One of my favourite jokes as a child was the one where you had to name three crustaceans – but now I can only remember two thirds of the answer! (A: King’s Cross Station, and Charing Cross Station). Anyway, here are three friendly crabs instead…
STOP PRESS: I’ve just been reminded that the third one is St Pancras Station – thankyou Helen!
Here’s two magpies for joy, which is what I wish everyone for 2014. My friends’ son has developed a great interest in magpies (to go with his existing fascination for fountains) and his parents asked if I would design a ‘Two for Joy’ T-shirt for his Christmas present – so here’s the design. I’m looking forward to seeing him wearing it this year…
While having a clear-out at home, I came across these three funny characters. I made them a few years ago when I did an MA in Illustration and Animation at Kingston University – they were part of a project about synaesthesia, a strange medical condition in which senses get mysteriously connected, so that people taste shapes, feel flavours, hear colours or any other crazy permutations.
Each of these three has a zip for a mouth, and when you unzip them you can turn them inside out so that they turn into a different character – each one represents a sense so that they are connected, and can also ‘play’ with each other.
Here’s ‘Feely’: 
(linked to taste)
And this one’s the hearing one, with his listening trumpet: 
When you turn him inside out, he becomes ‘sight’, with lots of eyes on curly silver feelers: 
Then there’s smell, who comes with a hankie ready to use – there he is, on the right hand side: 
As there are only 5 senses but they needed to be in pairs, I had a problem – the inspiration struck – the final one is, naturally, the Sixth Sense, who I named Mr Six. He’s a bit special with a green silk bow tie and crazy antennae, and six velvety toes: 
I haven’t looked at these creatures for years, but it’s been great fun getting them out again.
I’ve just received a package from Kensington Palace – the printed version of the concertina-fold family trail I designed, illustrated and wrote for the King’s Apartments there. It’s full of things to spot, things to do and boxes to tick – just in time for half term. The palace is well worth a visit – masses to see and do for all ages. It’s been great working with the Historic Royal Palaces team again – previously I’ve produced a family trail for Victoria Revealed (details here) and a hand-made book for the outreach team (more here).
Here are a few more ideas from my weekly under 5s art class – ‘my favourite meal’ is always a popular one, and I like making 3-d eggbox islands too. Lentils are perfect for a pebbly beach. The ocean liner pirate vessels loaded with treasure were fun too…
If only there were really shrubs like this…
Here’s some wildlife from the river Wandle – illustrations I’ve been working on for the Wandle Trust‘s forthcoming vision statement document.
One of the favourite parts of my week is the art class I run for under 5s. I have a cupboard full of materials from sparkly treasure to googly eyes (everyone’s favourite) to plain old lentils, and they all come in handy for sticking projects. Usually I take inspiration from a picture book (after the ‘making’, I read the children a story) and try to tie it in with the activity. Here are a few projects – I’ll post some more soon. I try to keep the projects flexible and as much open to individual interpretation as possible – I really enjoy seeing how differently they come out through young creative eyes and hands. I would love to make an illustrated activity book based on them all some day…
I’ve had my scalpel out this week cutting stencils of native species of plants for a project I am doing with the Wandle Trust – I’ve been looking at aquatic species that thrive in the river Wandle. A few ended up on the window to liven up the view – look out for the banana leaves behind. 
Last year I spent a day at St Bride’s Library setting type to make a letterpress poster of some of my favourite British moth names…and now a real moth has visited to have a look.
Some of the traditional moth names from the UK are pure poetry: Brighton Wainscot, Scarce Burnished Brass, Uncertain, Splendid Brocade, Chamomile Shark, Slender Scotch Burnet, Clifden Nonpareil, Drab Looper, Nut Tree Tussock …and many more. I’ve been collecting the names from the bi-monthly reports in the British Wildlife Journal.
I’d love to know the name of the one which visited – I think it’s one of the Carpets, but I’m not sure which. If you’re a moth-fan, let me know.