We'll frolic and play the eskimo way

Just thought I'd share a few photographs from two winters ago. It snowed all December, which is not too common. It usually comes a little later, normally around February. One of my favourite Christmas memories was made on 24th December that year, as I sat before the bay window in my cosy, rustic living room with the log fire burning, just watching the snow fall and knowing that when I woke up tomorrow on Christmas morning, the ground would be blanketed white. I'm hoping for a similar snowfall this year!

I recall (with a fondness quite mismatched, given that it made me terribly ill) it snowing so heavy one day that my parents  and I had to abandon the car and trek all the way home in very deep snow. My parents took refuge in a pub on the way for a drink to warm their bellies, but I went off by myself the rest of they way, and I remember it making me feel very, very Christmassy.  The photographs above were taken just after I got back.

The top two were taken in my back garden - the pumpkin was still there, rotting away, from when I had carved it at Halloween. The bottom two were in my front garden.

"I've never heard of a beautiful witch before..."

For a college art project, I decided to create a stage costume for Glinda from the Wizard of Oz. It was a bit ambitious considering the short amount of time we were given and the miniscule budget, but I did it in the end! My college rented out space to display the best of students' work for the Art Show, and my dress was featured, alongside some photographs I took of my lovely friend, Micka, modelling it. Here's a little peek at our photoshoot. I even made the wand - picture me using terrifying metal cutting machines and saws in the 3D department doing this. Yikes!

In case you were wondering how the dress actually looked, I also took this full length picture. I'm pretty proud of it considering the closest I'd ever come to making my own clothes was primary school sewing club, in which we simply threaded thick wool strands through foil with holes in it! I didn't follow a pattern, just bought the material and tried to make it look as princessy as possible. Do you think Glinda would wear it?

         

"I think it's Santa Claus!"

I felt like sharing a silly little video I made with my friend Micka, well over a year ago. It's certainly rough around the edges, but we had great fun crafting all the characters, props and sets entirely from recycled products, voicing the characters and messing around with stop motion technology. This "fun" doesn't include me burning myself four times with the hot glue gun, of course!

We created it to promote SCARF, a local company that collects arts and crafts resources and resells them to the community at low prices, serving to aid both recycling and the bank accounts of the good people of the Black Country in these difficult times. Unfortunately, something went wrong in the export and little pink squares start appearing on screen near the end (not sure what the term for this is, my technical vocab is a little underdeveloped!).

It tells the story of an author struggling to find inspiration for his new novel, until he accidently discovers SCARF's website. That night, he finds himself dreaming about a strange place called Scarfworld, where everything is recycled - even the sun! His adventures in this dream world, not to mention it's resident creatures, Duvysnuvy and Snuvyduvy, provide him with the inspiration he was searching for.

Enjoy!