HAPPY BIRTHDAY Molly Moo!

3 years young today and still as loopy as a string vest, but we love her!

Pretty Polly....

Meet Polly, with her blue Ball.  She's firmly felted and again, is in a fixed pose.  I never quite know where I'm heading when I start these sculpts, they just seem to dictate their own direction!  She's on ebay right now looking for her new owner.

How NOT to needle felt!

First I must tell you that this is not my finger, thank God!  I saw it on the felting forum and it made my toes curl.  The poor lady must have been going at speed to achieve this and she said once it was in, it wouldn't come out.  Of course, that would be true because the needle we use is barbed and frighteningly sharp - a bit like a minuscule harpoon.  It went in through the nail and came out through the skin underneath and she had to go to hospital to have it removed.  OUCH!!!

Introducing my latest Felted Bullie!

It's been ages since I did any felting work because of painful hands, but since I had the second steroid injection I've been engrossed in stabbing away at little piles of fleece whenever I get a chance.  Apart from the thrill of getting a good result it's very therapeutic poking away your troubles just as long as you don't stab your own fingers in the process!  Drawing blood is a daily hazard of this craft, believe me.

This beautiful felted bullie is now up for sale here on ebay!  She is approximately  8 inches from nose to tail.

Watch this space!!

I've got a little surprise coming up later.....!

Still Practicing

I finally finished off one of my last embroideries today by adding the twisted edge and it looks much better now.  The past two days have been taken up fiddling around with my latest effort which has already been mistaken for a cat.  For those who know bullies, it will immediately be recognised as said animal snoozing on his nose (as they do) curled up in a favourite armchair!  Again, freestyle machine embroidered.

size approx 12x6.5 cms

Another Embroidered Piece

I forgot to include this in my last post so I'm adding it now.  The photo is a bit bigger than the actual piece, which is approx 3.5 x 2.5 inches.  I have to say that the artist who inspired me to have a go at this (details in previous post) is extremely good at what she does, so I forgive her for saying it's really easy when in fact, it's not that easy, at least for me it's not.  For a start, I cannot use a hoop to save my life so I have to either stiffen my fabric until it's nigh on impenetrable or use a fabric that's so stiff it's stands up on it's own!  Either way my needles are blunting faster than I can blink, and they aint cheap!  And then there's pucker.  It can't be avoided except maybe on the smallest pieces so I'm getting close to convincing myself that all the little imperfections add to the overall charm.  And they do.  At least there will never be two alike as it will be impossible to copy anything, so I'm happy with that.  BTW, these look really good in a frame despite my non existent photography skills!

More Thread Painting.

The chicken is one of the very first pictures I embroidered.  A bit rough around the edges and I almost gave up at this point.  The bully heart was much better, took me ages but I went on to finish the edges.  The cat lives next door to us but sits on my dustbin all day waiting for food.  I always give in!  The bully at the seaside reminds me of Shugg's, our last girl, as she loved the beach and playing ball.  I miss her.

Happy Easter!

"WOW!  I haven't posted any art on here for MONTHS! Actually, I haven't really been making any art since I decided to take a step back from painting to gather my thoughts. And, I don't get a lot of spare time while babysitting my grandson on weekdays anyway. However, I have started to play around with my trusty old sewing machine and a few other things so I'll be posting some bits and bobs today, like this..... It's quite small, about 1.7 inches square and was made using freestyle machine embroidery.  I discovered a brilliant embroidery artist called Linda Miller who inspired me to dig out my sewing machine and try this out.  She does claim that anyone can do it and that's probably true, but getting a decent end result takes practice - lots of it!  Take a look at her website for some wonderful embroidery pieces.

"WOW!  I haven't posted any art on here for MONTHS! Actually, I haven't really been making any art since I decided to take a step back from painting to gather my thoughts. And, I don't get a lot of spare time while babysitting my grandson on weekdays anyway. However, I have started to play around with my trusty old sewing machine and a few other things so I'll be posting some bits and bobs today, like this..... It's quite small, about 1.7 inches square and was made using freestyle machine embroidery.  I discovered a brilliant embroidery artist called Linda Miller who inspired me to dig out my sewing machine and try this out.  She does claim that anyone can do it and that's probably true, but getting a decent end result takes practice - lots of it!  Take a look at her website for some wonderful embroidery pieces.

"WOW!  I haven't posted any art on here for MONTHS! Actually, I haven't really been making any art since I decided to take a step back from painting to gather my thoughts. And, I don't get a lot of spare time while babysitting my grandson on weekdays anyway. However, I have started to play around with my trusty old sewing machine and a few other things so I'll be posting some bits and bobs today, like this.....

It's quite small, about 1.7 inches square and was made using freestyle machine embroidery.  I discovered a brilliant embroidery artist called Linda Miller who inspired me to dig out my sewing machine and try this out.  She does claim that anyone can do it and that's probably true, but getting a decent end result takes practice - lots of it!  Take a look at her website for some wonderful embroidery pieces.

Easter Bunny

A few people have emailed me asking about commissions etc, so I just wanted to say that, currently I don't take commissions at all. The only time I make an exception is if it's for bully welfare/charity, and only then if I can fit it in. The complete lack of time means I just cannot commit to something I might not be able to deliver, and I hate to disappoint! This may or may not change in the future, I just don't know?

Back to bullies....

My sweet old lady Shugg's, has been gone now for 9 months.  I can't believe it's gone so quickly.   The urge to paint has eluded me ever since even though Molly, our rescue bullie, has brought lots of much needed laughter back into our lives and helped to heal the pain of our loss.

I've done a couple of things but nothing much until someone asked me to paint a picture - any picture, for her friend!  I couldn't resist the offer of a free hand so with just a few small guidelines I came up with this.  I hope she liked it?

An Olympic Kitty aceo.

Not quite the sport you;d expect to see in the Olympic arena but every bit as exciting.  I remember taking part in the sack race when I was a nipper, but I doubt I'd fit into a sack now.  This is all Polychromos pencils on Arches w/paper, and it scheduled for ebay tonight.

Meeeow!

Tried my hand at drawing a little 3.5" x 2.5" aceo again, a cat this time. well...two cats actually.  I'm not a cat person but we do have cats in our family and I love drawing them.  My daughter has a big ginger tabby female who has the loudest meow I've ever heard.  I've put these two on ebay if you want to peek.

Just for a change...

I painted this little aceo just to have a change from what I normally do.  It was made with acrylics and cp.'s on hp watercolour paper and is currently for sale on EBAY.

New Bull Terrier Mugs

I was recently asked to create a new logo design for for a mug that could be sold to generate funds for Bull Terrier Welfare, and this is what I came up with.  It's very simple but effective and attractive to the eye.  All proceeds will be donated to The Bull Terrier Club (UK) Welfare Trust, REGISTERED CHARITY NO.   1038286.  If you would like one, the price is £6.00 each + £2.00 p&p to the uk.  If you are situated elsewhere then it may be more, so please get in touch to find out the cost.  

I would like to thank Judy and Niel for their hard work in producing these items and many others in aid of Bull Terrier Welfare!  Thank you both.

Party Girl!

Another fun painting, this time painted directly onto the wood with acrylics and fully sealed.  I have cunningly found a way of fixing a 'D' ring to the back so that it can be hung flush to the wall rather than drilling holes through the wood and attaching wire.  Looks much better this way.

SOLD

For sale on ebay!

The painting below in my previous post is now up for sale HERE...!

From Little Acorns...

...big plaques will grow!

I told you I'd made a larger version of the little aceo and here it is.  The colours are not showing correctly on my monitor and it's a rubbish photo, but all I can say is it's better in the flesh.  It's approx 11 inches across and is actually a painting mounted onto the wood.  It was created using a minimum of collage (the clock and the picture) acrylics, pencils and oil pastels and I love it!

SOLD

Tiny steps...

I haven't made any art for so long now, so I thought I'd kick off with this little aceo that I've just listed on Ebay.  It was the springboard to a bigger piece that I've just completed and I will be adding that to ebay soon too, so keep a lookout if you are interested in either of them.  This aceo is tiny (2.5 x3.5 inches) but the other piece, painted on wood is much larger.  Incidentally, it was inspired by my boy Sykes, who adores his food - especially sausages!

I'm back

It seems like forever since I posted and I needed the break after losing our dearest Shuggs, but now I'm back and hoping to move forward with new ideas and new art in the bold, bright colours I love so much.

Since Christmas we've adopted two more bullies, Molly, whom you already know and Sykes, who snuck himself into our affections and stole our hearts the moment we set eyes on him.  He and Molly are like chalk and cheese - she's a rocket dog full of energy and he's so laid back I keep waiting for him to fall over!  It's not been as easy as I thought it would be, taking on two rescues with very different personalities, but I'm so glad we did because they've helped to heal the pain of loss much more than time ever could.  I don't think I could have survived the heartache without their help and for that I will be forever grateful.

 

Thank you.....

I want to thank everyone for your prayers and support over the past few months, I don't think I could have coped without you all.  Sugar, was my life and my inspiration and I will miss her forever, but you can be sure she will live on in my heart and in my artwork for as long as my hand can hold a pencil or brush.

Now, we have little Molly, a rescue girl who needed some love and a home to call her own.  Welcome to our world MollyMoo, we will do everything in our power to make you happy and give you the life you deserve to have.

SUGAR, 1997 - 20011

Wait for me at the bridge little one.  My heart is broken....

Prayers needed...

Dear friends,
I am taking a break from blogging to look after my aged bull terrier who recently took seriously ill.  I don't know how long I will be gone, perhaps until after Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Please light a candle for my old bullie girl.  If we can't mend her at least we can light her way to the Rainbow bridge.

Gail x

With Christmas and bullies in mind...

This is just a small donation to help towards keeping a bullie or two safe this Christmas.  It's a Christmas bauble (just in case you didn't guess) made by needle felting a large handful of fleece into a ball and decorating with the same material.  That dodgy looking reindeer is actually meant to be a bullie (note the absence of antlers) and there is a little snowman underneath somewhere.  I used seed beads for the err...beads and added ribbon for hanging, a wooden heart and the obligatory jingle bell to finish off.  If you are at all interested in buying then go HERE and scroll down to check out the price - and remember, it's all for a very good cause!

One I made earlier...

Digging around amongst the rubbish sometimes has it's advantages and instead of finding the usual spider, I found this.  I can't remember when I did this aceo but it was a long time ago, so it was a nice surprise to find it.  Actually, I found several but this is my favourite.   It measures 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

Christmas Bullie Plaque

Finally got this finished in time to put on my blog - not an easy task when you have a very needy bullie that constantly wants attention, lol.  The plaque is 7x7  inches with a bit extra for the hanger and completely hand painted directly onto the wood.

SOLD

A-Haunting-We-Will-Go

A wonderfully whimsical Halloween painting on 14"x 10" canvas.  This is truly a one-off piece from me, as there will be no prints offered, and I will be adding this to my EBAY later tonight for a 5 day listing.   I love the fantasy that surrounds halloween so it's been a great pleasure to create this lovely painting.  However, I'm a bit late creating for the witches season so I've moved on to Christmas and managed to get a  holiday plaque under my belt to start me off!  Then it's onwards and upwards and MORE plaques hopefully, providing my aged billie girl stays well.  She's been poorly this past week and even though she seems to have recovered, I'm still very watchful and keeping everything crossed that it stays that way.   All PAWS-ative thoughts are welcome!

Psychic Sally?

There's understandably a lot of debate about whether psychics are genuine or not and my own personal opinion is one of healthy scepticism.  So it was with an open mind (and a free ticket) that I trotted off to see 'psychic Sally' last night.  I can't say I was impressed.  She got some things spot on but she also got a lot of things wrong and somehow managed to skirt over them without too much trouble - and with a heavy dose of humour.  She has a good sense of humour does our Sally.  Got the audience laughing on several occasions, me included, but I saw it as a tactic rather than a gift.  I will say that what she did get right she did so with confidence which leaves me wondering where she got the information from, but that's the sceptic in me and I won't apologise for it.  Overall, it was an enjoyable two hours that made at least a few people feeling comforted, but at over twenty quid a ticket there were many more that were not.  Wish I'd taken some popcorn though...

Another Bullie Plaque

This was more of an experiment than anything else so there are one or two things that I'll improve on next time round.  Overall though I'm really pleased with the outcome because I managed to get a lot of detail in there by using a combination of acrylics and coloured pencils.  I've not painted directly on the wood as at first it might seem, but on watercolour paper - fabriano to be exact - which is mounted on to the plaque with a good quality adhesive.  I'm not a huge fan of painting on wood so this seemed like a reasonable compromise, although I think I need to find an easier brand of pencil to work with if one exists!  I hope you like it because I've got another one on the easel and plenty more planned.   The photo is terrible and really does not do it justice!

Bull Terrier head study

Not a great photo, but this bullie girl was so pretty she really caught my eye and I had to draw her.  I've cropped the bigger picture so as to zoom in on her gorgeous face and I think it's made a big improvement.  Not that there was anything wrong with the bigger pic, I just wanted to show the sweetness of her nature.  I think it worked well.  The picture is totally hand drawn with artists grade coloured pencils and is matted within a 10 x 8 inch mount.  She will be up for grabs in my ETSY store very soon...!

SOLD

A slight BLIP!

It always happens to me.  Just when I think I've got everything 'just so' it all goes pear shaped.  And in case your wondering, I'm talking about my last post where I said my plaque would be listed that same day, when actually, everything went wrong with the day and I ran out of time.  Life sucks sometimes.  But hey, I got it done eventually.....cause I've just listed it.  I might add that this is NOT one of a kind as I've made a  print from the original and mounted that onto the plaque, so I can make more than one, YAY!  The original will eventually be sold for always needed bull terrier welfare funds and I'm happy about that.  So, if you're interested in the price (which is VERY reasonable) pop on over to my Etsy store for a peek.

A Quiet Moment?

For want of another title, I called this plaque 'A quiet moment' because that's all it ever is with a bully - a moment.  A single, fleeting moment when they are distracted enough to be absolutely still, deep in thought and totally quiet.  A rare happening indeed!

This is actually painted on fabriano watercolour paper and then mounted onto a wooden (mdf) plaque, then sealed.  It's waterproof but not too glossy, more eggshell-ish.  Oh and I mustn't forget the 'whimsical' word.  it's definitely whimsical, lol!  I will be listing this in my ETSY store later today hopefully with a better photo.