Cath Kidston shoe box competition

Cath Kidston launched an amazing competition to design your dream room in a shoebox! I love Cath Kidston and it was such a cute idea for a competition, that I just had to enter.

I originally wanted to do something a bit whacky for a chance to win, but ended up making a pretty traditional room. None of the examples on the website had windows, so the first thing I wanted to do was make a huge window with a spectacular view. I chose to cut an intricate swirly design with a heart for a bit of a fairytale detail.

I have always dreamed of having a four-poster bed – there’s something magical about being able to draw curtains around yourself. Must have something to do with the princess and the pea. So I made the pinkest, most princess-worthy bed I could with pieces of cardboard and heart buttons.

The wardrobe was my favourite thing to make. I have a passion for dresses. Big, pretty vintage ones to be precise. So my dream room would have a big wardrobe bursting with wonderful dresses in it. I found perfect matching vintage buttons for the handle and cut little Cath Kidston flowers from some note paper for decoration.

A few finishing touches such as a little handmade vase, a dolls hat and a knitting bag add to my uber-girly room. (I have actually just bought this knitting bag from the store in the hopes that I may make my own Harry Potter jumper with a ‘K’ on. So far I just have the bag and three knitting needles. It’s a start at least.)

Finally I added a paper me, reading the latest Cath Kidston book with my cat. I figured its my dream room, I should be able to relax in it!

 

Puppet making workshop
 

One weekend over the summer, I travelled up to London for a puppet-making workshop with animator and puppet maker, Kevin Griffiths. You may recognise his name from animations such as Huxley Pig and Old Bear. These were two of my favourite programs to watch when I was growing up, so I was especially excited to have Kevin as my teacher!

The class was held in a little studio in the playground of a London primary school. It was a small class of about six people, so it meant we all had a lot of one-on-one teacher time.

First Kevin quickly demonstrated how to animate the puppets with a simple web cam set up with a laptop, then we began making our puppets’ hands.

We measured lengths of wire and used a drill to twist the strands together tightly, making them nice and strong. Kevin taught us lots of little tips throughout the weekend, such as how to use a lollipop stick to get the kinks out of your wire to prolong its life and prevent snapping. Getting the fingers was a bit fiddly, but we all ended up with nice arms and cartoon-like hands.

Then Kevin demonstrated how to coat the wire with hot glue from a glue gun. This was a little tricky, but we all managed it in the end. This technique helps to protect the wire and smooth the surface.

The next step was to wrap the arm wire between sheets of foam with strong glue. Once that was done we all sat down to carve into the foam with little sharp scissors. The whole class agreed that this was much more fun than you would expect of snipping foam – it was very therapeutic!

We completed the legs in the same way and carved feet out of a denser type of foam, making a groove in the base, tucking the wire under and gluing securely. The last step for the body was to get two squares of balsa wood and carve them into our desired body shape. Then we sandwiched the wire, including a piece for the neck, between the wood with plenty of glue.

Kevin told us to start thinking about how we wanted our puppet’s head to look. To inspire us, he pulled out boxes and revealed his collection of heads! Both old toy’s heads and some of his own designs filled the boxes and he held some up to our puppet bodies to show us how they make all the difference to a character.

So concluded the body and our first day!

Day two began with us carving a large square of polystyrene into the head shape of our choice. Kevin demonstrated the correct way to do this first. Again, many of us found the carving really enjoyable. Once everyone was there with the carving, Kevin showed us some of the many ways you can achieve eyes and mouths that can be animated, including using magnets and beads. So we all started the fiddly process of cutting and sticking miniscule pieces of magnet and stickers together for eyes and mouths.

Here is my almost complete puppet!

Next we learned how to mix paints with latex and coat our puppets with a few layers and dry them in our makeshift oven.

It was so nice to see how we had all started with exactly the same materials, yet every puppet was so different by the end. Some people had made people, others crazy monsters. They all looked lovely. The last hour was spent customising and adding to the characters of our puppets. I had made a little stripy swimsuit and some felt hair for my puppet. I also curled little strands of black wire for a hairy chest! I feel that the hands could be perfected, but overall I am pleased with my little Victorian swimmer.

We all arranged our creations to pose for a mini photo shoot.

My updated show reel!

Singin' in the Rain

I was first introduced to the film, 'Singin' in the Rain' by my best friend about ten years ago. She lent me her DVD, I watched it and then proceeded to dance down the road with ecstatic joy, much to my sister's horror! I had seen musicals before - I was raised on Disney classics, so was used to people bursting into song over a trip to the park or a new dress. But this 1952 film, I'm sure, could make even the grumpiest person smile. The wonderful songs and dances are so uplifting and the whole film is so colourful.

To say I am a fan of Gene Kelly would be an understatement. I adore him and all of his films. His and Donald O'Connor's dance numbers in the film are phenomenal. Watching this film all those years ago has made me a woman possessed! It opened my eyes to a whole era of films, music and fashion that I have now made it a mission to fill my life with. The 50s in particular, when Singin in the Rain was made, is my favourite era for fashion, films and music.

I was lucky enough to be taken to see the wonderful MGM film adapted for the stage in the Palace Theatre in London. We sat in the third row, so had a spectacular view of the stage and got very wet during the famous sequence in the rain!

It was a beautiful production. It varied from the film in certain places, which, as a fan of the film, I was unsure about to begin with. However, it worked well on stage and meant that there were still surprises for people who knew the film by heart, like myself.

The colour pallet was unexpected: I imagined it would be like the film but the set and the costumes were dark greys and subtle colours, like a back and white film or a stormy sky. The only colours that punctuated the monochrome setting were bright rainbow colours of the jazz age in the Broadway Melody number near the end.

The character, Cathy was dressed mainly in wonderful floaty pastel blues and pinks for the majority of the show, like the clouds when the sun sets. Her dresses were often embellished with gems so she shimmered when she danced. It was a wonderful touch that made her character really stand out.

The show was breathtaking from start to finish.

Image from: http://londondance.com/articles/reviews/singin-in-the-rain-at-the-palace-theatre-1/

 

Today I went to an old friend’s house as she was hosting an open studios event for the Artwave festival. She has many lovely barns and out buildings, which were filled with artists and their work today. I was so pleased to see my friend again that I forgot to take pictures or make a note of the artists names, so I can’t go into detail about all of the work I saw. (I am sure I won’t forget to do this once I get more used to blogging!)

One artist whose name I did get was Lydia Crook. She works primarily with paper and the work she had on display today was reminiscent of Robert Ryan’s work – very delicate paper cut outs with intricate writing. I bought two of her greetings cards with prints of her work on. My favourite was the matchbox image so I’ll be putting that in a frame! It is lovely and simple and cheerful. 

 Hello world! I am finally starting a blog! As someone who normally prefers using a typewriter to a computer, I have been putting off joining the modern world of technology, but here I am!

Here's a bit about me: I am currently studying animation at London College of Communication and aspire to be a stop motion animator. I'd love to work on children's animations and feature films. I am especially fond of old children’s programs such as Huxley Pig and Old Bear and all of the Wallace and Gromit films, along with Tim Burton and Ray Harryhausen.

A few words to sum me up: cats, vintage, dresses and cakes! In this blog I will talk more about things that enthuse me. I will try not to get too carried away boring you with details of my cats, but the odd cute picture may slip through.

I will probably focus mainly on animation, but so many things other than animation inspire me. I am a collector – I collect all sorts of things, from vintage dresses to old envelopes. Anything with character and a story behind it gets me excited! So I’ll tell you all about it here.

Enjoy!