Playing

I've been playing a lot lately.

With new motifs and old ones...

mixing them up.

I've been doing a surface pattern design with a victorian garden theme for the Bronte parsonage museum shop lately (more about that later) and it has given me lots of new ideas for lamps.

One of the motifs was this delicate fern which has translated well into a lamp design. From a drawing..

to a laser cutting..

to a lamp!

And I have been playing with forget-me-nots too. 

I've also been mixing up engraving and cutting

 and playing with softer shadows to create more depth.

This one is a limited edition 'Daisy Meadow' lamp to go with my wallpaper.

Wild Garlic has made an appearance too

sitting with some ferns and some wood anemones.

And also poppy seed heads.

on candle covers and lamps.

The fern lamp make sweet little off cuts. They are growing all over my studio!

Honesty

I've always loved Honesty. My Mum always grew it in the garden and we had a big bunch in a large green wine bottle vase by our kitchen table. Very nineteen-seventies!

I asked my Mum for some to draw last year and she brought me a huge bunch. I laid all the seeds out on my light box and took these photos.  I find it so beautiful. The way the layers of the seeds come apart to the touch, the crispy sound it makes. the iridescence of the pods, the gorgeous shapes and the cute little seeds. 

For years I've considered it's potential as a paper cut light design but I couldn't get my head around how to do it. I decided it was time to work it out.

I started with some drawings and made them into files for the laser to cut.

And a few days later Voila! They held together really well.

It lends itself so well to my technique, 

with the layers of light shining through the seed pods and making the crisp cut silhouettes of the outer shells stand out. I'm liking it. I'm just trying it out on some other sizes and shapes of lamp...then maybe the wallpaper....the fabric....the cushions....oh my the list goes on :)

having a very seedy time

I got some samples back from the lasercutters today. Lots and lots and lots of seeds. Now I'm just playing with them to see what they can do! They do make great shadows but I never really like lamps where you can see the bulb. We strung them up and hung them in the window and they look really lovely. It was just a bit dark by then to take a good picture so I'll try and take some tomorrow. There's lots of potential anyway!

A Painters Garden

We've just had our living room decorated and it's looking good. It's the first time in my life that we've had someone in to do the decorating and it has been soooo lovely. Emma Ossenton (if you're on twitter she is @waterrat77) is fantastic and super efficient so that's been a pleasure. We (or rather she) papered the end wall in Woodland Ferns from Sandersons' Painters Garden collection. It was astounding coming home from work yesterday and seeing how much it had changed the room....in a good way might I add. It's very bold but we like it. I'll wait until we're all finished to get a picture of the whole room. For now here's just a bit.

AND it has inspired an idea! Well actually it's an idea I've had for a while but it inspired me to get on with it today. I have a tall Alpine Meadow lamp on top of the piano but it just doesn't sit well with the wallpaper. I was thinking it needed to be a woodland flower or something and this reminded me about my idea of making a collection of lamps like Victorian botanical studies.

In botanical studies I LOVE and am endlessly inspired by the little diagrams that you get alongside the drawing of the plant itself with beautiful scrolling letters marking the illustrations of the seeds and stamen and showing cross sections of the stems and leaves.

This first experiment is of is a Wood Anemone and I have lots more ideas that I am going to play with right now. I wonder which plant will soon be sitting on top of my piano!

Helen Musselwhite Interview!

I am very lucky that through my work I get to meet some amazing and talented people who are a huge inspiration. One such person is Helen Musselwhite, famous for her intricate papercut artworks of woodland glades and cheeky, colourful owls in trees! I have been selling her work at Radiance for a few years now and she very kindly agreed to do one of our Radiance podcasts, so Fiona went over to her studio at her home in Manchester and she told us her story. It's well worth a listen...and there are pictures too. I hope you can pop over to my Radiance blog to have a look and a listen!

Butterfly On Cow Parlsey

A lady commissioned me to make a Cow Parsley and Butterfly lamp and today I have been working on it. I think it's quite pretty.... but that's enough work for a bank holiday Monday. Now we're off for a big family tea at my sisters....hooray!

Oona Patterson

Last week I met a guy in my shop and he told me that his daughter worked with paper too and that I might like to look at her website. Well I did and I was utterly blown away by her work. You must have a look. Her name is Oona Patterson and she makes tiny magical worlds from paper to illustrate poems and stories that she has written. The piece above is called 'Digging Words'. Look at all the tiny, tiny people excavating this book. Amazing! There are so many awe inspiring illustrations and sculptures on her website. Her Dad was obviously very proud. My Dad was in the shop with me that day too and they both had a gushing proud father moment together. Bless 'em!

Annastassia Elias

I just got very excited when I found these on Behance Network. Gorgeous little paper cut worlds inside toilet roll tubes by Annastassia Elias. Go and have a look. There are loads more.

Something a little bit different

The other day I was inspired by an Etsy Treasury made by a great papercutting artist called Mr Yen. The treasury list has expired now so I can't show you, but he had made a beautiful collection of objects, cards, prints and papercutting on a 'Typography' theme. I had a flash of inspiration and saw this design in my head which I immediately sent off to my laser cutting man to cut. It came today. I like it....maybe the start of something new.

I have put it in my Etsy shop.

Honeysuckle lamp

I just made a honeysuckle table lamp. I love honeysuckle. It's a pity I can't make my lamps take on the fragrance of the flower. It would be great to have the smell of warm summer evenings in your living room. AnywayI have just listed it in here my Etsy shop.

We're going to Hastings tomorrow for a few days to visit the lovely Wendy Jung. Looking forward to seeing the sea!

Daisy Meadow

I've been working on a Daisy Meadow wall panel for a customer over the last couple of days. There are always nice shapes left behind...

Buttercup Meadow

I got inspired by the buttercup meadow after another Sunday walk up on the hills. It makes a nice wall panel.

New Zealand Tree Fern

I have been working on a New Zealand Tree Fern/Black Punga design today. Chrissie next door commissioned it for her New Zealand friends wedding present.

Seed Pod Wall Panel

Now that my wall panel parts have been produced I can start showing you some of the designs that I have been sitting in a drawer waiting and waiting for the safety testing to be completed.