Polymer clay texture idea

I picked up these little off-cuts of electrical cable at work, and they make some really interesting designs when pressed into polymer clay. The first two designs remind me of the mitsuba aoi (triple hollyhock) crest found at the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko, so I hope to make use of them in some Japanese designs. The third cable makes a nice six-petal flower.

More cuteness

Here’s a little sketch of my Unazukin dolls, and I can also tick off Everyday Matters challenge #93 (draw an egg carton).

After making my mini kokeshi dolls a few days ago, I was looking for ideas for some more Japanese dolls to make, and found these:

Kokeshi fingerpuppet
Round kokeshi
Apple kokeshi
Strawberry Unazukin
Daruma Unazukin

With these for inspiration I first made a felt bean-bag kokeshi filled with lentils. I cut the flowers using a Quickutz die cutter, and then cut little nicks out of each petal using sharp scissors.



Then I went on to make a little strawberry and a Daruma doll. I made these from small wooden balls, and they sit on stands from a peg-doll kit.

Japanese doll madness!

My Unazukin dolls arrived - here they are making themselves at home in miniature Tokyo, and meeting all their new friends.


I was also inspired by My Little Mochi to create a new and improved version of my mini kokeshi dolls.

Cherry blossom card

I was really pleased with how this card turned out. The little bird was an afterthought, but I think it was the perfect finishing touch.

Kawaii!

This post is dedicated to the Japanese concept of “Kawaii” (cuteness). I visited Japan almost a year ago, and I brought back some cute little weeble-like monkey ornaments from Nikko for my colleagues. I regretted not buying one for myself, so when I saw Unazukin dolls online I decided I would buy myself one … or two… They haven’t arrived yet, so no photo, but this little Google doodle I drew was based on Unazukin dolls.



Ismoyo’s Playground is a wonderful blog that I discovered recently. It is full of all things cute and retro, and I particularly love her cupcake creatures.

Craft Magazine was recommended to me by my brother. It looks like it will really appeal to me, and I’m thinking of subscribing. The latest issue is Japanese inspired, and there are some really cute cats on the cover.

My Little Mochi is a blog that I discovered while browsing the Craft Magazine site. All sorts of cute things here, including some miniature Kokeshi dolls which put my clothespeg kokeshi (below) to shame!

Edwardians in colour

I’ve just watched Edwardians in Colour, part of BBC Four’s Edwardians season. This was an absolutely fascinating programme about French banker Albert Kahn and his archive of early colour photographs. At a time when most colour photographs were not true colour, but black and white with colour added later (like the photograph of George Flockhart and Beatrice Brown, my great-great grandparents, shown above), Kahn sent photographers around the world to record everyday life using a process called autochrome, which used photographic plates coated with potato starch grains dyed three different colours. The photographs are so fresh and true to life that they could almost have been taken yesterday, and it was so interesting to hear the stories behind them.

I love to see still photographs used to such great effect on television, in series like Ken Burns’ documentaries The Civil War and The West, and Stephen Poliakoff’s drama series Shooting the Past and Perfect Strangers, so I’m delighted to discover that this Edwardians in Colour programme was just the first part of a nine part series. I look forward to seeing the rest of the series, which will cover the Twenties as well as the Edwardian period.

Can it be true that I hold here in my mortal hand a nugget of purest green?

This post on Paris Breakfasts made me think about my recent love of the colour green. Over the past few months I’ve bought a handbag, shoes, dress, necklace, cuddly frog, more shoes, bowl, vases, flowers to put in the vases - all in green. My Caran D’Ache Light Olive Green pencil is being worn down faster than any other colour in the box at the moment!

Everyday matters challenge 116 – Something green
I was delighted to discover that the latest challenge is to draw something in my favourite colour of the moment. This lovely soft cuddly frog was from Ikea – I think it is so cute! I decided that since I don’t have a handsome prince I may as well have a frog to kiss instead!


Everyday Matters challenge 112 – Something fresh
This tiny vase was one of a set of three also bought at Ikea, and the flowers I bought to go in them seem to be lasting for weeks!

Some recent drawings

I'm really enjoying drawing in coloured pencil in my little kraft paper pad, so much so that my Moleskines are being neglected at the moment.



This drawing of my parents' spotty mug was inspired by seeing a drawing of mugs on mrana's blog, and she has just posted another fantastic drawing of her mug collection.


I have two little stone bird ornaments in my garden, one of which has recently reappeared after being missing for some time. It was hiding among some pebbles.

Everyday Matters challenges 110 and 111

For reasons best known to myself, I am working my way backwards through the Everyday Matters challenges, although if I get bored with that I may start doing them randomly.

110 - Flame


111 - Bowl

Everyday Matters

I recently joined the Everyday Matters Yahoo group, and these are my first couple of challenges:

114 - Something ugly

This Nepalese mask isn't necessarily ugly, but it's a bit scary. It was a present from a university flatmate of mine.


113 - Fence

This is the fence at Scotland Street School in Glasgow, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

More playing cards

These are some more of the pack of playing cards I am drawing. I've finished just over half of them now, and these are some of my favourites. It's so easy to make mistakes on them, however, and I've just discovered that a lovely dragon I drew for the four of diamonds in fact has five diamonds on his scales.

The green bag revisited

I've had lots of lovely comments about the drawing of my green bag, so I thought I would post an updated version with a few more bits and pieces added. The umbrella drawing was inspired by seeing Andrea Joseph's drawing of her umbrella.

Spring has sprung

The cherry blossoms on my tree have started to open, but the weather is more like summer than spring. Today I sat and ate ice cream under the cherry tree.

Gesso panels

I started painting some gesso panels today for my bedroom, based on the designs of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.

Initial sketches

Transferring the rough outlines to canvas

Completed drawing on canvas

Gesso and beads added to canvas
Applying the gesso was trickier than I thought it would be, but I eventually spooned some into a little plastic bag, then cut off the corner and squeezed.

Beginning to paint the details
Once everything has been painted, I will add some wood wax and rub it off to give an aged appearance.

A day at the galleries

Today I visited the Geometry in Art exhibition at the Dean Gallery, had a lovely baguette and a chocolate brownie for lunch at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and sketched the landform outside. I also managed to get some Berol Verithin pencils which I've been trying to find for ages, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

House for an Art Lover

Yesterday I visited the House for an Art Lover in Glasgow, which was built about ten years ago from designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. These drawings are of the stained glass and piano in the music room. I enjoyed looking at the display showing how the gesso panels were created, and when I got back to the city centre I bought a canvas and some gesso at the Art Store so I could try it myself.


I had lunch at the noodle bar Wagamama for the first time, and drew the condiments while I waited for my meal. I had ginger chicken udon, edamame, and green tea.

Transformation cards

One of my purchases from Muji was a pack of blank playing cards, which I want to decorate with my own designs. I have a few packs of cards in a style known as transformation cards, in which the hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades on a card are incorporated into a picture, and I wanted to try something like that myself. Here are my first few cards, along with a blank card and one I am in the process of drawing.

Fun with food and fun with photos

I’ve ordered a bento box (Japanese style lunchbox) from Muji, so I decided to get some practice at preparing a bento lunch before it arrives. This one consists of sushi rice, peppadew peppers and cucumber flowers with wasabi and capers, cherry tomatoes and carrot flowers, and omelette strips.

The other photo shows a fun trick I learned from some folks on Flickr - creating a photograph with multiple versions of one person.