Daisys

Everywhere you go at the moment there are wild daisys growing down the side of major roads. They are probably there every year but this year I'm doing more driving about and seeing them everywhere.



These I picked down by the river in the centre of Stoke on Trent. They have been in a vase in full sun in my kitchen for a fortnight now and are only just showing signs of age. I picked some roots up in the hopes that they will grow in my garden, They seem to have rooted , so fingers crossed.
So I made these new daisy inspired flower brooches.....





Yes the petals curl the other way on my brooches, this is because I think they look a little sad with their petals folded back.

Robots.........

I had a robot week last week,"real" work was very quiet and I've got a new torch to play with.I had to buy it because my old one has gone missing in the house somewhere after my husband borrowed it to use as a gas lighter for my big soldering torch.(whilst taking off a radiator). So here is the result............
He's not very big,about a couple of inches tall or maybe 6 cms, made from brass sheet, brass rod,copper wire and a couple of beads.
he'll stand on his own two feet as long as you dont put his arms at a daft angle.....The arms articulate (wonderful long word to use when I could just say move) because they are attached via bolts to the main body. His shoulders are made from electrical connectors.Does the use of an existing part make him steampunk?

This is the front view
and this is the back, you could view him the other way around if you want,


















the legs swivel.................................................and the head comes off

The question (or questions)now is of course would anybody want to buy him?
How much for?
Where would be the best place to list him (apart from my own shop of course)Etsy,Folksy,Dawanda or all 3 and see what happens?

whiskers up or down?

I came across a really cute video of a kitten sucking its paw the other day,and as I'd got a stinking horrible cold and cough and couldn't face going into the shed to do some work I decided to do some drawing/painting inspired by the cute kitten instead. I thought as well I would share some of the drawings enroute to a final painting............

this was the first , which after a bit of fiddling about changed to


but I thought this smacked too much of cuteness, I dont really like the idea of cats in nappies, a bit too disney for me , so



this was the final drawinng that became the unfinished painting that is here.

It wasnt until I'd finished that I thought it bares a cetain resemblance to the Puss in Boots of Shrek fame, this was accidental, I was wondering what colour to paint him when I thought why not ginger its a nice sunny warm colour as it was a nice sunny warm day. He does look a bit like he's wearing the orange version of the cartoonists swag/robber jumper....
What I cant decide is what to do with the whiskers,if you go to my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Hollowbourne/111510052210161?closeTheater=1 you will find two versions of this, one whiskers up one down. In one he looks happy like he's just thoughtfully biting his nails. In the other he looks like he's been caught in the act of doing something he shouldn't have. Its amazing how a different direction can make one simple painting have two meanings . So what does anyone think? Guilty or content?

here are a couple of other variations
on a theme....one of these will be my
new cat booch, I'm not sure which yet.

ACEO cat and bird paintings

Quick blog to say that I've been doing a bit of painting for a change.
Smoe of the good people at Folksy have been doing ACEOs and as I have a few small paintings in my notebooks I thought I would list a few and see what people think.

I've googled myself out of curiosity a couple of times lately and come across "links" that mention my fierce cat painting that is on Dawanda, one site seemed to be sugesting you could download the artwork free, luckily it didnt work,or I would have been somewhat annoyed. The other ended up at a blank page with one of those "you may have got a virus, click here to check messages" ie click here so we can give you a virus! I hope nobody uses these pictures for nefarious ends.

Is it worth while trying to sell these?

cat inspiration

Is there such a thing as reverse inspiration? My cat Zip was wanting to keep an eye on the weather without going outside this week, and was sitting on this chair when I realised it was the perfect pose for one of my cat brooches....

And for once he didn't move whilst I went upstairs for the camera to take this.
Which I think show very well where the idea for this brooch came from originaly.

I'm not really sure which cat looks the most ungainly.

Perhaps some cats like snow..........

"there's something under here"


"maybe if I just roll around a bit...."
"I'll manage to catch it!"
"blimy this is deeper than I thought"
"ok this isn't fun anymore can I come in now?"I dont think this cat has ever been out in snow before, our other cats have refused point blank to go outside never mind running round like an idiot as Spot is doing here.

New shop opened..................

http://www.hollowbourne.com/
My own shop is open at last, everything (ok nearly everything ) all under one roof so to speak........I have been working on this for the last 3 weeks, listing that many things at once can be very boring.I have also had to contend with the fact that my computer decided it didn't want to cut and paste anymore in the middle of it all, computers are such temperamental things. I'm sure there are lots of things that need tweeking so if anyone finds any obvious faux pas let me know please.
I decided to make it including delivery as the delivery thingy was driving me nuts, especially the foreign bit. So for now anyone from outside the U.K. will need to email me and I'll do it as a special listing.

Otherwise its been a dog and bird week............
I visited a lovely artistic lady in my day job capacity to sell her a boiler, she had a very cute dog that insisted on sitting on my lap at every opportunity,as a result of which
this little chap was born .Dont ask me what sort of dog it was I havn't a clue, it was too big for sitting on my lap though ,I know that much. Oh and if you are interested I did sell the boiler ...
Dog no 2 is altogether fiercer

I think he's a guard dog , guarding your pocket, yes one leg is longer than the other. I didn't notice until I was choosing the photos for the listing.It isn't so obvious in real life. This is one of those pieces which is impossible to photograph as there are reflections from everywhere....
In addition to the 2 dog brooches, I made 3 little bird brooches.



I had some small bits of brass to use in between larger pieces, birds are good for using that sort of space up,the original idea was to make a robin, but I decided I liked them better plain in he end.
A couple of christmas trees are waiting to be photographed tomorrow if the weather is a bit better.........more about them next week,
That's it for now, I must find out how to do a proper link for my shop but its a bit late at night for that now .