Work in progress..

Simply things I am working on, or have ideas for...

Unfinished. Hmmm... not sure what I'm going to do with these. I have a soft spot for woodpeckers, and rather like the idea of them perched on a cylindrical book, pecking a way. Sure it will come to me!

Maybe loads of them pecking at different angles...

Unfinished. Like the 'Spring Box', I wanted to make an 'Autumn box', mostly because I was excited at the thought of using so many different shades of ribbons and beads.

I took leaves from 'live' trees I liked in the park to one of my favourite ribbon and trimmings shops in London, VV Rouleaux and was able to choose pretty much the exact shades for each leaf. www.vvrouleaux.com

Conkers hanging from branches.

Some leaves are made out of paper as if they are very dry and about to fall to the ground.

Unfinished. Strangely, it was seeing how the stampeding buffalo looked backstage at the theatre production of 'The Lion King' that inspired this. The 'poles' the deer are placed on, gives it the feeling and movement of a carousel or a wind up music box. There will be many more deer. The size, including the height of the deer is about 30cm x 25cm x 25cm.

Unfinished. A very small version. This only measures 12cm x 8cm x 8cm.

When finished both will be placed in boxes.

Nothing to do with boxes but.. the pure joy of shells!

Nothing to do with boxes but.. shells, oh the pure joy of shells.

Nothing to do with boxes but.. the handsomeness of slate!

Acrylic on slate. A view of one of my favorite places.

The lurcher measured about 14 feet long and 6ft head to toe.
A lurcher built on a hill using bits of slate I found lying around. The breadth of the different shapes I found really surprised me. If you were looking for a certain piece to fit in to the picture like a jigsaw, you mostly found the exact match pretty quickly.

A buffalo head put together from pieces of slate found near a deserted crumbling building.

Slate is something I have begun to love quite recently. It seems so versatile. The very fine layered slate can be wheedled, chipped and sanded into the kind of shape you require. Thick slate is somehow reassuringly solid and makes a good base to build on. Tiled slate a good medium to paint on and then helpfully stands up on its own without having to lean on anything. The options of slate do seem to be unending.

'DUNES AT YNYSLAS' BOX

The smaller boxes 'Wisteria' and 'Ynyslas'.

Box measures 9cm x 4.5cm x 7cm.

The back of the box.

Glass is on five sides.

The dunes at Ynyslas.

I brought some sand and tiny stones back from the beach and tried to replicate the view I saw.

Everything else in the box, including the grasses, are made out of pages of text.

The contents of this small glass box picture, with leather edging, was inspired by the sloping dunes on Ynyslas beach in Wales. The dunes, sand and sea there seem infinite.

'WISTERIA DOMINO' BOX

Poetry text is used for the leaves, branches and bricks.

The box measures 18cm x 6cm x 4cm

A bird, of-course,

had to be sitting

on a branch.

The print

covered

dominos at

the back of

the box

portray

house

bricks.

Different shades of ribbon are used to make the flowers.

This beautiful wisteria, climbing up a house near me, caught my eye.. well, you could hardly miss it.. this year, it practically took over the whole house. I made a small picture of it in an old domino box, using poetry pages, dominos and different shades of ribbons. I removed the lid from the box and replaced it with glass. The box is covered in soft purple leather.

'SPRING' BOX Private Commission

I used tiny beads to portray dew on the flower heads and bunches of beads and sequins for the blossom in the trees.

The box is glass fronted and backed, so the sunlight can shine through naturally.

Some of the birds are suspended by wire so they seem to be flying.

Close up of bird's nest.

The bird's nest has jewels sitting inside it and beaded blossom surrounding it.

The flowers were made out of different coloured ribbons, as were the leaves and blossom. The trees were made out of poetry book pages as were the insides of the box. Each poem related to spring.

The birds sit on the trees, the ground and fly through the air.

This 'SPRING BOX' was commissioned as a Christmas present for a person who travels extensively, a lot of the year. Their main regret when travelling, was that they missed the seasons, especially the English springtime. Therefore the idea was to let the person see 'spring' whenever they returned home, even if it was the wrong time of year or even take it with them.

The box measures 24cm x 19cm x 10cm.

'KING ARTHUR TRINKET' BOX Private Commission (4)

'Arthur' box just finished in workshop.

The tray compartments were painted in a mixture of distressed gold, green and red.

Limpets and scallops decorate the outside. I also used metal leaves to decorate the some of the corners and the top to make it have a more textured feel.