Spring Woods and Searching for Treasure!
Today has been a warm May Sunday and I have been walking in bluebell woods at Ashdown House in Berkshire. The rich colours of green and blue now decorate the wooded groves with so much beauty and the pure white Hawthorn flowers are now in full bloom. Fairy energy is definitely in the air...

The old house reminds me of a French Villa, but also a grand dolls house that could easily be found in a surreal Tim Burton movie like Alice in Wonderland. I can imagine a large white rabbit running across the grass muttering "I'm late, I'm late"...

Artwork from the Past...
I have not mentioned too much about my past work on blogger, so I thought I would show some old ceramic sculptures that I did when I was at art college, many moons ago!
There was a time when I nearly went to Falmouth to study ceramics, but because I was allergic to the clay on my hands, I decided to paint and illustrate instead.
The mermaid head is life size. She is hollow and is made of crank clay with enamel paint. I used shell moulds to create her crown. 

This other ceramic piece was for a project called wedding cakes, I decided to do a sand castle theme, depicting the marriage between a water dragon and a catfish.
The sculpture is also quite big and heavy, and about the same size as a real cake. It is made of crank clay with copper oxide to highlight the detail. The dragon is jumping out of the cake as a surprise, that is why there are cracks on the surface to show him breaking out!

It is strange because I have not seen this sculpture for about 10 years as it has been stored away in a box. The cake has been to the other side of the world and lived with me for a while in New Zealand and Australia, and then back again to the UK. It is now living in my studio. Seeing the sculpture again has made me think about creating some more ceramic figures because I enjoyed working with clay.
Just The Thing at Woodborough...  
Last Tuesday afternoon, I met up with my good friend Minerva Black and we went to an antiques shop called "Just the Thing" at Woodborough garden center.
As a lot of you know, it is my favourite pastime looking at antiques and collecting unusual objects. Minerva is a collector too. She has a blog and runs an antiques stall in Hungerford at the Emporium. She is a good person to go treasure hunting with because we like similar things and we can find antiques for each other.  

I found 3 treasures, a very small glass dome which I have shown displaying the ceramic owl pendant that I made. Some glass foil beads which are Victorian and my favourite find of all, a carved box wood Netsuke toggle.

The Netsuke carving has lovely detail with the little frogs and has really inspired me. The shell is perfect and is even signed on the back by the artist.
Minerva suggested that I read the book, The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal... Here is a LINK about Netsuke if you would like to read more about them. 
In my next post, I will show some new work that I have been secretly creating and making some new designs for beads.  

Curiosity Collections and a Giveaway Draw...
I love collecting small objects. I don't have huge collections, but these small curious things inspire me, for example vintage buttons, brooches, lace and old prints. Items that have history also really intrigue me. The photo below shows just a few of my buttons and brooches that I have collected over the years from junk shops and antique markets. Most of them are from the Victorian era and are made of silver, brass, copper and Chzech glass. Some of the gold and silver buttons are actually made of glass and not metal.

The other day I visted Marlborough town for the afternoon and went treasure hunting. One of my favourite shops is called 'The Cat's Whiskers', not only is it a great name for a shop but it has a fine collection old and new items for sale.

It is one of those curiosity shops that you can spend hours in, just exploring the two floors that are crammed full with neatly arranged items on the shelves and antique furniture. I would describe 'The Cat's Whiskers' as a mixture of Retro and Shabby Chic style. Love these ceramic draw handles, especially the butterfly ones.

I also noticed that a new gift shop had opened up on the high street which is called 'Valentiner Designs'. It is a vibrant place with collections of beautiful ceramic and glasswear. Some shops just cheer you up when you walk into them. The bird and flower tea sets are really pretty and I was very tempted to buy a teapot with one of there brightly coloured baskets. If you collect things let me know in your commment!

Giveaway Draw on Facebook...
If you are on facebook, do stop by my page and enter the print giveaway that I'm having at the moment. There is choice between 5 small prints which you can see in my Etsy shop. The Fairy Thief illustration is not shown on the picture collage but you are welcome to choose that print if you wish. Just go to my facebook page and let me know which one you would like to win. I will announce the winner on the 1st May. Good luck if you enter the draw!

Returning Home for Springtime.  
I have been away from blogging for over a year now and so much has happened in that time. We moved house again, I developed some new work and I'm trying to launch other creative projects which have consumed the hours, days and months.

A lot changes when you move house and it takes so much time to settle into a new environment. Our rental is nice and it's surrounded by woods and wildlife, but I never know when I will be on the move again, so everyday working from home creatively is precious to me... The painting shown above is called 'Ghost Owl' and it is available as a small print in my Etsy shop. 
I so love hearing the owls singing every night in the treetops while I dream, and in the mornings I can hear woodpeckers tapping.

Foxes and owls are my inspiration at the moment and I have developed some clay pendants that I featured on facebook. Most of the ceramic spirit pendants have already sold, but I am making some more for later next week. There is one red foxy left in Etsy and a few more pewter necklaces.

I have almost finished a new illustration of a butterfly fox and I need to think of a proper title for it, so if you have any ideas please let me know in a comment... The owls are work in progress and will be available as necklaces soon.
I hope you have had a good Easter and I'm sorry for being away from blogging for so long. The time has just flown by.