An Arty Day to Edinburgh. In the Rain.

I finally found somewhere to get my beloved lovely lens fixed up in Edinburgh so we combined a visit to drop the lens off with a bit of gallery prowling.

First up, the skies were immense and the city drenched.

 

We found the camera repair shop (JP Camera Repair Company) and struggled not to gawp at the array of cameras and bits stacked on shelves all around! JP himself put my lens doom fears at ease and declared it fixable; utter relief and very reasonably priced.

After a swift dash through the rain we went to the Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This was my first visit to the gallery and I will certainly be back, there is so much to see. We managed the Man Ray exhibition, which was great, personal favourites being the portraits of Picasso and Lee Miller.

We accidentally glanced the painting that gives Rich the fear, and another which I'm sure must also be by ken Currie seen through a lift shaft on an, as yet, unvisited floor.

 

Lunch, thanks to my Mum and Dad's paper anniversary gift to us, was at the gorgeous Henderson's before heading to the National Gallery.

 

The children's Art competition winners were displayed and we were utterly struck by the talent and imagination in each and every age category. The work is on display until October and I urge you to go see and enjoy. Although I warn you, the monster section will blow your mind, the winner is the one cut off on the top left, you need to see it!

 

 Lastly, The Kiss. Stunning.

I have to pick my lens up in the next week so I may well get to look at another floor at the National Portrait Gallery. Edinburgh is brilliant.

 

Beach Finds Jewellery Workshop

Last week as part of Berwick Arts and Crafts Festival I ran a beach finds jewellery making workshop teaching two main techniques for creating wire wrapped glass, pottery or pebble charms.  These charms can be used to make earrings or pendants or bracelets and there was a full range on Friday.

A special mention to two participants who managed to complete the workshop, one with a migraine and one with a broken thumb! Dedication!

If you would like to arrange a workshop just get in touch; the next one will be part of the Crossing Borders Art Trail on the 6th, 7th and 8th September when I will be at Allanbank Arts near Allanton.

Exhibition: A.D. Johnson and Rich Johnson

Berwick Arts and Crafts Festival

Hello, well, wasn't that a rather swift and busy month!

So, here I am for the first time in weeks back to my own work, hooray!

There is lots happening which you might be interested in; first up for anybody in the Borders/ North Northumberland area is the Berwick Arts and Crafts Festival on Friday 26th to Monday 29th July.

Mainly based in the Granary, this year's festival has taken recycling and upcycling as its theme and there will be workshops, demonstrations, activities, open studios and stalls throughout the weekend.

For a full list of happenings see the Berwick Arts and Crafts festival website and facebook page.

I will be teaching a beach finds workshop on Friday 26th July between 10am and 12pm where you can learn wire wrapping skills to produce pretty and wearable jewellery from sea glass, pottery or pebbles.

 

There are only two places left on this workshop and you can book directly with Berwick Arts and Crafts Group on 07501 863 065.

If you are interested in arranging your own jewellery making workshop do get in touch to discuss your requirements. 

There is loads going on over the weekend including two great open studio opportunities:

Tower House Pottery (Friday and Saturday, 10am -4pm) 
Foldyard with painting and printmaking demonstrations from Dave Watson and Morag Eaton ( Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm)

Enjoy!

6th June 2013

The 6th of June 2013 was our very first ever wedding anniversary! It brought blooms from the garden (growing your own wedding flowers for the win!), a big fat luxurious feast courtesy of unspent wedding gift vouchers, some glorious handmade paper from R, greetings and a splendid gig.

 

The gig was actually a few weeks ago but it was our 'paper' (tickets, yes, stay with me) gift. We went down to Hexham to see Karine Polwart, accompanied by the fabulous Inge Thomson and Rachel Newton. We felt like utter stalkers when Karine Polwart darted into the gallery at the Arts Centre to bag a piece of work she'd had her eye on as we were looking around before taking our seats, there might have been a bit of goldfish mouth and pointing from us! The shame!

So, what can I say; I love Karine Polwart!

I am fully inspired and reinvigorated and... going full time self employed again! 

All sorts of inspiration has been thankfully heading my way and, with the set starting with The Good Years I had to laugh to myself; it is a wonderful song and often seems to play when I am doing soldering work and has become a bit of a workroom joke changing the lyrics to "soldering fire" rather than "smoldering far". So, more of that to come and thank you muchly beautiful ladies for a beautiful, inspiring evening.  

And, happy anniversary love to R!

Ahh, sure if you can't go a wee bit melodramatic on your wedding pics, when can you?! Beautiful St Abbs!

 

4th June 1913

Today I was part of a local primary school's centenary celebrations. An exciting day of celebration, fun and learning what life was like in 1913.

In preparation I discovered that today also marks the very day suffragette Emily Davison stepped in front of the King's horse tragically dying on the 8th of June 1913.

We dressed in costumes with Emily Davison very much in our thoughts. 

It was an important connection for the children to think about our responsibility to use our vote and, of course, to reflect on the idea of 'deeds not words'. You may know I am a big fan of words but sometimes you do just have to do.

Drilling Sea Glass

Good afternoon!

I have been doing a bit if experimenting with drilling sea glass as a way of using some beautiful finds that are do not have smooth edges.

With the larger drill bits and extra vibrations I was having trouble holding the shards still. So, my ingenious father in law made me a clamping device complete with reservoir to keep the shard submerged in water while drilling.

Yesterday was the first go with it and it was successful! Next up is further tidying up of the little glass rounds and making new jewellery with them. It will be two pendants and a ring first I think.

Making Memories in the Chaos

Tomorrow, we will be running a new 'five senses' session at Paxton House on request of a local nursery. There are so many possible activities to do around the topic and I'm hoping to make it a regular visit option for early years out of school education.

I really wanted to make some scented play dough and thanks to a school friend, Karen, I have been working away on getting a stack ready. Karen writes a facebook page called Making Memories in the Chaos which is jam packed with wonderful ideas for activities to do with children.  Karen introduces herself as:

A stay at home mum sharing some of the mayhem from life with 3 kiddies under 3 years old :-) Before becoming a mum I was a P1 teacher, KS1 co - ordinator and Creative Arts Co -Ordinator. So, a lot of the stuff we do stems from then!

Her ideas are creative, fun and designed to support a child's development. If you have kids I highly recommend a look for some inspiration! I particularly like the ideas for Starting the Day in a Happy Way and Rhymers are Readers!

Now, back to the play dough kneading for me!

Green Sea Glass Earrings

New in the shop! Pretty deep green sea glass and recycled sea glass earrings.

I love green. Even though I spent my formative teenage years forced to wear a bottle green uniform to school I ended up loving the school and green! It is on my list to make a pair of sea glass earrings fro myself and I might go green. Also on the list is to make a weeny stacker ring to wear with my wedding ring when I feel like being a bit fancy but which colour of glass. Hmm, I'll see which find takes my eye! R and I are having a road trip down the coast this weekend and I'm hoping for some interesting finds.

Love for my Sister

It is my beautiful sister's birthday today and sadly I can't be with her as she is all the way in Kurdistan.  This is the only picture of us together on the day I married Rich; I am so grateful to our good friend and photographer Rich Spencer for capturing this as in all the bustle of the day we never got the chance for a cheesy pose together!

I adore this photo; Lynne did so much to help us get ready for our wedding right down to tying my shoes for me! I love that woman and really hope she is having a happy birthday all those many miles away!

Blue Sea Glass Jewellery

Hello!

I have been listing a number of blue sea glass jewellery pieces in my shop including

 A blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver bangle

 and this pendant which features a deep blue piece of sea glass set in recycled sterling silver. It's one of my favourites of late, probably because I don't often find such well smoothed blue sea glass. I created a circular hole in the back of the silver setting so the light shines through showing the depth of the blue colour.

Lastly my large blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver ring sold in the week and I'm very happy it's gone off to its new home. Am also slightly relieved by an online sale meaning that after all the tinkering things are working, phew!

Number 6 Photography

Rich and I have been doing some wedding, event and lifestyle photography over the last few years and have set up a facebook page to share our work.  We are Number 6 Photography!

Rich Johnson, Art at Ancrum

A quick shot of some or Rich's work at Art at Ancrum. He is teaching for a term at the moment and the weekend was the first chance he'd had to do any drawing for ages. He loved it and produced another Salty Dog which has a new home already!

I love his drawings and this one especially because of the serendipitous 'surly' on the sea chart just above his right shoulder, splendid!

Art at Ancrum 2013

This weekend sees the first Art at Ancrum event from Friday 3rd May until Monday 6th May featuring work from a host of local professional artists and crafts people.

 

There are quite a few Crossing Borders artists involved including Mr Johnson with new paintings and drawings. 

Rich will be there on the Saturday and Sunday if you would like to meet him and have a chat about his work; he'll probably be the one with a sketchbook and pencil!

By Laura Johnson

There has been tweaking and fiddling and how-on-earth-does-this-work-gurning but now www.bylaurajohnson.com is live again!

There will continue to be meddling from me and in the meantime if anything is dodgy looking, spelled incorrectly, or just wrong please let me know!

I promised myself I'd be done by 1pm and am an hour over but lunch can be an on the run one today!

Hooray!

So, in my absence from this blog life has looked a bit like this...

Return of the Wandering Artist

Hello,

How are you?

I've decided to come back to this lovely space of bloggery and turn it into my website.  There are various reasons but mainly I want to have a website, blog and place to sell my work online all in one site and, with a bit of tinkering under the bonnet, I think I can do that here.  Sadly, I have been hanging around waiting for software updates on my current site builder to the detriment of my website and it's time to move on.

So, hello again and do excuse the work in progress look over the next few weeks.  While I fiddle around in the background I am going to transfer the few posts created on my other website and soon normal service will return! I'll post address details once domain names have been successfully transferred but for now you can find me, and my much missed blog archive on http://bylaurajohnson.blogspot.co.uk

Ahh, it's good to be back!