Salaric

    

October 28, 2012

Green Unconference and Upcylcing

Filed under: Events,My Books,Paper Craft,Upcycling — sarah @ 12:27 pm

Yesterday I attended the first ever Green Unconference in Long Ashton near Bristol, organised by Daniel Lewis. It was an amazing setting with brilliant speakers – I only wish more of the people I’d invited had turned up but apparently most of them hadn’t seen the FaceBook invite until the event was actually taking place 🙁

Daniel Lewis opening the Green Unconference Lady speaker at the Green Unconference Diodynamic farmer giving his talk at the Green Unconference

I have come away saddened but optermistic and re-energised about the stuff I do to try and be a bit more friendly to the planet. Everything from government policies to how to garden to how to save/use waste food to feed those who are increasingly needing to use the food banks in this country was covered. I myself did an Upcycling and Junk Art workshop – complete with a mini talk and slides.

Sarah Snell-Pym explaining Ucycling and Junk Art at All Saints Church Long Ashton at the Green Unconference

It was the most gorgous setting for a workshop and I had my visual poetry stuff with me as well which a couple of people stayed on to do as a mini workshop. The workshop was making a vase of flowers out of old magazines.

Beautiful backdrop for the Upcycling and Junk Art Workshop Upcycling and Junk Art workshop at the Green Unconference Visual Poetry of one of the participants of the Green Unconference 2012

My little girls were about as well behaved as I think I could realistically expect :/ I think Jeany eat most of the buffet before we officially had stopped for lunch!

Sisters sharing food whilst being relatively good at the Green Unconference The family lunching at the Green Unconference near Bristol

I’m glad that people are taking on board that the average family can not afford or percieves at the least that they cannot afford organic food and that steps are being taken towards sorting this out. I wish I had managed to catch a few more of the talks but they clashed with my workshop and we had to leave early due to having triple booked ourselves for the day :/

I am going to attempt write up a few more of my junk art and upcycling projects. In making the slide show I realised I had a lot of material which I may try to collect together into at minimum an ebook. I have had people asking me to do this for a while now but haven’t had time what with all those workshops and other publishing projects on the go 🙂

And talking of e-books don’t forget to download your copy of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry before midnight on the 31st of October! Click the image below for your free PDF.

The Little Book Of Spoogy Poetry

October 21, 2012

The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry

Filed under: Books,Events,Halloween,My Books,My Drawings/Paintings — sarah @ 10:57 am

Image is a link to a free PDF of the book!

The Little Book Of Spoogy Poetry

A few years ago to entertain my then just turned 4 yr old I wrote a series of kids poems and we made a little book with me handwriting the poems and drawing some quick pictures in felt tip pen. My little girl liked it so much she took it to school with her where to my embarassement the head master saw it and thought it was great.

I typed up the poems and took photos of the book assembly – for this blog and thought that was the end off it all – especially when the book got a cup of water spilt on it (much to my annoyance and the tears of a little one). But I then ended up writing a Little Book of Poetry for all sorts of other events and festivals like christmas and the birth of my second child and to stop the heart ache of the first ones destruction I scanned the pictures I drew.

People kept telling me that I should release the books but I thought I should digitise the pictures so I spent ages trying to draw the pumpkins and things but I found that it just came out looking like a cheap hobbled together image and that was not what I wanted. Then I came to the realisation that this was not needed and that the felt pen look was a good for kids books. So I drew pictures and have run them through a few filters and things to clean them up etc… (I found that different sketch books have slightly different coloured paper in them which needed to be sorted etc…).

But the up shot of all this is that tomorrow I am having a virtual launch party of an e-book (PDF) of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry. I will be giving things away and there will be author interactions etc… The PDF will be available for FREE until midnight on the 31st of October 🙂

Enjoy.

August 5, 2012

Week Two of Workshops

The Wild Cherries at Bead Workshop Centre Arts Cheltenham

I had my second and final week of running Centre Arts in Cheltenham – and boy did we pack alot of stuff in! We had crotchet, knitting, weaving in the circle, mini pompom making, a fantastic turn out for my story tree, weaving paper to make bags and baskets, creating cards, bookmarks and hanging plant pots. We learnt two different types of stitch in bead work and my cake baking improved drastically with feedback on what worked and what didn’t 🙂

These ones even got mistaken for being an art display!

Tennis Ball Cake

Recipes and decoration how to for the cakes is here.

Here are some pics of what we got up to 🙂

Alaric working hard on the tea cosy Alaric Crotchetting Jeans upcycled vase Butterfly sparkle Pretty sparkle flower tin can planter Jean's cardboard Olympics Ammonite picture before the rain Ammonite Rain Picture Jean making a rain picture o a dry day Blurred hearts rain picture purple woven flower for head dress Needles galore! Jeans spiral snake card weaved bag Easter Egg Card Spiral snake Asleep snake Jean making a pompom herringbone pattern White toddler cardi Royal Sarah Jean's book mark Blueberry book mark made from a graze box grass bookmark made from a graze box Jean weaving paper weaving card

And of course more cake pics.

English Rose Cakes Rose Cake close up White Flower topped strawberry cake Strawberry and white chocolate sport and GB cupcakes Medal orange cupcake Orange cupcake Orange gold medal cakes

My little girls loved it all too and proved time and again that kids really can make a noise with anything!

Jean and Mary making street music Jean playing a pokimon box Jean and Mary with cake Queen Jean

July 29, 2012

One Week of Running Workshops

I spent the last week doing craft and writing with people at Centre Arts. And boy have we crammed it in!

We made cards, Olympic torches and medals, decorated volcanos, made leaf garlands, sock puppets, upcycled skirts out of old t-shirts, beaded rings, made hair bands, pom poms, created cardboard looms and wove, knitted and crotcheted, plaited/braided, worked on story ideas and comic book sketches, we made pencil pots, templates and phones.

Here are the photos 🙂

Tin can yarn wrap pencil pot Festival Sheep at Centre Arts Cheltenham Alaric making a tin can phone for Jeany Jean on her home made telephone Little wool flowers Landscape tin can Wool covered tin can Weaving still on the cardboard loom Alaric still making the tea cosy :) Jean's tin can pencil pot Jean's wool braid hair bands Olympic rings pom pom hairband Upcycled skirt from t-shirts Jean plaiting lime green crotchet cardigan Jean finger knitting tinsel Skirt segments cut out of t-shirts Sarah Snell-Pym with skirt made from old t-shirts Jean writing her story The Shy Spy Jean thinking Putting leaves on the Story Tree Baby Mary going shopping Ferfer and baby Mary making sock puppets Fun with fabrics The sewing machines

Eating CAKE at Centre Arts Mary eating cake Mary enjoying herself Cardboard medal about to have the silver facing added on Jeany and her cardboard gold medal Jean with her Olympic Torch The torch bit of the cardboard Olympic Torch Jeany cutting out the flames for her torch Mary with the paper punches Jean having fun with glitter Brick Stitch Decorated papier mache volcano Jean colouring her volcano

And of course we had CAKE! The who to of which is on my cooking blog.

Sports cakes Football and flower cakes Citrus burst cupcakes Rugby and Football cupcakes Flowers and Football Cupcakes on the stand Edible Olympic Rings Olympic Coloured Cup Cake Swirl

Jeany has really enjoyed this week and has even been looking after the plant! The baby too has been tiring herself out 🙂 The kids and adults who have come along have all enjoyed themselves 🙂 I shall be running it again next week starting on Tuesday!

Jean tending the lavender plant too much make and do, Mary thinks it's time for a snooze

July 22, 2012

Two Weeks of Art, Craft and Writing!

The next two weeks from Tuesday will see me running Centre Arts in Cheltenham. Apart from the wonderful art work which deserves a visit in it’s own right! There is information about the excellent courses they run during term time and drop in craft workshops run by me 🙂

Tuesdays I will be doing paper craft and beading

Wednesdays I will be doing Fun with Fabrics

Thursdays is Story Time for the little ones at 1 and creative writing for adults 3-5 kids are welcome as I have lots of stuff to keep them occupied

Fridays is yarn craft and the knitting doctor

Saturdays is Upcycling and Junk Art

There will also be cake and drinks 🙂

September 25, 2011

The Coral of Life

I made a giant papier mache coral for the Exhibition in Braille – here are the creatures, plants, fungus and life forms in general that occupy it. (It was a take on the tree of life concept!)

Knitted coral, mushroom (not by me but by the lady who run the singing groups at Centre Arts), and rose.

knitted coral

Knitted Mushroom

Knitted Rose

Pompom pals made of pompoms, pipe cleaners and crepe paper – a ladybird, butterfly, spider and carrot.

Lady bird Pom pom and pipe cleaner lady bird

Pink pom pom butterfly

purple pom pom spider

pom pom carrot

Wooden carvings out of pine (done by my Leonard Pym – my dad), an egg, fish and hedgehog.

wooden fish

Wooden hedgehog from above Wooden Hedgehog

Turned wooden egg pine

A gypsum sphere I found – it is an evaporite deposite found in desert environments.

gypsum sphere

Fimo/polymer clay models of a shrimp and penguin.

Fimo Shrimp

Fimo Penguin from the front Fimo Penguin

Sugru (this is funky new stuff which air dries to a rubbery plastic)

Sugru critters

September 18, 2011

Exhibition in Braille

Giant Papier Mache Coral

I have been making a giant papier mache coral as a piece of textural science art for the Exhibition In Braille which will be on this weekend (Sat 24th September 2011). The idea is that it represents the tree of life and at the end of each zooid or polyp tube is an organism made of different things such as wood, polymer clay, textiles, metal, stone and so on. There is a series of pictures in relief around the base that cannot really be seen but must be felt – these represent the scientific theories of Life’s origin and subsequent evolution. There is also a molecular sand made up of beads which will fit in the pockets built into the sand part of the sculpture and a series of poems which will be played along with it for people to listen too whilst feeling the piece.

January 16, 2011

Cheltenham Art Show

Filed under: Art and Drawings,Events — sarah @ 9:30 am

In the Summer I took part in the Open Air Art in the Park Exhibition which happens in Cheltenham ever year.

I selected my pictures – mostly acrylics and wrote out tags for them – Alaric my husband made hooks to hang the pictures from on the display grid.

Alaric making hooks

The first day we got up and running in good time but I looked at it and thought…

Pictures up and ready

.. I can fit more pictures on here.

How many pictures can you squeeze on?

I sold one painting called Vortex which was a green swerl.

The Cheltenham Art Show

June 13, 2010

GlosWhatsOn – Thankyou

Filed under: Events,General,Kids Projects,Science and Art — sarah @ 9:42 am

Via twitter we found a great local site to us called GlosWhatsOn – they are basically a directory for stuff that is going on in our county and they have been so useful to us with Arts and Crafts (and keeping small children entertained during the holidays!).  They cover many other things too, like sports and business and if you are in the Gloucestershire area (UK) or the Cotswolds I would suggest you give it a look.

I’ve found so many new craft activities, especially childrens’, since discovering the site.  But more than that I found out about the Wychwood Festival and from there managed to get on the team for festival crafts!  This has opened a whole new area of possibilities to me – I hadn’t really considered the craft workshop angle before (other than running kids crafts at the village feast, school and of course Scout camps etc…).

I’m just really happy I’ve found them and that not only can I find out about events on there but I can get my events on there so people can see them and come along.  It is also free which is always good 🙂

Anyway I just basically wanted to say thankyou to them 🙂

p.s. They are also on twitter.

February 14, 2010

Three Heart Anniversary Card

Filed under: Art and Drawings,Card Making,Events,Valentines Day — sarah @ 8:36 am

5th Wedding Anniversary Card

I made this card for mine and my husbands 5th wedding anniversary. I used a card blank from The Works and selected three hearts from a collection of paper shapes cut in different papers. I went for the sort of black, blue, purple feel as they are his favourite colours. I attached these with sticky pads. I also had some wedding stickers which come out as silver out lines which I used one the out side and inside. These stickers are good as you can get writing and things – though peeling them off of the sheet without stretching them can be an issue – they also don’t always say everything you want so I had to write in some of it using a black fine liner pen.

Black, purple and Blue hearts Embellisments added Embellishments on the inside

I then composed a poem which I carefully wrote out on the inside of the poem – about our last five years together. I really wish I knew how to do calligraphy but I don’t so it was again just written with my fine liner.

The wedding poem

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