Planet Ruby Starrs

Delayed postings... pretty much covering the last couple of weeks.  2016 is practically gone - For some people it has been a difficult year, some people have lost close friends and family, Iconic and national treasures from the entertainment world have passed away reminding some of us of how old and vulnerable we actually are, but also conjuring up past memories of teenage crushes and adventurous exploits... (the lost car at the Milton Keynes Bowie concert). The political world has been turned upside down even for those who got what they voted for (if anyone actually knows that), but I've been lucky, for me personally it was a good year, we had lots of good trips, Skye, Ireland, Wales, Yorkshire, more Scotland, Peak District... loads of great get togethers with family and friends, college was mostly fun, the Snow dog experience was fab,  I feel we got a moderate amount or sunshine which makes such a difference to life in general so up to the the last three weeks it was ok... ...

Quick post to give festive greetings ... but I'm not particularly festive as I am full of cold and flu, snot pouring from facial orifices and a huge amount of balm tissue consumed -  hence the lack of postings... I am in Leeds visiting my family and I'm sure its very seasonal out there... I'm about to find out as I have three days Christmas shopping to fit in and then I meet my daughter to do the food shop... never been so disorganised for christmas ever.... C'est la vie...  I've missed seeing a lot of friends I hd hoped to catch up with but nobody wants a red nosed Ruby Starrs even at Christmas and really my energy levels have plummeted - however I will recover and I will spend some lovely time with my family and count my lucky stars that I have family, food, shelter, presents under the tree and gin so on the note I send you all good tidings and joy, enjoy the season of goodwill an lets hope 2017 brings joy and happiness round the world.

Its been an expensive and manic week in the Ruby Starrs household... we have been bracing ourselves for the imminent replacement of the clutch on Beryl the Yellow Peril our beloved camper van - and then catastrophe struck - my car went clink clink clinkclink BANG and its now having an emergency engine transplant and some serious rehab time in the garage - huge expense I could have done without but I really can't do without the car!!! Now we have everything possible crossed to hope that Beryls' clutch sees us through Christmas so we can head out and do the family rounds and make it back home before having to remortgage life in general to have all wheels fully functional!!! C'est la vie - these things happen and there is never a good time we would all rather spend hard earned cash on something other then car maintenance but living out here in the sticks means a car is absolutely essential and worth every penny! So after a few cups of tea, we've survived the shock of...

two layers waterbased ink on calico fabric Two full days of screen printing practise has left me with an aching back but considerably more skill at getting nice clean crisp prints,some of which are multilayered and multicoloured.  I like screen prints, I like the clean sharpness they have but because of that I find them hard to work into with embellishment.  And.. the truth is I really like the embellishment business more then the printing...This difficulty is further compounded by my chosen design being very busy - lots of line work and detail, so because of that I decided to spend some time masking out lot of the detail and trying a different approach to the print finish. In the end after careful consideration I masked out most of my 'bottom' layer-  some very busy linework  originating from a tall ships drawing - and immediately the prints started to look tidier. silver foil on black velvet I also spent quite a lot of time experimenting with different f...

Well the The Great North Snowdog adventure is over - The grand auction was held last night at the Sage Gateshead, and it was a really fun night, 63 dogs, large and small were auctioned off over the course of three hours and there were a lot of very good spirited people in the room and lots of cash was splashed! http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2016-12-07/great-north-snowdogs-raise-over-250-000-for-charity/ Thanks to the generous bids across the room, by telephone and from the internet the dogs made a total of £252000 - which is amazing and we were thrilled to bits when our Wor Geordie contributed £4500 towards that total.  I am so very proud to have been part of the team and part of the whole event.   Theres live coverage of the sale on this link... https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleCollege/videos/1475793682449149/ While I have to admit being a little disappointed about our Crowdfunding attempt, I know I was always very optimistic but nothing ventured nothing...

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas... I decided against even trying to have a tasteful tree, so its a real slam it in Ruby Starrs special with disco lights and every kind of bauble from around the world... drew the line at tinsel though.... All topped with a rather demonic fairy made especially for me by my eldest granddaughter. I think its a model of her her mummy dressed up....

Last week we went to the Tyneside Cinema to see 'One More Time With Feeling', a film directed by Andrew Dominik about Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds album 'Skeleton Tree'.  The film also depicts the deep emotion of loss and grief experienced by Cave, his family and his fellow musicians felt when Caves 15 year old son fell to his death. Its a raw film, intense and moving.  The music is haunting and beautiful, and I'm only a vague Nick Cave fan - but I have always liked the softer more downbeat arrangements.  Cave cautions about reading too much about his loss into the  lyrics of the album, he wrote most of it before the tragedy occurred but it carries a deep sense of foreboding and loss, he comments he was unable to write anything meaningful afterwards.   When Caves son died in July 2015, the album was well underway and Cave wanted to finish it and release it but was aware that doing so may invite unwanted intrusion into his private family life.  So instea...

Its the last days of snowdog crowdfunding appeal https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ruby-starrs-1   and unless no one wants poor old Wor Geordie we ain't going to be able to bid.. a tad disappointing but we would like to thank all the many friends, family and all the people we don't know and the anonymous persons (I expect you know who you are) for the generous donations they have made and we are able to give around £300 to St Oswalds Hospice. While I knew I was being extremely optimistic hoping to raise the money, I stick with my motto nothing ventured nothing gained.  As a group we are proud to be able to make the donation to the Hospice and have loved every bit of being involved with the Wild in Art Project - from designing to painting and even visiting Wor Geordie on the street... The auction is on Tuesday next week and I will post the results, fingers crossed for generous bids for our lovely Snowdog.

I had an extremely productive but in places frustrating couple of days at college last week - in fact I would go so far to say that in spite of a near Photoshop total meltdown over prepping my screen print (dealt with and survived!!) layers it was probably the most enjoyable couple of days I've had since I started back this term... This is because it involved drawing, mixing paint, playing on the light box, getting hands on stuff done, heat pressing, getting painty, looking at colours, more glorious laser cutting and everyone in the studio seemed on good form - and that's even on a hand in day!  I eventually settled on a finished design to work on, a rather wild and busy complicated piece using three different layers of totally unrelated drawings from my summer sketch book.  Each drawing has been further embellished and tidied up and then combined together both by hand and on photoshop... the problems started when I had to scan the images in to make screen positives and t...

Another incredible busy day at college, its non stop and the day flies by.  Today we were preparing drawings for three way colour screen printing next week.  I had a slightly unsuccessful attempt at this last week - just need practice, I haven't done any screen printing since this time last year so I'm really looking forward to it. I spent a lovely hour mixing paints to go with my colour palate - its joyful to play with so much colour and its gloriously messy too ! I only mixed three colours for starters - I worked hard to avoid falling into the orange I always use 'trap'  ha ha - but my  yellow is looking a bit sunshiney - it may need damping down a bit I'll look at it in day light tomorrow.  I've picked lovely dynamic but slightly dirty colours this time.  They looked so lovely as I was mixing them, its a shame they cant be used like that.   they came out quite a bit darker not no less vibrant.  There is something really satisfying about the...

I feel like I've turned the corner with CAD..at last... It doesn't come naturally and like everything else it needs practice and patience neither of which I have had in any generous measure to date, but I will not admit defeat and finally think I'm getting somewhere.  I've had a lot of help from fellow students (infinite patience) and now the pressure is off i.e. I don't have work to hand in that relies on the process, I have a more relaxed attitude to learning the actual programme and it is starting to sink in.  I was very excited last week to spend the whole day (completely of my own violation!) playing with Adobe Illustrator - doing extremely basic and simple things but keeping doing them until they felt 'natural' and easy and extremely basic and simple... now time to move onto something harder!!! I find Youtube tutorials very varied but on the whole useful, easier in the long run then being in a noisy crowded CAD suite with too many people asking too man...

I know there is a rumour that if you start Christmas too early Elves strangle baby reindeers or angels wing drop off but hopefully that's all rubbish as sadly I think that Christmas may have just about started and it's only halfway through November!!! I am trying to get into the festive spirit and believe me I'm doing better then Dr Fred!!! Today the glorious scent of Christmas filled the house as having soaked the dried fruit for a week in a lethal cocktail of rum, brandy, port and more... I made my Christmas cakes using the time tested and honoured Delia Creole cake recipe.  I've tried various different fruit cake recipes over the years but nothing comes close to the Creole one. Its only drawback is as Delia states, is it's too rich to be iced and requires a glazed fruit and nut topping which personally I prefer but Dr Fred misses the marzipan and icing so I'll prob do Delias simpler ordinary cake as well. But, what really made it feel like Christmas wa...

Totally totally torn between which colour palette to use with my next piece of work... love this collection..... page from my sketch book but love this one as well.... page from my sketch book both very pink - I'm trying to keep away from the more natural orange / blue colours I usually go for, but it's autumn and hard to get away from those beautiful combinations!!! I've been looking at old photos and reminiscing about past travel and feel like I could gather some stunning colour inspiration from India ....... but just cant decide.

The American presidential election result defies comment... so I'm not wasting time making any - instead I'm getting on with what interests me and currently directly affects me - I'm not so naive to imagine that decisions made in the scary world several thousand miles away wont impact on my life but for now I'm concerning myself with the fact that I've made it through rush hour traffic to college and no one else is here - ha ha do they know something I don't? We get our 'skills for making' brief today - this should be a welcome change from all the computer based work which we have been so tied up with over the last few weeks, I'm looking forward to it. tall ships Last week we selected some drawings to be working from, currently I've chosen some line work of bridges and Amble Pier but I may change my mind when I get actual brief. Fellow students finally turned up and its hands on for the next project.. watch this space!

I've had a bonfire halloween week, we had a brilliant firework display courtesy of a Newcastle friend - on the beach on Druridge Bay, BBQ, bonfire and the best fireworks and pyromania I've witnessed at a private event. It was cold and windy and I have to say I was a wimp, I didn't venture down much before the fireworks and then came back home to  fire pretty much straight away!! Dr Fred helped set up and clear away but I'm very pleased I managed to get it together and brave the beach for the main event. I was in a very excited mood having just - finally - booked our flights for our intended adventure next year. Its official at last, we fly into Vancouver mid July and out again when we have trawled around the Rockies, across into the US of A done a few more rocks, national parks and enjoyed the 2016 total Eclipse of the sun visible from somewhere down that way...  we don't plan too much as it's more fun to see where the road takes us. Needless to say I'm ve...

The dreaded computer modules at college are drawing to a close... or at least I have nearly completed the work!!! I have worked madly this week figuring the work has to be done what ever so just best to get it out of the way. It's not all been trials though - some of it has been fun and I have almost finished my Creative CV - it just need a little bit of knitting to tidy it up.  I pleased with how it works - bearing in mind I think CV's have to tailored to individual job applications and I haven't actually got a job in sight!!!  I've made a Flexigram - a kind of folding thingy which twists eternally and lets you see different bits with each turn.  It's hard to illustrate on here and the photos don't really do it justice but it has worked quite well and showcases my wonderful Ruby Starrs CV and some samples of my work techniques I've also got my business cards, postcards and stickers back and I'm quite pleased with them... the colours are...

While college is frustrating me a little at the moment - and I'm not really moaning... life can't all be roses all the time - the rest of my life has been fairly manic, interesting and I have recently seen quite a lot of old acquaintances which has been a great deal of fun!! Some friends came over from France to visit family and managed a flying visit to Amble and lunch on the little shore with us. It was really good to see them both.  Another old friend (in fact very old friend we were saturday girls together) was visiting with her family on holiday in the area so I was able to have a nice walk at Craster and a good catch up. Also my very good friends - featured on my blog previously with the amazing kitchen extension and two bonkers dogs came to stay for a few days and we scooted up and down various beaches, coffee shops and castles... After walking the dogs on Low Newton beach , we aimed for a bit of culture, but deciding Alnwick Castle was too expensive for a short visit w...

One of the nice things I did this week (I did many nice things with good friends visiting) was to visit Bamburgh Castle - wonderful place, beautiful sunny afternoon, magnificent views, interesting artifacts, lots of very beautiful vaulted ceilings and interesting stone work - some huge chains and generally just a pleasant day out..... more of that later... but this post is about really about college work!! I am being challenged once again with CAD at college.  This time its Adobe Illustrator - aggghhh although to be honest I'm finding it easier than I did photoshop... I guess that's because I did Photoshop and some of it has stuck so doing CAD isn't quite as alien as it seemed last year. Still technology defeats me, give me a skein of wool and a pen any time, it's a bit like Ebooks nothing can replace the smell and feel of the real thing and I can't help wondering how much this technology contributes toward ''Fast Fashion'' which will eve...

Those of you that know me or read the blog regularly will know I was one of the 5 students from Newcastle college who designed and painted a Snowdog for the Wild in Art Great North Snowdog trail and now I am trying to raise money to bid for our dog known as Wor Geordie when they are auctioned in December.  If we can raise enough money to bid the Snowdog will come and be a permanent fixture and inspiration at the college.  All the money raised from the auction goes to St Oswald's Hospice so its all for an excellent cause. Its a tall task as the reserve price for any dog is £4000 - but I'm ever optimistic and what ever happens the Hospice will benefit as any money we do raise will go tot he Hospice what ever.   To raise the money I have set up a crowdfunding page on 'justgiving' - an interesting experience, I didn't get it quite right the first time round but the site was really helpful and gave me positive feedback and I sorted the glitches - checked it with ...

Its been a quiet few days while I try to catch up with college work and decide how best to "brand" Ruby Starrs...  I'm doing a lot of research into how other people brand themselves, and there are some funky ideas out there but I want something different, classy but fun. We've been asked to write a CV and I have a feeling that Ruby Starrs CV will be very different from her alter ego who worked in the addictions field for 30 years, I dug my old CV out to see what I could use as transferable skills but in the end apart from a few obvious bits I decided to condense 3 decades worth of professionalism into Work Experience "in a past life I worked in the addiction field and my duties included everything it takes to manage charitable services on a ridiculous budget in an effective and creative manner......"  and that sums up my previous career... So Ruby Starrs - Advocate of Slam it in Style emerges as an entity to be reckoned with... jobs include Artist in ...

lions outside Leeds Town Hall Have had to go to Leeds this week, family stuff... its a handsome city in spite of the monstrosities they have put up to house John Lewis and car parks... one of the many stone statues that adorn the ornate victorian buildings I wasn't terribly organised about coming to Leeds, but was able to stay at my son's flat while he's away in New York.   When I got there there was no electricity it was 10 o'clock at night and I was in a bit of a panic as because if no electricity - no wifi - and my phone was completely dead - and I didn't really know what to do with an electricity key ha ha especially an empty one!!! I didn't even know where the meters were in the building!!! the irony is that my son had said to use the flat and then said you know how to do the electric don't you and I of course had lied and rather blithely said oh yes...- what a joke - I ended up tramping the streets of city centre leeds with an empty use...

setting sun on hill opposite NineBanks Hostel I feel autumn is on us, I drove to Ninebanks youth hostel this weekend and the trees were really quite stunning as I motored through the forest - on Friday afternoon the low sun just touched the leaves with a hint of orange and a very deep russet - there is still quite a bit of green there so the effect was very pretty and a very pleasant visual start to a great weekend.   So spirits lifted after a hard computer based day at college (interesting, enjoyable but tiring)  I headed to meet the willing delegates for the star weekend Yuri Cosmos aka Dr Fred and I arrange twice a year. The autumn event is always busy, and there were mostly  familiar faces, and some people we hadn't seen for a long time. I set about sorting people into the right rooms and getting dinner on - As now officially - its on my CV - Artist in Residence / Glamorous Assistant its my job to take care of hospitality and entertainment ha ha .... basical...

Back to college with a vengeance, renewed enthusiasm and creativity. We have been giving our current module briefs, it feels very different to last year.  I think its because the current work load feels more 'academic' and I use that term loosely - totally understanding that a little bit of Computer Aided Drawing (CAD), PPD - designing a brand and writing CV's and artists statements plus a short essay on ethical consumerism is hardly academic but compared to sitting a embroidering, weaving or drawing all day its quite a change! Learning 'Illustrator' is easier so far (one week in) then I expected - this time on the Photoshop module I was crying with frustration and deeply rejecting the whole system as it was slowly painfully poured into my little non technical brain.. obviously something stuck as it helped build up an immunity, this time it all seems so much more simpler - mind you I made sure I sat next to someone who knew and was helpful... BUT -  its still co...