Craft

South West Jumble - I did it!

Posted on 26 September 2011 in Craft, Creative life

Well, I did it! I had a craft stall at the South West Jumble! YAY! I had some lovely comments on my work and spoke to some amazing artists… whose cards I seem to have temporarily misplaced, so will…

Book Six & Seven - This Week’s Book

Posted on 5 September 2011 in Craft, This Week's Book

This week’s book is TWO BOOKS! *Gasp* …They are more ‘Remains of the Day’ journals! (Blogged about previously) Ok I have to admit I kind of cheated here. I had actually started these a while back before my weekly…

Exciting crafty news!

Posted on 3 September 2011 in Craft, Creative life

This week I had some good news - I’ve been allocated a table at the lovely South West Jumble, in Tooting, South London, on 25th September. (I blogged about this crafty event back in June). Here’s the Facebook event…

Book Two - This Week’s Book

Posted on 8 August 2011 in Craft, This Week's Book

[When I got back from the DWYL retreat I was more determined than ever to keep crafting. I decided to try to keep on with the book making. And I asked myself, could I make a handmade book every…

Book One - This Week’s Book

Posted on 1 August 2011 in Craft, This Week's Book

When I got back from the DWYL retreat I was more determined than ever to keep crafting. I decided to try to keep on with the book making. And I asked myself, could I make a handmade book every…

Catherine Redfern is on Holiday

Posted on 18 July 2011 in Art, Craft

Whilst I’m away, enjoy these scrumptious beauties from some inspirational artists on Flickr. 1. Layered Hand-made Journal Front Cover, 2. crown & stars linen art journal cover, 3. wishbricks, 4. Embroidered Owl 01, 5. Cherry Blossoms, 6. Summer of…

Coming in August…

Posted on 12 July 2011 in Craft, This Week's Book

I’m off on holiday to Canada this Saturday for two weeks! But… guess what! When I’m back in August, every week in August and September I’m going to share what I’ve been creating since attending the Do What You…

Bundle of book boards

Posted on 26 June 2011 in Craft

The other day I went in Fielders, an art shop in Wimbledon and spotted these bundles of cheap off-cuts from frames. Wouldn’t they make good book covers? I can make lots of books from these!…

Drooling over book pages

Posted on 25 June 2011 in Art, Craft

1. Paper sampler grid, 2. Mini art Journal, 3. 6x wtj 1, 4. 6 x wtj 2, 5. Art Journals……, 6. Summer of Love - Art Journal Class Peek, 7. Art Journal #7, 8. New Art Journal…., 9. my…

Mum’s Crafts

Posted on 23 June 2011 in Craft

My mum is an amazing crafter and artist! Here’s some of the items she brought to show me when she visited me last week. Here’s a bag she quilted: Isn’t that totally stunning? Here’s some embroidery pieces on hand made…

Felt making

Posted on 21 June 2011 in Craft

My mum was visiting me last week and on Saturday she showed me how to make felt! It was so much fun. First we laid down the first layer of felt… …then more and more layers until it was quite…

Mosaic on a Monday

Posted on 13 June 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life, Fun stuff

1. in-progress art quilt (detail 1), 2. Index Card 01, 3. small portrait, 4. journal-page, 5. Paper is Lovely, 6. A Sister’s ‘HuG’, 7. For Cory, 8. Book spines, 9. The Board of stuff Created with fd’s Flickr Toys…

How I’m taking photos of my crafts

Posted on 12 June 2011 in Craft

We all know how important it is to take good photos of crafts and art. Here’s how I’m doing it at the moment, and it seems to be working all right: Basically I go into a room that gets…

South West Jumble

Posted on 6 June 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life, Fun stuff

On Sunday we had a potter round South West Jumble, a craft event that I recently discovered just down the road from me! It’s held in the stunning Tooting Tram & Social pub which has a very eclectic design:…

My DWYL Book

Posted on 28 May 2011 in Craft, Creative life

It’s about time I blogged about the product of my attendance at the Do What You Love Retreat, which was a gorgeous handmade book! As you’ll know from my previous post I took a class with the lovely Rachel Hazell,…

Nothing more encouraging than compliments from creative people

Posted on 23 May 2011 in Craft

Well, I’m still mentally recovering from the DWYL retreat, really missing it and everyone I met there but feeling encouraged to continue trying to fit more creativity into my life. Whilst at the retreat I got a lot of…

Recent Flickr Favourites

Posted on 19 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

1. Broadcast, 2. mixed media teapot picture, 3. A Happy Redundancy, 4. Day 352 - Sketching with Printing, 5. sun touched tulip, 6. Postcard Study, 7. Untitled, 8. Downtown, 9. IMG_3862 Created with fd’s Flickr Toys…

Back from Doing What I Love!

Posted on 17 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

“How beautiful it is to fit art into your everyday life” - Flora Bowley Well I got back on Sunday from the Do What You Love art retreat, and wow, it really was fantastic. I have not had time to…

Retreating!

Posted on 9 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

Did you notice anything exciting when I posted this picture the other day? No. Not the untidiness of my bookshelf. Ignore that! Ignore it I say! Can’t spot it? How about now? I’m going on an arty/crafty retreat! My…

Cheer on a Monday

Posted on 9 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

As it’s Monday, let’s have some lovely images to cheer us all up, shall we? I love how these all work together somehow. 1. droplets, 2. Little Birds Brooch, 3. Coolifornia, 4. ledger journal, 5. PERSONAL USE ONLY - Vintage…

Back from holiday!

Posted on 5 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

It’s been a bit quiet around here as I’ve been away walking on The Glyndwr’s Way; a 135 mile National Trail through mid-Wales, from Knighton to Welshpool. It was lovely… the weather was sunny almost every day, it didn’t…

What is my style?

Posted on 1 April 2011 in Art, Craft

Something I’ve struggled with for ages is the question: what is my style? Does anyone else feel like this? I don’t even know what sort of art/craft I want to specialise in or even if I want to specialise at…

Recent Flickr favourites and inspiration

Posted on 30 March 2011 in Art, Craft

1. Misty Mawn journal page…self portrait, 2. art journal 2011, 3. It’s finished!, 4. I am enough, 5. Misty Mawn-class-collage, 6. windmill brooch - story fragments, 7. Bearbird, 8. Out of the Box, 9. sketchbook Amazing artists aren’t they?…

On big projects and long hard slogs

Posted on 28 March 2011 in Art, Craft

It’s weird. I seem to have a tendency to take on huge, complicated projects that take years to complete. Cases in point: 1) Co-writing my book about feminism (Reclaiming The F Word), which took several years (Me at the…

Tutorial: Jet Set Willy Cross Stitch Key Ring

Posted on 26 March 2011 in Craft, Fun stuff, Tutorial

Do you remember Jet Set Willy? If not here’s a little reminder: Ages ago I made a little tribute, a key ring with Willy on one side and Maria on the other (the identity of Maria seems to be disputed…

Lino Printing!

Posted on 19 February 2011 in Art, Craft

I saw this video by Pam Carriker about getting more mileage out of your art and was inspired to make a lino print stamp from a drawing I did in my art journal a while ago. Original drawing: I traced…

More Journals!

Posted on 2 January 2011 in Art, Craft

I made two more Remains of the Day style journals as presents this Christmas. Also, I just realised I haven’t posted up my friend Helen’s journal so I now have three to report on! Helen’s Journal Front Back Michelle’s Journal…

The Festival of Quilts

Posted on 12 September 2010 in Craft

In August I went to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham with my mum. I’ve often been to the Knitting & Stitching Exhibition at Alexandra Palace - a similar event run by the same organisation (Twisted Thread) - and have…

Remains of the Day Journals

Posted on 15 August 2010 in Craft

Well, long time no see. I’ve been a bit neglectful of this blog over the past few months; mainly due to having a lot of other things going on in my life like, oh, publishing my first book and walking…

My first ever items for sale!

Posted on 16 August 2009 in Craft, Folksy

I’m selling some stuff on Folksy! It’s very exciting. I’ve always wanted to sell my crafts, there’s something that really appeals to me about it. So, I finally got around to setting up a folksy shop and putting some lovely…

Quilted Card holder

Posted on 3 August 2009 in Craft

I made a quilted card holder (for credit cards, or in London, maybe an Oyster card). Here is one side: I really love this fabric. I really enjoyed doing the embroidery in particular. The other side: A close up of…

Obsession No. 295 - Mini Art Quilts

Posted on 31 July 2009 in Craft

Yes indeed, I have a new obsession! Inspired by Sew Somerset magazine and various other lovely sources on Flickr e.g here, here and here… I got the bug and simply HAD to make one myself. Here’s the results: So do…

Wedding Card

Posted on 15 July 2009 in Craft

I made a card for my brother’s wedding at the weekend. It took me ages, but I’m pretty pleased with the result. I got the idea for the shape from a book on card making that I have, but I…

Colour Palette

Posted on 15 July 2009 in Craft

For a long time I’ve found it difficult to define my own colour palette for my own craft and art activities - something that seems, at least from admiring others’ work, to be a major part of developing a personal…

New Obsession No. 456

Posted on 10 July 2009 in Craft

I just bought this AMAZING book about paper art, called Paper, by Black Dog Publishing. Every page features an incredible piece of work by some talented artist or other. Sitting on the tube flicking through, I was literally gasping at…

Can you tell what it is yet?

Posted on 6 July 2009 in Craft