a weekend at home with a Folk Art cupboard + Madame La Snake

I spent the weekend daubing a knackered old cupboard in my house with my interpretation of 'Folk Art'...It was surprisingly time consuming, I think I stooped over this for 24 hrs and didn't even paint any motifs to the sides yet. Not to mention the 15 minutes I spent wedged on the staircase by the cupboard while I tried to move its fat carcass downstairs.

A pair of silly looking 'love birds' adapted from a fabric design...
A magpie lurking in a Norwegian tree and my XL sized ginger cat Alex
This door has a cartoon of my , long dead, dog Frodo...and a squirrel that was supposed to be holding an acorn but looks like its doing something else.
I also finished the over embellishment of 'Madame la Snake', my ridiculous bejewelled draft excluder....loosely based on my Great Grandma's, which was even more bejewelled and sequined, pretty much the Mme de Pompadour of draft excluders.

Story Chair. Bradford Library. Morwenna Catt + Lucas Richard Stephens

Drawing with Thread Exhibition, Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford

I forgot to plug this exhibition! I'm in it, its on at the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford until May 1st if anyones passing through.

Drawing with Thread

Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford

Start date: 05-Mar-2011
End date: 01-May-2011

A new exhibition featuring work by ten contemporary textile artists will be on show at the Shire Hall Gallery from Saturday March 5 to Sunday May 1.

Drawing with Thread will feature artists who all use thread as a drawing tool in their work. The exhibition will feature a mixture of hand embroidered and machine stitched pieces, collage, 3D work and sculptural pieces - as well as an innovative new installation by award winning artist Debbie Smyth.

Other artists include Caroline Kirton, who produces large scale stitched drawings which chart the ups and down of adolescent life which were recently featured in Embroidery magazine, Morwenna Catt who subverts traditional imagery to create tragic toys and dark fairytales and Trevor Smith, a recent graduate of Birmingham City University whose hand stitched embroideries are hotly tipped to make him a future star of Britain's design industry.

For more information people should contact the Shire Hall Gallery on 01785 278345

Market Square • Stafford • ST16 2LD
Telephone: 01785 278345
Fax: 01785 278327
Minicom: 01785 278345
shirehallgallery@staffordshire.gov.uk

Web site: http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/sams

Opening Times: Mon - Sat: 9.30am - 5.00pm Tue: 10.00am - 5.00pm, Sun: 1.00pm - 4.00pm

The Shire Hall Gallery is located in the Market Square in the centre of Stafford. Car parks, bus stops and railway station are within 5 minutes walk. Stafford is only 3 miles from the M6 (junction 13 or 14).

Animal Benches, Pupil Referral Unit, Bradford. Morwenna Catt and Lucas Stephens.

My first rough sketch for the benches

We worked at the Pupil Referral Unit to produce some benches for their garden. The young people took part in workshops, created their own mosaics and learnt all about the materials and techniques we'd be using on the furniture.

The main structure of the benches was carved with a chainsaw and finished with chisels.

This one is an Owl

A frog...

This started as a floppy eared rabbit....

We decided to use reflectors as eyes so they 'glow' in the dark

A cat..

A bear....each animal has a section of mosaic on its head.

A dog

The animals bite onto the benches to keep them solid.

Race Matters, Youth Group banner workshop, Keighley