Still life photography tarot cards

A little while ago I was asked to make tarot cards for two of my favourite people, James and Blair. These were no ordinary tarot cards, they're getting married and to show what he'd do for Blair, James got all their creative friends to make two tarot cards each on the theme of a certain aspect of their relationship and things he'd happily do for blair in the future. I was given transformation and sacrifice.

As Blair's a fellow witch ( go check out his videos at WitchesMIX, it's full of interesting advice and tips about various aspects of paganism and witchcraft.) I thought I'd take inspiration from spells and mythology, there's salt, charcoal from the yule fire we all shared, egg, rosemary, oil, water, iron and some of my hair before and after I dyed it (for the transformation part.) oh and glitter, because there has to be glitter.

For Sacrifice I took my inspiration from James and his love of literature and his sharp wit (You can read some of his writing at his blog Palimpsest, I can definitely recommend it, it's beautiful.) This excerpt is from a copy of Doctor Haggards Disease I've had for years, every so often I'll read a few pages and make blackout poetry as I go.

Machine mbroidered map for Lincoln A-Z exhibition

I currently have one of my pieces in an exhibition in the Collection in Lincoln if any of you would like to go and see it there’s a link to the exhibition details, the museum/gallery and(the museum itself is well worth a look, there’s a fantastic dinosaur skeleton they found under my old school)

The piece and corresponding poem are hopefully self explanatory, what people looking at the picture don’t know is how the piece ended up there. A month ago I started planning out how to make the piece and began searching around for old maps of Lincoln for reference in the embroidery. 

I think the lighting made it a little hard to photograph things so just incase you can't read all the poem it says

"Dear Tom, my dear Bear,

I want to stitch our story, sew our love on the machine,

all calico and cotton, framed for all to see.

Thin silver pin reminders

of where we've been and where we'll be."

 It was while looking around on the internet for old maps of Lincoln for reference I saw an advert calling out for a last minute piece for an exhibition by a local radio show. When I looked into it it was for A-Z Lincoln, a radio show where the presenters put a pin in a map of Lincoln and do the weekly show from that location (think more community project/ installation than cheesy radio roadshow, go check them out.)I messaged them telling them about the piece I was working on and that I’d love to surprise my partner and about his history in radio, luckily they liked the idea and said yes. 

Luckily Bear loved it and I hope he doesn’t mind me saying that he welled up when he saw it, he even seems ok with the fact that he can’t have his christmas present here in the house until the end of January. I felt like I botched proposing to my bear a bit last year (something he assures me wouldn’t have been very us without 2 engagement rings disappearing in the post, running across castle square in full steampunk getup to get a stand-in ring on the day and having to rip open the organza bag with my teeth to get the ring out while on one knee) so this was my big romantic gesture. 

All photos are by my good friend Spy Mistress General

Cake and hugs
Frocktopus
xxx

Watercolour Historical Fashion Illustration

I've recently bought myself a set of water brushes and don't know how I got on without them, especially as they mean I've been working in watercolour again. it's very easy to make watercolour painting muddy, especially as I tend to work in thick layers, the same way I do with acrylic paint so I tend to use a thick white liquid watercolour for the highlights. I'm going to try more pen and watercolour wash work soon.

The brushes in the picture are Pentel aqua brushes, they're one of my favourite things, I don't really go in for a lot of kit but these work really well and it means I can keep them, an ink pad and a sketchbook in my bag at all times. If you fancy a pack you can find them here, there's also loads of different types out there for varying degrees of money, mine were £3 for three with postage.

On a sad note this painting was done for a local steampunk magazine, unfortunately there was a bit of messing around involved and, not to be a downer on things, I have learnt a valuable lesson not to work for free for a business if you've already heard worrying things, there's plenty of better ways to get your artwork out there. It's not only a waste of time but devalues your work and the hard work of other artists. On a happier note I have discovered an artists union that is trying to stamp out this kind of thing.

You can still have a read of the articles author Sandi James's diary of steampunk events at her blog sandi by gaslight though, it's really sweet and there's loads of fantastic photos of amazing costumes people have made, the fact Sandi makes historical and steampunk clothing really comes through.

Love and cake

Frocktopus

xxx