New website!

Out with the old, in with the new! It's a new chapter in my life, freshly married! Time to upgrade and get me a website!

Please come over and check out my new site

www.rhiannonjames.co.nz

See you there!

On your up-cycle bicycle!

July has crept up on me. Suddenly I'm getting married this month! Eek! Am I ready? I think so. It feels like we've been thinking, planning, saving, living for this day for the past 18 months and now it is finally upon us! Hurry up! I'm ready now. 

The big task was designing and making my own wedding dress. It was something I really wanted to do and I'm pleased to say it's been a success. Can't wait to share it with you VERY soon!

Somehow, amongst the mad bunting making and endless adjustments to my dress, I've managed to create some new pieces. They are all created from existing materials I had around the home; broken jewellery, vintage fabrics, printed transfers, resins, maps and papers.

Cut & Paste

Hey this is my 50th post! I'm impressed! This blog has now been going for 2 years. 2 years of awesomeness - am I right!? (high five) 

Yeah, so anyway...I've been working on several different projects at once lately, also organising a wedding, oh and trying to hold down a 9-5, so perhaps that is the reason my mind feels loud lately. I'm trying to take my work in a more positive direction, as I have a tenancy to lean to the dark side. Yes I did just do that. I've been looking at places again and how they effect people. I've been looking at my home where I grew up, Jon and his home, and the place we will join together as one. Awww spew, I know. But its good for the soul.

Here are some of the preliminary collages before printing. Collaging itself was really nice and I've gone off on a jewellery tangent lately, mixing paper, stitch and fabrics. But thats a different post. 

This series is called Me, You, Together. Working on creating digital prints on textiles. Cushions for Christmas anyone?!

Collagraph Angel

Here she is, the blessed damozel.

Ok so the bar isn't gold and the lilies are more like massive daisies but you get the idea! The angel may or may not have had purple hair. I'm taking artist liberties here!

My aim was to create an emotional print, using cool blue tones to show the sorrow implied in the poem. Drapery is ever present in Pre-Raphaelite works, and I wanted to capture those textures of flowing fabric. How better to do this then by using actual fabric? Working in textiles has it's perks! Collagraph was my chosen print process as this enabled me to create a plate to print directly from these materials.

The print size and shape were mainly inspired by William Morris' Red House and his stain glass windows. But more on that later..


The figure is hand drawn like a dry point into the card, to create soft painterly line.

Peek inside my sketchbook..

So what inspired me whilst chilling at the V & A? Well, I'll let you into a little secret - I'm a HUGE Pre-Raphaelite fan, in particular Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He's so dreamy with his romantic style. I find myself getting lost in dramatic flowing fabrics and serene scenes of medieval chivalry.


























Inspiration hit me in the face after learning the painting 'The Day Dream' was inspired by a poem he wrote. Oh yes, he wrote poetry! (For me). I really liked this idea, and researched more into Rossetti’s poems. I found myself day dreaming over a romantic poem called ‘The Blessed Damozel’ about an angel outside heaven, pining for her lover back on earth. Alas they cannot be together! The imagery in the poem inspired the imagery in my print, such as ‘The Blessed Damozel lean'd out 
From the gold bar of Heaven; She had three lilies in her hand,’ ‘And laid her face between her hands,
 And wept’. After several preliminary sketches, I confirmed my composition.



Pictures of the prints to come..

New Project - V & A 'Inspired by...'

Hamo Thornycrofts 'Lots Wife'

It's a grey day in February, the rain is horizontal, my fingers are purple, and its still 2 weeks til pay day. 

The free warmth of the Victoria and Albert Museum lures me in, sketchbook in hand. I'm on a mission to be inspired. No really, the new exhibition I'm entering is called 'Inspired By..'

Run by the Morley Gallery, the idea being to create an original art work inspired by any piece in the V & A. What an awesome concept! I was sold.

Shimmying my way through teenage tourists from Europe, I found myself feeling the pressure to find that awe inspiring work which would trigger some amazing idea for a print.

How bout this? The highlighted figure of a classical beauty glows at the top of the stairs. 'Lots wife' by Hamo Thornycroft (great name by the way!) looks back at the village she is fleeing, only to turn to stone. Gutted. But I do love her dress.

Guy Chilling

Or how bout this guy? Just chilling, the hallway is where all the best art's at anyway.

This is where I am dwarfed by the magnificent cartoons by Leighton. It's not even finished and yet it's stunning to look at. There is a lot going on, but I'm sold on the dresses again. I do love a good bit of drapery. I'm sensing a theme here!

To really appreciate the Museum I need the best part of a day. There are so many rooms, themes, exhibitions and era's to get through! I chose the periods in time I would've liked to have been part of, and head off in the direction of stained glass windows and Pre-Raphaelites paintings.

Stay tuned to see where this inspiration led me!

If you get the chance, next time you find yourself caught in the winter winds of London, see what inspires you in one of the many free Museums. And why.

Detail of a cartoon by Leighton

New Medieval Room in V & A

Monoprint trials

Play time! Messy, inky play time. I've been experimenting with Mono-print again, using textures, shapes and colours. Ooh I do love a good deep blue!

Printing in this process gave me a fantastic layer effect - just check out those edges! The layered ink shows everything beneath it and using the press helps pick up every tiny texture.

Hmm, still getting the hang of writing backwards..!

These textures were achieved using string, paper and scrunched fabrics.

Stitched Collagraphs - 'On The Mend'

This is a series of collagraphs I've been working on lately, using a lacey (and racey)  upcycled negligee, ripped up, torn apart then printed. As you do.

The prints were based around feelings of anxiety and negative thought patterns. Feelings such as these can sometimes leave us feeling torn or broken, however, with time, we can be mended. But you are never the same again. I liked the idea of using a personal item, such as undies, and printing them for all to see! Laying it bare. I found this quite hard to do as it is so personal, making me feel quite self conscious. So of course, it makes loads of sense I go post it on the world wide web.

Check out the detail picked up in the lace! The print also has a beautiful slight emboss.

Collagraph plate in prep stage.

The monoprint which started the idea for a collagraph.

Ripped and stitched back together with text.

This went a bit wrong! The paper got stuck to the plate.
I managed to pull off some of the print and put it back together.
 I quite liked the print in the end. The detail in the lace is still so crisp.

Stitched Birthday love

January is such a skint month, straight after Christmas my bank account has been rinsed. Yet, there seems to be more birthdays in this month than any other! It doesn't bode well for the detox either.

Enter the handmade card. I do love a hand stitched item and taking the time to make cards for loved ones shows you love them the most! Not that you're too poor to buy cards at all...

Here's one I stitched earlier. 

hand stitched appliqué card.

Winds of change

How long can I get away with saying Happy New Year? This is my first post for 2014, 12 days in,  surely still acceptable.

New Year, new me! Isn't that the saying? Each year I start out with the best intentions..thinking about exercising, cutting back to just the one bottle.. but this year I have a wedding dress to fit into, so might actually have to do some work!

Although..even if I do chunk up, I'm making my dress, so just add in a couple of fat panels on the side! Problem solved.

Creatively speaking, I'm starting fresh. A new sketchbook is a great way to do this. Its full of blank pages just aching to be filled with goodness! I've been reflecting on themes I'd been working on and they are just SO last year. I'm ready to move on from them and push my work in new exciting areas. Who knows where this will be? Not this girl. I kinda like that though, its nice to be here now, in this moment.

There is that lovely feeling of hope and promise in the air.