Planet Ruby Starrs

We took advantage of a sunny day and some spare time to go for a wander on the Greta Walk.  We started at Greta Bridge and just walked for a couple of hours had a picnic and then turned back and walked back the same route.  If we had persevered probably another 200 yards we would have come to the bridge and could have walked back the other side of the river Greta but for some reason we didn't!!! It was gloriously peaceful we only met two other people - dog walkers - right at the beginning of the walk.  Sadly we only caught the tail end of the bluebells and we were saddened further by the landscape being dominated by forlorn dead Ash trees - We think it must be Ash die back - no other explanation for such a sorry proliferation of stark silhouettes of trees! The skylarks made up for it a little and we found a lovely little platform to sit on overlooking the river to eat our picnic. Its a very pleasant walk with  a mixture of open fields covered with buttercups and some lov

I've pretty much finished my second year at the Northern School of Art and I have really seriously enjoyed it - I have learnt so much and feel my confidence growing... Its a relief to have handed everything in for this year and I just await my marks and at this point what will be will be!!!! We have had some more family stuff to sort out and that has taken considerable energy -   now I am hoping for a little relaxation time and some space to get on with some projects I have been planning in the house for some time...and finally an empty day arrives so the first thing I started was sorting out my work space ha ha ha its just not feasible - every time I move something  I swear it just multiplies - gets bigger .... Its full of college left overs which needs sorting - mostly binning - I seem to save every little scrap and I mean every little bit 'cos most of it gets used for my sketch book embellishment... So I put that effort aside and decided to cover my old arm chair instead..

If you were totally crazy you might consider this as wallpaper  - mural wallpapers are a big trend at the moment - I'm not one for statement walls but if I was making a statement I would want it to be loud - and probably all over the room - not confined to one wall or one space... SlamitinRubyStarrs more is more!!!! As this is a digital print it can be used in many different ways and in different sizes - I'm very much into this idea that wallpaper doesn't need to repeat (google Kirath Ghundoo)- this particular wallpaper has a bit of both.   It can be hung as a repeat pattern but also can be dropped slightly and most of the overall 'top' pattern repeats but the colour changes adding a different dimension... not for the fainthearted!!!

Well... short of handing in my dissertation proposal (which is written) that's college as good as finished this year!!  I have handed in my final module and feel reasonably pleased with what I have achieved.   Of course as I put it altogether to display finally and finish up my sketch book I can see loads of ideas emerging and things I wold do differently or in addition, or better in some places... that's the nature of the beast - its very much an ongoing journey -still lots of ideas for next year!!! I have handed in a week early and have worked hard over the last few weeks to make up the time lost next week so technically I have still put the hours in, but now wish I had time to experiment with tassle making and  3D dogs heads - this is exactly what I mean - always something to add on if there was more time!!! I have really enjoyed working confidently with Photoshop - never thought I'd be writing that!!! I had a lot of false starts - some nice designs emerging but n

Madness of a family visit - lovely surprise spontaneous visit by my lovely daughter and her two children.  The calmness of the recent  quiet and solitude from the lake district broken - nay shattered in minutes as excitement over lambs in the field and the chicken in the garden was a joy to experience - shocked the chicken was nameless, she soon became Miss Margery - no idea why but there we are who am  I to argue with a feisty 3 year old...  also I love the idea that she absolutely 'knows' the noises made by the cows in the barn behind our house come from elephants and is totally convinced Nana has elephants living next door....  oh the joys of being an all knowing 3 year old... we played in the garden , paddling pool, did some sewing, drawing - iced and ateMthe Christmas cake - yes its been sat there since December... and then we down the river and spent hours throwing stones in - there were a lot of stones!!! 

A much delayed post... life is very hectic at the moment with lots of (mainly nice) family stuff going on but also we have an ailing parent and are expending a lot of energies in that direction.  I am trying to get college stuff done so I can hand in early so we can concentrate wholly on that situation.  I've been working like mad to finish my interiors module and I quite pleased with how its turning out.  second lampshade Its that usual thing as I near the end I can see all sorts of new ideas emerging and places where I would have done things differently but I suppose thats the learning process so as long as these are lessons learnt it all helps fashion the next piece of work!! two of my furnishing designs I have 6 fabric designs, two cushions, and two lampshades and some crazy product boards showing potential wallpaper - I should be handing my work in on Weds so I will be able to relax a bit... two more furnishing designs just a taster of some of my finals...