Cycle to Eden

This summer I took a summer holiday alone. Having recently finished those beautiful university years I've moved back in to my parents house and work part time, consequently I have basically no money! I still however wanted to take some time out and treat myself to a holiday. So, this year I took a week off and cycled from Oxfordshire to Cornwall, to the Eden Project. 

I'm quite an active person and have run a few marathons since I turned 18 and trust me they were hard, but this was unlike anything else. The biggest challenge I had to face was the fact that I was alone. I cycled for four days, at the end of which my sister met me and we went to the Eden Project together. Now I love a challenge, and I love my own company but when you push yourself to your physical limits, being alone is really no fun. Crying comes easily, as does giving in. However, thanks to the beautiful developments of technology there is always someone to be called upon when moral is low. Phoning my sister gave me the last moral boost I needed to finish a 60 mile day in the hottest weather England saw this year. I spent the entire summer training for my trip in wind, rain and mild temperatures, then the day I set off was the first day of super hot weather we had in the last week of July. It was cloudless, beautiful weather that I had craved for since Easter, I just hadn't expected to be cycling myself and most essential belongings 200 miles in less than a week at the same time....

I made it.

The Eden project as the final destination now seems to me an ironic destination as it did in fact feel like reaching paradise at the end of a cross country exploration.

At the end of day one I was still in pretty high spirits.

Day two went smoothly and ended at an idyllic campsite near Taunton. It was calm, well kept and full of a variety of charming characters. An old man who made constant jokes about my possible insanity for choosing to cycle to Cornwall, a lovely Dutch family who were inspired yet terrified by my venture and a young French teen who couldn't have more perfectly captured the romantic charm we assume all French men have. I'm only 23, but I really feel those 23 years, but Louis (yes a dreamily typical French name) made me long for those teenage years of innocent bright eyed dreaming we seem to grow out of so quickly. He was staying in England for the summer to volunteer at an R.S.P.C.A centre as he had realised his dream to become a vet couldn't wait much longer. He camped for free whilst cleaning the toilets and ate at the local pub for free in return for working weekend shifts unpaid. The ease with which he lived here with no money, no worries and a permanent smile on his face made my trip seem overly planned, and much less carefree than jumping on your bike and cycling away actually sounds.

On the morning of my third (and most hideous) day however those stereotypical dreams of romantic French men was reborn once I made my first snack stop of the day. I opened my stash of Haribo sweets to discover Louis had filled the bag with freshly picked cherries from the campsite cherry tree, Oh to be 17 again....

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By the end of day three however, I was very much worse for wear. Day three saw one flat type, 10 extra miles cycled due to poor navigation, one twister, 4 bottles of water, 3 bottles of Lucozade and about 2 hours of crying 

Day four on the other hand meant I was far enough into Devon and Cornwall to indulge in one of those delights only the south can provide.

As I said the Eden project ended up being a real paradise at the end of a long few days, and I'd recommend anyone to go. The whole trip is inspiring a project for me now and for the last few days I've been building my sketch book to document my trip.

Playing around with free stitching on the sewing machine, I made a stitched wrap around cover for my sketch book.

The pages of the book are made from the maps I printed and used to navigate from Oxford to Cornwall.

Because of the direction of my journey, travelling to the south east, this book is actually in reverse. The start of the book is at the back so below is the front page.

So far I haven't started drawing but I'll document my trip, the beauties of the Eden project and all my adventures on the way. So, watch this space to see where this journey take us. 

From the trees to the trees

In September I hope to start producing my own own work for sale, hopefully via Etsy, a wonderful site to find hand made items all individually crafted to good standards. As an extension to this, along side my sketchbooks I wanted to start doing some home printing using lino, to create a logo for my work which is unique to me. However, not having much money I'm hesitant to buy any of the necessary equipment!

Instead I decided to start in my Dad's shed.

Flicking through a magazine in a stamp shop I found this beautifully coloured article about hand carved wooden stamps, the pieces of stamped paper were wonderful, and I really liked the idea of working with wood. I think it's great to work with natural elements, so I've started playing around with this myself.

My first attempt.

Carving is a lovely process, slow, delicate and peaceful.

Testing out the stamp with acrylic paint and simple colours created some lovely paper to work on, and inspired a jungle themed drawing.

I'm not usually very good at drawing faces so this took quite a lot of time to perfect, but I'm really happy with the result, and hopefully it will inspire further drawings.

The Night Circus

A friend of mine has a very beautiful blog, which she has been updating this summer, and it just inspires me to get myself into action and to keep on top of my creativity too.

For my birthday in July I was given a kindle, and have barely put it down since. I've been longing to get my head back in to a good book, and have been discovering some really lovely stories lately. My latest read is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and I fell in love with it. It follows the movement of a circus which opens only at night and is built around an Illusionist, who's tricks are more realistic than they appear. The magic captured in this book is truly beautiful and the writing is crafted in such a way that the images in the story really come to life, and I genuinely couldn't put this book down.

As a result I've felt compelled to draw once again, and am going to share some of my drawings which have been inspired by this book.

The wishing tree.

One wish on the tree lights the spark of another wish.

The Ballerina

The night circus is solely created in black, white and shades of grey so no distraction from the performances occurs. I think it adds a steely beauty and elegance to all of the imagery. I'm really enjoying playing with ink at the moment and the various shades I can create so, this project of illustrating images from the book sits very well with my current obsession.