Christmas Eve

Gosh, nearly another year over (and not a lot of posts to show for it!)

Things have been pretty hectic lately, and 2014 is already looking pretty exciting, with magazine features and plans to show some work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the pipeline!

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year, and will leave you with a few images of recent seasonal work! Best wishes, Kirsty

Lovely new cards!

Hello there! Just dashing in to let you know that packs of Christmas and plain greetings cards are now available from my website!

I am gradually listing new pieces for sale over the coming weeks as well, but please check back regularly as they tend to get snapped up quite quickly! 

I will be back soon with a proper update!

If you see a crocodile....

 ....don't forget to scream!!!

 Ha ha! I found this great piece of wood a while back and though it was perfect for a croc's nose - the nostril and eye are in just the right place! I found a rusty old saw blade in the shed and used them for the bottom teeth, and added a few nails for the top ones. Say cheese!

Ye Olde Water Mill

I was given a couple of old model railway wheels, so I thought I would make a water wheel. The base part has some lovely touches of turquoise paint suggesting water.

 Safe Passage

The piece of wood above was a bit special. I knew I wanted to use it as a wave, but as it dried out, it separated to form fingers and a thumb! A helping hand!

Reflections

This is only a small piece, but the driftwood I have used as the water was too beautiful not to utilise! I made a few houses to match the reflections and also added a street light.

In all my days "wrecking" on our beaches, I have normally turned my nose up at plywood! But no more!

I have started painting it to add as a backdrop to some pieces - and I am liking the extra colour!

Believe it or not, I am still getting orders for snowy, Christmassy scenes!

Brrrrrrr! I hope you are keeping warm. Stay safe! xxx

Summer break

Is 6 weeks really over already?! Hard to believe....I feel like I could do with another week with my boys at least! Maybe it was the holiday to Lacanau, France slap bang in the middle made it all go so quickly! I won't bore you with all my holiday snaps: here are just a few. It was most relaxing, very hot and the company was great. I didn't want to come home, and that isn't like me at all!

Having said that, it was good to get in the shed after the time away and have some fun!

Meet Margot. She is designed to stand in the garden

(Her copper "legs" simply push into the soil)

And Gilbert, who is suitable to display inside or out...

 This little anglerfish is fun. His new owner has named him Elvis!

In a moment of madness I have signed up to do 3 fairs in November/ Dec!

So I am saving even the tiniest little bits of wood to make Christmas tree decorations!

Sorry the "C" word just slipped out then, I do apologise! It is a bit early to be talking about it already....but I do try to be organised (it just never seems to work out for me!)

Anyway, I hope you all had as good a summer as I did. The sun has reappeared in these parts recently, so we will make it last as long as we can!

Church Street

Just a short post this evening, I only wanted to show you something I made this afternoon...

A little driftwood street, complete with its own church!

I have actually had this L shaped piece for quite some time....just waiting for the right time to use it!

The hole (which I am imagining is the bell tower) was there already: the cross I made from two rusty tacks, bound together with metallic thread.

But the most interesting thing about this sculpture is the long piece along the bottom. I have quite a few bits like this: it is hardwood, with lovely rounded corners. Can you guess what it was part of originally?

Can you guess now?!

Yep, it was a deckchair! I think I am going to keep it this way around, just to make it a little bit more interesting!

Driftwood wader

A few weeks ago I found this wonderful piece of wood on Seaton beach.

How perfect for a birds face and bill! Last night I sat with my box of driftwood sticks and had a go at creating the rest....

This is a shot of the other side...

The leg pieces aren't right - need to keep my eyes peeled when I'm on the beach again.
Then there's the tricky problem of getting him to stand up....!

More cottages

I am having an absolute ball this week! Feeling very motivated and enjoying developing new ideas around the cottage theme. I have put my sewing machine to one side and dusted off my paint brushes instead!

Last week I came across this small piece of driftwood which I painted and scratched to create a sweet little cottage. Originally I had intended it for a simple card, but found it was too bulky and heavy. So then I had the idea of doing a whole row of them and framing them, rather like my driftwood beach huts.

Here's the result...

I rubbed some yellow ochre on the roofs, to give it a bit of a St Ives feel!

Then, whilst rooting around in the shed this morning, I found a couple of offcuts from other projects - and it seems they were made for each other! The blue piece here is exactly the right size for the roof - with a little bit of overhang!

Very Cornish, wouldn't you say?!

I also found this lovely long rounded piece of wood, so I thought I'd do a terrace!


The lines are created by putting a layer of oil pastel under the coloured paint - then when you scratch it, the pastel colour (in this case white) shows through.

It's ready to hang on the wall, and will go in my Folksy shop tomorrow, the light's just terrible again today!
BTW, the stitched piece in my last post is sold! Yippee!

More paintbrush fish!

Hello my lovelies and a warm welcome to any new followers! I hope that many of you have been blessed, like us here in Cornwall, with warm sunny weather this weekend - such a bonus this time of year! It was definitely t-shirt weather here this afternoon - Herbie even asked if we could get the paddling pool out!
We had a very fruitful trip to the beach earlier - collected lots of little pieces of driftwood for cards and a huge amount of old paintbrush handles! Unfortunately they were plastic rather than wood, but they come in a nice assortment of colours, so I decided to put my plastic snobbery aside and get creating!
So this is the first piece showing a driftwood fishing boat and its 'haul'...

I've called it ' A Fine Catch'

I think the 'buoy' might be part of a fishing rod or float, but I'm not sure!
We also found this bit of plywood on the beach yesterday. It's got some old green paint on it, so I chose some co-ordinating fish from my large pile to make a unique and unusual wallhanging...

It's currently hanging in our hallway, but I think it would add a nice decorative touch to someone's shed... the rope would rot eventually, but the wood and 'fish' are obviously weather-resistant!
Both are available in my Folksy shop.

So what do you think? Can plastic be pretty? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hey

We're home, safe and sound, after a wonderful time on the beautiful island of Skiathos. Always nice to get back into your own bed though, wouldn't you agree?
I'm not going to bore you with loads of holiday snaps, but thought I'd share some images of this fantastic beach - Kastro - on the north of the island. To be honest it was a bit of a nightmare to get to, both in the car on the dusty lanes, and then on foot, down the steep cliffpath.
But my goodness, it was worth it!

The water was the clearest I've ever seen, and because it was not easily accessible we had the beach almost to ourselves!

I wouldn't mind a beach cafe like this!

Just my kind of rustic furniture... primitive tables made from old pallets...

And check out this cool bench! Might pinch this idea for our house!
But the main reason I loved Kastro so much? Look at all this driftwood!

There was literally a lifetime's supply here!
And you could swim around the shallow pools and find another great pile - I've never swam for driftwood before - it was just amazing!
It almost made me weep though, as naturally I had to leave it all behind!

Well, almost all! I managed to pack a few bits in my suitcase!

They will become boats very soon, I'll show you the finished products when they're done.

We also found loads of these floats (not sure what to use them for yet, but might make a decoration for our new bathroom - any suggestions welcome!)

It was pitch black when we returned on Friday night, we got a bit of a shock when we looked at the garden for the first time in 2 weeks - it's grown quite a bit since we left!
There's really no place like home!