NEW EVENT

Remember the days when we use to write a message of joy & celebration in a
festive greeting card and post it off.
Text, msn, email,tweet, facebook, blog?
Come get some unique artist cards, gifts and much more at our card party.
Get in the festive spirit with Colour and movement.
We'll be playing vinyl records, (yeah vinyl records) through the evening.
Come and chill-out and see some of our new creations.
Everyones welcome.



Our card collection

 Our clients

Our new wrapping paper collection sold out !

SOLAR OVEN

I did a workshop at the Roundhouse in Camden and this is what I made.

WE made this solar oven from cardbord, aliminum foil and square of glass.

Although it wasn't that sunny it did get really hot.

We cooked potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and other veg. Someone cooked some lamb and we had hot bananas with melted chocolate.

SOMETHING BIG

Detail before surface decoration

These were my first two large scale public artworks commissioned for Altnargelvin Hospital in Derry Ireland.

The first is copper and bronze 8.5 ' high multilayerd

cocoon with internal lighting, the second steel 10' high with powder coating.

I am planning to go to see them as I think the bronze and copper will have weathered nicely with  the surface showing some interesting coloring , browns ,blue and greens.

Detail before surface treatment

Copper Bronze Altnagelvin Hospital

Altnargelvin Hospital Ireland

STITCHED UP

I'm having a go at some embroidery. I have been running
a workshop making hand made journals. We started with
colour washing the paper and then decoration with stencils
then stitching into journals .
I had a lot of paper samples left over and so decided to try 
a bit of embroidery. The image above is the first one and 
the one below I have just started and will add more images
as I progress, I'm hoping to finish in ten stages.

The first image is cartridge paper with acrylic paint and the

second is cartridge paper stained with tea. The embroidery 

thread is top stitch polyester that is normally used on a sewing 

machine and cotton floss skein ( not sure what that means

but that is what it says on the packet )

1

2

3

4 

BRAZIL

This was a commission for Temple Gardens in London. Temple Bar has an annual party and I had the job of decorating the marquee. The theme was Brazil. Paraiso supplied plenty of feathers and costumes that I worked into wall decorations and Rachael provided the inflatable flowers. I was responsible for the overall look and design as well has making flowers and fluff to decorate the space....lovely
Commissioned by EEA

If you like glitter and feathers you would have loved this project. It took me and four friends Marilyn, Joan, Akua and Ken ( +Jeremy) a week to make ten flowers, four center pieces, drapes and exterior decoration.

The centre pieces were approximately 4 ft high.

A selection of highly decorated flowers formed the centre pieces for  the wall
decorations.

Human catherine wheel and gigantic spinning flower from EEA in the gardens

Marque. Large inflatable flowers from Location Inflation

ELEPHANT DRESSING

I was commissioned to produced the concept drawings for the Mela by EEA.

Concept drawing of parade

Elephant line drawing

I really liked the drawing of the elephant

The original mechanical elephant made of steel, driven from the seat on top with built in sound system. I worked with my favorite costume designer Emma Garofalo to realise the designs.






Emma expertly making the green pyjama base

Women's group stitching traditional patterns

Decorating the elephants outfit

I then added the pattern along with the panels made by a Bangladeshi womens group.

Elephant on parade in Brick Lane

Owl concept drawing main costume

Owl colour

Change of colour and Emma turned the drawing into a working costume

I worked with Emma stitching the costume and made the blocks
that were used to print the pattern. The flower motif ran through the whole parade 

TELLING TALES

Telling tales was a installation with The National Trust and Hackney Caribbean Elders. I Designed and mounted the exhibition and worked with the story teller Sandra Agard, photographer Tunde Shoderu and the Elders group to record and exhibit their stories of coming to England.

The exhibition was mounted in a collection of grips. One had an illustrated pop up book, one contained personal effects such as passports, letters and photographs, another had trinkets and gifts and the last recipes that people attending the exhibition could take away.

Back home The long trip over

Arriving in England

The streets were not paved with gold

Building a community and family values

(unfortunately the table was damaged during the exhibition) Going back home I really loved this project and the elders that took part had great histories. This was a very emotional project to work on as my parents also came to England to build a new life, fortunate for them they have been able to return to the Caribbean in their later years. I would also like to remember the elders who took part in this project that have now passed on.

This project is from the book Making  Memories Matter by Pam Schweitzer and Angelika Trilling