'a la Hilary'

Hi everyone
I'm eventually back (officially) from holiday. I've taken an extra couple of days, although I did almost get going yesterday.
The weather has been great over the last few days and on onto this week. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked up a virus and am feeling a bit weak, however, Im enjoying watching and/or listening to the Roland Garros tennis in Paris. I love the tennis season generally but Ive really enjoyed this weeks games.
Back to work and its Wednesday and it's usually my 'doll day', however, as Im just starting my working week, Im going to have a different sort of organisation for this week.My inspiration for the next few days is going to be the work of a lady called Hilary Bravo Check out her blog here. I may have mentioned her before, can't quite remember ? Hilary makes beads/jewellery in an amazingly simple but creative way. She likes using simple and accessible materials/techniques which is great for experimenting without having to do so much preparation and sourcing. Hilary also makes little videos showing techniques and progress of her projects on a regular basis and I am always looking for the next one to see where she is going next. I've been wanting to try out some of Hilary's techniques and thought this week would be a good opportunity to spend a few days creating my own versions. Im going to plan a little schedule of items that I want to produce this evening and think of ways of applying the techniques to my mixed media artwork. I like the idea of making beads and jewellery but ultimately my skills are aimed at producing my paintings. Im hoping some new ideas will come to me while experimenting 'a la Hilary'.
Here is a look at several of Hilary's pieces for illustrating where I will be going. She has an Etsy shop so most of her stuff is available for sale.





I have an idea to make some jewellery and develop some dolls or characters inspired by my creations. What I intend to create is a mystery (to me) at the moment ? but I know something will come out. The most inspiring technique from Hilary (for me) has been the use of metal leaf with her found objects and ways of mounting found objects onto rings - Im not sure what will turn out but it's constantly on my mind (somewhere - deep inside my brain) I NEED to have a go !!
A quick note about Last week and holidays - usually holidays allow time for drawing or painting but this time we spent lots of time out and about being 'active' and eating out. One of our visits included Keddelston Hall - an amazing Robert Adam 'country pile'. It turns out the film 'Duchess' was filmed in the Hall. Ive never seen the film but Im keen to watch it soon. I know it will inspire some work. We had a lovely long lunch in the Hall and spent a wonderful few hours looking and chatting to the staff about all the details of the Hall - a lovely memory from our holiday.
My only creative moment was to to produce a few basic sketches of a new piece based on a book cover (I talked about this book in my previous blogs). Im calling the first doll - Bernadette (at the moment ).

There isn't a name for the second sketch of a doll yet - perhaps someone will come up with a suitable name for me. If you have an idea - please add your idea as a comment.

On that note, that's about it for today.
Bye for now.