Heading For Winter

I can tell I'm starting to prepare for another long miserable winter (isn't that all we have here now?) when I find myself listening to these kind of brilliant things. I need more sun, more warmth, a bit more joy, some palms, a cool beer, the desert.....well, that's me fucked then!! Better just hunker down and welcome my winter tunes back into my heart. Enjoy.. and definitely explore these great artists further if you're unfamiliar. ( Brendan Perry's album Eye Of The Hunter is highly recommended).

S.L. Jones

Shields Landon Jones. A new one for me, but here's a sample of his handsome carved heads and some info here. I sure would like one of these!

More Heads

Some of my other recent head discoveries. You can find/ track back to more info on these through my Pinterest, which I'm growing slowly and organically.

I love the use of green for the hair , I'll have to try that.

Weirdly this one reminds me of my dad, though not yellow!

just about as simple as a mask can get.

Just Because...

....I like them. Stumbled across these lovely things and thought I'd share. I do have a thing about heads, always have. It's what i always come back to. I'd love to make some like this. I have clay to explore now, but i think somewhere down the line i will also embrace wood. i have some tools stashed somewhere at my parents and a wood carving vice,  I'll have to hunt them down. I do like to make!

What a lovely face and expression. i found it here

Simple, but very lovely Milliner's head.

Some Images

Was digging around in my computer files and found this big batch of very rough images i knocked up way back here. I like the rawness, which has been playing on my mind the last year or two. Too much control. I need randomness and happy accidents. I'm sure I've said all this before. I'm now playing around with more un-natural colours and i need more un-naturalistic scale/perspective, and a touch more texture/mark making. Those are my aims, who knows if i can achieve any of it!... as they say "I'll know it when I see it".

More Great Drawings!

..... Not mine, obviously. Sorry it's more of the same, but showing and talking about my stuff is not what i want to be doing right now! These crackingly good drawings are by a friend's daughter, Ruby, aged 5. I love seeing these drawings. Might have to do something with them, cards or a nice tea towel, who knows. Something nice to have around the house. Maybe just a nice big print on the wall, of lots of different kids ones all grouped together. Maybe I put it in my Big Cartel shop and give the money to the school... Hmmmm.

My Drawing Book

This great picture was given to me this morning at school by a friend. it's by her daughter Lula, using my how-to-draw book, "Mix & Match Drawing" by Klutz , that I gave her... she's 5. Eventually I will put a section on my website for these drawings by various kids. My boys are starting to really develop their drawing, so I'm going to let them loose on the book again and see how they do. I'll put them up next week. If you ever know of anyone using it, tell them to send me their pictures ( Don't think my readers stretch very far though!!)

The spread form the Mix & Match book

Lack Of.... Anything!

The Old Black Dog has taken up residence again. It's a real pain in the ass, but somehow important , I think within it there is a rich vein of creativity and ideas. it's where the good stuff comes from.. and weirdly, often the funny stuff.... the dark funny stuff! I'd still rather be the kind who can leap out of bed and just enjoy their day though! I really thought at my my age I'd have a better handle on it all, that I'd feel more settled and happy with my output. I'm not though, I get less satisfied the further i go on, I'm restless, relentlessly restless! Constantly thinking of ways of changing, new ways of working etc... like slipping into a good rut would be such a bad thing. People make careers out of one technique/process, one idea, often. Why is that so bad? Why can't I just settle and ride it for all it's worth? (some probably think I am!!). I've more ideas than I have time to do any of them justice, or find outlets for. I'm not happy generally with my work (who is though, right?), i still feel it's missing ... something. Mainly i feel i need a bit more 'process', something where happy accidents can occur. At the moment I have too much control over the images I make. I'm constantly seeking, but I'm short on answers. My clay world is not going far enough fast enough either, which is really starting to frustrate me. I knew I'd bit off a lot to chew, but thought I'd get on with it quicker. On top of all these creative issues I have too many 'real world' worries. How did I get like this?? I guess I've always been like it... it's just multiplying as the years and ideas/projects accumulate. It does feel overwhelming at times and that just freezes me in my tracks, getting even less done! I can safely say this is a post just for the few bloggers who care for a bit of insight and waffle, it won't be one for sharing on facebook!!! ha ha : )

Slipware Straw Bear Money Box!

I was going back over my little sketchbooks the other day, making notes in my 'workshop' pad of all the possible pots i could make. I came back to English folk customs and realised the Straw Bear was perfect for the colours of slipware.. and the traditional slipware treatments. I've always loved the 'rustic' tobacco jars and had been looking again recently at one in the Burton Museum's Reg Lloyd collection. I'd been planning to make a pot with a pig sitting on a tree stump, as there's a lovely pig sitting next to a tobacco jar in the Hastings Museum, so I thought I'd unite the two into one piece. Anyway, suddenly it clicked and i thought of the Whittlesea Straw Bear sitting on a stump, taking a rest. I could slip the bear and leave the stump un-slipped, but with the ends of the chopped branches blobbed with a dab of slip. perfect! I made him over a couple of nights last week. I made a mess when i rushed the slip, i should have approached it calmer and more prepared! It needs some tidying up, but it'll be ok. He's also a functioning money box, with the slot in his crown and a corkable hole in the back of the stump. Form and Function! I'm planning on making the Hastings Jack In The Green next. His crown will give me a test. I'll make that separate as i might need to make a few!! I'm still making the pig on the stump though. I haven't really sculpted any little animal forms, so I'm quite looking forward to making the pig with a little hat. I'll post a pre-fire pic of the straw bear when I've tidied him and added some lettering around the base.

That tobacco jar at the Burton.

pig and stump, hastings Museum... and lovely bird whistle thing.

The Whittlesea Straw Bear

Hastings 'Jack in the Green'

Sloppily slipped, needs some tidying and a bit of sgraffito.