The great candle making venture

Here's a photo of my second candle- and I love it! So pleased at how it's turned out :)

It's a gorgeous vanilla scented, fuschia dye, soy wax candle presented in a dessert dish that my mum used to serve us strawberry angel delight in- topped with sugar strands!

It does look and smell good enough to eat!

I still need to make some more test run candles, to ensure that these two weren't flukes- and get public liability/product insurance sorted before I "go live" especially with my "business twist" I have up my sleeve...!

But it's all in the pipeline :)

Might actually do a blog giveaway to win a candle... hmmm, watch this space :)

Win a "Stereo" cushion cover!

In order to win a gocco printed "Stereo" cushion cover (in your choice of lime green, grey or white) all you need to do is reply with the worst record you have in your collection-the cheesier the better... Go on, make me giggle!

All names of those who reply will be put into a hat & the winner drawn on the evening of Monday 7th June 2010





the cushions can be found at www.folksy.com/shops/papermashyeti

Oh Mojo, where art thou?

The absence of recent blog posts will probably indicate the current disenchantment that I'm experiencing with my artistic endeavours!

Maybe it's to do with what's generally going on in my life which could rival an Eastenders script for drama, the non contact from galleries that I contacted putting my art & soul on the line, the lack of sales- which I always put down to disinterest, knowing full well most people on the planet are skint!
I know that "art" is a tough market, it's personal taste, it's about matching your decor- and I've always produced works that I want to, on a subject matter that I like, instead of having a home decor/commercial head on.

It hit me at the Late Shows market last week that the people who do well are foodie, jewellery, etc types. So I thought "what if I could create something still artisticly minded but a little more commercial?" But it'd need a twist, I don't wanna be another craft person who drowns in a sea of sameness...

So I decided to take a break from the canvas, find inspiration, and still be creative. So what did I decide to dabble in?

Candle making! Everyone loves candles, don't they?!

Last night, after extensive reading, research and obtaining supplies I made my first candle! It started off as a plain white, non fragranced, container soy wax candle. I was overjoyed! So I melted more wax, added gold dye this time and made 6 tealights. Excellent! I knew this was getting addictive. Then I had a stroke of genius.

I had left over gold wax. My plain white candle was sitting there, it had largely set in its creme brulee dish. So I poured the gold wax on top of the white (largely cos I didn't wanna waste it & it's bad to pour down the drain!) So there it was, sitting there looking kinda like an actual creme brulee. To this end, I got brown wax and grated it over the top. Voila! Now it has to sit for 24hrs before I light it!

Candles will need extensive testing and product insurance in case I decide to go ahead selling them. But I've got to, I have big & exciting candle plans already! I've even thought of a candle business name, oh I do like to get terribly ahead of myself!!

But as they say, a change is as good as a rest. I got excited about this candle making malarkey. Maybe I can find a way to transfer that back into my artwork...

The Late Shows

It was the annual Newcastle/Gateshead Late Shows last weekend. On the Friday & Saturday nights a wide range of venues threw open their doors at a time when they would normally be closed, to offer a wide range of events, music, crafts for this free cultural crawl.

Last year I was at the now defunct Art Works Galleries, this year I spent the Saturday night at The Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead for their old school summer fete! There were gorgeous cupcakes and brownies by my fellow mafia members Pet Lamb Patisserie (totally yum!) http://www.facebook.com/Petlambpatisserie

I was also highly amused by the Human Fruit Machine- this consisted of 3 people, a sack of fake fruit which they blindly rummaged round in until at the same time, they pulled out a piece of fruit! 3 of the same fruit won you erm, a piece of fruit! Loved the idea though! Would love to see this being played down the Bigg Market at the weekend!

There was music provided by "The Kentucky Cow Tippers" Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/tkct
They are a 5 piece bluegrass, country, folk group from Gateshead. And I doubt any of them are over 20 years of age! It was amazing to see them play the non-mainstream instruments they do, where do you even go about learning around these parts?!
I loved them, was in awe of what they're achieving when most kids their age are out boozing & causing anti-social behaviour (oops, job hat on!)

Anyway, check out their myspace page for upcoming gigs and demo songs :)
(I came away singing "It's hard to love and not be loved"- ain't that the truth kids!)