Update and giveaway!!!

Hi all! I have meant to post an update about my Mail Me Art 2 envelope for the last few weeks now but kept forgetting! Oops!

Basically, I found out just before Easter that my piece had arrived safely at its destination, and hadn’t in fact been dropped on a leafy lane to be buried under falling leaves, lost forever..... You can see my effort and the hundreds (literally) of other fabulous Mail Art pieces if you follow this link:

http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/gallery/mail-me-art-two/?album=1&gallery=14

It doesn’t matter whether or not my effort actually finds its way into any new book that might get published. I just really enjoyed being inspired by the other artists and making the effort to take part. This design by Michael Hacker (http://www.michaelhacker.at/) was the winner for the month of January (when my envelope was received by them):

.....and quite right too! Simple and fun, a great design, I love it!!  It's of an animal though - I'm biased!!

Now, finally.... the GIVEAWAY I have been promising forever!!!

Just leave me a comment here, and on Saturday, May 8th at 1pm (GMT) I will draw a name out of a hat to win one of these:

Sorry, the detail in the photograph isn't brilliant - the polar bear looks a bit washed out here, but the original paintings feature in my previous post so you can get a better look there.  These pendants are 2" square, the pictures are prints of the original paintings, printed on Bockingford Inkjet 190g/m paper and treated with protective spray that protects from UV damage etc.  The reverse has hand coloured paper where I have signed and numbered the piece.  I am sticking to limited numbers of five of each piece, these are the first of each run for these images.  The prints are sandwiched between two sheets of glass that are sealed with lead-free, silver content solder.  If you win you can choose either the polar bear or the wolf and I will finish it off as either a pendant attached to a silk ribbon necklace OR a miniature for you to hang on a wall somewhere.  If you decide to take the polar bear I think he'd make a lovely Christmas tree decoration.  Anyway, it's up to you - I am happy to post anywhere - not just the UK. 

Good luck!!

Oh, and sorry the giveaway has taken so long - hope you think it was worth the wait!   :0)  x

Oh, oh!!  Etsy shop to look out for real soon.....

I've been waiting for tomorrow all of my life...

Pushing two weeks ago I promised a giveaway and I have to apologise because I still can't post it, because I haven't been able to finish it, because of the mess up with the computer (see earlier rant) which had led to several unforseen knock-on glitches...... grrr!

Deep breath...... and...... relax.

I've been putting all my positive energies into more sketches and paintings though, and have been really enjoying myself.  The enforced delay has also made me look at another (and I believe hopefully better) way of finishing off the jewellery pieces so, of course, there's a good side to all the glitches....  and hopefully, as soon as I can post my long-awaited giveaway you might think it was worth the wait  :o)

My obsession with all things bear like continues.  Why?  I don't know but I'll run with it.  I need to perhaps visit a wildlife park to see some in the flesh,  do some sketches from life, though I'm not sure where I would go.  Here is my new polar bear picture... I'm going to turn the image into cards I think and adapt elements of it for the jewellery:

I sketched the bear after watching a beautiful National Geographic documentary about Russian wildlife.  The same programme also inspired this picture:

Tell me why is it that bears and wolves (and lots of other animals) look like you should be able to walk straight up to them and sink your hands and face into their fur without having your face ripped off?!!! 

I'm going to have my dinner now - and blast out 'Soul Mining' by The The - one of the few 80s bands I still listen to! xx

Come on baby, and rescue me!

I am not posting as regularly as I'd like to, but just to tide over the next couple of days until I get my 'giveaway' organised I decided to share this story....

My friend sent me one of those e-mails - you know the type, one that goes around the world and no one knows where it started.  This is just a fabulous story though and I'm sure you'd enjoy it too.  So here are the pictures and the words that came with them.  I don't know where they originate from, but whoever took them and shared in the first place, a great big thank you!  Oh, being in the UK I had to Google the location, so in case you weren't sure - like me - Donner Summit is in California.

"A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40) at Donner Summit, on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge (see unbelievable photo, below) and pulled itself to safety. Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge.

After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net.

There is a moral to this story you know.  This old bear made a wrong move and found he was hanging by his nails.  Somehow he was able to pull himself up onto the ledge where he saw he was in a very bad, impossible situation and what did he do?  Yep, he took a nap and sure enough the situation took care of itself while he was asleep.  The moral is that when confronted with a bad situation sometimes the best solution is take a nap.  So next time you see someone asleep at work, they could be just problem solving!!"

Right, I've got lots of work I should be cracking on with now..... think I'll go for a nap xx

One step forward (two steps back)

Exactly a week ago today I was sitting in front of my PC with a growing sense of doom as the anti-virus software was telling me that file after file on my computer was corrupt and being removed to quarantine.  After an eight and a half hour scan (!!!!) the whole thing ground to a halt when the anti-virus software finally 'stopped responding'.  You can use your imagination as to the language used by my good self to describe both machine and software at that stage.  A week later - PC returned to 'factory new' conditions; iTunes library lost; all my internet favourites vanished into the ether, though luckily (amazingly) all my documents and picture files were ok and saved by the nice man at the PC shop - I'm back.  The reason for the problem?  Bullguard anti-virus software company released an update by mistake which basically told the system that all my program files etc were corrupt, though they weren't, and so the computer (for want of a more technical way of putting it) ate itself up from the inside out!!!  Aaargh!!!!  So now, my little plans of beginning to sell my artwork online have been setback by a good few days.  I'd hoped to launch everything this weekend, I shall work my little socks off to get things started next weekend now.

There, rant over!  I do hope that none of you lovely people who stop by here have been troubled with the same problem. If you have, and you haven't been to the Bullguard site yet since - they are saying on their forum that you can ask for a subscription refund, you need to e-mail their payments dept.  Good luck!

Just to brighten this post up - here are some quick design sketches I have been working on this week for my Wild Things jewellery....

Watch this space next week as I am going to run a little giveaway of one of my necklaces, to say a big thank you to everyone who has offered me words of encouragement on my art since I started this blog!  You'll need to get your name down to be in with a chance of getting the goods! 

Oh, and I promise, no more venting of spleen! xx

It's all gone Pete Tong...

...which means it's all gone very wrong here in the UK (rhyming slang).  On Saturday my shiny 8 month old PC died because of a mistake my antivirus software company made.... basically they have trashed PCs around the world!  It's a long and very boring story but if you use Bullguard security software you'll probably know what I mean.

I collect my hard drive today, reset to factory settings  :-(   so hopefully, will be up and running again by the end of Thursday.

Basically, all I want to say is - 'I'll be back'. xx

If you go down to the woods today.....

I have to share this link with everyone as this website has been captivating me for weeks now.  It is a WildEarth TV channel - a webcam that is set up in the den of a hibernating black bear called Lily and her little (extremely demanding) baby Hope.  They live in a place called Ely in Northeastern Minnesota, USA.   This link comes with a warning however - if you look you WILL be hooked, and if your'e hooked, you'll get nothing else done!!!!

This is Lily - photograph taken from the Wild Earth website.

http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_bear_den.html

This kind of website is what makes the internet a wonderful thing, how fantastic is it that I can sit here in my little Yorkshire house in the north of England watching a black bear and her cub live in the wild on a different continent?!!  Enjoy!!

Oh and I'll be back very soon with some new artwork, L xx

Gearing up

As you can see I have changed the title of my blog...  I was never very happy with 'Making Marks' I just felt I had to think of something suitable and at the time that was all I could think of.  I am about to start selling some of my hand made work and will be doing so under the name 'Wild Things' (the tag line being - 'hand made things with wild things on') and so it seems a sensible idea to tie this blog in with my little business venture. 

The picture at the top illustrates the state of my little buisiness venture as it stands today though - I don't even think I could call it organised chaos could I?!!!  Guess what I'll be doing this weekend...

Just to add something a bit more creative to this post I thought I'd put up a  non-Wild Things pic that I keep working on - a watercolour of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a place I have visited many times since I was a child.  This is a painting I keep coming back to.  It's taken from some patched together photographs of the castle and harbour, I am trying to work much more freely with the paint.  I have already made a mess of the sky and will try to rectify it at some point but its all being done on practice paper, just for fun really so I am enjoying the process:

Right I off to try to create some order out of chaos!  Chores today, creative fun tomorrow.  Have a good weekend guys! x