Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition

The wonderful exhibition 'Ghosts of Gone Birds' is now being put up, ready to open on November 2nd. I just finished my piece...the Lesser Akialoa who disappeared from Hawaii in the 40's.

I've grown quite attached to this little fellow and feel so sad that he's no longer to be found.

The idea behind the show is to bring to our attention the crisis facing so many species of bird by bringing to life the ones we have already lost.

The artist, musicians and writers all involved in this great project, have each chosen a bird from a list of extinct species to represent in their medium.

The exhibition will showcase all these works alongside a second section which looks at the birds who are facing a rapid decline... hoping that we can draw enough attention to it and prevent the same from happening to them.

Cery Levy (filmmaker/producer and writer best known for the Gorillaz film Bananaz) and Chris Aldhous are the visionaries behind the whole project and have brought together so many wonderful people; Sir Peter Blake, Jamie Hewlett, Keith Newstead , Ralph Steadman, Margaret Atwood, Rob Ryan, Polly Morgan, Matt Sewell, Le Gun, Jon Burgerman, Oliver Jeffers, Angie Lewin, Claire Brewster, Emily Sutton...on and on...

Here's a little taste of the work on show, but really... you must come and see for yourselves!:

Esther Tyson

Matt Sewell

Pete Fowler

Emily Sutton

Greg Poole

Ben Newman

Le Gun

Margaret Atwood

Rob Ryan

Ralph Steadman

Ghosts of Gone Birds

November 2nd - 23rd

Rochelle School

Arnold Circus

London

E2 7ES.

www.facebook.com/ghostsofgonebirds

Harper's Bazaar

Great press feature in November's Harper's Bazaar! Wonderful!! I feel very chic!

...and two other press features:

Quilts Japan, November issue.

Gardens Illustrated November issue.

New Illustration Blog

Way back in 2003 I graduated from a degree in Surface Decoration and Printed Textiles. Whilst the majority of my work now is in craft, I can still be found making many a doodle as a freelance illustrator and designer.

I've worked for all kinds of fields from children's books to children's wear, fashion to interior textile print design, and greetings cards to stationery.Over the years I have worked for Mothercare, Marks and Spencer, Adams, Mamas & Papas, Usborne Publishing, John Lewis, Hotch Potch Publishing and Zutano to name a few.

I've just created a new blog to showcase my print and illustration work and you can find it all here. Enjoy!!

Decor8

Origin was a great week for meeting all kinds of wonderful people whose work I admire greatly. One of these people was Holly Becker, creator of the beautiful blog Decor8.

Holly bought a couple of pieces from me and I was delighted to see they made it onto the blog.

Thank you Holly!! You have such great taste so it's quite an honour and it was really lovely to meet you.

New things!!

My latest creations have just been added to the webshop...come take a peek....

There are some beautiful, bright, exotic birds to add to the collection, along with some equally lovely British varieties, including the lapwing, heron and plover.

Hmmm...what next?!

Origin 2011

Wow! What an exhausting week!

It's taken me a few days to get over it but it was a wonderful show. I met so many lovely people, talented makers whose work I love (in particular Sophie Woodrow, Claire Brewster and Guy Bird...hmm slight bird/creature theme there!) and admirers and collectors of my own work.

It takes a lot of courage to put the things you have created out into the world for people to judge and a great deal more to be there with it. I have to say I struggle a little bit with this part and after months of working really hard to build the work and think through how I would exhibit it all, I'd already reached the brink of exhaustion and the point at which you question everything you have done and it's worth before Origin even began!

I know that art is very subjective and that we won't all like the same things so I accept fully that people won't like what I am making...but it feels pretty wonderful to know that there are people who do, and even more wonderful when they come back a second time, or a third or forth time to buy more!

Aside from one lady's comments on my display that didn't make me feel very good, and another funny lady who felt inclined to tell me I was far prettier and younger looking in my photos! Ha! ...I had such a great time meeting people who had such touching things to say about my work. THANK YOU if one of them was you!!!

All in all it was a great week and after a long weekend in the sunshine I'm now...just about...ready to go back to the studio and make a start on all the orders!

I somehow managed not to take any photos the entire week :( but have managed to hunt out a few to show you what it all looked like...the idea behind it was an old curiosity shop/natural history museum...so there were display cabinets, a bell jar with a little moth inside, spools as plinths, bird books, some english garden flowers to make it cheery and little name plaques for the birds on the wall which identified them in english and in latin...hope you'll like it!