08/04/2021

Quite a few new bits and pieces to post on here, that I've worked on over the last couple of weeks. I played with some old ideas of the 'Mutated Map' patterns that I created a few years ago, adding in a bit of colour and a grid - the design requires a grid, which previously I've always removed after creating the finished image, but with this piece I played with the idea of a different grid round the edges of the main pattern. I was hoping that the colours I chose would create a sense of anatomical growths (think spots, coldsores, cysts etc) but I think it has ended up looking more floral and decorative than that. If I play with the colour again, it will have more dark shades in an attempt to address this...

On the 1st of March I drew a dead hare that someone had found, photographed and kindly let me use. I wanted to created a silly little parenthesis of the month, so finished March which another dead hare drawing. My friend Tom found quite a few dead hares whilst cycling in Norfolk, so I had a bit of a backlog, which is now fully cleared. The use of dead animals in my work is meant to be a bit thought provoking and perhaps slightly somber, but it also isn't meant to take itself too seriously - I think there's room for a certain amount of dark humour, like using 2 dead March hares to bracket the month.

As well as drawing, I've still been loving doing a lot of crochet - I have a fun seafood project I'm creating at the minute, and I've also made a silly moose for my dad's birthday, and then crocheted my gorgeous dog, Lila. I'm really proud of it - she's a 14 year old labradoodle and they look a bit like animated scribbles, so it can be really hard to capture her in photos of drawing, but I think this fun crochet dog is a pretty good representation. She'll live on the end of my bed for years to come!

The final thing I've finished in the last couple of weeks, is a dress. For my birthday my mum bought me a Merchant and Mills pattern and some beautiful orange fabric and together we made up the 'Ellis' dress over the Easter weekend. My mum is very good at following dress making patterns and made a few of my clothes when I was younger. I've followed 2 very, very basic patterns before but this one was quite a leap up. I absolutely could not have done it without a lot of help from my mum, who read the pattern, explained things to me and then pointed out my huge, huge amounts of mistakes... I don't think dressmaking will be my new major passion, but once I've gotten over the trauma of setting sleeves, I'll try and make the pattern again, with a slightly looser bodice and hopefully quite a bit less unpicking... Until then, I'll enjoy wearing this one to the pub, to celebrate the easing of lockdown!