My sister Lindsey (of Paraphernalia fame) has come up with some ingenious ideas for turning inchies into wearable/usable items. So today I have been producing dozens of inchie backgrounds, and also making prototypes of some of the product ideas. Tomorrow I'll make some more backgrounds and also glue some toppers on some of today's inchies. By the end of the week I should have lots of inchies ready to be made into keyrings, brooches, fridge magnets and so on.

the photo that inspired the collage bear, and a pastel study of the same bear.

Bear collage

Popped into one of the galleries today. The first thing the owner said after she saw me was to start moaning about how quiet things had been (gallery owner's code for "none of your paintings have sold"). But she asked me for anything with hares or ducks. Part of me bristled at being told (well, asked) what to create. But then another part of my brain ran off with the idea of mixed media hares and by the time I got home I was keen to get started.

I saw my doctor on Tuesday and got some more dried frog pills. As usual I feel better for having taken a positive step, even though the pills can't possibly have kicked in yet. I still don't want to see people but I have more motivtion to do things at home.

I'll put up pictures of the hares soon.

I've not been so very well lately again. My dried frog pills (antidepressant tablets) ran out over Christmas and I was just too busy to make an appointment to get more. And anyway, I was feeling so much better I thought I didn't really need them anyway. Big mistake.

My husband handed me the phone the other day and insisted I make an appointment there and then to go and get more pills. So that will be on Tuesday. In the meantime I am not too bad as long as I keep busy but as soon as I sit down with nothing much to do (including driving in my car, or lie down to go to sleep) I feel fucking wretched. I have spent whole days just lying on the bed feeling awful.

It's ok though, I have a plan. I need to start making art again. So tomorrow morning that's what I'll do. Watch this space for the results.

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I haven't posted for a couple of days but I have been making art. I made a pair of collages yesterday but they have so many layers of gel medium and PVA glue on them that they are taking a long time to dry out. I will show you them when they no longer have opaque white blobs - probably a day or two. Today I have been making another book, different to the last one. It is all constructed but I am still assembling text and images for it.

A fortnight ago I bought the book Mixed Mania in Hobbycraft in Stockport, then I went into the Starbucks next to it to read my new book over a cup of coffee. This is not unusual. But I was so grabbed by the projects in the book I left my coffee unfinished and went straight home to make a start. I began at the front of the book and worked my way through it, trying every single project. This is very unusual.

In the last two weeks I have made paper cut-out dolls, decorated paper, inchies, textured backgrounds, doodles, mini-artworks, a self portrait, a reliquary doll, a quilted clutch purse, a mixed-media doll, an art quilt, a fabric journal, as well as the textured collages and the book I can't show you yet. I invented orc stitch, non-dominant hand embroidery, drawing with a toothpick dipped in ink, and some ugly doodles of rats and seagulls which then kept cropping up with my work. I started keeping a dream diary and drawing on that for artistic inspiration, which has been very productive.

Fortunately I have a well-stocked art and craft stash and I have hardly bought any materials for all this. In fact, I can't think of anything I bought just for this. I either already had the materials required, or I was able to improvise and substitute.

I feel no urge to slow down. I am keen to continue and probably complete all the projects in the book. I already have a few other books lined up I would like to attempt projects from, although there aren't any other books I want to work through cover-to-cover as I have with Mixed Mania.

I'm interested in doing more exciting things with textiles. I'm interested in altered objects (altered books, altered clocks, furniture etc.) I want to make more 3d objects. More assemblage. Diptychs/triptychs. Boxes. Drawers. I want to work bigger. I want to make an altered long case clock!

I said all this was going somewhere. I still don't know where. But the journey is very exciting.

Fabric-covered journal. I have never done any bookbinding before, although it is something I have always wanted to try. I really enjoyed making this book and I am sure I will make more.

I dreamed about the woman, and I woke up with the song lyric going through my head. Sometimes, one of the hardest things about making art is deciding on a subject. My inner critic tries to have her say, telling me that the subjects I choose are too hard, or too lame, or hackneyed, or just plain wrong. By using images from my dreams, I take control away from my conscious thought where my inner critic speaks, and hand control over to my unconscious thought. My unconscious thought is a much better artist than my inner critic anyway, and a lot more fun to be with.

I've just got to share this wonderful poem/incantation my sister Stephanie wrote for banishing that poisonous toad, the inner critic:

Inner critic,

negative spirit,

be quiet!

You're a pest,

and I have bested you.

I see you for what you are;

an attention-seeking, jealous, spiteful sprite.

I will listen to my well-wishers,

who bless me with kisses

and hugs and warmth.

Boo,

Shoo,

Off with you now.

From A Roker Artist.

Art quilt, based on a dream I had about a wolf (who was also a woman) and her two cubs running away from something.

I had particular fun doing the rats (the triangles around the edges of the quilt). I wanted to hand-stitch them on with jagged, rough-looking stitches. I called this stitch "orc stitch". But I am an experienced seamstress, and when I am not paying close attention I automatically produce tiny, neat, even stitches. To prevent this I developed the technique of "non-dominant hand embroidery". Non-dominant drawing and painting is so last week, darlings!

I'm working on my next mixed-media project - a 2' square art quilt. It will be based on a dream I had about a wolf (who was also a woman) running away from something with her two cubs. I have started out by drawing the wolf and the cubs with my new favourite method - a toothpick dipped in ink. Toothpicks are horrible drawing implements. They are messy and scratchy and blotchy and unpredictable. Scraping them across paper is a sensation similar to running your fingernails down a blackboard. But the results seem to match the tenor of my dreams lately in a way that no other medium can.

Anyway, I am quite pleased with the drawings so far. These will be scanned and copied onto fabric which will be stitched to the quilt. But I might also do something-or-other with the drawings themselves because they have something about them.

Mixed media doll. I had a wonderful dream a few days ago in which I was in a sort of "Pirates of the Caribbean" type adventure. I was boarding galleons and seizing treasure, beaing chased through wharfs full of half-naked stevedores and escaping by jumping into the sea and swimming for my life. It was thrilling, but never scary. I made a note of it in my diary when I woke up.

When I saw this project in Mixed Mania, the doll's locks and beads reminded me of Johnny Depp in "Pirates", and I decided to theme the doll after my dream. My son Sam looked at her and asked "Is it Calypso?", who is also a character in the same movie. So I have named her Calypso.