second chunk of 365 photos

I've just got back from my trip to scotland and england and have been keeping a strict record of my photos to upload for my 365 project, I found that I was a bit more self conscious taking photos over there, not wanting to appear like a tourist or something!

An Elephant Never Forgets

I just finished another elephant, this time a ceramic one for The Rhonda Kuhlman Art Exchange in San Antonio, Texas.

Rhonda was a really good friend of mine and talented artist who died too young ,in September 2009 .

I met her in the early 90's when she came to London and did an exchange with my then flatmate, Joel Tomlin, who was at Chelsea Art College.

She stayed in my flat with me for three months, and a couple of years later I had my first trip to America where Rhonda, Chris and I did a road trip from Texas to Oregon.

We later shared booths at the New York and San Francisco Gift Shows, with her business Recycled Works ( making everything from recycled vintage bottle caps) and mine at the time- Candy's Chandies- lights and chandeliers.

I met Sean, my husband through her and ended up in Texas living with him, and three hours from Rhonda.

The art exchange is taking place in her town, San Antonio, for friends of Rhonda's and I'll end up getting a piece of work that someone else made, which I'm excited about as, Rhonda had lots of great artist friends.

The piece itself has lots of details on it that were particular to Rhonda

Jimmy Jumbo Knitted Elephant

I have just finished a few weeks of knitting this little stuffed toy elephant - Jimmy Jumbo.

Thoroughly back into knitting now, but this is a one off made as a present for my Dad who collects elephants. I don't think I could make knitted goods to sell , they take way too long, so you won't be seeing any in my shop.

I found the pattern which is from the '50's at The Vintage Pattern House on Etsy.

Its been perfect knitting weather, sitting in front of the fire, and as I havn't been feeling like going into my studio much ( its way too cold to be doing ceramics right now and I needed a break from a few full on months of it anyway)

He is about 7 inches tall, and a 'footish' long

new trainers

365/43 new trainers, originally uploaded by mccheek.

there's nothing better than new shoes, I thought I'd get some new trainers for my upcoming trip to the uk. couldn't resist the colour of these ones

Studio Time

Been in the studio today, and after finishing off some new castings, I took some little vignette photos from around me, can't stop playing with my new phone and camera

Full size John Wayne pop up

Two Britney's, paintings that Sean did around 2000, she's became a tragic icon and now it seems she's back to normality

Small four colour print that we did of a favourite old record cover of mine - study for the large one

365 -First Thirty Days

This is the first 30 odd photos from my 365 project.

I have taken the challenge of taking a photo a day for 365 days, I upload them to a set on Flickr, and post them to a group called Project 365.

Some days its really hard to get a good photo, and sometimes its hard to figure out what to photograph, but I'm enjoying it, even though I'm not always really pleased with my results.

I'm looking forward to looking back at the story it tells for 2010 for me.

I use all my different cameras, including my new phone, which is extremely handy.

All The Luck In the World

I love discovering a new person on Flickr whose work I like, I don't even know how I got to find out about Jane Schouten, from Holland , but all I know is I am really inspired by her aesthetic, and her 'all the luck in the world' shop.

She makes all sorts of recycled vintage design pieces from furniture to good luck charms

The piece that got me hooked to her style is the christmas tree that she with 'useless but pretty' objects she has collected over the years ( her own words)

I 'd love to go and see her shop in Holland, but for now I'll look at her pretty pictures.

Love these T Shirts

I'm really loving these hand painted T shirts by Jessalin Beutler , that I spotted whilst looking at the online exhibition space -Papernstitch

Sean's Video of us in Marfa

Sean did this video of he and I on our trip to Marfa , Texas in November.

I love this song and the video too, my first time ever on a tandem,

I couldn't stop laughing.

Photo Challenge

I've been thinking about a 2010 challenge for the beginning of the year, so I'm challenging all of you that have bought from McCheek's Mayhem to send me pics of my work( things I've made) in their new homes ( fantasy settings will be acceptable too)

* I think that the challenge could also be for people who don't have any McCheek's Mayhem goods, and are up for a challenge and a prize -there are ways of stealing images from the internet and playing around with them, know what I mean....not that I'm promoting cheating...

every time I sell something and send it off to its new home, I get very excited about where its traveling to, seeing as my work is like an extension of me, and I haven't done much traveling for a while, this is the next best thing

I can't wait to get some photos sent to me

mccheeksmayhem@mac.com

and the prize ( a McCheek's Mayhem mug of your choice) will be given to the one that I think is the best

the closing date for entries is Jan 30th 2010

I will post the entries as I get them to my blog and notify everyone of the winning photo

December

I havn't felt much like blogging for some time, the month has been a whirlwind of ups and downs. I feel lucky to just be hanging out at home with Millie on my knee and the fire on.

we got the fairy lights on and i found a miniature silver tree and I finally painted this wall blue, I love it, and then we got the new pew too, still more to do, but I'll get to that later

T Bone loves the cushions, I wish I could get more of these, I've had these a long time, made by an old friend in London, Dawn Dupree

Really liking getting into my cactus gardens too, and looking forward to making more with new shapes and glazes after the holidays have passed and I get back into my normal routine

Bird Nerds all Round

We have the Craftidote @ Antidote happening tomorrow, it might be cold, but lots of handmade items from 20 or so vendors, so if you're in Houston, come on down

( sean - my husband designed and then screen printed this fab poster)

I've made a load of new mugs and they're fresh out of the kiln, lots of different 'birdie' ones

and some espresso mug sets , inspired by my parents collections of pottery shards they collect form the beach

Road Trip to Marfa

Sean and i just did a 1300 mile round trip to Marfa, Texas for the weekend, home to the Chinati Foundation ( Donald Judd)

these are his concrete sculptures out in the desert

we saw amazing open landscapes, and so many stars, and the mysterious Marfa lights

we saw these two stags, a family of wild boar, a road runner and a massive tarantula looking furry spider

we were warmly greeted by an interesting artist and craftswoman (Catherine) and got shown round her shop - Wool and Hoop and next door, Fancy Pony Land ( I want one of their skirts)

we ate some delicious food at Cochineal - this is their lovely red tree in the courtyard

saw proper autumnal colours

got stopped by Border Patrol ( we were very close to mexico) and I was given a warning for not carrying my residents card ( woops),

it was like a scene from Thelma and Louise out in the desert, except it was me driving with Sean and we weren't running from the law

we saw some fantastic art - Donald Judd and Dan Flavin

we had a hilarious ride on george and lisa's yellow tandem bike, video to follow soon

All in all it was a really good trip and will have to go back again

Cactus Gardens

I've had a good time filling my newly cast and glazed bowls with cactus gardens, I got some rainbow gravel too which is quite colourful close up , and I'm happy with my new grey glaze, soft and matt

I need to keep most of them out of my shop for a while until the little plants 'take' before I can ship them anywhere, but I'll be selling them at the Craft Sale @ G Gallery next weekend.


The other exciting thing that happened this week was that I found several mentions about McCheek's Mayhem on different blogs - so I'm tooting my own trumpet - if thats an expression! and letting you know, they're all good names, but the one i like the most for its originality is called Far Out Brussel Sprout, by a girl called Siobhan from Sydney and seeing as I want to go there next year, I was even more into it.

you can see them here (Love Natalie) and here ( Sweet Sweet Life) and here (crystaloicle)

Its your turn- tea towels

well, it was me and Sean in the studio today, he was helping me to print the new Its Your Turn tea towels. each tea towel is a different size, so the registration was way harder than we expected, and we'll never divide the image onto two screens again, but you learn a new lesson each time, don't you?

So the next one which is in mid design stage, will be sooo much easier.

But it was good to get them done, and I even did some printing myself, which i hardly ever do.

They're hand dyed before and then screen printed with water based inks for softness