Harry Clarke

I went to Dublin for my birthday and had the wonderful surprise of stumbling upon some stained glass windows by Harry Clarke at the Hugh Lane Gallery. I have been a huge fan of Clarke's beautiful stained glass, prints and illustrations since I was a teenager and harboured a pipe dream of travelling around Ireland seeking them out in remote churches - so imagine my joy when I happened upon them whilst on a birthday day out!
(I almost got to see Liam O'Maonlaoi in Whelan's that very same day!! Another lifelong dream but sadly just missed by but a few short hours.. it might all have been too much for me anyway.. I'd rather not talk about it..)
Anyway - the windows were every bit as stunning as I'd imagined, but a lot smaller, like looking at pictures composed of jewels, These were roughly about A3 in size - amazing!

Fairy Cakes

My sis is getting married in August and we are going to make a cupcake tier instead of a wedding cake - these are a few early experiments - not the earliest experiments as they were too dire to be seen! It was such fun making these and they were absolutely delicious! We used sugarpaste coloured with food dye to make the flowers and iced them with sugar paste circle cut outs, glace icing and melted chocolate - so yummy - can't wait to make some more!

Paper pod is back!

Paper pod is back! And to herald its return, a small paper pod!!!
Albeit a very crude and basic one..! This paper vessel you see before you is the product of a few minutes' work at a papermaking workshop I ran on Saturday just past. Very simple - pulped up tissue of various colours applied to a plastic bowl, decorated with some thread, scoops of coloured pulp splashed over it and left to dry. Not the most exciting artefact you'll ever have seen but shows how simple and versatile paper is. I must get back to some serious papermaking - Saturday reminded me how much I have missed it and I have vowed to make some time over the summer hols to get back to it. I will upload some slightly nicer paperpods soon too!