Its been a very busy couple of months, hence not blogging for a while.  I have been working, temporarily as a florist for 2 days a week in my friend's florist.  Whilst it is really lovely to be working with flowers again and being able to 'keep my hand in', it has been a challenge to keep up with orders of my own work, as these two days would normally be studio making time.  So it has been a combination of child-care and floristry by day and every evening beavering away to make work for galleries.  In the last month I have made and delivered 150 pieces of jewellery and 70 lino prints to four new galleries or exhibitions:
-Rostra Gallery, in Bath
 www.rostragallery.co.uk
-Just Make, in Wells
 www.justmake.co.uk
-The International Alternative Press Fair, in London [thanks to Paul Ashley Brown]
 http://www.alternativepress.org.uk/
-Paper-Scissors-Stone, Made in Bristol pop-up gallery, in Bristol
 http://madeinbristol.blogspot.co.uk/p/paper-scissors-stone.html

The day job

I am temporarily working a couple of days a week for my friends Mandy and Vanina in their beautiful florist, Les Fleurs [it just happens to be next door to the MAKERS gallery I mentioned in my last post].

I have to admit there was a part of me that felt like coming back to floristry after nine months of making my own work in my studio would stop the flow of making and I would feel frustrated by this.  I am, however, finding it is a lovely refreshing change and I am really enjoying working with flowers again.  Its good for me to realise that creativity takes many different forms and not to let myself get too one track.

I made this little floral number at the end of the day with odd stems left over from other arrangements ultimately destined for the bin [some I literally swept up off the floor].  Its just a bit of fun and very much thrown together, but I couldn't resist borrowing one of the florist's decorative bird cages to 'stage' the flowers.

Take a look at www.lesfleurs.org.uk to get a taste of the lovely work they do.