more bonnie birds … an obsession in papier mache!

It’s funny how an idea can sprout wings and take-off (dreadful pun entirely intended), such as it has been with these bonnie birds.  It’s rather refreshing to have something I can make out of papier mache that doesn’t take forever and a day and that isn’t a bowl!  Aside from this pair I’m hatching three more and they should be fully fledged in the next few days (and yes, that was a couple more of dreadful puns that were entirely intended).

This pair seem to be diametrically opposed in terms of form, one’s short and fat and the other a bit leggy with a great fan of a tail, the tail’s something I can see me repeating and refining on future versions.

Of course, like all birds that flock, it doesn’t take long for them to catch-up with more of their own kind …

… I imagine this flock will be growing as they, ahem, get to know each other better … well, it is almost Spring!!

All of these birds are available for sale in our shop.

Bonnie Birds!

I’ve been watching Jolene create her fabric finches for months now, I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up taking some inspiration from them and feeding it into what I’m doing myself … indeed, Jolene alluded to as much here.  The WIP previews she gave there though have long since been finished, and discarded on the basis that they were, well, rubbish!

I’m rather proud of the these ones though, the refined and finished product if you will.  Being me, they’re predominantly papier mache with a bit of wire and armature thrown in for good measure before being finished in acrylics and a tough high gloss varnish.

The design is based on some rather fabulous silk that Jolene bought from a seller in India for another project that she’s working on, also from discussions with Jolene about Paisley pattern – a very simplified tear drop has been adopted for the wings here – and I’ve also been listening to some Deva Premal which has no doubt fed in to the general feel of the pieces … although I’ve no idea where she’s from!?!

OK, google sorted out the latter one there … she’s from Germany and wiki says:

is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music, which puts ancient Hindu mantras into atmospheric, contemporary settings.

Am I becoming an old hippy?  Actually never-mind, people were accusing me of being an old hippy before I was even 20 … actually I think the term they used was “weirdo”!!

These Bonnie Birds are available to purchase in out Coriandr shop.

wire bird

I spent an hour or two this week ogling at Joel Henriques’ blog and artwork.  I was particularly struck by the simplicity and beauty of these wood and wire toys:

So inspired was I, that I had a go at making my own wire bird…I think it’s ok for a first attempt.  I’m pondering a range of wire owls…

I had to take it outside for a photo opp.  It’s still so dark and dreary here despite us being south facing.

Good news though…the daffs are pocking their heads out…spring will be with us soon enough.

Papier mache wall art

It’s been commented on in the past that there are strange things going on in the dark recesses of my mind, that they seem to bleed out into the light through what I create … I think ‘they’ may have a point.

I seem to have a raft of canvasses lying around and despite repeated attempts to paint something of any worth on them I seem to fail and fail again.  The canvas here has been used so many times now that I can’t recall how many images lie beneath this final effort, perhaps it’s a furious amalgam of all that went before, a seething anger at the ineptitude slapped on the canvas below.

Whatever it is, using a canvas as a base for some wall art/sculpture is an avenue of interest to me and something I feel sure I will pursue further at some future point.  In the meantime I can think of at least two (more conventional) sculptures that deserve to be finished after well over a years worth of idling!

handmade felt christmas tree decorations

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later … that’s right the spirit of Christmas has finally caught up with me, almost.  Anyway, in preparation for it’s imminent arrival I felt compelled to make some decorations, contrary to my usual ‘bah humbug!’ approach to Christmas!!

Actually, it wasn’t just me, Jolene started it with these rather pretty little crocheted stars …

… it’s while she was making these that she tossed a bag of felt offcuts in my general direction and told me to stop being ‘lazy’ and to ‘get on with something’ …

… I was …

… I was drinking tea …

… it’s important!

I spent a few minutes rummaging, looking at the various shapes available, before coming across some bendy triangles.  It wasn’t a huge leap to come up with the trees above.

I’m hoping to get some pine cones done up in time for Christmas, maybe as a table decoration or maybe as a few more hangers for the tree, whatever I do I’ll be sure to share them here.

Mushroom bowls in blue – reworked

Regular readers may well recall these bowls in their original form, you can see them here.  As then they were blue, and they are finished with varnish.  What is different is the depth of the ’sub-coat’ I apply to these pieces, the method in which the paint was applied and finally the varnish used is a much tougher and much higher gloss variety.

In all honesty I was never satisfied with the bowls, despite the compliments (thanks!), and when I brought them out at one of our recent craft fayres I was compelled to immediately re-wrap them and return them to the crate from whence they came!

With everything that’s been going on of late I struggled to get them finished, but the final coat of varnish is dry and we even managed a wee drop of winter sunshine to get some piccies taken … sunshine makes me happy!  Anyway, here are the bowls:

click the images for full-view

more plant pot decor

This will probably be the final batch of plant pokes until after Christmas as ‘other priorities’ take over … also, the workshop gets hellish cold at this time of year due to gaping gaps under the doors and roof which may as well not be there when the cold winter gales get going!

Click image for full view!

As ever these were made using the power carver, actually my new power carver following the untimely demise of my last one.  I went for a different model and whilst it doesn’t have the same grunt as it’s predecessor it’s actually not too bad once you get used to it’s foibles!  Next time I may need to invest in one of the heavier duty motors.

There’s a good chance that I’ll be putting the power carver to greater use in the future for larger carvings, currently I exclusively use traditional hand tools for these but the amount of time this takes just even from a roughing out point-of-view can be excruciating … time will tell.  Still at least the traditional tools can be used in the house … by the fire!

Sock creatures

Jolene’s been busy with her needle and thread, pulling up her socks, and putting together some more of her cute and cuddly creatures.  Stripes seem to be a recurring theme, but the first cuddly creature featured here is a luxurious little soul made out of angora …

As much as I love the soft autumnal colours in the angora creature above, the vibrant summery colours of the creature below are also rather fab.  We had pretty much decided that this one had something a pig-tailed school girl about it, but now I look at the pictures here I can’t help thinking it looks more like the irritated mother of a naughty school girl, hands on hips!

Meanwhile, I’ve also been finishing off my second and, I promise you, final sock creature … it’s no great work of art, but it’s definitely got character!

Mushroom bowls in red ~ the final set

This is the final set of mushroom inspired paper pottery bowls, the other sets can be seen here and here.

All three sets were made using the same set of moulds, although despite this I think they are all quite different in terms of shape, of course the variation in colour also helps to accentuate the differences.  Personally my favourite set is the brown/tan version, although I really like the this final set too for which I used a different varnish that has a subtle lilac hue to it which works really well with the reddy colour.

I’ll be making some more sets of bowls in due course, although I think I’ll aim for something quite different from these sets, maybe something a little larger, although equally as organic in feel … but more of that later. 

Coming in the more immediate future we have a sample or two from Jolene’s newly created ‘make-it-yourself’ bird hanger set which will be available at the forthcoming fairs we’re attending and we also have some more of her Sock Creatures.

Sock creatures, a monstrous diversion!

Sewing is really Jolene’s thing, obviously I’m far more interested in manly arts and crafts rather than these silly women’s past-times!  Obviously I jest, but sewing isn’t really what I do … other than from a utilitarian stand-point it’s not a craft I’ve ever felt the need to refine, alas, with time to kill and the workshop outside getting colder and colder as winter sets in I was persuaded to have a go at making a sock creature or two.

This is my first effort, and whilst I don’t think it’s a complete failure …

… I can’t help thinking that she looks like a bit of an old slapper!

We’ll be selling Jolene’s ones at our forth-coming craft fayres, we’ll announce dates shortly.