Tuesday 27 November 2012

More than just a doodle....



The other day I received and email from Amazon recommending a book. Sometimes I take a further look at these suggestions other times I don't. This time the book in question tweaked my curiosity, it was "One Zentangle a day: a 6-week course". I thought mmmm what's this then and took a peek and then researched this interesting idea further.

If you Google Zentangles loads of stuff comes up from books, images to YouTube videos. First called Zentangle by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas it a form of drawing that you can get lost in completely!! Their idea is start off with a small square of good paper and draw a string (line) within the square. This string can be as simple or as complex as you like and then you fill it in. The idea is that you let your mind relax and fill in the shapes with whatever comes to mind or maybe it's something nearby. The Zentangle is not really supposed to be of one particular thing, just a patchwork of drawing thoughts I like to think.

Now at first I thought this is just like doing a continuous wiggly line like I did as a kid and filling it with colour. You know those loopy pictures you used to do? However this is a bit more than that, if you look at Google images people have done some amazing things. There are some ideas of what you can fill your spaces with and some websites have special names for certain patterns and instructions on how to do them.

However for me I just wanted to come up with my own and just let my creative mind wonder and enjoy the process. The images above are of my versions and as you can see I couldn't resist adding a bit of colour! The top one is complete and I've just started with the bottom image. It's great to take some time out of a busy schedule and relax and be creative just to be creative, who knows what may happen to my little patchwork of thoughts drawing.......

Friday 2 November 2012

My owl collection



Next to my desk is a shelf unit which groans under the weight of all my sketchbooks, files, journals, books and paper. It is also the place where I place other precious things such as china cups, special edition golden syrup tins and now my ever growing collection of owls!


The owl cushion was the first resident and I bought it on a craft stall in Richmond from a lovely lady. We found the brass bookmark in an old bookcase we bought. It's delicately embossed with the "Owl and the pussy cat" in their boat and the first verse of the poem and I love it. The jade owl was given to me by my in-laws from one of their trips abroad. The pink felt owl and owlet was from my sister-in-law. The glass owl was a fantastic TKMaxx find and was on my stand at the NEC in March alongside his blue friend, who is on the mantle piece downstairs. I also have a lovely owl pin that is on my coat given to me on my graduation by my Mum.
My most recent find was this lovely mug! I fell in love with it as soon as I spied it on a stall at Tynemouth market last week. It's a Hornsea  mug and was designed and screen-printed by John Clappison back in the 1970's. I love the simple style and the combination of colours and also the humour of the design. All the owls are wide awake apart from the one on the left who is fast asleep, which I thought would be me! It is a very welcome addition to my owl collection and I will look out for more owl things and maybe some more Hornsea pottery as I love the style as it reminds me of my childhood and the herb jars my Mum had.

Is there anything you like collecting?