Learning to play

A while ago having realised that I didn't play as a child (always prefering a good book) I decided to explore the idea of altered books. This sounds like a contradiction of ideas as it took some time before I could bring myself to deface a book - this has always been a cardinal sin in my book (no pun intended!) I decided that I could only use books that were otherwise to be sent to the tip. First was the book above which I picked up for 10p. I naively thought I might introduce my daughter to some of the delights within but she was having none of it preferring those girlie interests of talking to her friends and listening to music. Hence the cover - how times have changed!



I moved onto "The Children of Dickens" spurred on by the fact that the pages were starting to fall out. I'm no artist but have always loved colour and paper and decided to just do whatever came into my head.



I played about with collage,



cutting windows



Weaving paper



stamping and my first attempt at painting anything since I was about 8!



Getting rid of angst! This was actually quite good fun



Some pages just reflected things I had done- a trip to Rome



Othrs involved just playing with colours and combining things to give what to me were pleasurable combinatons



Some pages were inspired by the book itself - don't you just love the image of the little boy?



And some were "where I was at at the time"!






This one has a famous paragraph from Dickens on the subject of money. My late father was a retired bank manager and the closely writtn page around the paragraph records the movements of the stock market as recorded from CEEFAX hour by hour as he watched the value of his shares rise and fall each day. (This was his form of relaxation - there was never any hope for me!)



Strange but true. I have a book full of pages like this but I can't throw it away!



Other pages I have circled words to make my own sentence out of what is on the page...



And finally a page using marbled paper that Niobe and I made when she was little!



I haven't done anything with this for a couple of years. There are always so many things to do. But it was great to find uses for some of those bits of paper and ephemera that we collect for no reason other than that we like them. Maybe when there is more time I'll practice more and take lessons in subtlety. In the meantime - pass me that box of stamps will you please?

Playtime!

I'm looking forward to this weekend as its going to be rich in terms of real "me time". Today I'm going through some of my late Dad's things as on Sunday I'm going to a "Hope and Elvis" workshop: "An experimental day working with found objects, old papers, photographs & books. Stitch, type, paint & make memory journals, collages or cards for special family & friends." Earlier this week those attending were urged to pull together some bits and pieces we may want to include in a piece.
I can't bring myself to use "one off items" which I feel I need to save for posterity (I'm not sure why- he didn't live to see most of his grandchildren so his things won't mean much to them!) However I've unwittingly become keeper of the family archive so take my duties seriously! I carry an old family name as a middle name (PHIPPS) and have passed this on to Gorgeous Girl. Unfortuantely she is the last person to carry the name and she tells me she won't pass it on! (It's embarrassing!). I have traced the Phipps family back to around 1700 (George Phipps being my 6 x great grandfather. The family moved from Leicestershire in the early 1800s to Arnold near Nottingham where they became quite well to do and my 3 x great uncle became proprietor of Chestnut House Academy.



This was a boarding school and Joseph was very forward thinking in his teaching. The picture is of a lithograph signed by Joseph and the one below is a close up. I love this picture with its very wooden looking children!



So now I'm surrounded with lots of ephemera wondering where I'm going to start and what I can and can't use to create something special! And my camera isn't working! May be I should just try to keep things simple!

Tomorrow I have a vintage fair to look forward to in Lincoln! So hopefully lots of eye candy!

Hope you have some good things to look forward to!

Love Wend

Reasons to be cheerful - for Julie Arkell fans

Julie is holding two workshops on 27th and 28th March 2010 at Hope and Elvis, Harley Gallery Welbeck, North Notts. Louise Hope is hosting the workshop at her studio at the Welbeck estate in Welbeck. I've been to several of Louise's workshops and they have always been great fun. She runs lots of workshops on the vintage theme and a day in her studio can provide enough inspitration to keep you occupied for months! I've wanted to go to a Jule Arkell workshop for ages but they never seem to be in the right place at the right price. This one is £55 and there were 3 places left when I checked on Saturday. Move quickly if you want to take advantage of what is likely to be a great day! A quick google will bring up lots of hits for Julie if you're unfamiliar with her delighful papier mache based vintage inspired dressed creatures (that doesn't sell them very well) - just take a look...they're worth checking out!

Love Wend

Viva vintage!

What a weekend! Saturday saw the first Vintage and Homemade fair in Northampton. I say first as I'm hoping that following such a successful event Ann and Debbie feel inclined to organise more in the new year. I'm tempted to do something similar in Nottingham! I couldn't fault the organisation - we had lots of people through the door, great decorations and music, a great atmosphere and lots of lovely stalls! The picture at the top is of part of Ann's stall (Vintage at the Corner House)




Laura of My Vintage Party



Ann from Vintage at the Corner House



Debbie from "Vintage Wants Not Needs"




Ann Marie from Birdcages and Butterflies - see the trademark birdcage...



More of Laura's lovely cakestands...



Elsie Sparrow's stall was an Arkwright style bicycle stuffed full of goodies and flanked by two lovely deckchairs with her "Dammit" dolls and lovely Union Jack hot water bottles - gorgeous girl had to have a Dammit doll and I had to have the hottie...Sorry I didn't actually get a shot of the bicycle.



Ann's stall had some gorgeous bits on it - just look at the Stanley dog there at the back! I had to restrain myself there and now wish I hadn't!



I did succomb to this lovely rose covered chocolate box set of drawers from Ann...

A great day. I'd like to congratulate Ann and Debbie and say (holding up my glass of wine) - here's to the next one! Thank you ladies! And a big thank you to all those folk who came along and supported us all. (Not to mention to the cake maker extraordinaire too!)



So after all the excitement of Saturday I nearly forgot to draw the winner of my giveaway! Suggesting that you gave me some of your favourite blogs has been great as I've found my way onto lots of blogs I hadn't been to before and have ended up following several of those. Also I have some new followers so welcome to all of you. Its great to have you along! I love getting all your comments but I also like to encourage others - I know how long it was before I dared put my foot in the water!

Anyway, I remembered in the end and gorgoeus girl drew the winner out of the Emma Bridgewater tin and the winner is (big drum roll) ...



So congratulations MARIGOLD JAM - let me have your e-mail and I'll put your prize in the post.

I was so pleased with the number of entries I had and thank you all, especially those who did something very techie to get me linked into their sidebars to introduce more people to my blog - you know who you are - that I decided to have another winner and that winner is JABOPEE - the prize won't be quite the same but I hope you'll like it all the same!

Have a good week!

Love Wend

Uoldbag!

Yesterday I worked at Somerset House in London so took the opportunity to visit ORIGIN The London Craft Fair which is being held in the courtyard this week and next. It consists of 300 makers showing their work over two weeks - one set of designers this week and another set next week. After picking myself up off the floor at the £10 entry - I know I'm mean - I handed over my money and browsed for a couple of hours. I know we all have our favourites when it comes to crafts and most of mine centre around textiles and anything vintagey so I thought I'd share a couple of designers that were new to me along with an old favourites. (With apologies to the ceramics and jewellery lovers but there is plenty for them too at the fair!)

UOLDBAG.com - Love the name, love the product, lovely lady!



Lisa Tilley makes "vintage bespoke accessories using reclaimed materials". I loved all these old bags combined with bits of maps, pictures and old patterns. The picture above was taken at the fair but the ones below are her pictures taken from the internet (as agreed with her)



Aren't they fabulous - she has actually embroidered the cross stitch design on this one.



Too gorgeous to use but then I just love the idea of standing at a carousel just to be able to shout - that one's mine!!



Then "Smith and Coates"



This lady makes the most gorgeous childrens clothes from recycled woolen jumpers and her own details - liberty fabric trims and beautiful crochet edging. The first picture is from the website but the other two were taken at the fair and haven't turned out as well as I'd have liked.



The colours are beautifully muted and soft - it made me wish my gorgeous girl was 10 years younger!



And in case you haven't come across her before I must introduce you to Jennifer Collier who makes dresses and corsages and 50s bathing hats and shoes and brooches and more from found bits and pieces... (These are picures from her site - again agreed with Jennifer yesterday)



For the woman lacking a sense of direction or for someone who knows exactly where she's going - a pair of stilettoes made from an old map.



A paper hat or hair pin (waterproofed just in case its brolly weather)



And finally a dress made from postage stamps... Those of you who have visited before will know I have a whole stash of stamps waiting to be used...No I don't think I'll be attempting anything quite like this - I know my limitations. I'll stick to covering the odd wastepaper bin. I've followed Jennifer's work for a couple of years now and have a couple of her brooches. I'd love to have one of the dresses in a box frame.

Hope you're finding things to brighten your week! Do you have any favourite designers to share?

Love Wend

Just lovely stuff!

There's a lot to be said for snail mail. While modern technology provides instant access you can't beat getting home and finding some great mail! On Friday I arrived home to find a package containing all these stamps from the lovely Carolyn at Love Stitching Red. - Thank you so much Carolyn - I look forward to using them!

Also in the same post was a French stamp from Floss at Troc Broc and Recup - thanks Floss! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of it but it was the shape of a piece of chocolate , the colour of a piece of chocolate and amazingly if you ran your finger over it - it smelt of chocolate! Both Floss and Carolyn had offered these stamps following my earlier posts about "things I do with stamps". Links to both of them are in my sidebar - they have great blogs!



In the same post I also received my Moo cards. I'm thrilled with these little cards. Where else can you get 100 cards with a different picture on each for little more than 10p per card? Brilliant.



This picture shows them at just about actual size. I hope I haven't breached any copyright with the Famous Five picture - that was a photo of a picture I have framed - it was the front and back end papers from a book which had seen better days so I rescued what I could and kept the end papers! (I love the end papers in lots of old books but that could be a separate post in its own right!)



The evening meal was delayed that night as I had to set out all the cards and have a good look at them. I'm really pleased with them.



As if that wasn't enough my 94 year old uncle had dropped off a package for me from his sister which contained a bundle of family letters from the 40s to the 80s including one she had written to my father 2 days before his wedding, reassuring him that he was only suffering from "wedding strain" and that everything would be absolutely fine after the ceremony! This was fantastic as I've been working on my family history for a few years now and anything which puts some flesh on the bones of the facts is great.



Yesterday there was a new craft market locally and I was pleased to see some good quality crafts. The weather was great and the market was buzzing. The craft market ran alongside the normal food and clothing market so the stallholders were assured of a good footfall.



I loved the vintage fabrics used on these bags and cushions and



the colours on the fairtrade stall



One lady had a distinct cat obsession...



Loving the cushions with the strips of Liberty fabrics...



Lovely stuff.



And last but not least - the lady who puts animal and bird heads onto people's bodies - strange but true and somehow weirdly attractive!

Hope you've had a good weekend!

Love Wend