Blue houses

I really like the way this dilapidated beach house reflects the sky.

Shellness, Isle of Sheppey April 2014

Other blue houses, in order of exoticness. I'll let you decide whether its increasing or decreasing ;-)

Abandoned grocer's store, Berwick-upon-Tweed October 2012

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, George Town, Penang 2004ish

Majorelle Garden, Marrakesh December 2009

Isle of Harty, Sheppey

Another day another beach.

A glorious mix of marsh and beach peppered with the surprising mounds of ancient saltworks. Lapwings breeped, lizards darted and tonnes of shell crunched under our feet.

Scarborough

Resurgence and Ecologist (March/April Issue)

Delighted to have Kilburn Pegasus used in the current issue of Resurgence and Ecologist.

Magic, mysticism and Milton

Like Australia, I've been quite willing to accept the existence of silver clay without having seen it myself, but there has always been a nugget of doubt in my mind.  So yesterday I was very happy to be initiated into the dark art of turning something the colour and texture of a well-chewed wrigleys into real silver gorgeousness. This instruction came courtesy of Emma Mitchell who generously shared her knowledge, tools and goody stash with a big dollop of humour, oh and 7g of the magic stuff. 7g doesn't sound much but it goes a long way - it made all the pieces in this post (bar chain and jump rings). 

The pendant above was made from a mould taken of a large vintage button. It was quite shockingly shiny when I first cleaned it up so I was relieved when Emma had me drop it in a cup of dilute Milton for a minute or two. This took the silver back to a slightly tarnished satin finish - much more my style. So all my other pieces had the same treatment. 

Sea Urchin earrings - impressed from real urchin test fragments

teeny scraps of (not quite enough!) left over clay impressed with a with vintage button and destined to be made into stud earrings



Find out more about Emma's workshops here

New print and exhibition news

Physalis - Chinese Lanterns

I've been working on this new print since the beginning of the year. These Physalis or Chinese Lanterns have mysteriously found their way into an unproductive flowerbed underneath the privet hedge in my parent's garden. They brought a welcome shot of colour at Christmas so I am grabbed a few stems in the hope of retrieving some of the seeds. I really like the way these plants had decayed with the lower lanterns already turned to pale skeletons whilst the upper ones still glowed red.

I think this will be a very fitting piece for my exhibition at Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens in June. Click the link for the full (and diverse!) list of exhibitions at this venue this year and keep up to date by following @slgardens on twitter. 

Until then Physalis - Chinese Lanterns is available here and here. 

*giveaway*giveaway*giveaway*giveaway*

Mussels and Barnacles - the school days version

****The winner has now been selected, but if you tweeted thank you and  please feel free to use the voucher code M&Btweet in my etsy shop for a 20% discount on all purchases - valid until the 19th January 2014.****

I'm giving away one of the two impressions of Mussels and Barnacles that I made in this colourway. I originally intended to print a full edition in this  lilac/bottle green/navy blue combination but I took a sudden dislike to the pale lilac after printing just two and on the spot changed the scheme to a pale blue/mid blue/dark blue combination (as seen here). But I did persist with original colour scheme for those first two prints. I hated it more when the green went down but found the navy blue pulled it together quite nicely and now find I rather like it. I am not sure if this is because or despite it being the exact same colour as my old school uniform.

To win the print numbered 1/2 in this colourway just make sure you follow me on twitter ( @a_deegan ), tweet a link to this blog post and feel free to succumb to any other social media arm-waving that seems appropriate. Comments and new blog followers most welcome. I'll pick a winner by some suitably random method on Sunday 12th January. Cheers!

PS I am happy to ship this outside the UK too :-)