Winter Wandering Craft Show

I'll be doing two of the Winter Wandering Craft shows this year! You can find me all this weekend at:

Saturday November 24th 11 am to 7 pm & Sunday November 25th 12 pm to 6 pm

Magic Pony, 680 Queen St. West




Then in two weeks' time you will find me at the Gladstone:

Sunday December 9th

The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. West


Hope to see you there!

Scorpius and Seahorses

I made another linocut in the zodiac series - Scorpius the scorpion (associated with Scorpio, of course).



I printed an edition of six prints, 5 inches by 9 inches (12.7 cm by 22.9 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres.

And a couple of seahorses: Mirabelle (the bird watcher) and Seymour (the cryptozoologist with a sea monster obsession).




I've got some dinosaurs on the go too, but it's really too dark here for any proper photos.

I hope any of you celebrating Thanksgiving south of the border are enjoying yourself. Here apparently all the news is about whether or not Calgarian football fans could ride a horse through the Royal York hotel (eventually, they did). I swear that's all the mentioned on the radio, all day.

Leo constellation

Leo is my 6^th in the Zodiac series. I printed an edition of eight prints, 8.5 inches by 7.5 inches (21.6 cm by 19 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres. The word Leo and symbol ♌ appear at the top of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in silver-on-blue or blue-on-silver as appropriate. There are five bright galaxies or star clusters shown as circles. If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The ecliptic is marked as the dashed line in this print.

Leo is one of the oldest recognized constellations. Not only does it appear in Ptolemy's 2nd century catalogue, there is archeological evidence suggesting the Mesopotamians knew it 4000 BCE. It was known as the lion to the ancient Persians who called Leo Ser or Shir; the Turks, who called it Artan; the Syrians, who called it Aryo; the Jewish, who called it Arye; and the Indians, who called it Simha.

Pillows too

I've also been making block printed pillows, and pillows with printed fabric showing my 'It's not the moths' linocut.

Santa's sweatshop

This year I've decided to do a number of craft shows. So I'm working away at creating stock, including the sort of Christmas ornaments which might prove popular this time of year. Which is ironically Sisyphean when people come and buy the ornaments as I try and make them, but on the other hand, that is the point, isn't it? So, let me share the new ornaments still in my possession:









I'll need to go buy some more ribbon! You can catch this Cabinet of Curiosities for your tree, at the Wandering Winter Craft show, this weekend at Magic Pony! I'm excited about the venue. If you're around you should come by and check it out, either Saturday November 24 or Sunday November 25, 11 am to 5 pm.

Pisces Constellation

The silver stars and silhouette of Pisces the two fish are illustrated in this handmade block print. Pisces (♓) is the twelfth astrological sign in the Zodiac. I printed an edition of 8 prints, 7.5 inches by 10 inches (19 cm by 24.8 cm) on lovely, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with a deckle edge. Since the paper is handmade, there is some small variation in size and the edge of each sheet. The word Pisces and symbol ♓ appear at the bottom of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in black-on-silver or silver-on-black as appropriate. There's a star cluster, shown as a circle, and the lines for the constellations of Pegasus, Triangulum and Aries.

If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The ecliptic is marked as the dashed line in this print.



As I was putting this in my shop I noticed that I now have 1600 hearts! I do love seeing all those hearts and thank every single person whose added my shop to their favorites. While I'm at it, thanks to the 543 Etsy followers (who can see all new things in my shop or favorites), 506 FB fans, and 665 twitter followers.

Natural History Ornaments

I've been making more ornaments for your wunderkammer.