Shiny cabinet of shiny shinies

The period after New Year is a quiet time when trying to sell art and craft (unless you've got a really generous January sale maybe!) So, I took the opportunity to look through my stock, remove a few early pieces from sale because they no longer meet the standards I've set myself along the way and expand into new areas, particularly hair-wear.This doesn't mean I'm making hats, but I am expanding my range of one-off fascinators and hairbands (now known as 'plaitinators' courtesy of fellow artist Lisa Thorne... As part of this, I've replenished my cabinet in the Art House (AKA 'my second home') in Southampton. Here's some of what's currently available - enjoy!

Pendants - steampunk and blacksmith styles.

Mini-me in a frame.

The cabient in all its shiny glory.

Purty fascinator with mesh, bows, checks and rhinestones.

Cyberpendant.

Cyberbrooches.

'Plaitinators' made of leather offcuts from Conkers Shoes in Totnes.

Mighty steampunk mechanical brooch.

Ritz of bits

As you may know, my jewellery and hair-wear is made from reused and recycled materials, but I try to follow this ethic as far as possible in my other artwork as well. So, when I found I has an old printer's drawer and all manner of other bits and pieces accumulated in my materials store, an idea started to form, and that idea was 'Hotel'...

'Hotel'

So, why hotel? Well, the most obvious reason is that it is made of rooms - as simple as that - but, it has a little more depth as it is, in part, highly personal, so although some of these rooms are primarily decorative,  many are actually 'memory rooms' containing little segments of autobiography. A boot from a childhood Action Man, a small volumetric flask from my PhD, the sketch that became a piece of silverwork, a Rainbow warrior badge, items from my travels, an empty pack of Citalopram. Of course, it's designed to be looked at closely, peered at, scrutinised and zoomed in on - so, let's go on a little tour...

The central third of Hotel - there's that flask (second room up, bottom right) and of course a magic fish held down by a spider (top left)

Zooming in a bit more, the moulted skin of a stick-insect (I am also an entomologist), chainsaw links and postage stamps under a celestial arch.

If you been here for example, you'll know about my liking for 'cyber' imagery using bits of electronic gubbins...

I like pubs, well good ones anyway - here's a tiiiiiny one complete with posters.

The only room I've ever wallpapered...

Words, I love them so... to the extent of wearing out a Scrabble set.

Luv 'im or hate 'im, a little homage to Damien Hirst

That's all for now - I hope you enjoyed the tour, and if current plans come to fruition, you may get the chance to see Hotel hung in a gallery at some point...

(Keep wearing) fascination

No, not an homage to the Human League (I make no apologies for punning) but an introduction to my recent foray into making hair-wear/fascinators. This may seem an odd addition to my jewellery range, but they are small pieces packed with detail, so more of a logical progression that they may initially appear. I'm also retaining (of course) the recycled/reused ethos, so apart from the bases and clips, they are constructed out of, well, all sorts of things and generally have an industrial/cyberpunk/steampunk feel - there won't be any sprays of dyed feathers... for more, have a look here - they are quite tricky and time-consuming to make but there are more in the pipeline...

Fascinators with mainsprings - wobbly!

'Cyberpump' fascinator - a wondrous device for your hair (and lighter than it looks).

The first one I sold - a tiny time machine - here being worn by its new owner at a Steampunky gig.

Synapse by stages

I've just finished 'Synapse', my latest science-inspired mixed-media piece - so, here's a brief insight into how it was created. Enjoy!

Stage 1: The baseboard is in the background - here some components from dead mobile phones...

Stage 2: Adding components to the baseboard - it could be a space-station, but it's not...

Stage 3: Adding more components.

Stage 4: Now the right way up - adding detail in gold ink - but the pen ran out and it's 10pm!

Stage 5: New gold pens bought, final details and white oil-paint highlights finish the piece, so here it is - 'Synapse' (40x50cm approx), £POA

Getting in touch with my cyber-side

Halloween's coming (yup, it really is) - pumpkins, trick-or-treaters and of course masks. Being a wearer-of-glasses, masks can be a bit of a pain, but they do offer interesting opportunies for some not-flat artistic expression. Given that I like a bit of detailed pen-and-ink work, including some sci-fi cyber-style gold-on-black, you might not be too surprised at the route I went down to produce these. Better still, the add-ons are all recused bits and pieces (the red eye is from an old cycle lamp), and the blank masks can be acquired very cheaply from fancy-dress shops like this splendid independent one (my personal fave, hence the plug). Anyhow, here's what I came up with...

Cybermask I - an electronic pharaoh inspired by Stargate/Fifth Element.

Cybermask II - a head full of words and numbers...