Branching Out: More Carvings by Nicky

Having made some of Tomashek's creatures (see below), Nicky decided to have a go at some carving projects of her own.
Here's a Wood Spirit made from a branch taken from the garden at our old house on Weoley Park Road in Birmingham. I think he looks a bit like Kris Kristofferson...

This candle-holder is created from a root Nicky dug out of the garden at Rose Cottage.

Three little mice. The one with the curliest tail is made from a piece of walnut bought from a timber-store. The middle one is made from a piece of a chopped-down cherry tree that used to stand in  our Birmingham garden. The one of the left's made from pine - a piece of our old shed door at the cottage.

Here's Finn after chopping down the cherry tree. It had been attacked by fungus and had to go. Still it's nice to have a memento of it in mouse-form.

The cherry tree in happier days!

We still have a wooden cherry from it - also carved by Nicky! The stalk's made from a twiglet from the tree.

Here's the shed-door before its removal - we had the shed taken down and now have a lovely brick-built outdoor workshop for gardening bits and bobs and larger art projects.

And the lump of shed door on Nicky's work-bench. Just waiting for the bits that aren't mouse to be carved away from it!

Nicky's Whimsical Whittlings

Nicky was inspired by Steve Tomashek's book 'Tiny Whittling' to have a go at some of the diminutive creatures inside. The little red bird is Pimpernel.

She began with a rabbit carved from a carrot.

Lovely at first but doomed to decay! Going...

Going...

Gone...

More than gone!

Here are some more permanent creatures at Rose Cottage. 

Woody Woodpecker - to celebrate the woodpeckers that are regular visitors to our garden.

Woodruff the dog.

With Wilfie keeping a close eye on him.

Chivers the cat. Watch out birds!

Friesia the cow.

Dumpy Dobbin - who turned out slightly more rotund than expected.

Shrawley Fox - so named because he was made from a lump of lime-wood found in Shrawley Woods near our cottage.

Bluey Rabbit - an Easter gift for mum - and named by her...

The wooden clan on our dresser.

Tins in Progress!

We've been away in London visiting Finn, Katie and Dorrie and catching Running Wild in Regents Park (Finn and his work partner Toby were puppet directors). No action on tins for a little while. See below a picture of our workshop with a few tins in progress. These include a tin based on the streets where I was born (on Pontefract Road near Leeds); a David Bowie 'Ashes to Ashes' tin and a tin based on a poem about mending a bicycle puncture. Spot a lovely art deco tin in the collection just waiting for ideas! Click on the photograph to see everything in a bit more detail.

Latest Tin

Here is another 'local' tin linked to a school in a village near Rose Cottage. We've included the school rules from a local history book and an old image of children from the village. We quite like the spooky effect of a blurred child just behind the miniature schoolchild. Such blurring occurred if anyone moved during the very long exposure time needed for cameras back then.

Nicky made the wooden insert and I pasted a local map on it and the image behind. Here is a picture of the insert before it was put into the tin. We're toying with ideas for using this 'lighting' effect in other projects.

This is the outside - the same type of tin we used for the e e Cummings poem.

More Tins

We made this tin as a gift to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday trip to New York.

This is the front of the tin.

This next poetry tin is in celebration of Kipling's poem The Female of the Species. We were inspired by the 'raincoat' theme of the tin to create a reverse flasher scenario!

Here's the front:

More Tins! The Silk Factory

Nicky and I have been busy on more tins since I last blogged. The tins were inspired by local images and by literary texts. Several were made as gifts for friends.

This tin was inspired by Judith Allnatt's amazing book' 'The Silk Factory

Here's work in progress.

Here's the finished tin with a map of the location and an image (in the circle) of the original silk factory. Nicky made the insert and customised the woman figure to match the main character in the book.

We put an image of a silk moth on the reverse of the tin,

Vintage Tin Dioramas

Creative interlude while Katie created our first grandchild, darling Dorrie! Some postings now of previously finished work. We were inspired by artwork we saw in a craft market in Melbourne to create some mini-dioramas in vintage tins. Our first attempt focuses on our hometown in Worcestershire - Stourport-on-Severn. Nicky carved the wooden insert and took the photograph of the tree. The map shows the location of Stourport and the image behind the man is of Stourport High Street many years ago!

This is the vintage tin we used:

We based another tin on a poem by e e Cummings, 'in Just / Spring' . I also wrote a piece of flash fiction to go with it (to be published in an anthology by Fantastic Books later this year). Nicky took
the image of the helter-skelter in Stourport and I 'vintaged' it. Nicky carved the wooden inserts and
made the 'bars' in the right-hand corner.

The poet Roz Goddard @rozgoddard kindly allowed us to base a tin on her prize-winning 'Sound of Music' inspired poem 'The Baroness and the Nun'. The image of the hills was taken in the Lake District by my daughter, Katie.

Here is the full poem on the back of the tin:

Here is the tin on proud display on Roz's bookshelf.

Sometimes it's possible to really match the vintage tin to the subject matter. We deliberately used three nuns in this tin!

We made a tiny tin in celebration of the marriage of my daughter Katie and her husband, Finn. The map shows the location, and the house in the image is the hall in Suffolk where we had the ceremony and party. Nicky carved miniature figures in wood - she even copied the flower in Katie's hair and the hat Finn wore. The cigarette lighter in the image shows how small the tin and the figures are.

The next tin is one of the cheapest we've made. The tin itself is one of Wilfie's sardine tins. Nicky carved the wooden fish and I made the steam-punk collage on the fish and the nautical and piratical collage in the image behind. The fish is reversible!