Check out the new girl!

Diva

She looks like she knows a thing or two... 'Diva' is the forth in a series of vintage inspired Tiny Tiles. The tile measures just 3.5 x 2.5 inches - ACEO size. A thick glossy layer of resin covers the photo image which rests on a rich gold painted background. Diva is for sale in the shop for a mere ten British pounds.

From Where I Live

Here are the first two paintings from a short series inspired by the countryside where we live.

The walls and bridge are created with small stone chippings set in the resin. I took these along to a 'Ladies Night' event on Friday, I sold a lot of Tile Paintings, 'Heathered Hills' was especially popular - I took several orders for more. Both of these are available in my shop

I'm working on another new series at the moment too, inspired by vintage movie star / pin up imagery. More about that soon...

Have a lovely week!

Arts Trail!

Two weekends ago I had a stall at the Saltaire Arts Trail Festival. It was a truly excellent and very busy couple of days. The atmosphere was great, I chatted to friends old and new, met lots of new customers, started Christmas shopping* and generally had a fine old time. I sold lots of jewellery and Tiny Tile Paintings - I even picked up a little teaching gig - more about that nearer the time.
*Early I know but there were sooo many beautiful things and I've booked lots more events on the weekends approaching Christmas time is short.

The collection of snaps above shows my table and images of the very many public art events happening around Saltaire over the whole two week event.

After a weekend working we spent the next weekend visiting. There was a fabulous continental foods market, with just about every food imaginable! There's just a few examples below. It was difficult to take photos as there were so many other visitors too! There was live music and a vintage fair, a fun fair, lots of interactive arts activities...the list is endless.

Although the children were a little overwhelmed just before we left we even managed to visit a couple of the Open Houses. This is were residents of Saltaire village display works of art by a collection of Yorkshire based artists and literally open their houses to the public to come in and look around. This may sound a little strange, a twist on open studio events I suppose, but it is really successful. The woodturned vessels in the pic above are displayed on a kitchen table, there were canvas' above the cooker, sculptures standing on the hearth. Next year I'd like to see all of the houses that take part.

All in all it was a great festival, even better than last year. I feel very lucky to have this virtually on my doorstep! The organisers are an amazing group of people:)

My new packaging

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at ways to 'build my brand' ( I really don't like that term though!). When I sell my jewellery I include an information card with the item which explains to my customers how to care for the piece. Many of the galleries I supply have expressed their appreciation for this.

I wanted to find a way to package my Tiny Tile Paintings that would look appealing when being sold in galleries and at fairs and would stand up to being posted. The tiles have a thick resin finish with embelishments that stand above the surface of the resin, these will need some protection.

So after lots of playing around I came up with these,

I would love to hear what you think about them. Just as I think I have solved one little problem up pops another one! Now I need to come up with something for the series of round Tiny Tile Paintings I have just begun making. I'm thinking about a much narrower band, similar to the ones above or I might try constructing some sort of pouch....so it's back to playing around for me:)

Lollipop Tree