I’ve been doing some more work on the magpies – here are some blossoms on a branch for them.
Author: The Magpie at Midnight
Some more news: Redbubble
After doing a little digging I have decided to try out Redbubble as a route for selling my designs alongside Threadless. I am really new to selling art online and I am not sure which option will be best for me so I am going to experiment with both sites for the moment. Both sites allow for a similar service, but have a slightly different range of products and different arrangements for paying UK artists. I will be blogging a bit about how I get on with both sites, but for now I will leave it at introducing my Redbubble portfolio (which happens to look a lot like my Threadless portfolio).
I have been using paper cut and mixed media techniques at the moment and have been pretty pleased with the results. Both sites seem to be handling the digital photos of my work well, which is important as my style is relatively delicate and the details are important to making the aesthetic work.
So here is is, my Redbubble portfolio.
Courgette update – I’m growing a little monster
This is the courgette plant a week later. Look at it go! We’ve had a very sunny week and I’ve kept on top of the watering this week. Looks like my (minimal) efforts are paying off. I have six little plants now at various stages of growth, there is something very satisfying to see them flourishing like this.
Work in Progress
New shoots
There have been some awful things happening in London in the last few weeks. I look at the news and each day seems to bring a new saddness. I have been luckily unaffected by all that has happened, but am so aware that many people living in my city have been affected and I think of them. I’m not going to write about in ins and outs of what has happened, because there are so many more eloquent voices than mine doing so. I struggle at the moment to really put into words what I feel about it all.
Amongst all of the awfulness I do feel it is important to take notice of moments of light. I stepped out in the garden this morning and found this beauty. We put courgette seeds in this year a bit later than is ideal, but thought we would pop a few seeds in to the soil to see how we would get on. Two week later and we have been rewarded.
Blooming Birmingham
I am on a train back from Birmingham, UK where I have been staying for the last few days, both for work and for a little time away with the bf. We’ve had a great time. We’ve eaten several yummy veggie meals and wandered quietly around the canals.
Some people in London can be a bit sniffy about Birmingham, or anywhere that isn’t London for that matter, preferring to travel to exotic far flung places, or to Shoreditch. This is a shame, as this attitude can mean people miss out on seeing the many splendid intriguing little corners of the UK. In doing so we can miss out on a fuller understanding of this funny eccentric complicated little country of ours.
Birmingham it self is an interesting city. Vast areas of the city are being redeveloped giving it the sense of a city simultaneously undergoing deep decline and rapid renewal. In the middle of all of that there is also a strong sense of pride in the city’s industrial heritage. In particular the canal ways in the centre of Birmingham are still used and carefully tended.
I am particularly drawn to canals, and while walking around the Birmingham canals this weekend became aware of my own strange and growing enthusiasm for canal boats. We saw many beautifully maintained boats this weekend. I am particularly drawn the the materiality of the wood, the gloss and colour of the paint and the enforced slowness of this particular mode of travel. In busy times such as these it is often helpful to remember that it has not always been like this. It is helpful to remember there was a time when travelling between London and Birmingham on the calm still waters of the canals at 4 miles an hour was accepted as normal by many people, and not viewed as an odd holiday activity loved by British eccentrics.
On finishing things, summer down pours and downtime.
I think summer has arrived in the UK. I love spring, and autumn, and am fond of winter. I’m not particularly a summer person. I don’t particularly like the heat, and we don’t really seem to know how to do air conditioning. I seem to be particularly affected by fatigue, and struggle with lethargy when it is too hot, which may go some way to explaining why the blog has been a little under active of late. I have been taking lots of down time, lolling around on the sofa, and watching documentaries on Netflix. I was particularly moved by this documentary called Laerte-Se, and would recommend an afternoon spent with this.
Last weekend weekend we went to the Cotswolds, and went walking in the woods, one of my absolute favourite things. The trees, which are numerous in variety in that area, are an amazing shade of lush green at this time of year. While out walking this weekend we were caught in an amazing downpour. We stood for a while in a dry patch, surrounded by a curtain of these fat, heavy rain drops, saying to each other, ‘it will pass over in a minute’. It’s didn’t pass over, but instead settled firmly in. We ended up walking through the rain most of the way home. The air had been warm and sticky, and I found the delicious slip of water through my hair and down my neck refreshing and exhilarating. It has been some time since I have been caught in the rain like that, and I was happy for the experience. It made me think of how the amount of control we think we have other things is really an illusion. People make plans and Nature laughs.
However, despite all the lolling around and walking in the rain, I have been a bit productive. In the past I have always had a bit of an issue finishing things, as I have previously written about here. Recently, while not exactly finishing things, I have managed to bring two projects to a relatively satisfying conclusions. Last weekend I submitted a draft play to the Bruntwood Prize. I don’t really expect anything to come from that, but it feels a bit like drawing a line under the project, which means I can move onto the next one. In recent weeks, during my down time, I have had ideas for two new animations, so, patiently, watch this space on that.
I also recently opened an Artist Shop with Threadless, where I am selling prints and bags based on a series of artworks I have been working on for over a year. While the artworks themselves aren’t actually finished this feels like a satisfactory conclusion. I’ve even had my first sale, with I think was to my boyfriend’s mother. From small acorns, great oak trees may grow.
A little bit of news – I opened a threadless shop!
Over the last few months I have been working on ideas which would enable me to earn a bit of side income from my art and interests in creativity. I have been looking at different options and have been particularly inspired by the prolific Sableyes and his Little Fears project.
Having looked through various options I’ve decided to follow his example and dip my toe in the water with a Threadless Artist Shop. I’m a bit excited about this as it feels like I have been able to come to the end of a project with an actual product out there in the ‘real world’. I have picked a small selection of products including high quality prints and a few bags – please go over and have a look if you are inclined to do so.
So, drum roll…. here is the Magpie at Midnight artist shop, where you can buy my stuff.
Working with new materials
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I’ve been working with some new materials recently with I’ve been enjoying. Alongside working with cut paper I have been experimenting with cutting cotton. The problem I had was that cutting cotton was that the edges fray, and I particularly like the strong lines and silhouettes produced by paper cut.
I have managed to fix this problem! I have been coating the cloth with a PVA style glue (I am using this Modge Podge but I don’t think it matters which brand you pick). Apply with a paint brush and make sure you use a plastic sheet to protect your furniture. This then needs to dry for a good 24 hours before you can cut with scissors. It’s rather satisfying to peel the cloth from the plastic. One side will be shiny while the other will retain the cloth texture. I’ve been using a paper stencil and pencil on the shiny side to trace out the shape I wanted. Then I can cut using scissors as I do with paper.
I like the effect produced – I think the combination of textures works really well.
A limited collection of prints of my are are now available here at threadless.
Walking in the woods.
We are taking a few days down time at the moment, staying in the New Forest. It is a very beautiful, wild place. We have taken several long walks through the woods and I have certainly felt better for it. The air is lighter and fresher here. At times I feel I walk a little taller, the muscles in my back are not so tense.
When I manage to get out of the city and into the countryside I am frequently shocked into remembering how vividly beautiful the UK countryside is. It is spring at the moment and we have encountered blubell carpets and the fresh green shoots of new growth all around us. I often feel, when out and about in our vibrant green spaces, that many people from the UK who travel long distances to find exotic wild locations are missing out on the wild places that are much closer to home.
But we have also encountered patches of land where the trees are dying. The forest is undergoing wetter winters and dryer summers, and the natural soil microcosm is becoming unbalanced, leading to the roots of many trees rotting in the soil. The change in soil conditions is probably an consequence of climate change.
Here is another reason I am so disappointed with the moral leadership of our current generation of politicians. We have known for quite some time there is much work to be done to protect our beautiful wild places, from cleaning up polution, and carefully assessing the impact of various pesticides on the soil, through to the Enormous task of planning and taking action over climate change. But while there are many organisations working hard to tackle these problems, our politicians appear to take a ‘profit now, some one else can clean up the mess later’ attitude. This is a peculiarly selfish and short sighted approach, which burdens generations to come with a vastly depleted natural environment, and the loss of those wonderful British wild places.
The Magpie at Midnight 