The Jellyfish Costume

A few weeks back, the news was broken to me that a kendo party I was to attend, was infact a fancy dress occasion. I was mortified! 

To my shame, at the age of 30, I still have to be dragged kicking and screaming to shop for new clothes, I loathe dresses and for the entire duration I am forced to wear a 'smart' outfit, I complain endlessly, sulk and task myself with spoiling everyones day. 

So, as you can well imagine, wearing fancy dress is not my idea of fun (even though I must own up to delighting in small children and dogs being stuffed into ridiculous outfits).

In a cold panicked sweat, I began frantically researching nautical-themed costume possibilities. 

My options included:

Don't dress up at all: The most desirable and comfortable option but I risk looking like a very bad sport indeed.

Mermaid:  Displaying copious amounts of white flesh so late in the year could be chilly and slightly upsetting for the other guests.

Sailor: A sensible choice with not too much fuss involved. Unfortunately, my fiancé had the idea first and with his slim, tall frame, would look far better than me in the costume. 

Person being eaten by a shark: The very real fear that even an XXL shark costume could not fit something my size into it's sharp maws.

Pirate: I guessed this would be another popular choice and feel I lack the flamboyance to effectively pull it off.

A fish: The thought of squeezing like a fat sausage into a shiny, scaly, obscenely skin tight ensemble was a revolting thought even for me. 

Seaweed: Fast running out of ideas now.

Jellyfish: EUREKA!!!!!!!! Jellyfish are COOL!!!! 

With an umbrella, 3 million staples, needles and thread, bubble wrap, several meters of iridescent fabric, reels of ribbons and some patience, I managed to cobble together my very own jellyfish. The most wonderful part of the whole costume was that I could wear my scruffy old jeans and t shirt underneath, hidden by the swaying tendrils. What a cunning interpretation of a fancy dress costume, if I say so myself. Amazingly, I must add, I won a bottle of prosecco and a super-cute, Sensei-signed fish hat for the best costume prize of the night. 

Here is a photo of me modelling the outfit in the garden (yes my neighbours are no longer surprised at the bizarre things that go on at our house) and a small video of my jellyfish floating in a pretend sea. 

Whilst researching my costume I became rather captivated (and more than just a little obsessed) with the magical colours and beautiful sweeping shape of the jellyfish. Thus I began creating more jellyfish………..

 An attempt at improving my digital art work.

A pencil study

 A little feltie Jelly

Something from last year, but hey it has jellyfish, so onto the blog it goes.

All images Copyright HKJ

National Cupcake Week?! Who Knew….

During my daily do-anything-but-work internet browse, I stumbled across an event called National Cupcake Week. To my surprise and delight, it takes place yearly from the 15th to the 21st of September….. this very week!!!!!

Intrigued, I managed to delay any kind of work for another hour or two whilst I  admired the exquisite artistry of cupcake design and salivated over delicious and rather bizarre recipes alike. I then wasted another few hours thinking of what I could do for this momentous event, after all, a week dedicated to the cupcake can not be left uncelebrated.

Regretfully, it was mid-week before I found out about National Cupacake week and I missed out on four whole days where gorging upon dozens of cupcakes would have been completely acceptable. This mistake will not be made again next year! I may forget birthdays and tax returns, but I will never again miss out on National Cupcake Week. 

With such little time to plan and execute my celebration, I finally had to settle upon just three cakey activities:

• Eat as many cupcakes as possible regardless of tremendous stomach pain, nausea and that overwhelming fear of choking to death on cake whilst dozing quietly into a sugar induced coma.

• Harass my already busy mother into making her delicious cupcakes and butter icing before commandeering the kitchen to commence my carefully designed cupcake decoration. 

• Draw a cupcake inspired image when the violent sugar shakes finally abate, cognitive control returns and with it, hopefully, the ability to hold a pencil. 

Here's how it went…….

Images copyright HKJ

Ahh, I forgot, we also made two birthday cakes as well! I think we are baked-out right now!

Here is a link to the official webpage should anyone be interested.

http://www.nationalcupcakeweek.co.uk

HAPPY NATIONAL CUPCAKE WEEK EVERYONE!

Cake Time

My mum has been making and decorating cakes since I was a tiny baby. Whilst I'd always admire her work, my main interest has always been eating the cake cut offs, savouring spare blobs of sugar paste and licking off the little icing faces she would pipe onto our fingers as kids.
Last year, always looking for new ways to express my creativity, I decided I would join in and try my hand at cake decorating.

Learning the various skills and techniques was one major challenge, the second and by far the most difficult, was learning to work with each other.

Mum: "I think we should do this"
Me:     "I don't think we should do that"
Mum:  "Why not?"
Me:     "Because it's stupid"
Mum:  "I think it'll look lovely"
Me:      "It'll look rubbish"
Mum:  "FINE, what do I know anyway, I've only been doing this 30 years"
Me: (eyerolling and muttering under breath)

After many an argument, a near strangulation, tears, hours sat in icy silence swapping cold glares, slammed doors, icing models crushed in temper and one memorable day when my sister felt it safest to remove the sharp implements from the kitchen…I think it's going really well.
The cakes are looking quite nice (they taste delicious thanks to mums baking), I get to regularly gorge on icing and cake and, best of all we are both still alive a year later.

Here are a few of our favourite cakes:

If all continues well in the Jones's kitchen, there'll be more to see soon.

Needle Felting…A most dangerous craft!!!!!!!!!

Needle felting is the art of sculpting wool using special barbed needles. By stabbing at the wool repeatedly with the needle, the fibres become matted together and begin to take shape. Stab wool, add wool, stab wool, add wool, repeat process and voila…you have needle felted something.

Earlier this year after finding some beautiful examples of needle felting on the internet, I decided to have a go with a small starters kit. As with everything made by exceptionally talented hands, it looks much easier than it is. 

Lately, when I've been feeling creative but can't face drawing, I dig out the wool roving and attempt to create something with felt. My needle felting technique goes something like this: 

• Stare at wool for indeterminate length of time
• Go for a drink and snack
• Return to wool and resume staring
• Wait for idea to form
• Ponder the complexity and worth of the idea
• Reconsider the idea
• Decide to go for it
• Face the dilemma of which colour to use
• Browse the internet and make panic purchases of new colours
• Start the making as half a day has already been wasted
• Shape wool with hands
• Stab wool with needle 
• Add wool
• Stab wool
• Add wool 
• Stab wool
• Stab finger badly, scream/curse (this depends on the mood) and bleed profusely everywhere
• Take small break to treat wound, have a coke and find courage to pick up the needle again
• Repeat the last six steps until you have needle felted something that hopefully resembles the original idea.
• Go to bed with sore neck, shoulders and a throbbing finger but proud for completing something unique.

Oh the fun!!!!!

This weekend, I dreamed of dry, warm climes and embarked on a set of mini cacti and succulents to decorate my desk. It was probably during this day dreaming when I sustained the most injuries to my flesh. Much to my shock, I stabbed the needle all the way through my finger for the first time. Yes, it went in one side and popped out the other before being dragged back through the finger and out again. Needless to say, I took a very long break after that and decided that it is a most dangerous craft indeed.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my needle felting fun and frolics…..

Wool roving

My foam pad and needles

One of many wounds

My cactus and Succulent Farm

A cat I made some weeks ago

 Oh and an owl :D

All images copyright HKJ

Batty

batty

ADJECTIVE (battier, battiest)

INFORMAL , chiefly British

Mad; insane:you’ll drive me batty!
Lately I've been feeling more than a little batty, so I decided to make this the theme of my week. I wrote a poem, admired them flying about our garden, dug out a pipistrelle bat illustration I did some time ago and imagined the bat that I would create if I had my own frankenstein laboratory.In an effort to maintain the little brain function I have, I try to engage it in an educational task each week. I used a dictionary and also found some amazingly interesting information about bats to share with you.
Bat facts:

• Fossil evidence of mammals similar to bats dates back to over 50 million years ago.
• Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. Approximately 20% of all mammals in the world are bats.
• Bats can hover, fly backwards and turn in a tight space extremely quickly.
• Bats make high-frequency sounds (echolocation) , and the echoes of these sounds bounce back which enables a bat to work out the size of objects, their location, how fast they are travelling and even texture. Some bats can locate their prey up to 20/30 metres away.
• There are thought to be over 1,100 species of bats in the world. Bats are native to all continents except the Arctic. 
• Only three of the world’s 1,100 bat species actually feed on blood (and they are only found in Central and South America).
• A baby bat is called a ‘pup’. Pups can fly four to five weeks after they are born
• The collective name for a group of bats is a ‘colony’.
• 99% of bats worldwide have been lost in the last 100 years, due to loss of food, habitat and human activity.

 

Incase my messy handwriting is indecipherable, here is my poor attempt at a poem typed out for ease of reading:

Upon this balmy summer night,

out glide the tiny bats in flight.

They dart and swoop, they dive and tear,

at flitting black shadows I sit, I stare.

Inky shapes skim the pale moon face,

they dance, bound, loop in silent grace.

Beneath blinking stars the air grows chill,

hushed fluttering all that breaks the still.

The darkness deepens, a shrouding veil,

to bed on velvet winged dreams I sail.

THE END :D

All images copyright of HKJ and Coity Wallia Commons

K is for kendo

For anyone who knows me, they will know how much I love kendo. When I started, I never could have imagined that it's where I would meet my fiancé and so many inspirational teachers and friends along the way. Despite being rather smelly and noisy, kendo, when practised with a true heart is spectacle of pure beauty.

Lately I've not been doing kendo. On the nights I usually practice, I wander aimlessly about the house feeling rather guilty and consoling myself with excessive amounts of food. The other evening whilst twiddling my thumbs at my desk, I had a light bulb moment ….. kendo related creativity. I scavenged my pencil pots for a marker pen, dug out an old shinai and started manically scribbling. It turns out drawing on a thin curved slat of bamboo is not all that easy, makes your neck stiff and most frustratingly ends up looking pants. I still think it's a fun idea for a canvas and having a numerous dead shinai hanging about the house, I have plenty more to play with.

Seen as the shinai art was rather rubbish, I'll try to redeem myself by posting some marginally better kendo art I've done. 

 Images copyright of HKJ