Street art

It's time for the annual Whitecross Street party! My two favourite pieces of this year are posted below; I wanted to take more photographs, but it started raining straight after this.

Photographs of some of the previous year's artworks can be seen here.

Exhibition

I originally intended to take some photographs of the installation and the opening night of the show, but sadly that didn't happen. Here are some rather badly-lit shots of my work in situ:

Black knight

He's about 5 foot 2 inches tall.

End of year exhibition

My course finishes in two weeks' time, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I have to make some decisions, (which I've been putting off), about what to do next, but on the other, I think I'm ready for a change. To conclude the course students' work, (including mine!), will be on show at Morley Gallery from the 5th to the 12th July.

Gold: Power and Allure at Goldsmiths' Hall

Entry: Free

While I was experimenting with gold leaf last week my tutor suggested I visit the current exhibition at Goldsmiths' Hall, Gold: Power and Allure. It's free, which was enough of a reason for me to go. Goldsmiths' Hall belongs to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the many livery companies of the City of London. The Goldsmiths' Company was founded to regulate the craft of goldsmithing and has been responsible for testing the quality of gold and silver since 1300. More recently, platinum and palladium have also been added to their remit. They run the Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office, responsible for applying hallmarks to goods, (hallmarks = marks made in the Goldsmith's Hall), and perform the Trial of the Pyx, the annual examination of coins from the Royal Mint.

Knitting needle case

Several months ago I was given a lot of knitting needles. Unfortunately, they've languished on a windowsill in my living room since then, waiting for me to find somewhere more sensible to keep them. This week I finally tired of knocking them on the floor whenever I opened the blinds and made a case for them. The instructions came from Stitch 'n Bitch, (which has a few sewing patterns alongside the knitting patterns, all for knitting accessories).

Armour part 4

The felt armour now covers the mannequin's torso. I never reattached the arm/shoulder piece that came off some time in March, instead I've been using it to test ways to apply gold leaf to felt, (answer - felt is not a smooth enough surface for gold leaf). The gold decoration in the pictures below is gold leaf, but it was applied to fusible interlining, cut to shape and then glued to the felt. (I can't afford the genuine gold leaf made from real gold so I bought some very reasonably priced fake gold leaf from Atlantis Arts.)