The course begins

T-shirt by TheShirtDudes on Etsy

Well, I have survived Freshers Week relatively unscathed...
I was spared the sudden realisation that I really am 'quite old' that hit some of my fellow mature students - I went through that last year so I already know! I think the worst part of last year was finding my teenage years counted as Art History...

I was pleased to discover that there are quite a few mature students on my course this year and I am not the oldest (although I may well be the second oldest) which is a totally different situation from my foundation course last year.

We spent the week on form-filling and getting-to-know-you team-building type exercises - I have learned a few names, spent a fun day on the beach playing in the sand, discovered that Wrexham people are very friendly and that there are far more shopping centres around the place than I thought!

Lectures proper start on Monday, when the second and third year students also return.  I am looking forward to starting, but anxious to see what the parking will be like with so many more people - I think I may be getting up very early on Monday morning, just in case!

Nerves...

It was a beautiful day today - sadly we were a bit too busy rushing around to really take advantage of it. But I did manage a detour on the way back from the supermarket for a few minutes this afternoon...

Tomorrow I enrol on my Applied Art degree course. I am a little bit nervous!

Makeovers

Remember Florence?  The not-very-attractive polystyrene display head I acquired from my Mum?

Well I have finished giving the poor girl her makeover and I'm quite pleased with the result.

I think she fits into my shop really well - now I just have to find time to rephotograph all my hairbands!

My eldest son has been following Florence's progress with interest.  For his current art project, much inspired by the work of Levi van Veluw, he has been using his own face as a canvas.

I am waiting to see what he does next...

Origin

I've just had a lovely couple of days - I sneaked off down to London all by myself.  I know that might seem a bit odd to some but having grown up around London I feel quite comfortable there and it is a real luxury being able to go and see just what I want.

So I had a mooch around the shops, including Liberty and Anthropologie, and went to the V&A (of course).

Framed - an installation at the V&A for London Design Week

But the main purpose of my trip was so that I could visit Origin - The London Contemporary Craft Fair.  I wanted to have a good look round to see what is considered 'the best' in contemporary crafts and to see if it would help me decide which direction I want to take when I start my degree next week.  The degree course gives you the opportunity to explore wood, ceramic, glass and metal before deciding which area to specialise in. 

The work I found most interesting at Origin was from makers who mixed materials (do click on the links), such as Sarah Thirlwell who mixes turned wood with recycled plastic to great effect, and Grace Girvan whose beautiful jewellery combines enamelled silver with found objects.  A very popular booth was that of Anya Keeley who makes whimsical creatures by combining brass wire with vintage papers.  And I was thrilled to see Debbie Smyth at work in her booth - the boys and I have been fans of hers since we saw her depiction of the Runcorn Bridge a couple of years ago.

Runcorn Bridge (detail) by Debbie Smyth

Last but not least, I treated myself to a lovely bag from Melissa Simpson - isn't it a great colour?

And did it help with my decision?  Well, yes and no.  I think I have ruled out specialising in ceramics (although I would like to experiment with porcelain) but I was very taken by some of the work in wood, which is an area I really hadn't considered before...

Re-Wired Flowers

I have a lot of things left over from various projects we did during my foundation course, including a whole pile of broken electrical items.  I was tidying these into a box the other day when I noticed the outer covering was peeling off one of the communications cables - so, always willing to be distracted from tidying I peeled it off a bit more...  Inside was a rainbow of thin wires all twisted together with a strand of bare copper - irresistible!

It took me a while to separate the wires - there is a knack to it which I didn't get the hang of until I had nearly finished, but it was worth persevering.  Of course my first thought was to try the wires as flowers and I'm pleased with the result.

I separated the rainbow of wires into 2 colour groups and also included the bare copper wire in the blue flower for a bit of added sparkle.

I think I am going to list these in my new shop even though they are flowers, as they would probably get a bit lost in my ffflowers shop.

Now what shall I do with the rest of the box?

How to... post an image in the Folksy forums

There have been so many people asking how to do this over in the Folksy forums lately and many people, including myself, have tried to help out by posting the code in various forum threads.  The only problem with this is, that if you copy the code from a forum thread it simply does not work, even after you have edited it to suit your own requirements.  Why this is I don't know, but I thought I would try posting it here instead to avoid having to send the many explanatory messages and e-mails that I have been doing lately!

So, the code you need to post an image is

    <a href="link text"><img src="image location" width="250" /></a>

Copy this to a notepad file and save it for future reference.  Then when you want to use it, replace link text with the URL of the page you want to link to and image location with location of the image you want to display.  Leave all the quote marks where they are.

The width="250" part governs the size of the image.  Typically an image on folksy is around 500px wide, which can seem a bit like shouting in the forums, so I suggest you reduce the size a little.  You don't have to stick to 250, it just seemed like a good number to me!

To find the location of an image on folksy simply right click on the image and select 'Copy Image Location', then paste it into your code.

Don't forget that you can edit a post until you get it right - or delete it all together if it all goes horribly wrong. Which of course it won't!

I really hope that helps, I'm off to test it now!

Edit:  And it works a treat!

Organised

I treated myself the other day to this lovely vintage wooden organiser from restlessgeneralstore on etsy.

It arrived this morning and I wasted no time in putting it to good use...

Perfect!