Beth wnes i Dydd Sadwrn

Last Saturday I went into Abergavenny, which is a lovely little market down that lies at the gate of the Brecon Beacons. It also has a really lovely traditional art shop, that looks more like an apothecary and a market that sells the nicest pies, sadly I ate the pie too quickly to take a picture of it. I had literally no interest in going into any of the major high street shops. I went on a spur of the moment type of thing after the hairdressers, just because it was a nice thing to do to waste an afternoon, plus I really wanted 'Rubber Soul' on vinyl. The shop was closed, which made me quite sad although I found a lot of lovely things to take the sting away :P

We had snow with us, as you can see and I wasn't dressed for it at all. It was so cold. I went into the art shop to buy a new sketch book and ended up coming out with two new lino inks, a new pencil, refills for my pencil, a paintbrush, a new nib, a sketch book and a few pieces of lino. I always get carried away there, it's awful. I did have piece of cake with the owner and a cup of tea, which was nice. 

After that, I ventured to an really quaint second hand books shop, whilst on the hunt for anything by Oscar Wilde that contained 'The Selfish Giant'. I'm attempting to illustrate it and much preferred referencing it from a book as appose to staring at my Ipad for long periods of time, it's more inspiring plus I'm just difficult. The really special thing about this shop is, unlike Waterstones, it has incredibly old, preciously bound books that have had different lives before ending up on the shelves of this bookshop, having the likes of me looking through them all. 

It so happened that they did have an Oscar Wilde book and I bought it. I really wanted to buy The Tales of Asop and a Hans Christian Andersen book too but I decided that I treat myself to those another day. I've been buying to many books recently and until I finish them all I refuse to buy anymore. I'm going to read 'The Age of Innocence' soon after I finish 'Lolita'. 

I'll post the beginnings of my new sketch book soon too. 

Es i Gaerdydd ar ddydd Gwener

This is going to be quite a heavy photo post :) On Friday I had quite an adventure. I went to the welsh capital, Cardiff. I don't really live too far away, about half hour away really, yet I don't go there very often. My Friend recently moved there to go to university so I've been spending more and more time there.
Anyway, she invited me down to show me an antique shop she'd stumbled upon called 'Jacob's'. It turns out that I'd seen this shop loads of times before from the outside whilst passing it on the train. I'd always wondered what it was, I though maybe a studio or something.
I bought a jumper, which I'm currently sporting whilst typing, which was £5, that was my bargain for the day, I was so pleased. I also bought a few little cards for 50p.
I like to collect things that once meant a lot to people, sort of like a social history of the heart. There was quite a few different types of cards and my friend noticed that they were all 'To' and 'From' the same people... Doris and Rey.

I also really wanted to buy anything with The Beatles on, including a lollypop wrapper.

I also had, to me, the epitome of Cardiff on a plate. A slice of Ham, Chicken and Leek Pie and two crumpets. It was gorgeous. I'm a terrible foodie and recently I've been doing Slimming world, however yesterday I decided to treat myself :)  

Once I got home, I decided to go back out again. My other friend, who's doing a music course, rang me and invited me out with him and his college friends so go watch a few bands that were playing in a pub called The Dolls House. There was a boy doing acoustic covers of songs. He even covered Bon Iver, although I came a little to late to hear it. Apparently it was very good. There was a punk band and a few others. My friend pointed the merchandise stand and showed me hand drawn tape cover. Things like this really excite me because of the amount of thought that goes in to them and how much people care, so I bought one of those too. The band are apparently called 'Hot Damn'. I listened to a bit earlier on before going shopping. They sounded quite good, like a Welsh You me at six, dare I say?
The people that were selling the merch gave me a few stickers, which I was over the moon about. I'm aiming to cover the sides of my record player in band stickers before going to uni in September. I also bought a Tee shirt... from the same band. I had to tip-toe in the snow to get to a cash-point for all of this... Snow in late March? Madness. 

Needles and wool.

A while ago my mum introduced me to a technique called needle felting. Needle felting is when you use a needle tool to push into some unwoven wool repeatedly until the barbs on the tool cause the wool to be compressed and the fibres to 'knit' together.
There are loads of things that can be made from this technique. Such as, bears, broaches even hats. At the time I was a little uninterested in it and my sister took to it more than I did. She's made loads of lovely things and she's found a process that works for her using pipe cleaners to shape and secure her creations. After looking at what Megan had achieved, it inspired me to give it another go.
At the time I was trying out new things for a book that I'm writing and illustrating. I thought maybe the characters I made using needle felting could become my main characters. Here they are. The man is a tribute to my love of a bearded bloke.
I made him first, then after a few weeks thought that he was lonely and finally needed to have a companion. He's much more sturdy than her, all because I ran out of pipe cleaners by the time I came around to making the other one. So here they are. The finished pair. I decided not to use them in my book but I love them never the less.
The bits and bobs to make your own can be found in hobby craft and online.

Love Naomi x

Procrastinator

I am, like many people my age, a procrastinator. I procrastinate on the Internet most of the time, looking, ironically, at people who are incredibly motivated. And I come away from the computer screen/magazine/etc feeling like I've actually done something, I feel motivated and inspired. However when I pick a pencil up I realise how I've tricked myself and how I've kind of wasted the last five hours flicking from Facebook to Esty to blogs. I try to push myself but I'm dry of ideas at the moment. Ideas and motivation. Most mornings I'll go down stairs, before work and say to my mum 'I'm going to start and Etsy shop' and her response has become less enthused the more I do it and don't deliver.

I've finally gotten around to customising my blog and that's triggered some kind of creative butterfly inside my chest. Due to the fact I'd like to be able to post pictures of my work and be proud of showing them to the world and sending them out like my tiny little representatives of who I am as a person. Sadly most of the time I'm not that comfortable with my work but I will force myself to share. Hey! Who knows it might help me improve.

I made these whole on the phone to my friend and having a little rant, during which I spilt the ink all over my hands and legs. I think I got a tad too carried away. Never mind aye.

Love Naomi x

Let's do this and Esther McManus

I've never really been pleased with the aesthetics of my blog. It was bland and dull and just horrible. So after many a headache and a little assistance from a very helpful Padhraic Mulholland (padhraicart.blogspot.co.uk), I've finally made something that I'm pleased with. Not 100%, but almost there. I'm now encouraged to write a lot more now too boot :)

Recently I've been looking into Zines. For those of you that don't know what Zines are, they are home made magazines about any subject of your choosing. They can be a solo project or a collaborative effort. It's completely up to the makers. Any who. I'd spend hours looking online at all the places in America where you can pick up these mini masterpieces and turn green with envy because there was no where local for me to get involved. Weeks this continued, until Bam! Inspiration. Look it up on Etsy. I have no idea why I never thought of it but I was so pleased once I finally looked. There are so many different types of Zines on there. Beards. Stories. Not to date men of the Internet advice. I plan to collect them, being a beard lover that ones next on my list.

My first Zine however was made by the lovely Esther McManus, who is a illustrator printmaker who draws comics. Esther's zine is called 'Witch's hat' which is a story story inspired by ancient folklore, trips to the woodlands and The Incredible String Band. I've been waiting excitedly for this to come in the mail for a few days and texting my mum every day to see if its here yet. Today it came and I'm so pleased with it. It's lovely and so full of thought and movement. Esther even included two illustrated postcards too, one has 'Thanks Naomi' written in the back which I thought was such a sweet touch. These will be making their onto my uni walls in September :)

Esther has a website and a blog too - esthermcmanus.blogspot.com

This is a really good website if you're like me and there is no where to get your hands on to some zines - http://www.zineswap.com/ 

Love Naomi x