Planet Ruby Starrs

I have decided to have a few days off from college work, so while I contemplate how to use my precious beach finds I've started another new project - I've got a list of unfinished projects which have to be completed by a mythical deadline so another one added to the list wont do any harm... This one complies with my not allowed to buy any more fabric condition - its using up scraps which I didn't buy but was donated by my talented sister in law - check out her facebook page - Bags and tags Linda G - the title is misleading it should say ''adorable clothes made out of funky fabric for little and sometimes big people as well as bags and tags''.... Anyway you get the picture and the best bit for me is that when she visited me with Stan the Dog and her partner, my bro, Rob, last week she brought me a bag of scraps... so not technically bought so not technically added to my fabric stash!!!! so from the picture above to the picture below - a lovely quilt...

The clocks have changed and I'm desperately seeking signs of spring, there has been a beautiful carpet of snowdrops outside our house and the daffs are looking splendid. With a leap of faith the trees are just starting to spout green buds but it all seems quite stark out there! A cold windy Easter Sunday and we ventured out up the Coquet Valley for some fresh air and to explore some esoteric crags to be found in the Cheviots.  It wouldn't have been too cool if not for the wind - and then the rain.... fortunately I sat in the carpark sketching trees while Dr Fred climbed the hill to tick off a crag across the ridge.  Consequently he got soaked and I stayed nice and dry.  We drove to the head of the river where its just a tiny stream and this time I braved the elements to climb the muddy track to look at the remains of the roman forts on the hill. We found a nice farm cafe on the way back where we were served an enormous pot of tea and home made cheese scones and a very...

We had a glorious sunny day yesterday - a good Friday - and we went down to the beach to investigate a tangle of ropes and nets I had spotted last week... I want to use them in my DM college project, no quite sure how, but a bit of massive macrame might just be the ticket... the beach was really busy.  We counted over 100 people on the 6 mile stretch - its the Easter holiday effect plus a bit of sun and the whole place manages about 15 people per mile ... admittedly the kite surfers take up more room! Once we rediscovered the huge mass of severed ropes, we set to try and liberate some of the tangled mess, this was easier then we had reckoned and within half an hour sitting on the beach in the sun with quizzical looks from passersby we had quite a collection of different types of ropes and nets of a reasonable length to bring home to work with.  Dr Fred has some concerns over where am I going to work them as they are pretty much full of sand - so I've shown willing and he...

I have just had a lovely few days away staying with some friends first in Bristol and then in Bath.  An adventure made slightly more exciting given the fact I fly down to Bristol as it costs so much less then a  rail ticket.. ridiculous really and a shame re the 'carbon footprint'' but its hard to justify 219 squids on a 5.5 hour train journey when its quicker and cheaper to fly ( less then 25%)  - except of course I got delayed due to the European air traffic strike - but I had my sketch pad and a book to read so it wasn't too bad. The friends I visited have both got lovely interesting houses and my very good chums I've known since we were at school together have just had the most amazing extension built. They are just going through the process of moving back into the living space and starting to colonise it, planning colours and schemes, it looks pretty fantastic now so I'm really looking forward to seeing it develop... panoramic view of very splendid sp...

Another two assignments handed in - good to be finished with them.  One of them, the Personal academic Development was particularly dry but had to be done as part of the college curriculum.  The other was moderately more exciting, it being a print out of this blog, in glorious technicolour but nothing as good as reading the real thing online.  I printed it in colour only the blue ink ran out so it did look a little sorry for itself but the content was there non the less.  Content that did fulfil the brief but as if you have been following this missive does diversify from time to time so we will await assessment and see how that has gone down. In the mean time the Dr Martens project develops... the plot thickens and my interpretation of the brief has also diversified and after discussion with my tutor I am offering a marketing concept for the north east rather then a design for actual boots.  I have had great fun knitting rope, macraming ( yes revisiting the dr...

I had few senior moments earlier this week and a rush of those sayings you were never going to use EVER-  they were of a varied kind... I do try hard to avoid them but they still happen from time to time. First I started having a serious self doubt about my art work looking like Nana knitting - now some Nana knitting is really very splendid ( mine for instance and definitely Margaret's next door) and there is no getting away from the fact that I am a Nana but after the knitted cereal advert I was very perturbed by how Nana's and Nana knitting is portrayed - I don't want my work to look like its been mass produced for the church spring fair - sorry if that sounds rude but I'm aiming for a much more contemporary look and feel - I think that will fit the DM's image more - I do love a knitted tea cosy - in the right place! Then I couldnt find my lunch anywhere and realised it was sat on the kitchen table 30 miles away - so I had to go and buy some lunch and that led...

It been three very productive days... Finally handed my CAD stuff in - at last - not my finest moment but I'm still quite pleased with what I've done considering how difficult I found it to get going.  I've spent the rest of the time working up my Dr Martens brief and while its gone slightly awry and its a different interpretation of the brief I'm liking it very much - at the moment its looking a bit like wallpaper but there's work to be done yet I've also got lots of drawing done and have started some interesting constructive work around lobster pots and fishing nets and some knitted chains... its all very time consuming and the day has slipped away again - suddenly its dark!! Following on from my last blog - as well as being surprised when I started to reflect I took the opportunity over the weekend to look back at the work I have done since September.  I wanted a recap and to look at how I had progressed.  When I first started this course I wa...

Reflection - an important process for anyone - A process that requires long walks on the beach and careful consideration ....I've started this blog about 4 times now - each time spinning off into a tangent only I could find, there is sooooo much to reflect on - the digital age, and how I find it difficult, Dr Martens, just how many pairs do I need?  Student life, is it what I expected it to be? Why is everyone else's work so tidy?  Landscape or Portrait?  Would I ever have white furniture or grey even... Can one ever have too much fabric? What influences me most? And why? Most of these can't be answered simply so I wont lose sleep over the questions but being curious is the passage to a long and healthy life So in order to have a little break from drawing, painting and collaging Dr Martens I'm going to have a little think..  In relation to being a student of printed and constructed textiles - I'm  going to start with what has surprised me - I am often surpr...

Love Maya Angelou and love 'I Hope You Dance'  - it was the song we had at my beautiful granddaughters naming day and she sure does dance!!!  Happy International Womens day to all those wonderful inspirational women I know .....

I was very lucky to be able to observe the recent solar storm interacting with the earths magnetic field (see I live with an astromoner), commonly known as the Aurora or northern lights which was visible over much of the north of Great Britain this week.  What a beautiful experience - seen with the naked eye yards from my home - great long curtains of luminescent green light dancing across the sky above Amble. We are lucky to have reasonably dark skies where we live and the Northern lights have been visible a few times since we have lived here but we have never managed to see such a wonderful display as this before. We saw our new year in standing down the lane wrapped up in big jumpers and many coats - with a glass of fizz in hand and the fireworks over Amble popping and a faint Aurora in the far sky, it felt rather splendid but nothing as awe inspiring as the display on Sunday night -  the photos are by my friend Caroline - excellent considering she was out in the d...

I'm trying to wrap up the Practice Enrichment module (even the title makes me shudder).... I've succeeded in completing the brief - tears and sweat have been shed, I've managed to contain the blood but I cannot deny I have felt like shedding it occasionally.  My final collection contains researched inspiration including Abigail Borg and Liberty prints plus many others, the research was fun but did also throw up the sad realisation that Osbourne and Little belongs to George Osbourne (in my opinion - a Tory no gooder) so I probably can never patronise them again but then again I'm a poor impoverished art student now so can't afford to... this research is complemented with collections of screen shots that no way document or evidence  the struggles I had making photoshop work for me but show I tried and in a minor way succeeded and finally a dozen or more rather indescript designs and two or three I'm rather proud of given the circumstances. With considerable help...

I was looking on Pinterest for some secondary research and as I'm also interested in refining my presentation skills I got diverted to looking at different ways of producing sketch books and in particular this seemingly new phenomenon 'smash' books ha ha - do look them up - Surprisingly (not) its an American idea - it being that traditional 'scrapbooking' has had its day - scrap booking uses a concept completely alien to me -  a neat and tidy application to form a nice book whereas 'smash booking' is just that - SMASH it in - any thing you like, anywhere you feel works, jumble it up, stick it, in be spontaneous - be untidy - rebel - some of them look pretty good - but what amazes me is the fact that there is now a whole industry around this 'craft' you can buy smash glue, smash paper, smash decals smash glitter - possibly not as spontaneous as first made out!!! Second amazement is why didn't I think of marketing this.... I've been living my...

Its national book day - what is your favourite book... Its a hard one to pin down as there are so many but the book that always springs to mind when I'm asked this is the Gormanghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake -I first read this when I was about 18 and have reread it many many times since.  There is always something new to stimulate the imagination. Its broadly a Gothic fantasy - full of wonderful characters and set in a landscape you can't quite piece together to visualise as an entirety - just glimpses of rooftops, long halls, lakes and the general estate creeping towards never ending walls where the bright carvers dwell.  Grand places like the tower (sadly destroyed in a fire ) the school where the Prunsquallors live out ridiculous fantasies, the kitchen where evil brews, Cora and Clarices rooms and then of course the rest of the sprawling castle home to Titus, Fucshia, the countess Gertrude and the servants who run the house by the never ending book of Rituals.  Thes...

An interesting and productive couple of days at college.. Having been a bit worried I was losing the plot... well more concerned I didn't really have a plot or a plan but this project has been a classic example of how a creative process can work sometimes.  I was at a bit of a loss as where to take the brief about designing NE / Newcastle inspired Dr Martens and almost felt I had taken an easy option picking something I have always loved, ie. the sea, boats, harbours and marinas etc.. Is this finally the reason why I've been collecting random pictures of boats for the last 40 years?  From rebuilt burnt out wrecks , narrow boats, rowing boats on the Ganges, long distance shots of tumble down harbours on the south Gare at Redcar, Gulets in Turkey - and many many more - spoilt for choice and lucky to have such an extensive boat history to drawn on - except - this is a new chapter and the new pictures are about the boats and fishing industry here, in my neck of the woods, and...