new materials

Blogging – taking some down time

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 11 Comments

Things aren’t often noisy over here on Magpie, but they’ve been a bit quieter than usual. I’ve been having a bit of an emotional slump, which I think are related to the hormone injections I’ve been having as part of the fertility treatment. I’ve been quite flat. As a consequence I haven’t really had much to say. My intellectual muscles aren’t really engaged right now.

When not in work I have found myself drawn to a more physical existence. Pottering in the garden, making sure everything has had enough water in our uncharacteristically hot summer, and picking courgettes, which seem to be doing well while everything else wilts. Swimming in the Serpentine Lido. Drawing with pencils on paper. Cutting up bits of cloth (soaked in watered down glue to prevent the edges fraying) and paper into new shapes. Arranging and rearranging things so experiment with different forms and colours. Anything that I can touch with my hands, anything with texture.

The online world feels a bit more unreal than usual to me at the moment. A little less engaging than it has been in the past. I am sure it will pass and I’ll have a bit more to say. Soon.

Like what you see? I also make art. You can things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying

Working with new materials

/ The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

​​

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.