ouija board, ouija board

hello there everyone, i hope you're all having a smashing wednesday! mine has been pretty good, college was kind of cool because i got to know a few people better & we were only in until ten! although truth be told i had been there since quarter past eight because i had to go and hang my project up on the wall for nine, sigh.

this is my final piece for the fine art rotation. our title was "abracadabra", ie it was all about magic etcetera so i decided, creep that i am, i would look at ouija boards & specifically the movement of hands over the board. i took some long exposure photographs of my hands & then tried to draw them over a secondary image of a ouija board. the final piece is in oil pastel washed over with black & brown watercolour - which i used so that the white oil pastel (which i used for the blurring) would show through as ~spirits~ moving the hands!

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anyway, i thought i would also show you a tshirt i bought last week from ebay! it was only 50p (although £2 postage, grrr), and i originally bought it to make a diy band tshirt by printing a picture of the smiths or joy division over it (i had a bit of a vision of the unknown pleasures artwork over a pale floral fabric, and i can't get it out of my head), but i'm not sure now as i quite like the way the shirt looks on its own.

it has quite a cute hibiscus-y floral pattern, and i love the pale turquoise background colour!

it's a size 12/14, so it has quite low arm holes, but i actually think it falls in a really nice way! the only problem is i don't really have anything i can wear with it on the bottom half, i think i need to stop buying shirts for a while & buy some plain skirts/shorts. i don't have to wear a uniform to college so choosing clothes, unfortunately, has become a bit of a hassle at six thirty in the morning!

it also has some lovely blue toucan (i think) illustrations, which i adore!

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i've been taking advantage of my afternoon off from college by putting some more new jewellery up in the shop (after having a good sit down in front of the telly, of course) which is all alice in wonderland themed, so have a look if you'd like! i'm going to put a few more pieces up at the weekend too, which i might post about nearer the time!

tears dry on their own.

hello! on wednesday (when i had a free-ish day from college) i had a wander around a few of the charity shops in newcastle, and i found a very cute blouse which i will show you now!

the label says XXL so it's a little on the er, large side but it has the loveliest embroidery on the front and the collar! it doesn't really show up on this picture, but there's a handy close-up below (:

it has majorly adorable pearl buttons as well, although i don't really know why they're on the collar too, as it seems somewhat ridiculous to me. all i'm saying is, i've tried buttoning it up & laughed for about an hour at the results. i don't think i'll be trying that out on the general public any time soon.

blouse - charity shop, skirt - homemade, necklace - car boot sale.

i decided to wear the blouse with the pink lace skirt i made a while ago, only looking at the pictures now i think it all looks a little bit twee. i think the blouse would actually go really well with a pair of slightly high waisted pale denim shorts. in fact, i've been searching on ebay endlessly over the last two days searching for the ideal pair, but to no avail! i'd better start scouring those charity shops.

college is difficult. it's really hard work, & we have to work on huge scale. like, A2 size paper for experimenting & sketches. ugh, totally not used to this. also, the fine art tutor thinks i'm an idiot & really doesn't seem to like my work. but hey ho! no more fine art for me after wednesday, thank god. scratching that one off the potential university courses list. i think the problem is (and without being massively big headed here), i'm used to being a big fish in a relatively small pond, and now i'm a little fish in a really rather talented pond. which isn't very fun.

anyway, hopefully this will all be better by next week when i'm doing photography.

i've added a few new items to the shop, if you'd like to have a look just click here! i've got a few more things i want to put up, and as i'm completely free wednesday afternoon i think i'll do it then.

until next time, thanks for reading!

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ps. the post title is currently my favourite song to listen to on the bus ride home. especially yesterday, when i actually did feel like crying.

first day

this post is going to be a bit of a mish mash, i have a lot of things that i want to talk about so i just want to get it all down! i feel like i've done like no good posts recently, but i've just had so much on.

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a level results

last thursday (as i imagine a lot of you will know!) was a level results day, a pretty scary day! i wasn't actually that nervous until the night before & the morning of the actual day, mainly because i knew i had a guaranteed place on my art foundation course so i didn't need specific grades to get into a university. most of my friends got what they needed (and very proud of them i am! yoda alert), but unfortunately some didn't so i have my fingers crossed that they sort it out! i was very (pleasantly!) surprised by my results, so surprised in fact i didn't believe my friend who pointed out which were my overall grades in the very confusing list we were given! i got an A in spanish, and A*s in art, english literature & general studies, which i am really very very pleased with!

one of the teachers asked me what my results were, & then led me off to go & get my picture taken for the paper. this was pretty weird, & i didn't actually register what was going on until i'd left, the next day my picture was on the front cover of a local paper, cringe.

awkward left arm, good god.

i felt fine about this, until i started seeing snarky posts on twitter about how according to the front page of newspapers, the only people who do well in their a levels are "blonde twins and pretty girls in low cut tops" & people starting posting about this tumblr. then i started to get a weird feeling about how there was only one boy in the photo with five girls, and how the photographers had us stood above themselves on raised steps. i started thinking about a passage in caitlin moran's book about modern sexism, where she talks about not even realising you've been subject to sexism until you start to think it over alone.

i started to get really annoyed with myself that this didn't occur to me, and that i should've stepped back & said no to the photgraphs, but then i read this article, which was really interesting & opened my eyes to the other side of the feminist debate.

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college

i've been totally swamped with work for the summer project for college over the last few days, it's been getting me down a bit because there's just so much! today was my first day, and we're the first course in school because everyone else starts in september. i was a bit gutted about cutting my summer short by about two weeks at first, but now i'm there i think it'll be much better to get to know my way around before it gets really busy!

my passport photo for the college records.

this first day was a bit weird because we didn't really do anything except finish enrolling & get talked at constantly about THE IMPORTANCE OF HARDWORK and TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN LEARNING, which was all a bit draining! the hours are 9 to 4, we get tuesdays off for home study & have wednesday afternoons completely free, which is pretty great! i am really looking forward to the course now, my first rotation is fine art and we're going to learn a little more about our project brief tomorrow.

my brand-spanking-new college id card, which we have to wear "at all times while on campus", wahey.

i was a bit gutted that the three other people that i know are all in one class together, and i'm in one on my own, but it's actually alright because there are a few nice people in my class that i'm getting to know.

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anyway, that's it for now! i'm going to try & post at the weekend about my holiday, & about some new jewellery i'm putting up on the site (which i'm off to make now!), but i'll see how the work goes!

holiday + shop discount code.

hey! i'm going away on holiday for a few days so orders in the shop will be processed a little slower than usual, but you can take advantage of that by using the discount code "CARAVAN" at checkout for 15% off!

you can use the code as many times as you like, and it will discount everything in your basket (although it doesn't include shipping)!

blue patterned teapot necklace, blue patterned sugar bowl necklace & blue patterned jug necklace.

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this code will be valid until 8pm GMT on the 18th of august, so get shopping! a lot of the items in the shop won't be restocked, so if you've had your eye on something, now is the time!

i'm hoping to list some new pieces (which i'm very excited about!) when i get back, and i'll let you know when i do!

portrait

i've been working on my college project for the last few weeks, and i thought i would show you a few things that i have done! it's taken me quite a while to get some motivation for this project, just because i've kind of been doubting myself & it's actually a lot harder than it seems to work without the direction and - would you believe! - criticism of my art teachers.

pencil self portrait & collage.

the project is called "who are you?", cringey title alert. it seems to be the classic getting-to-know-each-other introductory project, which just makes me majorly uncomfortable because i haven't got a clue what they expect of me.

pencil & blue watercolour portrait of john lennon & photoshop self portrait

i've done quite a few studies, but i've been most interested in drawing some of my idols, because i think that who we admire says quite a lot about us. and yes, john lennon is a total cliche but i do love the man.

the painting is much bluer in person! for some reason it hasn't quite come out right in the photograph!

pencil drawing of caitlin moran with chalk pastel hair.

i'm planning to do a self portrait similar to this for my final piece, although i have quite a bit to do before getting to that stage. wish me luck for college, it starts in 11 days, eek!

submarines & shop updates

i've uploaded a few new items in the shop, so i thought i'd post an update on here!

blue stone pendant necklace

i'm not really sure where this pendant is from, but i seem to recall buying it at some vintage fair ages ago.

jigsaw piece earrings

earrings made from individual pieces of a disney princess jigsaw.

girl with a bow charm necklace

a necklace with a gumball style charm of a girl with a lilac bow.

pineapple necklace

i love this necklace! i think the charm is so cute & quirky.

moonstone pendant necklace

a slightly mystic-looking plastic moonstone pendant.

shell teardrop pendant necklace

i also bought this pendant at a vintage fair! it's pretty cute & has a really lovely iridescent sheen.

i'm going away in a week's time, so i'm going to put up a discount code for while i'm away - but more on that later!

i haven't really got much news to share here i'm afraid, i'm just really busy with my art project right now. i went shopping on wednesday & finally bought submarine on dvd as i really loved the book (seriously, it's frigging hilarious!) but i haven't even had time to watch it yet! i've heard the soundtrack is good too so i might buy that after watching the film.

i can't remember if i said on here (i probably did) but i recently had some surgery on my foot & i had the bandages taken off yesterday. now i can have an actual shower instead of awkwardly sitting in the bath with both feet out the water! i still have to wear plasters & i was very childishly thrilled to see that one of them has a camel on it!

to explain, back in like year 10 & 11 my friends & i used to have a bit of an obsession with camels. i can't really explain why, just that we thought they were pretty awesome animals! i think it all started when we started buying funny animal cards for each other for our birthdays, & camels were the animal of choice. anyway, this made me feel all nostalgic & everything, and it's actually one of those friend's birthdays today, so happy birthday jess!

edit: etsy seems to be down at the minute, so the links might not work for you right away.

edit: yeah, it's working again now so just ignore that!