Newsletter from my Studio

March 2024

Hello friends,

Happy March! Crocuses, rain showers and lots of daffodils, that’s how the month has started here today! March is often a month when I feel a sense of energy coming back after winter hibernation. So if this month you fancy de-cluttering and spring cleaning, and you happen to find a redundant box, this could be a fun idea.

Repurpose a cute little toolbox into a mini gallery for your wall. 

Our boys were no longer using this toolbox so we took out the inside structure which gave us a nice blank canvas to play with. As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, I de-cluttered my studio earlier this year and found a pile of gorgeous Flow magazines and knew I’d find some paper gems in there to cut up and use as the background wallpaper. And just as expected, I found a strawberry insert by artist Penelope Dullaghan which was perfect for what I had in mind. Although the season for eating strawberries isn’t here yet in Yorkshire, we are certainly planning our garden strawberry strategy and where we will be positioning our strawberry pots this year is part of it. The colours of the strawberry print were also delightful and I’m currently loving the combo red-pink. It just makes me happy! So this was a total win. The paper was also thicker than normal magazine paper which was another advantage. One of the many things I love about Flow magazines are these regular card inserts which are so gorgeous for crafts. They often add in bookmarks, paper goods, calendars, posters, you name it (not an ad, just in love). 

If you fancy giving this a go this month, here are some super simple steps which you’ll have figured without me saying of course… but we all love a highly achievable to-do list, so here goes!

1. Find a box. It can be a chocolate box or a tin… just something that can be held up sideways, providing a frame and a little shelf.

2. Get your materials ready. I’m using scissors and glue. Super simple.

3. Find a background wallpaper which you love. Card, left over wallpaper, news article, an old book cover, really anything is good.

4. If you’re going through old magazines like I did here, this is an opportunity to make yourself a cup of tea and read those articles you’d put aside for another day. That day has come!!!! Enjoy!!

5. Once you’ve found a piece of card/paper you like, cut it to the right size to fit the back wall of the box. Do the same again for the lower part if you are using both bottom of the box and the lid.

6. Add glue to the box and place the card on it. Voila!!

7. Now take a little time deciding what you’d like to place inside this gorgeous frame and what to place on the edges. With washitape, ribbon, wool, string or pins, the possibilities are endless. Some of you may recognise the matchbox with the cockerel below which I painted last year. It has lots of little notes of encouragement in it and I love that it’s made its way into this piece. Assembling and positioning all my little objects was my favourite part. It felt a little like I was curating my own little museum. The great thing is I can easily change it all round, repeating the process depending on my mood or the season.

Hope you enjoyed this super simple idea and please let me know if you do something similar, I’d love to see it!

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Newsletter from my studio

February went super fast, beginning with a wonderfully inspiring trip to London, full to the brim with magic and wonder. Then we had snow. Then Mike hurt his back and then got a bad cold. I got it from him and it felt a lot worse than just a bad cold… and I couldn’t taste anything. It was covid. So here I am, 4 years after first hearing about it (is it really 4 years?) with covid for the first time. In the last few days, I’ve put on hold my little print shop and have focused on resting and learning, thanks to the wonderful world of BBC i-player. Little treasures I’ve enjoyed include:

Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry and seeing how this embroidery depicts life 1000 year ago.

The First Georgians which I’m half way through and would like to re-watch and draw.

The Latest Secrets of Hieroglyphs and seeing how craftsmen used to live together in a village called Deir El-Medina. Very interesting, I had to take notes.

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Other bits and bobs…

• The crocuses next to us are out and I got to paint them again this year. Here are some drawings I did of it. 

• I put up some pictures in my studio (see pic above).

• Mimosas. total dream of a plant. I found a mimosa bush at our local garden centre to plant in our garden after enjoying them so much last year when a neighbour gave us some. I thought they were a Mediterranean plant but discovered in an article in one of the Flow magazines above that they are in fact originally from Australia. We’re delighted all the same and look forward to enjoying its evergreen beauty all year round as well as its yellow pompoms every February and March.

• Not tasting anything just now but earlier this month, I was loving liquorice infusions.

• In February, I continued my weekly visual journal practice and hope to draw my 9th spread of the year tomorrow.

• Reworking some of my kid lit portfolio was fun and I’m hoping to continue this in March.

That’s it from me! Hope you have a great month of March.

Helen xx