Illustrations: peacocks

Fascinated by peacocks for the past few months so I thought I’d post up the work so far to inspire me to finish the journey… some unfinished business with those birdies.  They do present great possibilities for pattern making:peacockstyle lo

All illustrations and photos ©AsTheCrowFlies 2013

And for experimenting in a bit of art nouveau book illustration style, with black and white and watercolour versions… peacock perched peacock watercolour

Aiming to get these or versions of these onto my ceramics in some shape or form – maybe some printed decals to glaze on.
 
Also tried freehand illustrating in majolica on a bowl too, using copper and cobalt oxides, less controllable than pen and ink but a nice effect… more of this to come!
mr peacock bowl
And it all just started with a little doodlebird:peacock doodle
And ended up a very complicated doodle indeed…
peacockblack2

Pots in disparate styles

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Very tardy in my uploading…. this is all the experimenting I did last term with some new styles and glazes.  Pleased with some of them and some I will develop further I think… Planning some blue and white majolica for this term with a peacock design as a move on from swirly florals. Oranges, as you can see from previous post, have been pushed on to include many other fruits… Loving the blue metallic effect but that may have been an accidental triumph as it should have been dark blue as far as I can remember!

The fruit series….

cherry pot

…well, pottery has been a productive heave-ho today. always late. always hurrying. always have a million ideas and not enough time – I need a tardis spacer to make 3 hours stretch into an eternal pottery studio moment… Anyway, back to reality. Excitingly, I’ve been invited to produce a collection of pots to display in the folkhouse vitrines by mid-Feb. So… I’m working quickly (naturally) on getting as many ideas onto clay as possible – the first set is a build on my Christmas pot series of oranges and flowers.

Fruit… there will eventually be oranges, lemons, grapes, cherries, watermelon and peapods ( not exactly fruit but such a satisfying shape to draw ).  So here’s a taste of the first few, all ready to get their first firing.

orange pot

grape pot

lemon pot

peapods

small cherrieslemons 2

Birds of my dreams

Embarking on drawings last year… trying to remember what it was like to produce pictures that felt good.  Some birds happened…. and I like them.  I think both of them capture an idea of freedom – freedom to see the world as you want, freedom to fly in whatever situation you are in, freedom to take the best from everything…. some ideas I needed to engage with, and its good to be reminded of them now and again. So here are the blackbird and the collared dove.

blackbird saw 1 lo even the caged birds singdrawings © Bee hayes/as the crow flies 2013.

All ready for market…

Everything ready to go for the market on Saturday… flights of wall swallows; owls and owlets; snowflakes and Japanese waterlilies…. click a snap to start the slideshow.

And yes, it’s all for sale!

A bit of a catch up…

So, As the Crow Flies had a fairly busy year for stalls – I say busy, that only means about 5 since last Christmas season but here are a few pics of the past year, as I haven’t posted anything new for while…

Above: Redland Green Christmas fair.  Below:  Windmill Hill Farm Fair.

I’m excited about the new owl brooches!! They sold really well over summer so busy trying to make more before I miss the Christmas bus 🙂

Above: mini stall at Montpelier summer fair.  Below: workspace in my studio at home.

Nouvelles Objets (ish)

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A belated post of a load of fun winter market stock by As The Crow Flies industries… Speaking of industrious – I just went to the Watershed to see the incredible early Russian film ‘Turksib‘ with a live score by Bronnt Industries Kapital.  Absolutely mesmerising and beautiful.  Everything is rendered so clear and pure in black and white; it gives far more space to simply observe and engage with what’s going on.

Paintworks Spring Art Market

Well, the sun shone brightly on the day of the market – possibly for the first time with any true gusto this spring, which could account for the slow trickle of art and craft lovers milling through…. However, there were lots of lovely make and do-ers there to meet and peruse.  Here’s how my bike-powered stall was looking in early March…  Soon might be trying to tout my wares at the Bristol Vintage Velo ride fete and perhaps even Colston Hall’s ‘Made in Bristol’ market later this month.  Must admit I’d almost rather be taking part in the vintage dress-up country bike tour rather than trying to sell things!