I have done something a little Strange

Over the last week and over the next week or so, I am doing a massive over hall of the website, all the technical stuff!

In an attempt to speed it up, I have removed the old blog from the website, but first I put all the old posts on here, so you can still read all we have got up to on our journey in our business.

With the help of Cosmic, Rockfish and the Heart of South West Business Support, I hope to make a faster more improved website for you to enjoy.

www.tandm-artsandcrafts.co.uk

Mark's next 3 paintings!

Tree 19, 20 and Corn Fields

Over the last couple of months Mark has been busy working on 4 paintings, he tends to switch between them depending on what mood he is in and which one is working best for him at the time.  One he got hooked on and that was the first to be finished.

We don't tend to come up with fancy names for his paintings, I just number them so that when I am selling cards and prints at market I can write in my book quickly between customers which ones I have sold. So I now know this one as Tree 19.

The next one to be finished was an interesting one, because it was a combination of his old style and his new style, which we intend to do prints of in 2 ways, the first being the entire picture and the second will just be a square of the bottom half as we think this will make an interesting image in its own right!

This painting is known as Corn Field

The third painting is also slightly different in that he has included something else with his usual tree, he's not one to paint people and animals as there is a certain amount of accuracy needed in portraits which Mark does not like the constraints attached to them, but I am loving this Stag!

I call this one Tree 20 but Mark calls it Woodland Stag!

I am just waiting for the postman to deliver the new prints of these paintings, unfortunately they came when we were out so they took them away again! So hopefully they will arrive over the next couple of days then I can get them made up ready for the Castle Green market on Saturday.

He started the next painting this weekend and he is promising big surprises with this one!

Mark is also working on setting up his own website, exclusively just for his artwork. I will let you know when its published.

Workshops and Worksheets

This month I have been working on putting together some workshops which will run throughout the year at our studio. I am also working on some worksheets, so if you cant attend one of my workshops (because you live too far away for instance) then you can download a worksheet which will have step by step guide with photos on how to make various things.

At the moment I am concentrating on jewellery making, but we do intend to do art workshops and sheets and mosaics as well as some others, so watch this space!

January 2015

Brrrrhhhhrr!

Its that time of year again when I go into a bit of hibernation!

Often it is too windy and wet for my gazebo to protect me and my stock to come out trading, but I will if I can! So hopefully the weather wont be too mean to us and you can find me on the Castle Green in Taunton and sometimes at Wells Street market. Hopefully however by March when things have all calmed down I will be out trading properly again, weekly and you can add Glastonbury to the regular weekly events list, I will try to keep my events pages up to date so you can at least check if I'm going to be somewhere before you venture out!! I will highlight it in blue if I'm coming.

  

I'm not sure how I am going to play this year, as a lot of the larger events I went to last year were a little disappointing for one reason or another, I am also considering getting a "proper job" as we need to earn a bit extra to get our roof in France completed!!

Ideally I would like to find something part time a few days a week so that I can stick to my regular markets with a few extras added in, so hopefully I will be able to continue with Castle Green Taunton with the BHBA, Glastonbury and Wells Street Markets and Seaton Artisan Market. I am also applying this year for Redlands Street Fair on May 4th, maybe Illminster Mid Summer Experience on 6th June (but this clashes with Seaton and Taunton so not sure which yet), maybe Blackdown Hills Woodland Fair on the 20th, I am considering seeing if I can get onto Sidmouth Folk week (maybe a few selected days in the week), Silverton Street Market (again clashes with others so a decision will need to be made), Honiton Show with the BHBA is a must on the 6th August! and Drayton Street Fair on the 29th. I am also considering perhaps coming to Bristols St Nicholas Market (if I can get on) once a month, maybe the 3rd Saturday of the month. And that is as far as I have got this year!

So back to what I will be doing over the next couple of months, well mainly staying warm!!

This month is my "get myself sorted" month, so its boring stuff like account updating, getting spreadsheets ready for the next year and making sure the website is all up to date, Yes there is a boring side to being a crafter!!! Its not all make make make!!

But I will be making some stuff too, I hope to be able to launch a new product (one we have been meaning to do for ages but never really get around to it), Mark and I will both be doing our own spin on them, hopefully they will emerge ready for Valentine's and Mother's Day.

I also have a list of things as long as my arm to complete for the next busy season, but that's all boring house stuff, and hopefully if the rains dont come and I don't have to build an ark this year I can get out on the veg patch and get that ready.

As ever tho (even if I cant get out to events) the website shop is up, running and open for business!

See you all soon.

Tammy

Mark's Commission

Commissions are not Mark's favourite, he doesn't enjoy the confinements of having to paint for someone else, always worrying that all the effort he puts into a painting will not be liked. And he puts a lot of effort into a painting!

When Mark paints a picture he lets the painting lead him, having a basic idea on how he wants the image to look, maybe even doing a ruff sketch first, but not really having an idea on the colours he wants to use or the intricate detail that will end up in the final piece.

So it is not often he takes them on.

But we were approached by a customer or should I say admirer of Mark's work, who already had purchased several pieces of Mark's work to have a painting done for him and his wife, as a wedding present (using money they were given), the spec was to be a tree, which would feature a love heart and their initials, as if it was carved in the trunk and their wedding date by Mark's signature. Apart from that they said they liked Tree 1 and 2 and Groovy 2.

Tree 1, 2 and Groovy 2, although all of a tree are all very different in their own right.

So after much deliberation it was decided the background would be like Groovy 2 and that somehow insects from Tree 2 would need to feature and flowers from Tree 1, but also to create something very new and different.

As Mark progressed with the tree, it became clear, it was going to be amazing and colourful! But as he neared the end and the detail was to be completed on the trunk it became tricky to decide how to do it, all three trees that were mentioned had natural looking trunks and my input was that if it was a tree to have a carving it should look natural too, but how big should the heart be? The first one was too big and not right, so this was painted over, in fact the last part of the painting took over a week to decide how to finish, as this was the most important part and had to be right, which put the pressure on.

Finally Mark finished the painting and after sending the image (before the initials were included to personalise the painting) to the customer we all breathed a sigh of relief when it was confirmed they liked it.

On Saturday Marcus came to collect his painting and I think he was pleased, by his reaction. I told him how Mark is actually a little upset this painting is already sold as he had grown very fond of it, Marcus' answer was "Its mine now!"

The finished painting (before it was personalised) is available as greeting cards and prints soon.

August the month of Mayhem!

Wow what a busy month this has been!

We kicked this month off and finished it with trip down to Bude, my old haunt for 3 years and where I first started trading, its great to see Bude market still thriving and growing and its always good to catch up with some of the old traders, but as with any market old ones leave and new ones come. Its a long way for us to travel, but as Hazel gets to catch up with her friend from Bude school, I don't mind and as we stay at my in laws in Halwill it kills two birds with one stone (thank you Mary & Derek for putting us up!).

Next was Silverton Market, we did this last year and had a great day, although slightly quieter for us this year its still a great market to attend with a great atmosphere.  We then traveled to the North Devon Show for the 2nd year running, this one was a bit quiet and have thus decided I wont be attending it again next year.

The Honiton Show in the Blackdown Hills Business Association marquee was yet again another great success, I love the way Val organises the marquee with a one way system, it works so well, I do a lot of events in marquees and the coming and going of the public can quite often make it so they miss stalls all together, which was definitely the case at the North Devon Show.

  

Dunster Show, the Mid Somerset Show and Holsworthy Show were a little disappointing this year, with sales being down slightly from previous years, which bought us to the conclusion that perhaps Mark's wacky way of painting was not really going down too well with all these "farmers" now (as it has changed so much over the last few years) and that we need to look at different events which would appreciate it more, so next year, I am going to look at booking more folk festivals and cultural events.

  

Watchet Festival this year was a mixed bag for us, taking the children with us this year gave us added things to think about and as our daughter likes her bed too much, she wasn't impressed with the lack of sleep because of the generators, also not impressed with the amount of alcohol consumed at festivals. I think we did a good job of putting our children off festivals for life! Mark took them home on the Saturday afternoon, which ended up being a good job, as the engineers fixed the over head lights on the Saturday morning, which were quite literally over head - over our heads! lighting our tent up brighter than daylight! As we didn't have the children we threw our blow up mattress in the back of the car and found a quiet dark spot in the traders car park and had a half decent nights sleep.  We are in two minds about festivals too, they carry lots of pros and cons and so we will be looking and thinking very carefully before adding them to our events list next year.

   

 

This year we added Drayton Street fair to the calender, which is similar to Silverton Fair, in the middle of nowhere in a tiny village were up to 80 stalls take over two narrow streets and people seem to come out the wood work from far and wide, it was a good day with a good atmosphere.

I am still attending Glastonbury and Wells every week, which is definitely proving to be the best place to sell Mark's art work and so will be staying on the events list all year next year.

   

I finished off this month with a fun charity event, a dog show for K9 Focus rescue, I took our dog Rowan with us and left Hazel to man the stand for me, she's been a great little helper (all be it for a charge), while we entered some of the classes, however we were a little disappointed to only come away with a 5th in best Veteran!

Next month is quieter, thank goodness! I will continue with Glastonbury until the end of September and then that will be it until next March (maybe the Frost fair in Novemeber if I can get on). Also Wells every Wednesday (which I wont stop until Christmas eve!). I will also be in Wells town hall on Saturday 20th.  I am doing the last Seaton of the month on the 6th. And hopefully if all goes well we will be starting the Blackdown Hills Business Association market in Castle Green in Taunton on the 4th October.  Apart from that I hope to be making lots of new stock for the run up to Christmas and giving our house a good clean!

Mark has also been a very busy bee, finally getting his mojo back after having to go back to work in February and painting again, churning out an array of paintings of various sizes.

Mark painted this one for Hazel (our daughter), whilst at Watchet, as a little congratulations present for getting an A in English and a B in Physics in her GCSE's.  It is going to be personalised for her, but as the image stands now we will be making reproductions of it, the original is not for sale.

  

These are little 6inch canvases, the middle one sold at Watchet.

10inch canvas

 And finally Lily Ponds 24x18" soon to be ready as cards and prints.

You can read Mark's own new blog about his artwork by clicking here, he is going to work his way through his paintings, starting with Tree #1.

New Market in Taunton

Castle Green Taunton and the New BHBA Taunton Market

When I first started trading in Taunton, last year, it was once a month on the high street outside Boots with the Blackdown Hills Business Association which has been running in Taunton for 10 years, in March 2013. However in the September our niche little market was joined by another market run by someone else, this market then took over the BHBA markets as they were held every Friday and Saturday, this market became very large with anything up to 60 stalls, which meant it became a general market, with no guarantee of a regular pitch space.

I did join this market and regularly traded every week, all year, seeing them all the way through the harsh December, January and February winter weather when ever possible (a few were cancelled due to heavy wind and rain). But when we got to April and I became more irregular, as I was trading at other events, I could no longer guarantee myself a good regular pitch as priority was given to other traders that were there every week, meaning I would often be outside Cafe Nero's (where I never did very well). When we got into July and August, my event calendar was so full with other events, it meant I haven't traded in Taunton for some time.

Now the BHBA markets are back, as of Saturday 27th September, IN A NEW PLACE, we are setting up our niche market again in the CASTLE GREEN, where you will find all the regular old BHBA members that traded last year and some new ones too.

We will then be on the Castle Green on the below dates till Christmas (T&M wont make all the dates as I will still be trading at other events, including the Donkey Sanctuary, Wells Town Hall, Knightshayes, Uffculme School, Wellington School, Glastonbury lights switch on and Exeter, so dates in red are the ones you will find us at, but please still support the other traders and the market when we are not there - unless you want to come and find me at the others!)

Saturday 27th September, Saturday 4th October, Friday 10th October, Saturday 11th October, Friday 17th October, Friday 24th October, Saturday 25th October, Friday 31st October, Saturday 1st November, Thursday 6th November, Friday 7th November, Saturday 8th November, Sunday 9th November, Thursday 13th November, Friday 14th November, Saturday 15th November, Sunday 16th November, Thursday 20th November, Friday 21st November, Saturday 22nd November, Sunday 23rd November, Thursday 27th November, Friday 28th November, Saturday 29th November, Sunday 30th November, Monday 1st December, Tuesday 2nd December, Wednesday 3rd December, Thursday 4th December, Friday 5th December, Saturday 6th December, Sunday 7th December, Monday 8th December, Tuesday 9th December, Wednesday 10th December, Thursday 11th December, Friday 12th December, Saturday 13th December, Sunday 14th December, Monday 15th December, Tuesday 16th December, Wednesday 17th December, Thursday 18th December, Friday 19th December, Saturday 20th December, Sunday 21st December, Monday 22nd December, Tuesday 23rd December, Wednesday 24th December.

Thermomorph

I was recently asked to review a new product on the market, its not something Mark and I would usually use as we don't do any modelling, but I thought I would give it a try.

Thermomorph is a plastic product where you can melt it and mould it into any shape you want, its a relatively easy process that I am sure with practise could be utilised in many different ways.

It comes in a tub which is filled with thousands of little white plastic balls, you then have to put them in a bowl of boiling water for 2 minutes until it turns clear and looks a bit like frog spawn, using some tongs or a spoon you then fish it out, after a couple of seconds its cooled enough for you to then mould into different shapes, you have a reasonable time to mould it before it starts to set and turn white and harden and I am sure to an experienced sculptor this would not be a problem and if you go wrong you can pop it back in the water and try again.

The good points about this product are that it is very versatile and could be used for a number of different projects, it is quite easy to use, you dont need very much of the balls to make something, they go a surprisingly long way, it sets very quickly so you dont have to hang around for ages before you can then paint it and you dont need masses of special equipment to make something.

The bad points we found were that because we are not in any way skilled at modelling, we found it difficult to make anything of any quality in the time we had and we did find because the water cooled quickly we had to keep boiling the kettle and changing the water, however both these points could be overcome, firstly learn how to make models and secondly keep the water heated on something.

My son and I had a lot of fun using this product, we tried to make simple things like hearts and stars using cutters and then we finished off using it to make pillars and a cave for his school project (landscape in a box) unfortunately he whisked the finished project off to school before I got a chance to photograph it (I will try and post one later when he brings it home again).

    

However as I dont intend to go into modelling I wont be using Thermomorph again, but I can see it would be a very good product for people that like to make little figurines etc which they then want to paint afterwards (we used Mark's acrylic paints which seemed to work well).

I will give this product an 8 out of 10, I am sure in the right hands some one could work wonders with it.

Mark's latest 3 paintings

In a true artist's fashion, Mark has been working on 4 paintings at once!

Now that he is back to working full time, his time on his paintings is drawn out, which sometimes means he goes off painting one and will start another, this may be for a number of reasons, the main one being that he doesn't feel its going the way he wants it to and it just isn't working, sometimes these paintings never get picked up again (we have a number of unfinished canvases under the stairs and some will be ex-rayed in years to come to find another painting under neath on programmes with Fiona Bruce!!), sometimes he just needs some time out from them, some times to have them sat on the mantle piece so he can decide what his next move is, this can be at any stage of the painting, it may be he has an idea but he cant get past the background, or it may be nearly finished, but its those final last strokes that are his stumbling block.

This week, he picked up 3 of his unfinished pieces and finished them!

So let me introduce you to

Groovy Tree #3

Mandala #1

Mandala #2

All 3 of these paintings are available to purchase as the original, prints and greeting cards via the shop.

Our Trip to France 2014

Sometimes life gets in the way, sometimes family, work, animals makes the things you want to do most difficult, but as long as we hold onto those dreams and we dont give up, we will get there in the end.

Some of you may already know that we own a house in France, we signed for it the day before my birthday in 2007, the first couple of years we got out there 3 or 4 times a year and we made a good start on doing the place up. However those "things"got in the way for a while and we didn't get to go out to the house for the next 3 and a half years, it therefore was left empty, shuttered up and alone for all that time.

This year we were determined not to leave it any longer and by hook or by crook we were going out, so I didn't schedule any events and Mark booked the time off. We were very apprehensive about our return and what we would find, there are some major jobs like the roof that need work and with the weather we have had we didn't know what we would find.

So on the Friday 30th May we travelled to France on an overnight ferry, a very pleasant smooth trip - always a vantage as I get terrible sea sick ness and we have travelled over in all sorts of extremes in the past!

After a 2 hour drive we arrived at the house, and was pleasantly surprised!

Our neighbour had very kindly run his lawn mower over the grass, so we could see straight away it was just surface overgrowth, the "patio" (which is actually just tarmac - horrid it will go eventually) was covered in about 3" of moss and weeds, the hedge had grown a couple of meters wider and some of it was getting into the porch, the vegetable patch and the kitchen garden were overgrown with 3 years of willow re-generation and we had 6 apple trees that had sustained some damage, but as they were cider apples we weren't going to be keeping them anyway so weren't too upset.

  

 

Inside was not as bad either, the kitchen was a bit mouldeir than before (to be honest because we hated the glossy paintwork and intended to strip it off I hadn't cleaned it to an inch of its life before anyway), the lounge looked no different, but the bedrooms and the bathroom and toilet, especially the larger bedroom are mouldy and unfortunatley because we used a plaster called crepie and emulsion paint it was not as easy to wipe off as it was on the glossy paint in the kitchen, so we have learnt a lesson there, the paint in the kitchen is not so horrid and is what the whole house needs to be painted in! The large bedroom also has some cracks that have re-opened after we filled them so there is obviously an underlying problem there, but it is only on the inside wall not the outside.

  

  

So after the initial shock and relief, it was a case of "right, where shall we start?" so I rolled up my sleeves and put on a pair of rubber gloves and Mark got his loppers out, by Sunday afternoon, I had cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, ceilings, walls, cupboards and everything inside the cupboards, the bathrooms and lounge were cleaned and Mark had cleared the kitchen garden and made good progress on the vegetable patch.

  

We then took it a little easier for the rest of the week, working our way around. I cleaned the laundry room, which had had a cheeky mouse in it, I think it must of got in an exposed plug socket, munched its way thru my supply of green manure seeds and then died in the corner as there was an undistinguishable wet patch in the corner! I then worked in the middle bedroom, this one only has a bit of mould on the ceiling, so isn't so bad, so once that was cleaned, I cleaned all the furniture from the big bedroom and put it in, so that the larger problem bedroom was empty. In this room I just cleaned all the painted woodwork and gave the floor a clean, but I couldn't do much with the ceiling and walls in the time I had, so we have left the shutters open to see if the sun can dry some of it out.

As the neighbouring farmer grazes the field for us, we didn't need to worry about the grass in there and they were making good use of the source. The orchard is a big mat of years of grass growth, but that will be nothing that a group of piglets cant sort out when the time comes.

In the meantime, Mark had been strimming and spraying the drive, cutting down the apple trees and clearing the vegetable patch. We had a wet day on Wednesday so Mark painted the front door, while I experimented with the glycerine paint we would be now using, on one of the kitchen walls, it was very weird painting gloss on the walls! We have done it in an off white which is so much better than the nictotine yellow it is now.

 

 

I also scraped off all the moss and weeds from the driveway and I painted the bathroom, toilet and lounge windows. We needed somewhere to put all the moss, weeds and scaped off grass cuttings, so Mark made a willow compost basket, which I dutifully filled. And we stacked all the logs from the apple trees in one of the sheds.

 

All in all it was a full on exhausting week, but now you wouldn't know it had been empty for so long as it looks like it did when we left. We wont leave it that long again!

We had a very enjoyable evening at our neighbours, who welcomed us back with open arms and were so glad we hadn't decided to sell and give up, so are we! Some things are worth hanging on to.

We were sad as always to have to lock up again at the end of the week, but we are already planning our return in August and have a list of things we want to achieve and then again in October. Next year the roof will be done.

If the video wont work click here