Salaric

Tomorrow I am running two of my Sustainability Series of workshops as Salaric Craft at Gloucester Cathedral as part of their Sustainability and Harvest Festival – it marks the 1st yr anniversary of the solar panels going live and is part of an on going development process to make the Cathedral green and sustainable.

One of the workshops is making paper flowers from old magazines and books and turning them into table centres and displays, this includes making the “vases”, basket making, and weaving paper and is adaptable to all skill levels.

The other workshop is creating jewellery from reclaimed materials, this is another upcycling workshop – some of the materials are “rubbish” like old paper, card, bottle tops and some things that were surplus to requirements and were saved from becoming needless landfill like half used bottle of nail vanish and metal washers.

The Sustainability Series of workshops and talks that I have designed as part of Salaric is very important to me as I believe it a) helps people learn skills that maybe life changers or even life savers and b) it helps people become more aware of the waste and issues surrounding the environment and hopefully will help curb things like global warming c) it gives people ideas of cheap ways to fix, repair and make things which in these times of austerity is something that many people need (p.s. these workshops are free tomorrow 🙂 )

On the plane on the way out to South Africa I saw the sky turn into lines of colour and the land drifting in changing bioms below – this led me to imagining the adventures we would have and I painted this picture at the hotel when we arrived. Followed by the one below which depicts the orange cloth clogs, the girls cuddlies and the blue blankets they gave us on the plane as well as the landing gear.

I’ve been trying to do more quick simple line sketches to catch the shapes and movements. These are just in what ever note book I happen to have at the time, being trained in field work I have a tendency to want to annotate all the pictures and have to keep reminding myself that it is not needed!

These are some of the ones I did in South Africa, I wish I’d done more but tended to be chasing small people and making sure they did not climb into lion dens (which the youngest did actually attempt :/ ).

We visited alot of rescue centres and sanctuaries so not everything I saw and drew was native to South Africa – like these Hopper Penguins.

Pro-Galleries on Photo box is shutting down this means the little Point-Defect shop we had on there is going to be no more and that we will have to find another way to sell you guys prints!

We still have the Cafe Press shop but I am always on the look out for other outlets of my art works etc… so if you know of anything good please let me know 🙂 Ta!

I can still get and have physical prints for sale at events.

I am still uber busy with the colouring book visual poem A Stranger Dream: Love that a launched at the end of April. It is steadily selling and I have actually gotten around to sending out some review copies (yes I know it is supposed to happen before you release the book 🙂 ).

I sold out of the heart handled mugs with the art work Love on it – one of the pictures from the book. I have ordered more and they have now arrived 🙂 I am still sorting out the Normal Mugs with normal handles but will have them soon 🙂

Yesterday the first lot of artwork badges arrived and I have homed 3 of them already 🙂

There is a still quiet a bit of a to-do list to get everything I want to go with the book/be done with the art work 🙂

So far no bad reviews (that wont last but for now I am basking).

I am down to just two copies of the books I had to sell – there is another lot en-route, I will have them with me tonight at the poetry slam. Otherwise the next chance to buy the books and artwork stuff from me is going to be The Mini-Mall Con in June 🙂

(I may also be making Alaric dress as young spock once again which as those who came to my 30th know is a treat worth it’s weight in jelly beans!).

Of course you can order it on line from Amazon.

I hope to be doing more shows, stalls and things with it and I will be seeing if I can make the video of good enough quality to maybe show at an event but we are looking at next year for that sort of thing 🙂

Stories and poems are starting to go up on the various Monster Blogs once more which has been a long time coming thanks to head bang stuff. However slight change… they now tend to get pre-viewed on my Patreon account for those who are supporting me financially – to be honest though it paid for me to launch and create A Stranger Dream I still do not have quiet enough to be replacing the tech I need to replace and to make the blogs ad free etc… So if you find yourself with monies and you want to see stories and art from me… (yeah I hate asking for money but you know it has to happen or I actually can’t afford to be producing this stuff!).

Anyway…. my patreon.

Also – yes a lot of alsos 🙂 I will have art at Art in the Park Cheltenham this summer.

And lastly – I really liked working on A Stranger Dream colouring in book, about 2 weeks in I made a list of other colouring in books I would like to make both poetry and not poetry based. So last week I popped a poll up to narrow down which one to work on next. I only gave four options and the ability for people to suggest other things… the resounding favourite option was Myths and Legends so I have started work on that.

I have a couple of commissions at the moment so it has to fit in around them but it has begun!

…..

Opps I lied one more thing or maybe two!!!

I will be doing a set at Science Show Off in Bristol on Weds 25th of May at the Grain Barge – there will be stars and poems and possibly a puppet but hopefully no singing!

And there will be steam punk and science-craft workshops run by me at Wychwood Musical Festival 🙂

I do have a news letter…

I think that’s everything but probably isn’t!

I love this piece of graffiti or street art or what ever we are calling it these days 🙂 I found it at Weston Super Mare.

Last Saturday was knit in public day – I was still at the Cheltenham Science Festival working so I simply took my break at the knitting corner were they are knitting the mineral Perovskite as mentioned last week!

The project has grown!

I only managed one triangle in the end but I was extremely busy.

Interestingly some knitters still feel that it is inappropriate to knit in public – not entirely sure why – I tend to knit at events during my down time – if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t get very much done to be honest. Plus at home there tends to be a small child or two climbing all over me so knitting isn’t going to work very well in those conditions!

Though I did manage to get my eldest involved 🙂

My hubby sadly didn’t get a chance and was a bit worried his crochet wouldn’t count anyway.

I’ve not really kept up with the updates on the knitting! I’ve been going for almost two years now! I didn’t manage the sock challenge but will maybe reattempt next year! At the moment I am trying to finish off the Berry Bear blanket in time for Mary’s 3rd birthday but the circular needle is breaking so I am attempting a sugru fix with the knitting insitu (wish me luck!). But I also have a little niece due in August so have started knitting baby toys – just six balls to start with and then maybe a duck!

I am also knitting a toy for my eldest – it is going to be a creeper which is a creature from a game called Minecraft which the whole family are a bit obsessed with!

I tend to knit whilst watching films or at festivals. I really enjoy it but can’t over do it as it acts up my RSI which sucks 🙁

Incase anyone wants to follow/befriend me I am on Ravelry and I have an etsy shop where I sell off excess!

Also I hope to soon release the patterns for the molecular knitting which I put together for Science and Engineering Week earlier this year. I have lots of ideas (as always) of stuff to knit but am trying to finish projects off before starting new ones though I am going to attempt to knit Christmas presents and stuff this year so we shall see – I’ve packed away the olympic knitting and wont be getting it out until the Winter Olympics.

I did a lot of knitting around Christmas for friends weddings which was fun 🙂

I love the thought of helping people with craft and discovered a few years ago the Craft-Activist Movement which is interesting in itself.

So when I saw a call for workshop ideas to help show people how important plants are to the planet I put forward my Upcycled Flowers project – it allows a talk on plants and is recycling at the same time!

I am excited that it is going to be used in the Botanical Gardens through out the UK 🙂

Yay! Go me!