History of Love

The last final piece to be completed for this end of term deadline haul! 

It's been a mission, but MISSION COMPLETE!

"Just open your palm to say forgive me."

I chose this quote because I found it quite striking out of the whole extract. 

It's a fairly simple piece, but there is actually more design depth than perhaps you initially see.

The background patterns are made up of things which symbolise forgiveness:

• Row one is an African Adinkra symbol
• Row two is a mixture of daffodils and hyacinths
• Row three, the chinese symbol for forgivness
• Row four is "Forgive" in braille

I also used the colour orange to colour my background because that is the colour to signify forgiveness. It has a underlying theme throughout.

Extract from the novel 'History of Love' by Nicole Krauss

Here are just a few of the colour developments I went through to choose my final colour palette. 

I did this using my drawing tablet in photoshop

Mediums used: Gouache paint on black mount board.

'Tis the Season to give presents

Amongst my crazy end of term deadlines I managed to whip up this crafty Christmas gift.

I used a glass bauble with a removable top so that I could insert the artificial snow, and the name tag. Then I tied the bow on top and attached some nice embroidery thread to have the decoration from.

The little "homemade" label was just a silly little idea, but it was fun to pretend like it was a product.

Then to top it off I created a quick christmas card, to go along with the snow in the bauble. I used some doilies and stuck them onto white card. This gave a very subtle background, but with the brown christmas tag I think it worked well in looking quite elegant.

Secret Santa

For my connect group, with upcoming christmas and a last social meeting before the holidays, we were all set the task of giving each other a £1 Secret Santa, but to be as creative as we can be. 

I'm not sure mine was quite £1... but it was fun to make and I don't mind having spent a bit more. I thought it looked really cute, and having a guy to give a present too, it can be quite restrictive in possibilities. However I think this gift idea is great for anyone.

I got my recipe from allrecipes.co.uk - However my jar was a little smaller, so I just halved all the ingredients, which would make 12 cookies.

Three labels: A generalised 'Merry Christmas'; The recipe card which explained how to make the cookies and what to add - because the jar only contains the dry ingredients; and then the third was something I came up with, where it gives some examples of what to do with the jar when it is empty: make a snow globe; pen pot etc.

I wanted a red and white Christmas Knit pattern, which I painted on with gouache.