favourite I have ever done) and I feel at last that I now have the look to my shop that has previously been outwith my grasp. The banner is the perfect representation of my work and myself and I just adore it.

I 'think' Jenn is going to be selling banners in her stilettoheights store. Gosh she is multi-talented and I am over the moon with it and also the avatar she did for me too.

I actually have some more shop stuff I want to write about but I think I shall leave that for another day otherwise this will become yet another epic post!!

I have opened another shop on the brand new website Mintd. This shop is simply called Gillian Lee Smith and only has one item in it at the moment (soon to be more) but I am interested to see how it goes. I really want to focus more on my artwork and accessories as I really feel that this is the way things are going for me so to have another venue to sell from is great.

So my next post I have some etsy shop stuff to ponder on - and I would love your thoughts and comments. So within the next blog post here there will be a draw and give-away with all comments going into a 'hat' and the winner receiving some goodies!! So tune in next time.....

Meanwhile have a wonderful day whatever you are doing!

xxx

   

 

What a week, What a week!!

Well my lovelies where do I even start!!  Firstly I must apologise on my absence and lack of updates regarding the exhibition. Also for not being able to catch up on your blogs.

So here is a roughly how the week has gone.

Monday - work, work, work. Finshing up corset, artwork, framing pictures etc, etc etc. Go to bed at 5.30am on Tuesday!! (Feeling tired but also a wee bit ill)

Tuesday - Wake up at 7am - immediately so sick!! Mmmm all is not well. Try to get everything together to take exhibition and as well as feeling sick, back has also decided to give out and try as hard as I can - I cannot lift my mannequin!! Panic, what am I going to do!!! Okay I will lie down inbetween bathroom trips and cold sweats. Who can I call?? Mark is away working over night, everyone is working - there is nothing for it, I shall have to call exhibition. Tears of frustration. Dizziness. I am ill!! Tired? Yes, but also ill!!!

So I have to wait till Wednesday. Mark comes back, I cry again. Lots of hugs, things are not so bad, the world has not completely ended after all.

So after much sleeping we depart to take work to the exhibition. I am shaking like a leaf - have slept practically the entire day before. But nevermind we get there eventually. Exhibition is set up and I am so proud - and pleased with how it looks!!! The whole exhibition is more than I could have imagined!! Everything looks wonderful and the work is spectacular. (I wish I could take photographs but obviously I can't - although there may be exhibition photos on the exhibition website next week.

I am so pleased with how the corset came out!! Stiletto Heights has made it to the UK!! Jenn's artwork looks incredible I think you will agree. I really wanted to use lots of colour in this corset and I think the pink, purple and gold gives a very baroque almost carnival feel to the piece.

Jenn I am actually rather nervous about you seeing the finished thing!! I really hope you like it!!

So I have one other corset as well as a full costume in the exhibition and also 4 framed pieces of art. The Follies costume is from my art college degree. The corset I have hand painted and embroidered and the skirt is hand felted vintage lace. The unicorn headress is sculpted from wire with wool running through the framework and a hand made mask.

The other corset is again printed leather and is more of a victorian style.

There are 4 pieces of framed artwork

Two costume renderings (one of the follies costume) and 2 new pieces.

Please excuse the terrible photos!! I plan to get more of the art corset taken on the mannequin when the exhibition comes down as you can't truly appreciate it till it is on a figure. And this is how it looks all together!!

I am really please with how it all came out.

BUT I didn't make it to the preview!! It was all just too much and I slept solidly for 2 whole days practically. Yuck I was ickily ill. Not good. I haven't even tidied my workroom yet. Infact I shall have to photgraph it as a lesson to myself to NEVER let it get in that state again!!

So that is the exhibition!! I hope you like it and are not too sick of hearing about it!

In other news, my appointment at the spinal unit came around much quicker than I had anticipated and I got a cancellation appointment today. The news is that I am going to need surgery probably in a couple of years but in the meantime they are going to inject my spine in about 6 weeks time and I am having scans. The injections will be every 3 months to numb the area so I should be 'almost' pain free and will be able to work etc.

I only started my own business officially last october so it has been quite a worrying time that I have been earning practically zilch since the end of december as I have only been able to do the few workshops I teach and the occassional commission. Not a great start. But I am going to have a wee bit of an experiement next week and have an 'etsy' week whilst looking for theatre work. I really want to see how much I can make and list in a week and consequently how much I can sell (ha ha - now that is the HARD part!!). But the fact is I need to take a bit of a break until my injection and not push myself to do too much other work. I will still teach but I want to see how things go the next 6 weeks until my injection - then it will be full steam ahead (hopefully!!) and I will be able to start doing the occassional film again.

So that has been MY week!! How has yours been?! Okay I have to be off now to prepare for a workshop I teaching tomorrow - sorry this has been a bit of a random/or overly focussed on me post. I am thinking of you all and am looking forward to catching up on all your blogs over the weekend. Work tomorrow, cinema to see 300 on Sunday and the rest of the day drinking tea and blog browsing. Bliss.

Take care and have a great weekend!!

A Wee Bit of Imagination!!

Well my darlings!! How are you all? This again I am afraid is to be the shortest of posts but I so wanted to update you on the corset (and please forgive me for the lack of linky word thingies but I am so in a rush - things to do, things to do!! ) I feel like the rabbit from Alice and Wonderland!!

I really want to thank you all for reading my blog and leaving lovely comments and just really being such wonderful people, working from home can be a lonely thing sometimes, but no longer when I have such truly incredible support and friendship here!! You are all lovely!!

So here are a few update photos of the position of the corset as it was 2 days ago. I had hoped to be further on with it but alas (please forgive me for boring you with this!!) yep it was the week of being driven insane by my back etc.

But here we have it nonetheless - and all I ask of you is to use a wee bit of imagination!! I love this stage actually, making the toile, as there is not other way to say it, but at this stage the 'prototype' always looks hideous!! And it can be hard to picture it in all it's glory in the final wonderful fabrics. I have made this pattern from scratch to fit around the image on the leather provided by the wonderful Jenn.

As the other corsets I am displaying are TINY!! I have decided to go for a wonderful womanly size for this one. Shock horror - an actual size 14 (US size 10 I think!!) Ha ha no size 0's in this house baby!! I myself am a rather curvy size 16 and do not subscribe atall to this notion of 'thin is the only kind of  beautiful'. (It has to be said too that I also wanted to get as much of the artwork by stiletto heights onto this corset as possible and that simply would not have worked on a tiny figure!!)

I had originally intended on handpainting and embroidering the fabric on the rest of the corset but after holding up samples against the leather I decided to let the artwork be the complete focus, I think it just stands out so beautifully and did not want to allow anything to detract from that. The fabric I am using on the rest of the corset is a wonderful dusky purple taffeta and the flounce is going to be hand dyed fabrics with a bit of gold in there too!!

I did however add a little bit of gold fabric paint (just the absolute minimum!) and some gold embroidery to the image (I hope you approve Jenn!!) just to tie it into the gold fabric that I have used in other places on the corset. I had to get some gold in there somewhere!!

I am really ridiculously excited about this as well as being stupidly nervous about the whole exhibition. I am displaying one other costume (a follies costume I made at college - which feels a bit like cheating but I have been unable to make a new one due to health and finances - but I feel it does fit in with the theme of the exhibition). I have also been working on  new pieces of artwork and am framing 2 large costume rendorings from the same previous project. So it all has to be finished tonight!! I am teaching a workshop this afternoon which I am so ill prepared for and it is over an hours drive away so how I am going to be able to focus on that I do not know!! I will be itching to get back home to get on with things.

My poor lovely and adorable Mr Cox has just been wonderful the last week. He has been on holiday and has had to put up with my artistic temperament times 100 whilst making meals and supplying me with endless cups of tea and coffee etc. We did manage to get out for a lovely dinner on Friday and also went to the opticians for eye tests and I am getting 2 new pairs of beautiful glasses!! (Buy one get one free) which will be a godsend as my current pair are a disgrace. I was asked if I wanted contacts - but no frames are the thing for me - they are part of my appearance and I love them. Mark is getting glasses too for the first time and I cannot wait - he will look adorable in them.

Okay back to work for me!!! Sorry for the lack of blog commenting etc. I will be back with all my heart and soul on Wednesday - with new photos of the exhibiton and finished work and cannot wait to see what you have all been up to.

PS Vanessa - typepad has been acting like a petulant child for me again and I have been unable to leave comments on your blog!!! I am so sorry - but your shop looks wonderful - I am so proud to know you!! Emails will be sent shortly!!

Oh and as for the 'sorry this is going to be a short post' idea at the top of the page - well clearly I am completely incapable!!