Lino printing

I picked up my lino tools again in 2024, and found myself making birds!

I’ve been suffering with art block for such a long time, and I found that the only way through it was to make the picture I had in my head of what that looked like — what creative block looked like as a creature.

It was a dark, shadowy form with a heavy hand on my shoulder, telling me I had no ideas, wasn’t good enough. And then, magically, once I’d got it out onto paper, I found that I did have ideas again. Funny, that.

Embossing

So, it turns out that the inside of tomato paste tubes is coated in a gold layer to protect the food, and if you wash the tubes out you can use them to make embossed decorations.

I had a lot of fun over Christmas 2024 exploring mark-making and form in a sharp and pointy medium! I’d love to follow this further, making larger and more involved creations from smaller decorated pieces.

Wearable creatures

I was inspired by an artist on Instagram recently to get my sewing machine back out, and make some small and silly wearable projects.

@busymockingbird has been making some fantastic moth-shaped ties, and it’s had me sewing, painting, gluing and looking overly fancy at work for a few weeks now. My first attempt was an emperor moth, made out of some linen curtains and layered with acrylic paint. My second piece was a luna moth made out of some beautiful printed fabric which drapes really nicely.

My next project is to create a cravat out of some big green leaves covered in yellow free-motion embroidery … or maybe a dark-bordered beauty moth — stay tuned!

Knitting

I’ve been a knitter for many years now, but returned to it recently with a vengeance.

I took myself on an inspiration trip to Orkney during October 2024, and challenged myself to knit some pieces by local creative Hilary Grant, who designs patterns and prints inspired by the intense Scottish island landscapes. While there, I made a pair of cuffs featuring an arrowhead design from her book Knitting in the North, and then over-committed to making another 4 pairs for Christmas presents.

Once I got back I also tried another of her patterns, some mittens with a barley design, as well as one of my absolute favourite projects to date: knitted chainmail!

The knitted coif below was a Christmas gift for a friend, and combines my interests in history, craft, and big swords.

Chainmail

So, I learned how to fight with a 17th-century German longsword in 2023. That was pretty cool.

It’s not something that I do regularly, but it rekindled an interest in historical clothing and creative traditions, and for that I’m very grateful! In 2024 I started to learn how to create my own chainmail and chain-based jewellery.

This is an ongoing (and slow) practice, exploring different traditional and modern weaves and chains, and seeing how I might create pieces to sell. I will be collaborating later this year with Newcastle-based trinket-merchants Foolish Magpie and hopefully offering some wearable bits and bobs, including bracelets, necklaces, and pouches.

Animal illustrations

I regularly collaborate with good friends and Newcastle-based folk musicians Will Finn and Rosie Calvert, and they very kindly asked me to illustrate their latest album, Fallow Alchemy, in 2024.

The album began life as a collection of animal-related songs, and expanded into a meditation on seasonality and the need for rest and “fallow” time to feed the creative soul. Very much nature-inspired!

They asked me to design their album cover (using some wonderful images from local photographer Mark Brimacombe) as well as to create some illustrations for the interior. I pretty much had free rein with this project but enjoyed leaning into a 1970s folk-horror vibe and earthy colour palette, very much inspired by the slightly creepy masks they picked for their photoshoot.

I chose the animals for the interior based on their masks as well as the track listing, but felt so taken by the little sleepy rabbit that I expanded it out into a little work inspired by Watership Down, a favourite childhood book.

Tiles of Porto

Textures of Orkney