The Rock and Gem Show

I went to the Rock and Gem Show today with mum at Kempton Park Racecourse.

I’ve been a couple of times and I’m always amazed at the variety of different colours, shapes and sizes of rocks and gems you can find there.
I was really on the look out for beads and findings (the clasps etc that go with the beads if you’re making a necklace) but didn’t see any I liked.
What I really need is the Bead and Gem Show, but I’m not sure when the next one is. I went to one in Farnham in July and found some lovely beads which I’ve made into necklaces, so was hoping to make some more.
Guess I’ll just have to wait.

Photoshop 5 v2

So I promised you a look at what I've been doing at my Photoshop course. So here it is.

I'm afraid that its not that original, but it gives you an idea of the sort of stuff you can make with Photoshop, which is cool. I look forward to doing more.

Photoshop 5

I had hoped to put up what I worked on in the Photoshop course this week, but I haven’t had the time to finish it off yet. Maybe at the weekend?

Anyway while talking about photos in the class Kate mentioned Andy Small, whose work I recognised, when she showed us, from seeing him at the Chelsea Flower Show. I’ve actually got one of his post cards on my wall at home.
I quite like his work – more the simple photos of flowers than the ones that have obviously been photoshopped but I do still like his style. I like the bright colours and would quite happily have one of his canvas’ on my wall.

Inspiring.

Catching Up

Mum was kind enough to let me use her camera so I can show you what I've been doing.
Most of these are covered in wallpapers, although the jellybeans are from the packaging of a sweet jar that I bought, and the orange bird is from a table cloth.

I love how each one has its own texture, whether it be the fake leather wallpapers or the slightly furry table cloth.

Operation Christmas Child

Last week I made starch paste so I could make books with material covers.
One of these is a tiny A7 book covered with angel material (my old pyjamas). Mum was nice enough to lend me her camera so that I could take photos before I send it away, as this book was made for a special reason.
Every year the Samaritans run something called Operation Christmas Child, where they ask people to fill shoe boxes with things for children all over the world who won’t be receiving anything this Christmas. Each child receives a box filled with toys, educational supplies and hygiene items. My box is aimed at a little girl between 5 and 9, and I thought this note book would be perfect.
I’m hoping it will end up somewhere cold as I found the prettiest scarf, hat and gloves combo, all covered in small pink hearts.

Coptic Stitch

I’ve been really struggling with my last Perl assignment today. After a while I go so fed up with the damn thing I decided to do something else.

Now I’ve noticed while browsing on Etsy that quite a lot of the books that people sell there don’t have spines like mine but have decorative stitching instead. I’ve been intrigued by this and finally found out what it is last week.
It’s Coptic Stitch, and a quick search on goggle found me several sets of instructions. I printed off the set that seemed to make most sense and I’ve just tried them.
It seems pretty simple although I got lost when I tried to attach my back cover which I think has spoilt the whole book. The instructions were good until that last bit then seemed to just leave you to it.
My book seems pretty loose with none of the structure that my books have. I’m not sure if this is due to the problem with the back cover or not.

I shall have to find some more instructions with an ending and have another go.

Greg Mosse – Plot Overview

Last night I went to the last event of the Guildford book festival that I’ll be attending this year – a plot workshop.
I really enjoyed it, even if some of the attendees where taking it a bit seriously.
Greg Mosse obviously knew what he was talking about, and best of all took tiny parts of real books to show us how plot can work.

We started by agreeing that plot is a series of imagined events.

One of his exercises was to ask us for a location, which ended up being Hadrian’s Wall at about 125AD. We then came up with characters, in this case a Pagan Witch and a Roman Centurion, and the plot grew from this. Which confirms what the Open University taught me, that Character + Conflict = Plot.
I like this as I always find that just coming up with a plot by its self is extremely hard work and probably why my longer stories fizzle out.
Another exercise was to look at a painting, Utrillo’s Notre-Dame de Clignantcourt (above), and write 70 words of action. I liked this also. He reminded us to write the story, not about the story.

My attempt went;
The boy ran along the street kicking up snow as he went. Rushing he knew he was late; the bells had stopped ringing at the start of the street. As he cornered, so close he could now see the doors, he felt his feet slide from under him and reached out for anything that might stop his fall.
Nothing was there and he fell with a clatter to the frozen cobbles. With a tear in his eye and pink cheeks from the cold he pushed up from the snow and, slower now, ran for the dark wooden doors.
He could hear the organ playing. If he could just slip in without anyone seeing he might just get away with it.

I definitely came away with ideas that I could work with, hopefully to improve my own writing.

All in all a good festival and I look forward to next years.

How to Decide - Novel, Short Story or Poem

Last night I went to another book festival event at the Electric Theatre.

This one was a discussion between Gerard Woodward and Tessa Hadley chaired by Guy Pringle about the difference between novels, short stories and poems.
Tessa and Gerard both work together at Bath Spa University, and have attempted all 3 types, which I think added to the whole experience as they knew each other so could make comments about each others work.
It was a very intermit event as the audience wasn’t that big and we ended up joining them on the stage, which was really nice.
They were very interesting, and once again it was great to hear from real people about how they work, how they got published, how they juggle their time and what inspires them. Its defiantly tempted me to try some of their books.