Artwey 2010 opens today!

altho i wont be a lobster today, i will be manning my Artwey 2010 open studio event ...


perhaps you already have your Artwey map, and saw last weeks Dorset Echo magazine? That lobster stunt seems to have worked out well for advertising!



Here is the bit on the Artwey map showing dear Molly owl, and my venue ...



you can grab a PDF file of the 2-sided map from artwey.co.uk ...



and i have some new pieces on display at the Brewers Quay, one of these little chaps sold at the private view last night!



and if you visit me at 10.30 today you are up for a rare treat, as Ed Hintze opens my porch to the general public and fans of the Raggy rat!

Plus - listen out for my radio interview on WESSEX FM news!

Cat, the Lobster!

I was captured on the harbourside with our fund raising canvases ... and a claw full of Artwey Postcards ...



And here I am with some of my work, at the exhibition in pilgrim house, spirit of the sea, 2010 ...




looking forward to artwey open studios in september -

http://www.artwey.co.uk/activity/artwey+september+open+studios+in+weymouth+and+portland+2010

from girl to lobster ....

some great photos of me in my own lobster costume (created over 2 years ago), taken by mike mccabe ...

its a bit big for me, i make a rather wrinkly lobster, but the true test was when i walked up and down the harbour and people said, oooh look at the lobster!

i had my picture taken a few times, and was even interviewed by some folks heading up the dorset seafood festival!

it WAS hot in there!

Artwey 09 - the one where i dress up as a lobster ...

photo by kimberley mackeown
thanks !

car seat make-over....

at 18 months it was time to move the petit twind up from the rear facing car seats even tho they are not yet 20lbs in weight ....
one seat given to us from a collection steve's mother has had a very worn and dirty cover...
i stripped the cover and stuck back some of the boken polystyrene which has fallen down, then i washed out all the yuck and crumbs....then washed all the scraps and fastenings in a mixture of liquid wash and disinfectant... my bowl gained its pink tide-mark when i was busy dyeing fabric for the lobsters long red bits....
matilda is standing on the cover which i have removed... all things placed on the ground must be stood on, also all manhole covers and grids must be stood on too
i cut off the slack elastic edge, and opened up the side seams which makes the seat the baby sits on...now you have a pattern to place on your lovely new cover. instead of wadding and so on i have used 2 layers of sherpa fleece, very snuggly and looks good ... this is about the 3rd car seat i have covered ....
here the finnished seat, looking 10 times better... i forgot to take pics of me sewing it back togather, and making a small seam for running some elastic into, but you might know how to do this already, and anyways i'm pregnant i do get distracted and forget ....
ta-daaaaaa!

Friendliest lobster man, ever!

friendliest lobster man, ever!, originally uploaded by RaggyRat.

shane made a great lobster, and i managed to snap a few pics at the fetival tho it was a bit wet for cameras. i had been worried about shoving someone into a ton of costume on a sunny day, but our lobster was quite happy and warm and he made a great greeter, and smiled all morning.

i was very proud. louise is holding a competition goodie bag. she came away with quite a few bits and bobs...

Finished!

Its been a busy week !
too busy to let you peep at my work - ie take pics and upload.
i made my deadline and i made steve, louise and jo from IVY smile ...
as you can see - jo makes a good lobster :-D

yippeeeee
finished !

tired ....

Catching up - some recent pictures ...

louise and tompot blenny in the dorset echo last friday night...they didn't mention her name, nor the maker of the puppets. boooh!lobster trousers hanging up in my workroom ...
scarey lobster lady emerges into sunshine ...
saying goodbye to the blenny, matty and daisy give him a few pokes before i have to take him and the cuttlefish along to the marine week launch on chesil beach...
matty has a good look at the cuttlefish - she must be really impressed with the piecing used to create his head ...
sea creatures can die in hot cars ....a yummy jellyfish cake for eating after the mayor of portland has finnished speaking ...
some of the wonderful junk found on the beach ready to be used for sculpting, along with a propper artist.
the echo shelter providing good sunshade and shelter from portland type winds. my car was fitted with a lovely handmade staff parking sign just for the event...
hilda from the echo makes notes while mums, dads and children make some art from the flotsam and jetsam. finbar webster was there to take pics for the paper, and he recognised me. there was i with my hands up 2 sea creatures but did he take a pic? nope. booooh!
i didnt take any more pics after this point as my hands were buried in my puppet creations, and then i had some cake. i will probably take some more next week when i come back with louise and the lobster costume.

LOBSTER

LOBSTER 01251A, originally uploaded by Nihihiro & Shihiro.

inspiration found on flickr ... thankyou :-)

WIP lobster claws coming along ....

this is the lobster left 'crusher' claw, needing the stuffing sorting out and the end hemming. i slipped it on last night and reminded myself of old Kenny Everet shows, haha - the big handed preacher sketch.

not much time left now. the launch on marine week is saturday and i will be there introducing the puppets hopefully for the echo this time? the lobster will make his debut the following weekend. indeed.

a peep at the lobster ....

sorry the night time pic is so yuck - i promise the flash fired but my camera isnt happy at low light, lightbulbs or large lobster parts - probably...

here is the start of pattern cutting, the lobster trousers, to tranform human legs into exoskeleton pins ....



and here are some pieces to pattern cut from, spare legs and the heavyest claw, i didnt know that lobsters are asymetrical before this project. well i never have seen one up close ... one claw from crushing and one for tearing, its very own swiss army body parts always to hand!

Cuttlefish puppet lives !

Cuttlefish puppet lives !, originally uploaded by RaggyRat.

yippeee - i have finnished my most unusual puppet/creation yet, the pettern making for the head makes me feel i could tackle anything now! See the wallpaper shapes i made, to create his head.

Steve is modelling the puppet for me here, it only got its eyes today and before that steve was calling it my baseball mitt... after these pictures i showed it to my neighbours and one asked if it was a squid. well, same family - sort of, so im not worried.

so, back to lobsters me thinks ... if i have time today, between minding the twins while steve hoovers house, taking louise for a bike ride, bathing the ferret and other assorted mummy jobs!

have fun - its a sunny day!

More on lobsters ....

Sent this sketch to a meeting today, i wish i could be a fly on the wall. Jo from IVY collected it yesterday and just after she left the fabric for the project arrived..

Cant wait to get started, might begin with sme big claws to get me going, all fleece and foam and what-not ... as you can see i dont usually make things this big, and i am no dressmaker ....

Now, does that help everyone who wondered what on earth i was going on about lobsters for?

i also have that Tompot blenny on the go too ....

Blennies and Badgers ....

My dining and work room is starting to look very untidy with fur, and material and stuff everywhere ... as well as pictures onthe wall and a shelf of animals looking to be adopted!

Here are some sketches and diagrams of tompot blennies, as i need to create the blenny before the lobster, hopefully to take along to wessex fm :-) big fish live on radio ...

Also, born last night was this little clown, a baby badger. I like badgers. i do not like seeing them squashed on dorset's country roads tho ....

say hello baby badger!

my first blog entry - ever !

For weeks i have been thinking of things that would be good blogged ... these are very exciting times for me and my work. i dont really have enough time to blog. i type badly and hardly use spell checkers, so i shall become famous for mistakes ...

for starters im going to try and get flickr to talk to my blog. that way i can share more behind my pictures, which i am very proud of.

something small that happened over this weekend involved daisy, when she said poo and did the baby sign during a nappy filling moment, and then today when i apeared and she said poo, and so we went off to check nappies. poo was duly removed. yipppeeeee, not bad for 15 months. matty doesnt say or sign poo at all ....

The lobster? my new job .....