Inspiration: the Seed Cathedral and Pae White's mobiles

I came across The Seed Cathedral (Thomas Heatherwick) while searching for seed head images, I found the building inspirational and beautiful. The outside looks softly playful, while the inside is intensely detailed and interesting. Feted as a "house of worship for biodiversity at Shanghai's 2010 World Expo" it is constructed of 60,000 light-funnelling fibre-optic rods, each had one or more seeds implanted at its tip. The optic rods were designed to respond to external light conditions, so that movements of clouds and changes of light outside are experienced inside as changes in luminosity. (Time Photos, 2010). I would have loved to have photographed it, experienced the changes of light and detailed seed heads.

Photo's taken from Time Photos online (accessed 21 November 2011).

I also love this work by Heatherwick, a site specific sculpture built above a pool in the atrium of the Welcome Trust building in London. Inspired by the space, the artist explored ways of capturing the dynamic shapes of falling liquids. He experimented with pouring molten metal into water, which created extraordinary and complex forms, no two experiments produced the same results.

I think its a beautiful sculpture and a clever use of space.



It reminds me of Pae White's exhibition at Milton Keynes gallery in 2006. The papercut mobiles, made from cardboard cut-outs, suspended from nylon thread, moved with the disruption of air as you walked by. I thought they were colourful, playful and dramatic as they moved about. They were a very welcome break from a miserable winter's day!







Pae White pictures from Milton Keynes gallery http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/white/.

(post originally posted in 2011)

Inspiration: colour and pattern

Found on Huckleberry Creative, bringing colour and pattern to the outside of our homes.

Turner Contemporary

I recently visited the new Turner Contemporary in Margate with dad, it was definitely worth a visit.  I really enjoyed taking photo's of the sculptures, the building was a great space, and the view from the cafe down onto the beach was wonderful.  For more info on forthcoming exhibitions, including one on Turner's watercolours in January 2012, visit their website.

Poem on the stairs

Deal beach and high street

My sister recently turned 30th, which was a bit of a shock to us all.   We celebrated with a lovely picnic on Deal beach.  The weather was good and we managed to eat our picnic without getting stung by wasps, the Great British seaside experience! My little niece and nephew enjoyed the sea.  My nephew loves to throw himself in with gay abandon where my niece is a bit more circumspect, staying on the waters edge studying her brother.  I'm sure it's a phase which won't last long!

We rode to the beach in my sister's camper van, my first ride!  Thankfully it lived up to its name 'Hope', as we made it to the beach and back.

On the subject of beaches: I heard a very nice story at a friend’s birthday picnic, a friend of hers collects and paints stones with her grandchildren, they then take the stones back to the beach and hide them for someone to find.  It’s up to the findee whether they keeps them (she paints ‘finders keepers’ on the back) or leaves them there for everyone else to enjoy. A nice idea.

Fish stones by Laura Cameron

Deal High Street has some really lovely shops.  I discovered some really nice lamp shades by Lush designs.  You can find out more about them on their blog. I have my eye on their 'wild pig' in spring green lampshade!

Finally I’ve signed up for a Japanese Wood Block Printing Workshop with Laura Boswell at ArtworksMK in December, I’m looking forward to it!

Cinema Paradiso

I love a good film and there’s nothing better than watching a good film in an interesting venue, particularly nostalgic or unusual venues. A friend sent me details of Letchworth Broadway cinema, an art deco building in Letchworth Garden city. It reminded me of other fantastic venues I’ve been to or would like to go to.



The Empire is a lovely family run cinema in Sandwich, Kent. I went with my family. It was lovely: little pots of ice cream at interval and everyone sang along to the film.



The Electric Cinema in Birmingham is fantastic. I went to see a double bill of Spanish movies, ‘La ardilla roja’ or ‘The Red Squirrel’ directed by Julio Medem and ‘Talk to Her’ by Pedro Almodovar, on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Between films we enjoyed a cuppa and home made chocolate cake served on china in the cinema foyer.





A bit closer to home, the excellent Parks Trust have a free Open Air Festival in the summer.

And the bizarre (but in a good way) in London: Films on Fridges, a pop up out door cinema in Hackney where the screen is surrounded by fridges. Linking ideas about waste, sustainability, industrial heritage and creativity.

Exhibition: MK Art

I went to see New Art MK at the MK Gallery.  It was great to see the work of local Milton Keynes artists, in particular I liked the cross stitch work of Jamie Chalmers aka Mr X (1), the beautiful photographs of Kamil Szkopik (2), Laura Keeley's beautiful paintings evoking dreams or half remembered memories (3) and Emma Wilde's delicate pencil drawings (4)  Pics taken from the MK Gallery website, which you can visit for information on the exhibition.

Seeing the cross stitch stuff made me remember that I really want to have a go at making Emily Peacock's 'Kiss' cushion, its so lively with lovely colours, originally seen on Kirsty's Homemade Homes.  I found Ruffles and Ribbons blog very informative with good tips for making it.

Dressmaking: Chic bike bag

Made from my own drafted pattern, denim and printed canvas cotton.

Appliqued bike motif, before I really knew what I was doing :).

Snazzy handle and covered button.