Seven top tips to help you display art at home
How can you make the most of your walls and work out the best layout for your pictures, photographs and other art? Here are some basic tips I thought might help:1: Large wall, large pictureYou can't go wrong with a big picture centred on a big wall. This collage...
Decoupage tutorial: learn to upcycle any item with this versatile technique
Materials and tools Papers: gift-wrap, patterned tissue and napkins, wallpaper fragments, book and magazine pages. There are also special decoupage papers made by Decopatch – good quality but probably the most expensive option. The three main places where I buy...
A tour round the studio
As some of you know, I live and work in Camberwell, where I’m very lucky to be based in a complex of live-work units which is home to a diverse range of artists and makers. My own studio is a large double-height space that allows me to work and teach on the spacious...
My Summer of learning part II: Verre Églomisé and Oil Gilding
My previous post was about learning to make cyanotype prints in a day; this time I want to tell you about something that took me a while longer to learn. I had been intrigued by Verre Églomisé (the technique of gilding onto glass to produce a mirror finish) for a...
My Summer of learning part I: Cyanotype Workshop
This Summer I have had the opportunity to learn some things that had been on my wish list for a long time: the first one of these was creating cyanotype prints in the company of four other eager learners and under the guidance of artist Helen Dixon at Bainbridge Print...
Apropos of ‘The Green Book’
You've probably heard of 'The Green Book' by now, even if you haven't seen it yet - no idea how or why it managed to bag the Oscar for best picture, particularly given the calibre of its contenders, but I won't get into that controversy here... Suffice it to say that...
Ephemera: Forever, Always and Now
My work and the collection of vintage imagery that inspires it are featured in Ephemera, volume 5 of the gorgeous Uppercase Encyclopaedia of Inspiration. Found images combined with vibrant colour and pattern are at the core of my creative work, and I have a growing...
Step back in time: a visit to A. G. Hendy & Co
I spent a Friday in Hastings a couple of weeks ago and was intending to write a post about the whole visit when I realised that the highlight of the day, apart from a very good lunch at St Clement's Restaurant, was yet another visit to A.G. Hendy's Home Store in the...
‘Designs on Britain’: focus on Dorrit Dekk
The current Jewish Museum Exhibition "Designs on Britain" (on until 15 April 2018, admission £8.50) features the work of several pioneering Jewish émigré designers who arrived in this country from continental Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, the...
Make a simple collage
I recently discovered the iconic collages of graphic designer Dorrit Dekk, whose work features in the current Jewish Museum Exhibition "Designs on Britain" (on until 15 April 2018, admission £8.50). Her work is charming and humorous as well as deceptively simple, and...
Party time at the studio!
Last month I had the pleasure of hosting a lovely hen party at the studio. I had been approached by two friends of the bride who wanted to do something really special for her, and after meeting for a chat I offered them a tailored glass decoupage workshop to create a...
Go see: Fred Tomaselli at White Cube Mayfair
I must confess that I knew nothing about American artist Fred Tomaselli before I stepped down to the imposing space that is the basement of the Mayfair branch of White Cube gallery. My interest in him was because he was billed as a mixed-media artist, and I'm always...
A visit to Casa Azul part III: Frida Kalho’s wardrobe
This is the third and last post on my recent visit to Casa Azul, the building in Coyoacán that was Frida Kalho’s home from birth till death, and is now a museum devoted to her life and art. Two weeks ago I wrote about Frida’s studio and last time I showed you part of...
A visit to Casa Azul part II: Frida Kalho’s ex-votos
This is the second post of a short series on my recent visit to Casa Azul, the building in Coyoacán that was Frida Kalho's home from birth till death. Last week I wrote about Frida's studio; this time I want to show you some of her ex-votos. The term ex-voto comes...