Roses are Red

Some vibrant hues available in one of my favourite places to shop for art supplies L.Cornelissen's & Son's "Artist's Colourmen".

Natural stones in wondrous colours provide eye candy in one of my Hatton Garden gem suppliers.

Red Arrow Jasper Necklace this unique necklace is available in my online shop here.

Mixing pigments in my studio.

Red Hewn Ring with a bright marbled blue stone. This one-of-a-kind  piece is coming to my shop soon...or email me at info@jademellor.com for details.

From beetles to bark, natural pigment samples I saw at The National Galleries "Making Colour" exhibition.

Matching lipstick and jewellery

Red clematis leaves remind me of home...

My fave lip tint looks just like a neater version of eating a bowl of cherries

Do you love God's Own Junkyard too?

My favourite red shoes.

Red Arrow Jasper necklace is available in my online shop here. For more information or to commission your own unique piece email me at info@jademellor.com with your query!

Pretty Good For You

I had some rather grisly dental surgery scheduled on Monday, and thinking I'd be all right afterwards for a day in the studio I ended up leaving early due to feeling more than a little wobbly and green around the gills. After getting home and getting some sugar in my blood (and topping up my painkillers) I was feeling frustrated at having my plan of a creative start to the week curbed by other forces. 

On my way home I had picked up some flowers to cheer myself up (they are proven to aid in recovery, reduce stress and anxiety, and boost creativity read up on it on Huffington Post here). The tulips from the week before were more than ready to give up their vase, but the way they had fallen open reminded me of Christopher Kane's beautiful botanical designs for his S/S14 collection.

Looking for an outlet for my creative urges, I wanted to make some drawings of these delicate specimens. Being back at home, there wasn't much to hand as I keep my art supplies in the studio but I had recently organised my make-up hoard and had been surprised at how many cosmetics in a palette of pretty shades I had that I had barely used. And for my sketch book, I could use myself!

The pots of loose mineral eye shadows reminded me of pollen, used as a very early natural pigment. I had been drawn to this lipstick for it's soft petal pink colour, ready for Spring!

Christopher Kane S/S14

I drew out the outline in waterproof eye-liner.

Using make up brushes, rather than paint brushes to fill in colour using strong loose pigments.

The lipstick blends onto the skin perfectly for blushed edges.

Here it is. The tired out tulips went into the compost, but my drawing brightened my day every time I caught a glimpse of it peeking out of my sleeve until l showering the next morning! And the new vase of flowers have looked lovely all week. (Mouth is healing well too...)

Just like the flowers, it was only temporary, but while it was there it made my surroundings a little prettier.

Hope you are inspired like I was to treat yourself to a few posies and some creative time to yourself-just to make you happy!