The Weeks are flying by

This weekend has been officially designated as my catch up weekend :} A little bit of time to batten down the hatches and gather my thoughts. The Tiny Gallery has take up quite a bit of my time, no regrets, but I need to produce some work myself for a craft fair on Wednesday evening at Greenfields Community Art Centre and of course theres the Aycliffe Angels exhibition to think about. I picked up a short documentary a fortnight ago about the history of Aycliffe Village with references about the Aycliffe Angles and need to go through it again and start a research sketchbook....

Creatively it's been a fantastic start to the year with my 'scavenger' sketchbook on tour in America with about 10, 000 others http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject there are some absolutely fantastic sketchbooks to view and the standard of artwork is very high. Lots of very inspirational work!

The Tiny Gallery

We are now exhibiting at Darlington Library with Kim Tillyer of Witchmountain http://witchmountain.wordpress.com,

Lindsay Thirlwell http://textilestrash.blogspot.com and Rachael McClafferty of Toasted Cat http://rachaelmcclafferty.com . Take a look at their work on our facebook page. We are also having a lucky dip on our facebook page. Post a comment on there in the next 48 hours to enter and have a chance of winning a mystery gift :)

Lots & Lots of things to see, Lots & Lots of things to do

The Tiny Gallery: Follow us on twitter

You can now keep upto date with The Tiny Gallery on twitter.

TG Giveaway

The Tiny Gallery launch giveaway goodies created by Poppy Lee, Papaver Designs http//:poppylee.blogspot.com and Karen Syms, Karyn, http://www.karensyms.co.uk/

The Tiny Gallery

To celebrate the opening of The Tiny Gallery we are having a giveaway. The Tiny Gallery is a travelling gallery which promotes and adveritises local artist in and around the North East of England. For more information follow the link in my blog list to take part. Good Luck :)

Aycliffe Angels research

A couple of days ago I contaced Aycliffe Village Local History Society and have arranged to meet up with them to talk about the history of the Aycliffe Angels.

I'm really excited, I believe there is a lady who was herself an Aycliffe Angel! It will be fantastic to meet her. It's difficult sometimes to realise the real life experiences people had when reading or watching programmes about the Second World War. So it will be a delight to meet and chat to someone with first hand experience. I really can't wait to get started on some visual resources and get some initial sketches down! This is the moment when the exhibition really feels like it has begun it's no longer an idea swilling around in my head but has become a reality! :)

Aycliffe Angels Exhibiton

I've booked gallery space in January 2012 to hold an exhibiton at Greenfield Community & Arts Centre. www.greenfield-arts.co.uk I'm really keen to explore the story of the Aycliffe Angels

www.communigate.co.uk/ne/aycliffeangels/ (image above is from the communigate site) So today I have contacted the communigate team regarding research and gathering of imagery. Over the coming weeks I will be keeping a blog diary of how my artworks & research develop. I'm really excited and have a lot of ideas already. I can already visualise how I think the exhibition will look so it will be really interesting in a years time to reflect back on how much the outcome changed if it changed at all.

Did my sketchbook make it to America?

Sketchbook made it to Brooklyn, America on the 24th December 2010 :)

Maltese Holiday

Just returned from a fabulous week in Malta! The architecture was breathtaking as were the views out over the harbour and around Valletta. Bus journeys around the island were unquestionably the most thrilling experience, speed was no problem for these museum pieces :} Lots of inspiration for anyone looking for research for a textile project and a photographers paradise :)

Cupcake Gift

It's lovely to put handmade gifts together and I've packaged up one of the cupcakes for a friends 50th Birthday. There's a couple of Chocolates in there two.

Arthouse Coop Sketchbook Posted :)

Today was the day the Sketchbook was posted! Can't wait to see what happens when it's added to the Brooklyn Library. This is the second piece of my artwork that has travelled to America. The first being 'Joy' my Momiji Couture Contest entry which was exhibited at the Royal/t Gallery in Los Angeles.

http://http//lovemomiji.com/couture_contest_profiles/karen-syms

the knitting parlour online yarn store: Free Patterns Page

the knitting parlour online yarn store: Free Patterns Page

Sketchbook almost there!

Almost there! Can't wait to pop my sketchbook in the post, really glad I registered for this project and looking forward to seeing how many times people take a look.

A few more pages!

Sketchbook Revival!

So much has happened over the past few months it's been difficult to focus completely on my sketcbook project. I'm determined it's going in the post this week!!! I decided to scavenge some of my drawing sheets from my first year at University and the following photos are the results of very enjoyable gathering of imagery :)

Reindeers & Cupcakes

Over the past couple of weeks I've been busy knitting Reindeer brooches and cupcakes which are just soooo lovely to make. I designed the Reindeer brooch pattern myself so I'm especially proud of them. They were originally for a craft fair at a local community arts centre but the weather saw the event cancelled. But I've really got the bug and am busily knitting more for the next craft fair that comes up.

Knitting tips

I'm looking for instructions for knitting socks and came across this site which has great photos of the circular knitting technique.

www.purlbee.com

I'm also looking for circular needles short enough to knit socks on but can only seem to find 40cm ones. Let me know if you know somewhere you can buy shorter ones.

Great shop for wool & needles

www.cafeknit.com take a look for some lovely wools, brittany birch and bamboo needles. The knitting kits are great with some lovely simple knits for those just starting out in the world of knit! :)

Stitch and Knitting with Wands

Stitch Londons latest newletter Stitch and Knitting with Wands