The countdown has begun . . .

Only four days to go until the St Werburghs Arts Trail, I've still got a lot to do.  This mainly involves getting the space ready to hang my work, Dan's still got plastering to do in the living room!  Then we're having a painting extravaganza on Wednesday night to get the living room white washed.  My job tonight is to finish the painting in the hallway and then start deciding which pieces I'd like to exhibit.  I've got some lovely frames to use for some of my research work.  I can't wait to see what the finished pieces will look like.

If I have enough time I'd like to bake some rock buns to entice people into the house!  Fingers crossed I'll get everything ready in time.  I'm quite excited about hanging the bunting on Saturday morning, I think it will feel like we've reached a massive goal post with the house, getting so much completed.

The Arts Trail will also be the launch of my new cards, I picked them up this weekend from The Bristol Business Centre.  I'm really happy with the outcome, you'll have to come and have a look . .

If you are going to pop along to the event then Sunday afternoon would be a fab time to call by, you could follow your visit by joining in the after party celebrations . . .

Compass presents

The Official Arts Trail Afterparty @ St Werburghs City farm Café

Sun 26 Sept 19.00 - 23.00

Free Entry

Come and celebrate the end of a great weekend of art & culture, meet local artists, bring your friends, & end the weekend in style!

Live music, excellent food, licensed bar.  Keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground for

The Compass: Festival of Lunacy coming soon to Bristol!

Visit http://www.compass-film.co.uk/ for more info

Invitation to St Werburghs Arts Trail. The dates of the 2010 Arts Trail will be Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September. Doors open from 11am till 5pm.

I'd like to invite you to come and saunter round the lovely area of St Werburghs whilst taking in the local artists vast array of skills.  From Illustrators, Textile Artists, Photographers and Story Tellers there are plenty to keep you entertained. 

With various sites taking place, The City Farm, The Farm Pub, The St Werburghs Community Centre, Communal Green Space at the yard, not to forget the Miners Arms.  You will definitely know St Werburghs better after you had a nosy round the different events.

If you'd like to see a map of the area showing each house that will be open follow the title link.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.  My house is number 25 on the plan.  Enjoy.

Preperation for the local St Werburghs Arts Trail

Phew we've been busy.  Since my last blog we had family to stay in August, we then commenced work on the hallway and the living room.  Hopefully I'll finish the painting of the hallway this weekend, Dan's still got quite a bit to do in the living room before we can start painting in there, it may be bare plaster walls for the trail!  Dan ripped the fire place out so needs to make a new surround to fit, which I have a feeling may take a while.  I'm sure it will be worth it though.

I've started to research companies where I can get my images printed onto cards, I found that Bristol Business Centre do a good deal.  I'm quite excited!! It seems very professional, I'm looking forward to getting a few samples next week.

Card Samples.

The inspiration for these images came from wooden printing blocks.  I've created a series of these.  I quite like the depth and the roughness to them.

I really like these images, anything paisley related takes me back to my student days at Glasgow School of Art.

My plan for the next week is to finalise the card images to get printed then start framing some of my work for the show.  I'm going to show some drawings that I haven't exhibited before, I'm quite excited about these as I've got some unusual ideas on how to display them!

House Renovating

We've been in our home now for two years and a month.  It feels like a long time, we've done quite a lot, but still have a fair bit left to do.

We've now completed the kitchen, whooo hooo.  After a lot of deliberation we finally settled on colours.  It's quite difficult compromising, when I would love to go really girly and Dan loves black and white, we aimed for a retro feel instead (I thought I can girlifie it later with curtains, pictures and
soft furnishings, I 'll just slowly ease them in!  sssshhh!!).

We opted for Dulux Apple White - A classic, clean pale green which can make a room feel fresh and alive. We used this on most of the main walls, but stayed below the dido rail.  Above we kept fresh and clean with a pure white.

Then we used a dark Overtly Olive - A calm, muted green that has an air of sophistication about it.  On the chimney breast wall.  As you can just about see in the below right image.

By using the same colour but in different shades you can create interest in a room without being too overpowering. Overtly Olive works well with Apple White.

 

The next project is to complete the bathroom, this was started about Easter last year.  

Since then we've been having a bath every morning, this started out as a luxury but soon wore of it. You get a bit fed up of getting up 20mins prior to bath time! 

Dan has been very good and made us a lovely swish bathroom. It feels such a luxury to use it now.  We have an awesome walk in shower that Dan designed and made for us.  If anyone wants a bespoke shower you know where to come! 

I have to give lots of praise to Dan as he has been  working so hard, I can't keep up with the pace he's going at.   Dan really encouraged me to apply to take part in the St Werburghs Arts Trail this year.  This has really spurred me on to start thinking creatively again.  It has also however given Dan a very tight deadline to work to.  Dan's aim is to complete the majority of the building work in the house prior to the Arts Trail which is at the end of September.  This involves getting the living room in a usable state, it has been our store room for the past two years, then also decorating the hallway and landing.  If anyone would like to lend a hand painting get in touch!!

The bathroom is almost there, we now have everything plumbed in and working.  It's quite long and thin so we opted for quite pale, light shades to make the space feel as big as we could.  However, we did splash out a bit and just added a feature wall of GOLD!  How bling!  I wasn't quite sure about it at first but I think it actually works really well.  It's not too over the top. 

As well as getting the bathroom to a more finished standard our spare bedroom needs to be completed Oooo I'd say in about 2 weeks tops!  We have family coming to stay so have a lot of work to do.  I'll upload more pics of this work soon.

     

This is my Zen - Cross Stitch Iamge from beefranck's photostream on Flickr

This is my Zen, originally uploaded by beefranck.

I love this cross stitch, very original & quirky.

Flickr . .

, originally uploaded by Hannah Redden.

My Card Design are now on Flickr . .

All eyes on Brooks

All eyes on Brooks, originally uploaded by Unity..

The Brooks Factory that is a local landmark near our house. Such a shame it closed. But a great photo. Love it. I'll smile each time I walk by it now.

The Redden Studio - Dumfries & Galloway

http://www.redden-gallery.blogspot.com/

Although I am living down in Bristol most of my family live in Dumfires & Galloway in the South West of Scotland.  It is here that my creativity was first ignited, where a lot of my inspiration comes from.  Members of my family have recently been working very hard to open a gallery that exhibits talents from three generations. 

 

redden-gallery: the evening before . . .: "by the end of the day most everything has beenhung & priced & put in place last minute finishing touches & dashing about to be done with so..."

Read more about the Red Den Galery HERE.  I hope you enjoy reading about this new venture, and if you're ever in D&G pop in for a visit.

My 2009 Cards

The Screen Printing Process . . .

A good supplier of screen printing equipment is 'Wicked Printing Stuff', they stock just about everything you can imagine that is required for screen printing, they also offer very good advice.  I thought I'd include a step by step guide for new printers on the process . .

• 
  
  Screens are made by putting a chemical emulsion on a mesh surface.
• 
  
  Vector artwork is taken from Adobe Illustrator or Freehand and printed out on a film type paper or vellum.
• 
  
  The screen is then exposed on a light table with the artwork under it.
• 
  
  The light solidifies the chemicals around the design, and where the light failed to pass through, the chemical breaks down.
• 
  
  The screen is then rinsed out and what is left is the area where the light hit.
• 
  
  When screen-printing, one colour at a time is applied and therefore the cost will increase with each additional colour applied.
• 
  
  Likewise a separate screen is required for each colour.

You can then have fun experimenting!  Enjoy.

I'm Coming Back . . . Whoo Hoo

I found out this week that I've not missed the deadline for the St Werburghs Arts Trail, this means that over the weekend period -

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September

Our home will be open to all whilst I exhibit my work. If you're free please come along and visit.

I'm quite excited as I haven't shown any work since, oooooo last June!

Myself and my partner Dan have been concentrating on bringing our little home back to life. It was a little run down. Now however, we have almost completed the kitchen and the bathroom and so can start inviting people over.

So, I have roughly two months to get the house in order and decide how to show my work!! Exciting!!