'Lichen' by Elizabeth O'Connor

Through the wonders of Twitter I am the proud owner of this beautiful painting by Elizabeth O'Connor of Gallery6.  Elizabeth likes my key beads and I like her paintings.  Apryl suggested that we do a trade (Apryl loves her crafty trades and I can't blame her; I would love it if Tesco accepted beads as a form of payment) and so we did.

Elizabeth (she's probably frowning at me now for calling her that so from now on I will refer to her as 'Liz') creates expressive, abstract paintings using mixed media.  Some of her canvasses remind me of nebulae and interplanetary mists and others are like moody colour storms and crashing waves of paint.  Lovely stuff.

Liz asked me what colours I'd like the painting to be and I asked for fern and olive greens and shades of grey.  I had already picked out the perfect spot in the living room for the painting and those colours match our lounge. (Are you surprised?  Were you imagining a sea of red and white polka dots?  No, that's the kitchen.)

A few days later the postman delivered the canvas and I fell in love with it as soon as I unwrapped it.  The colours are perfect and the painting has all these wonderful little details.  I just sit and look at it sometimes; I get properly lost in all the swirls and silvery touches.  It's just beautiful.

I think I will commission Liz to do another painting when we eventually get round to decorating our bedroom.  If you'd like to pretty up your house with an Elizabeth O'Connor original too her website can be found here.  Make sure you have a look at the Gallery section - the 'Acid Pop' painting is particularly pretty.

A huge 'thank you' to Liz for my gorgeous piece of art and also to Apryl for suggesting the trade.

'Cocoa' Beads

I'm a bit happy with these glass gems. The idea for them came from out of the blue. I was making encased frit beads one minute and the next - Kapow! - I had the idea for these ones. They're a mix of my enamel beads and my Kandinsky-esque beads but with the added ingredient of murrini. This is the first murrini I've made and used in my beads. Yes, I know it's only simple murrini but it gives the beads a little extra interest. They're currently on the 'Bay.

As I sit here I've got the television on and I'm watching Hell's Kitchen USA. The poor contestants are backchatting Gordon Ramsay. Mistake. Obviously they don't know what he's like! There was an ad break a minute ago and that flippin' Yakult commercial was on. Do you know the one I mean? It's the one with the bacteria inside the intestine or whatever bit of the body it is. It really offends me - makes me go all funny.

It reminds me of an art installation that I once saw at the Tate Gallery. I went there on a college trip to see the 1994 Turner Prize entries as part of my art A-Level. There were some fabulous pieces from that year's winner, Anthony Gormley, as well as Damien Hirst's famous 'Away From The Flock' sheep-in-a-tank thing and the most grotesque exhibit by some woman whose name I can't and don't want to remember. You walked into a cylindrical structure (like a tube stood on end) and on the floor was a big round screen which was showing footage of an endoscopy which had been carried out on the 'artist'. It even had squelchy, manky sound effects. Totally horrid, totally pointless and totally not art. And now every time I see that Yakult advert I think of that installation at the Tate!