cream or jam first?

I had a cream tea yesterday in Chagford to celebrate one of my patterns being featured in the new MOYO, a magazine about surface pattern design. We had our usual discussion about whether the cream or jam should go on first. Whichever it tastes just as good!

Sprigmug  © Lesley Todd 2012

Lots of fab work from my fellow students is also on show in the magazine so if you’re interested in joining the new round of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (ABSPD) courses that are about to begin why not take a look… Congrats to everyone who got featured!

A screenshot of the magazine… my pattern is 2nd row, 2nd down.

“MOYO, the world’s first online magazine dedicated to surface pattern design! Packed with interviews, design briefs, colour challenges, art reviews, student showcases, design tips, inspiration, trends and more.”

I had a lovely few hours exploring Chagford which is on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. It’s a fabulous place, full of quirky shops, galleries, teashops and pubs. People are very friendly here and there is a great arty vibe. It is unusual for a small place to have so many independently owned shops selling everything you could think of or need. It would be an amazing place to live surrounded by lush countryside, maybe one day…

We found this Swedish mid century tray by Konga Princesse in one of the shops and decided to take it home.

We also visited Stone Lane Gardens where there are sculptures to be found hiding in the trees. I fell in love with the work of Tati Dennehy, nature had added it’s own flourish to her work and it couldn’t be more perfect in this woodland garden.

Sculpture by Tati Dennehy

I also fell for this beautiful owl sculpture, I’m afraid I don’t know the artist’s name. Please leave a comment if you know.

Gorgeous patterns to be found in nature… will definitely be using this as inspiration!

Bye for now and if you’re in the UK have a wonderful bank holiday weekend!

colour love from the rhs tatton flower show

Garden designed by Foundation Degree Garden & Landscape Design Year 2 students and built by Reaseheath College.

I had lots of fun recently gathering inspiration at the flower show which takes place just down the road from us at Tatton park. I love seeing the amazing spaces the garden designers come up with and their innovative ideas. There really is so much inspiration for patterns and colour schemes to be had – I took loads of photos! But this was my favourite garden. The colours just popped. The photo bottom left shows a really interesting structure built for insects and wildlife to inhabit. And I love the painted bench!! Gorgeous colours that were echoed around the garden.

a magical place

On Sunday we spent a few tranquil but freezing cold hours on Llanddwyn Island (also known as lover’s island) on Anglesey. It’s a really special place and when you’re there you feel like you’re a million miles away from civilisation.


These tiny cottages used to be where the lighthouse keeper lived, I can’t imagine what that must have been like. Now they are all empty and one houses an exhibition of the island.

This is a very ancient, spiritual place. The view across the sea to the mountains of Snowdonia is really beautiful and the light is ever changing.

The only residents are the ponies who keep the grass down.


A really lovely place to be.
Strangely, I turned the TV on last night and there was a film on called Half Light with Demi Moore in it. She was standing in a red and white lighthouse and I said to Mr P that looks just like Llanddwyn but with a red and white lighthouse superimposed on it, and sure enough it was.

smouldering wood

The first attempt using my new pyrography machine was so much fun and my hair had the faint aroma of wood smoke for the rest of the evening. It surprised me how slow the process was but I found it so relaxing and satisfying that I’m looking forward to doing another one. First though I can’t decide if I’ve finished this piece or not and I’m in two minds as to whether I should fill in the tree or not. I have a bad habit of always pushing things too far and then wishing I hadn’t so I’ve decided to leave it for now. What do you think?

It’s destined to be either a large key ring or a small wall hanging.

I used an idea from my sketchbook. All my ideas seem to revolve around the forest these days probably because of my daily walks with Floss. It seemed fitting to use a nature based idea on the wood which is a lovely piece of English sycamore.

This is the wire tip that heats up to burn the wood. You can make all sorts of marks and tones depending on how long you hold it on the wood.

Speaking of the forest, the government is planning on selling off our precious woodland. You can find out more about it here and more importantly, there is a public consultation starting from today that will run for 12 weeks until 21st April 2011. If the issue is important to you then please take the time to respond to it. You can find the document on the forestry commission website and it is possible to respond online. This is our chance to make our views known.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

silver tea party

My mum loves tea and always makes it properly in a pot. It is always brought out on a tray with the milk in a little jug and a separate pot of hot water. It is their ritual at least three times a day. I think my mum would stop functioning without her daily cuppa.

So I decided to make a tea necklace. It took me a while to figure out how to construct a teapot from metal clay. I knew if I tried to make it straight from the clay that it would start to dry and crack before I’d finished it because of the short working time. So I made a prototype from polymer clay first. I spent ages getting it just how I wanted it and it was very fiddly being so small. When it was finished I realised that to make life much easier for myself I could make a silicon mould from it to create an exact replica (albeit a slightly smaller one with the shrinkage of the clay when it’s fired). That was a lot of fun! So I made a tea cup too.

The moulds were very easy to work with, the clay popped out without any problems, even with the very thin handles to deal with.

After firing and aging with liver of sulphur it looked like an old, well used teapot and I strung it with some crystals and a magnetic clasp to make it easy to take on and off.

I just wish the price of silver would come down. There are so many things dancing around in my head that I’d like to make but it is so expensive at the moment. I will have to start drawing them out in my sketchbook in preparation.

silver trinkets

I wanted to make Mr P a very personal gift so I spent some time thinking about textures and things he loves and holds dear. There is a pair of leather boots that he’s very attached to that I will forever associate with him so I decided to make a texture plate using some polymer clay. I was really pleased with the amount of detail it picked up and transferred to the metal clay. When I aged the fired silver with liver of sulphur and polished it back, the texture really popped out. It was like magic.

I think Mr P likes it. It’s dangling from his neck as I type.

hibernation!!

I've just been woken out of my temporary blogging hibernation with a jolt! I have won the most beautiful amazing giveaway at the Mimilove blog!! I really can't believe my luck!! As I just said to Karen, I haven't won anything for a long time so I must have been saving all my luck up for something really wonderful! If you've not seen Karen's stitching and painting magic before go and take a look, it's really amazing artwork!! And to top it off I won a lovely book as well so maybe there will be some stitchery going on around here soon too!

Here I have been braving the cold and ice of the forest every day with the wolflet. The freezing fog has created the most amazing winter wonderland, with mini icicles adorning every leaf, twig and branch.

These photos of the rose are from last week before the real deep freeze kicked in. Needless to say, the rose is now hibernating too.

I've just been cutting out a freezer paper stencil with a scalpel knife. I'm typing this while I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the t-shirt. I'm so impatient that I have to distract myself so I don't pull the stencil off too soon and ruin it. There are also some silver metal clay presents in the works too but I will post about that another time so as not to spoil any surprises.

Keep warm and snug wherever you are! I am off to celebrate my win with a hot chocolate!

autumnal pebbles

Yesterday I saw the most beautiful fly agaric fungi in the forest. They were HUGE! And so many of them! I've never seen so many in one go. That'll teach me not to carry my camera with me. I will have to take it with me later to see if I can get some good photos. So anyway, I decided to celebrate with a mushroom pebble.

This new bird pebble I think is my most favourite pebble to date. It has a curved line running all the way round it and I wanted to make use of it in my design. Really pleased with how it's come out. Anyway, into the etsy shop they will go.

The very exciting news I was talking about...! There is an article about my pebbles along with an interview in Bead Magazine (UK issue 25 - published today). I haven't had a copy in my hands yet but the proof looked ace. I can't wait to get hold of it so I can show my mum. I think she will cry!! They are also having a give away of 3 of my pebbles. If you see it please give me a shout and let me know what it looks like :-) I can't stand the suspense but I won't be able to get a copy until the weekend. Eek!

silver metal clay adventures

Major excitement here! I've just made my first ring using silver metal clay and it must be beginner's luck because it has come out pretty much exactly how I hoped!! I am beyond pleased!!

The gorgeous lampwork bead was made by the very talented Julie of Lush Lampwork. I'm not sure my work could ever really do it justice but when I saw the bead on her website I knew just what I wanted to make. The colour and texture reminded me of sea glass and the ocean in general.

I had seen a project I wanted to try in a fantastic book by Kate McKinnon and the ring is based on this. This is by far the best book I've seen on metal clay and goes into great depth about the material and working practices, and uses silversmithing techniques too.

The book helped so much and I learned a lot just from this one project. This was the first time I'd attempted to make a rivet which was exciting and just a bit scary when I had to cut the wire to less than 1mm before hammering it flat on the top. I made a little flower shaped washer with a dotty texture to go underneath.

There was a bit of guess work involved when it came to making it the right size for my finger. I thought that it would still be way too big after being fired, even accounting for the shrinkage so I just couldn't believe it when it slipped onto my finger perfectly! How lucky!! Definitely beginner's luck I think.

I have also fired the sage leaf from the last post. Here it is straight afterwards. It has oxidation on the surface which has to be removed with a soft brass brush before finishing.

I think I'm falling in love with the whole process. I just can't help but get excited about possibilities of this material! It is like alchemy!

peacock blue

Iridescent shimmering hues of turquoise, blues and greens. As beautiful as the Atlantic on a sunny day.



I had been following them around, waiting and waiting, hoping for a display. I'd almost given up hope when this one came strutting along and shook his tail feathers right at me to everyone's amusement. I think he liked the attention.


It was taken at Trevarno in Cornwall. A really lovely place where they make organic soaps, beautiful gardens, hold the national daffodil collection (a whole field of daffodils - stunning) and have a gardening museum full of old advertising signs and tools. Well worth a visit if you like that gentle way of life.

ice cream dreams

I thought I would share my favourite image from our holiday in Cornwall, taken in St Ives. I literally took thousands of photos while we were away (I love having a digital camera!) which is why I still haven't posted any up because it is pretty daunting to choose which ones! But I think I might try to group them together into little themes.

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I am now the age that I thought was properly old and grown up when I was a teenager. I thought that by this magic age I would have everything figured out, that I would know everything (ha!). I think that in reality I'm still that same person just in an older body! Well that's just me anyway. For my birthday celebrations I went to see Show of Hands (again!) at Band on the Wall in Manchester's northern quarter. They were brilliant as always and as it was such an intimate venue (standing room only) we got right to the front! The atmosphere was amazing!

Dreams for this year include:

1. Finding a way to help other people/animals/charities. This has been on my mind a lot recently. It probably wouldn't be worth me doing a sponsorship type event because I don't come into contact with that many people in my day to day existence. I wonder whether it would be possible to set up an etsy shop and donate all the profit to a worthwhile cause? Did anyone see 'blood, sweat and luxuries'? Really shocking and thought provoking!
   
2. Reading more. Have you discovered any good books lately?
   
3. Getting back to painting again and using up some of the craft supplies I have squirrelled away around my room like lino, sculpey, pastels, stamp making, resin, silver metal clay. Not to mention all the books I have on different crafts.
   
4. Working with PMC and learning to solder.
5. A secret one that I don't want to share at the moment.
6. Getting Floss a doggy passport and heading across the sea to Brittany. Would probably prefer to go without her but just can't bear the thought of her in kennels.
   
7. Lots of summer bbqs, get-togethers, gardening and veg growing.
8. Finding a haircut that suits me.
   
9. Learning how to deal with clutter better. I am a bit of a hoarder.
   
10. Making my time with Mr P really special.
11. Getting fitter and shedding the weight that seems to be creeping on when I'm not paying attention!
12. Making the most of opportunities that come my way.

I'm sure there are loads more now I've started thinking about it.

Playing frisbee fetch at Marazion.

Bye for now.

forest finds

All little treasures picked up from the forest floor with the clouds swirling, heavy with rain and the wind whistling through the trees yesterday.

Precious solitude and a walk through my mind as well as the forest. I love the sky as long as it is doing something, anything. Anything but still and grey.

I had fun making compositions, inspired by Margie.

So beautiful for such an evil little thing, made up of these tiny hooks which all pull off and tangle themselves in Floss's fur, driving us both to despair. Exactly what it is designed by nature to do, to spread itself far and wide. I have even got one of the hooks embedded in my index finger. But the beauty is not lost on me, I brought a stem home with five attached to photograph, cursing them by the time we stepped through the door as they had disintegrated and hooked onto my bag, my coat, the car seat, my hat! So careful to put them in the bin rather than the compost. I think they are burdock and I don't want them tormenting me in the garden as well.

I have added a new poll to the sidebar... teatime!
Happy Easter everyone.