Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my bloggers and hope you all have a lovely New Year. Looking forward to a creative and fun year ahead. Such as a friends wedding, I'm her maid of honour. I also aim to make my ceramic work again. I look forward to hearing any feed back or questions you have.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year x x x

Going. . . going . . . GONE!

The final stage of the painted pony trail has now come to an end. The ten day auction on eBay finished yesterday with my pony finishing at a total of £56. I was quite impressed with the total and the interest that my pony had. It was nice to think that someone liked my designs, and would like to purchase them. I hope that my pony has now gone to a good home, and will be admired for the beautiful design that I took my quality time on.

Painted Pony Auction

The final stages of the Horse World Painted Pony Trail is coming this Thursday. To raise money for the charity they are auctioning a selection of the 60 ponies that were included in the trail.

As a competition winner I was asked if I would like to keep my pony or auction it. I was extremely flattered with this offer, and getting a choice to auction it was a great honour in my eyes. Although I did enjoy making my pony and it would be a great piece to show off as a example of how my designs could be used. I decided to auction it as I wanted to support the charity and I would like to see if the public that saw my pony during the trail would buy it.

My pony was called 'Natures design' as it was inspired by many natural elements that the pony would experience. The patterns also reflected on my style of design where I am stimulated by organic shapes and patterns that I love to see grow across the surface.

When I decorated my pony it was a completely new experience for me as the surface I was drawing on was not flat and sometimes awkward. For example when I was decorating the legs and underbelly of the pony I had to hold my pens in a very strange way, but the results were beautiful as well as surprised me. It took me about 2 to 3 weeks to decorate my pony completely as the designs was very intricate and needed time to dry so they wouldn't smudge.

Seeing the final product completed was a great feeling. Finding my pony proudly displayed in the Body shop window with a protective layer, gave it the quality finish it needed. On the opening day it was great to see so many people be involved in the trail whether they were fellow artists, family members, Horse World colleagues or public that had an interest in the charity, they gave a warm happy start to the trail. I personally found all the charity members a great team to work with and would love to do the trail again.

So for any admires of my work please visit the online auction for Horse World this Thursday coming, you end up having a beautiful piece of art as well support a great charity. Also any questions or comments are gratefully received.

800 views

I have now reached over 800 views.

I would like to welcome any new followers and thank you so much to all my regular viewers. I appreciate you all taking the time to have a peak into my life. I will be posting more designs soon, so please watch this space.

Here is a little snippet of an image I made for a friend, it was called 'Paws for thought'. What do you think I'd love some comments, they are all welcome.

5 days left of the painted pony trail

 I can't believe it is September already. The last few months have been quite busy and it seems to have gone by so quickly, but I have loved being part of the painted pony trail and helping support Horse World on their ongoing campaign. I have had a few friends and family see my pony in all her glory, displayed proudly in the Body Shop window. I have had some lovely comments too, saying that they are so proud of me and that the design looks amazing, including being told by the campaign leader that it was one of his personal favourites.

I personally have a few favourites myself which were all my fellow competitors in the design competition. I particularly loved all four ponies I have shown images of to the left. Their designs were all very colourful and inventive. With the cupcake pony I loved how the design was transform to the real model as the cakes were made 3D. I think that this was a great way to decorate and made me want to eat them.

The Olympia pony was a great that has suited the recent events well. I particularly loved how the Olympic rings were made into horseshoes interlinked. The pebbles pony was quite interesting and I respect the person who had to decorate the pony as there was a lot of dots. I also love how the eyes were silver and decorated with gems.

 The last pony I liked was candyfloss which was decorated with feathers and gems to make it look like part of a carnival. I particularly loved the big pink headdress.
Being part of the pony trail has been great fun, and I would definitely do it again especially if the ponies were bigger, like the Gorillas that visited Bristol last year.

The competition has inspired me to start looking at new designs and what I will do next, any ideas!?
 If you would like to see my pony there is still 5 days left as the trail finishes on 7th September. In Bristol Cabot Circus, the Body Shop.

Competition results

Zest for Life

I can now officially say that the competition I entered a few months ago was for Zizzi. As part of the competition terms and conditions I was not able to share any information, but I can now talk about it.

The competition was to design an image for some plates that would displayed in the restaurants. Where the customers could use and buy them. The theme for the competitions was deliciously stylish which I first found difficult to think of a design for. I chose go with citrus fruit slices, as I find citrus juice refreshing and Delicious. I also thought that the shapes of the segments would be interesting to look at with my personal touch.

It took me a while to make my design because I decided to make nine citrus slices. For each slice I tried to make them individual with different patterns in the segments. However I found this quite hard to come up with a pattern for every segment, so I decided to stick to a group of patterns. When I was happy with the design I played around with the layout and colours. I thought of many things like making a spiral or flower head, but i decided to make them a little random as I thought it would show of the patterns.

Many people like the finished product unfortunately my design was not selected to become a plate. However I will try next year which will be my third chance so hopefully third time lucky.

My first time I tried I had to design a cover for the restaurant menu, which I researched by looking at the menu and tried to make a design for all the vegetables they used.

What do you think?

Menu Design

The Trail of Painted Ponies Grand opening!

 Last saturday was the grand opening of the Horseworld store and painted pony trail.

Grand Opening of the store

I woke up excited about seeing my pony finished and displayed. I had worked so hard on decorating my pony that it took me just under 3 weeks to complete. I then sent my pony back to the organisers to be given its finishing touch by covering it with a protective layer as my design was drawn on by the pens I use on much of my work which although somewhat difficult to work with, brings out a look of quality.

Shop Window

When I arrived at Bristol's Cabot Circus the Horseworld store was surrounded by excited people. Some not knowing what was going on but, like me there were other competition entrees. They handed out sweets and cakes while waiting for the shop to open.

When the ribbon was cut everyone tried to get in the shop at the same time. I was a little disappointed when I didn't see my pony I thought something might have happened to it. I noticed a few of the entrees that also entered the competition and it was nice to see them made as a pony. One of my favourite was a cup cake design, which looked really good as the cakes were 3D.

My pony as a shop window display

Me and My Pony

When I eventually got to talk to the charity organisers, they were  happy to meet me and thanked me for entering the competition. I then asked where my pony was and described it to them. As soon as they recognised it they were excited and said "that they loved my design and it must have taken me a long time". This made me feel great and excited as it was nice to get some feedback.

They then said that my pony was in The Body Shop and if they could take some photographs of me with it, which I was happy for them to do.

I was quite proud to just be part of the opening day and the trail. I appreciated it even more that they loved my pony. It made me feel proud of the 3 weeks I spent on it, carefully creating my patterns inspired by natural elements and adding my personal to every detail. Although some parts were hard to decorate, such as the belly and inner legs. I think my efforts were worth while as the final piece turned out beautiful and better than I expected. I hope the public enjoy it as much as I did making it.
The trail is on until 7th September. So please go see the amazing ponies involved in the trail. It is for a great charity and I am proud to be part of the trail.

If you have any feedback, comments or would like to know more about my work please send me a message. I'd be happy to help.

Horse World Painted Ponies Trail Finalist

I am pleased to annouced that my design will be one of the ponies that will be created for the trail. I would like to thank everyone that helped and supported me in the voting process.

I am also pleased to annouce that I have been asked to decorate my pony. They asked me if I would like to do the decoration myself as they could see I was artistically talented.

 

So the past few weeks I have been decorating my pony. When I first got my package I was surprised with the size. I thought the horse would be a little bigger, but I think this will be a good thing in the end as my designs take me a while to do on flat paper, and I got a short deadline.

When I first started to decorate my pony I immediately noticed how much harder the surface was to draw on. I first tested the surface with a pencil and then pen, by drawing on the base. I decided to decorate my pony the same way that my designed it. This was because I don't want to lose any of the detail and find that using my pens I can control my decoration more than if I used a paint brush. I have had a few problems with angles and surface as the size of the pony has made it difficult to draw on certain parts like the legs. I have also found that the image is prone to smudging if I'm not extra careful and don't allow time for the ink to dry.

I have found the process really intersting and have loved decorating my pony. Not long now till I finish design. Then I can relax and enjoy watching people admire it on display which I'm really looking forward to seeing. I wonder where it will be in Bristol Cabot Circus.

Its a secret. . .

This week I have been working on a new competition that I can not disclose for now because of competition rules, but will show you as soon as I can.

I will say that creating my signature designs again has made me miss my ceramic work. However I have enjoyed designing again. Now I have completed my design I find myself wanting to draw more to fill my time and expand my artwork.
As well this week I have been working on my Horse World competition trying to collect votes to win. I hope that my entry does well, as I would to see my artwork decorating a pony. I also think it will look amazing and attach a great deal of interest for the competition auction.

Horse World Painted Ponies Competion 2012

What beautiful weather!

Recently I have been looking for work but have also found a few competitions that I could enter.

Where I stumbled upon a competition where I could design a decoration for some ponies that will be displayed around Bristol. Like the Bristol Gorillas I posted about last year.

So I decided to do an entry and submitted it. I based my entry on the natural elements that horses and ponies would experience. Tying my style of artwork in quite well. I decided to keep the design black and white as I think the design has more of an impact. Also I find that we naturally fill in the colours in our heads when it is an image we recognise.

 This competition is to support the Horse World Foundation to help rescue and rehome horses.

I recently received a letter that my design was short listed to be made. Now I need your help to get my design to the next stage. If you have facebook could please search on the link below and click like on one of my designs. People who want to vote offline are able to do so, by picking up a 'ballot paper' showing the designs from HorseWorld's Visitor Centre or downloading it from the HorseWorld website.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=354858941234868&set=a.354827204571375.85905.127678690619562&type=1&theater

Thank you for your support and hope you like the design. :)

May Show 2012

This May I planned to show my work at a craft show in Yeovil with my friend Niki. Unfortunately I was ill and unable to attend the show :( but bless my friend she took my work for me. Sadly the weekend was slow but don't think it helped that it was pouring down all weekend. My lovely friend made some sells with her beautiful flower brooches. However I did not make any sells. Just looking to having some money to make more. I miss clay. I will now focus on my designs making more black and white designs.