Planet Ruby Starrs

Once home I spent most of the week considering what to put into my final show at college, its difficult to decide as my last project, while interesting to work on, didn't really pan out as planned and I'm not sure it holds up to display!!  The work is currently in college being marked I'm going to seek it out next week and see it it looks better then I remember when I've had a few days away from the intensity of trying to get it finished to hand in. Having no work deadline pressures or city breaks to plan means I have found time to sort out my 'studio' - grand name for spare room - all my fabric has been colour coded (again) and stored neatly (again) and in the spirit of using found fabric I used a lovely teal silk sari and some cream and green voile pieces to make some summer living room curtains as a change from the more formal rather dark usual suspects.  So now I have three windows and a door curtain all with completely different fabrics dressing them - it...

Poppies bright jewels in the the garden, if we're lucy the buds unfold late May uncovering fabulous blowsy blooms heralding the beginning of summer.. yes I'm eternally optimistic and incredibly inpatient... Loving foxgloves.. lovely june flowers tall proud purple spires filling woodlands and gardens followed by our sunflower competition...sunflowers are such happy cheerful flowers which butterflies and bees love. All these flowers are going to be showcased in my final art module - a celebration of my garden and love of showy blowsy colourful plants - there will be Clematis and Ox eye daisies as well and quite a few butterflies and bees, lots of nature lots of colour hopefully all turned into a book of some description.  These simple line drawings are the base for collage, applique and embroidery.  

I'm busy drawing, stitching, weaving and printing material to inform my next and final brief for college.  This is the last module in my two Year journey to attain a foundation degree in textiles, this work will hopefully go in the final student show so it needs to be a bold statement of what I have learnt this last two years. I've been looking back at my collection of work so far, and my research of artists and ideas that have inspired me and its so eclectic it kind of gives me plenty of scope but also rather too many ideas.  It ranges from the delicate ideas using embroidery both machine and hand rendered that Cas Holmes and Anne Kelly produce - lovely natural colours with subtle highlights and trim to the bold robust multi coloured multi patterned work of some one like Kaffe Fasset whose colour combinations know no limits.  All this via more traditional artists like Marc Chagall - a long time favourite for once again his use of colour and his distinctive style and...

Two very productive and enjoyable days at college doing lots of things I really like doing... sticking glueing, drawing. Our brief this module is to design two different scarves in different colourways.   Lots of the drawings I've been doing over the summer and more recently have come together to build a final overall design.  I have experimented with lots of different placement ideas using iconic liberty scarves, and other designers - Hermes, Swash and Lacroix for inspiration.  I've played with simple repeat designs in a William Morris style, they were pleasing but not quite right.   I tried changing the scale and making a picture scarf inspired by Swash scarves and it started to look more interesting.  potential (discarded) scarf design But in the end I decided to go with Lacroix inspiration and do a bold linear design for one scarf and a random large border design to be hand coloured for the second design. To this end I have spent all day ...

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...

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 ...

Snowdog Launch Day... Wor Geordie Its all very exciting....... The Great North Snowdog trail begins today - yes snowdogs in the North East...  an art installation arranged by Wild in Art  a company who work nationally with community groups, artists and schools to showcase interesting art in different cities and in doing so support various chosen charities. http://www.wildinart.co.uk/ They are putting 60 giant fibre glass snowdogs in and around the North East and Northumberland each designed and painted by a different artist and when they have been on show for 10 weeks they will be auctioned and all profits will go to St Oswalds Hospice  http://www.stoswaldsuk.org/ painting in progress And our Snowdog 'Wor Geordie' is standing proudly outside St Nicholas's Cathedral in Newcastle..... Back in May time myself and four other students with the encouragement (and organisational expertise) of a college tutor submitted a design loosely based on some work ...

a naked unpainted Great Snow dog Our PGSE student - now employed by the college inspired some of us students to get involved and submit a design for the great north snowdog -  http://www. greatnorthsnowdogs.co.uk/  .  This initiative is one of a long line of similar events that have been done all over the country by a company called Wild in Art.    http://www.wildinart.co.uk    This Newcastle initiative supports St Oswalds Hospice and artists from anywhere can submit a design and be part of the experience.  Our tutor and mentor put the final design together from work we submitted and last week we got the news that the design had been accepted and it had been selected by a sponsor.  Today we went to meet the sponsors - an engineering firm NBS based in the Old Post Office opposite the cathedral.  the company are quite large and employ a large number of local people and they did explain what they did - I'm a bit hopeless, ...