New Photograph

I've just come back from a little holiday in london with my Boyfriend. I had such a great time. My favourite part was spitafields market, such a wonderful vintage heaven. Unfortunately I am not very rich at the moment, so I couldn't afford much, but I did pick up this really interesting photograph.
I believe it is of a mother mourning for her dead baby, i wasn't sure at first, but she does appear to be in mourning dress and I have looked as closely as I can at the babies face, and its not looking very healthy!



here are some details of the babies face, I have enhanced it to get as much detail as possible. It was quite common for the eyes to be open in a postmortem portrait

1. unenhanced

2. higher contrast



3. Black and white, higher contrast

Family Album

Here is something I made whilst scanning in some old family pictures, I was just fiddling around with the idea of an old album page.
I love the big frames/pages around these portraits, I think they may be brother and sister

'Lil Ellis

I've been doing so much collage and photoshop based work lately that I felt I should do abit of drawing today, I did some sketches with a fineliner based on photographs I took from a festival at the weekend. This one, of a friends baby boy Ellis came out the best so I thought I'd share it

Mid West

I just had to make something with todays new scans, I did a postcard style pictures based on American Ghost towns again, something I am so into at the moment.
I had songs like "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" in mind for this one


You looked for work and money, and walked a rugged mile,
Your children are you hungry that they don’t know how to smile,
Your babies crying louder now, its pounding on your brain,
your wifes screams are stabbing you like the dirty, driving rain,

New pictures

I bought two new pictures from an antique shop in Malvern last week, They're very pretty and will definately come in useful for my work
This one has such a hugh, awesome frame, I just had to get it

And I liked the more delicate frame around this one


And here are afew more from my collection that I had forgotten about and unearthed from the depths of my student room
These two boys will be appearing in my work very soon,

And I love this one of Indian siblings, taken in 1925, I love how happy they look, and they're dusty raggedy clothes make a change from my usual super rich children in furs and jewels

Runs in the Family

My Auntie Jean and her 'hedgies' have been featured in a knitting magazine, I thought i'd share the article on here, so you can all see what she does (and how much she looks like me)
She sends her cute Hedgehogs to our family all around the world with different outfits and accessories for each one. I guess we all love making things in this family, its great to compare what we all create.

North Country Blues

Come gather round friends
And I’ll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty

In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an’ shovels they was a-humming
’Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking

The summer is gone
The ground’s turning cold
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’
My children will go
As soon as they grow
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them

- Bob Dylan