to grind or not to grind  that is a question? i am at home 'cos a front tooth broke last night and it isnt even near xmas.."all i want for..."  we know get the picture (: so off to dentists to get gob fixed so elegant when in pain temporary glued in job with antibiotics then ten days to see what fresh xray will show potential for £200 post and crown courtesy of nhs or and get this??? 4 tooth bridge base cost £1200 or £1600 plus additional root canal treatment and two post and crowns to join the bridge together or dentures or an implant [private of course!] would i go any other way starting at £2k..............! and i thought i had sinus and perhaps a swollen gum as a side effect duh silly little me

22.9.06 13:21 Permalink / 12 Comments / comment

colour coded compliment well i dont often receive compliments at work not because i am not entitled but brickbats are more commonly given and compliments more charily so. it is a strange place working in an artist's studio and part of the fashion world, lots of prima donna's and that does not include me.. i am very empassioned but not often about the job. i love painting don't get me wrong but lets face it .. it isn't rocket science or brain surgery.  there is quite an element of skill not only in the technique used but also colour awareness. i have recently been finding that tiredness doesnt kill but causes nye on a need for the death wish if you paint when you are tired. ie technique a bit iffy and or and this is very rare one's sense of colour is off!! so a couple of early nights and some extra vit e and thyme oil capsules seems to sort my eyes out. my immediate boss J is going on hols for a week and left me in charge of her Trainee... "dont worry about D's technique but do watch her colour. your colour awareness is very good..." i nearly fell over back wards.. like i said not often does one receive a compliment. if nothing is said you are doing ok. if not watch out. so i lefet owrk with a smile on my face and not just a tired one at that. nice eh?

12.9.06 19:11 Permalink / 10 Comments / comment

sprayed out of existanxe!!! this was one of the mannequins removed from its marvellous tat [work by S] at work he was beside himself when told ...............

12.3.05 23:26 Permalink / 10 Comments / comment

adam and eve it???? well would you?? all 60 beautiful mannequins have returned from a very succesful trade show in Dusseldorf and were to be renovated ... a touch here and there to remove scratches. they were delivered to the factory... wrong, they were meant to come up to me... some asshole [scuse me] sprayed out several weeks of work in one fell swoop, they now have to be totally repainted and then shipped to our new york showroom.. what a waste of painter hours. and also i didnt get the chance to re-photograph the one i originally painted!!! tres bollocks

11.3.05 22:23 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

bad photography ruins record.. b*****r!! i am so annoyed i didn't have my digital camera with me when i needed it, [ i share it with G and it was his turn] so i used a cheap fuji, with no fancy/normal additions that one takes for granted. and my pentax slr 'died' a long time ago and i couldn't afford to get it repaired and frankly i forgot i had it [B/F is going to have a go at fixing it for me] anyway i took pics of mannequin to go to Dusseldorf.. you know the one .. had to be done yesterday at latest if not a week before.. well received disc back from kodak.............bollocks it is awful!! i will post the best and they are terrible........... the whole premise you may remember was to paint a white face on Masai black skin to give the appearance of the lead painted makeup they wore during the Louis the 14th? period? the Pompidour look.. Dangerous Liasons meets vivienne westwood............. and even though i say it myself the actual finished article looked very good and our creative director was absolutely delighted. i would have liked to have seen her with her 'drawn through hedge backwards/dishevelled white/silver wig on but hey apparently one can't have it all. i can only hope i will get to see the pics when the show is over. i might but don't hold your breath, get to post another pic or 12!!!!

1.3.05 08:05 Permalink / 6 Comments / comment

No pressure then.................? it takes a lot to render me speechless but i think it has happened now.......... friday night after i had spent a good half hour cleaning all my brushes thoroughly in turps, the creative director K came in my studio... 'oh my god i have just found a mannequin that hasn't been painted'!!! consider the scenario it is virtually 5pm, it is friday , we are tired and looking forward to an early night [ yes i know friday and all i'm thinking of is bed!! stop right there those of you with smutty minds..] anyway, K is in the midst of arranging an enormous trade show in dusseldorf. this happens once every three years and a vast amount of money is expended on it. we sculpt new mannequins. creat new makeups and new wigs and even design and make new show gowns for the whole ensemble.. the theme this time is a 'dangerous liasons' meets punk and beshagged look.. so white and grey 'pompidor' wigs with white faces on every skin colour and vast gowns made of gold crocodile leather , billows of steel colour silk and pewter satins , yards of delicate green velvets and the occasional accents of pink. the boys are ancient russian cavalry uniforms meet pink  60's sharp suits with various wigs and mobiles........... anyway K found one 'masai' skin coloured girl that needed painting... all the aforsaid work had been done by our 'top' painter. and she would not be in till monday and the work was going out finished monday... oh did he panic and you could see he wanted it done immediately!!!! cue scary tense music... well i  offered to paint it saturday morning............ was i scared i went to bed really tense and wasnt much better when i awoke sat morning. well i went in very early to paint a load of other work and then when it was light and bright morning light i started the mannequin.. now we always paint dark skins in the morning when the light is good. but this one scared me 's***less* i was painting white and pale flesh tones on a blue black skin colour....with a green accent on the eyeshadow and around the brows and down the nose... arty but ghostly.... it took me 3 yup three hours to paint including taking the 'gold/powdered white look' down the neck and across the shoulders..... as i finished K phoned up and said "oh i just found the gown she's wearing and it's not green and gold but pewter and gold"?? !!! go figure. so i had to go back in and stipple out the forhead and nose green, i couldnt risk removing the eyeshadow green because of the eyeliner and eyesbrows were lamp black which smears unforgivingly if touched. i said well when she is dry she will have to be gilded in a pewter and steel frosting to obliterate the green... so on monday i went to work an hour earlier, one to take a pic or 16 and to ensure the gilder put a cooler frosting on to cover the green and he did. so she appears pewter, olive green and gold on white over 'masai' black skin!!! i dont know which wig she will be wearing nor which gown but vivienne westwood/ zandra rhodes eat your hearts out............. so i will post a pic later main point is K came in early monday and said it was fantastic... it did look good . i had no misgivings at all. best bit yet top painter said 'oh i suppose it will have to do'!!! she painted 55 of the bloody things and was mean enough not to say' not bad for your first attempt' or something.... speechless yet again....

15.2.05 08:50 Permalink / 6 Comments / comment

Saturday, saturday...... for the last three may be four saturdays i have been working!!!!!!!!!! yes i know with B/F in the flat at the weekends , work is the last thing i should be considering. but i have done a lot of work and there is the extra pay to consider. also there is the possibility that it will be the last sequence of saturdays to work any way. the two trainees are very nearly full trained now and of course during the week they will between them paint up to 80 mannequins in future. which will normally clear the extra work S and i used to  do on saturday as overtime. our big 'once every 3 years trade show' is coming to fruition so the specialist consultant who comes in to paint them is only one week away from completion. [she used to be the head of the makeup department, until she left] then she will be back to 2 days a week to paint ordinary work. so we won't have her allocation to do either. so this saturday will probably be the last i will get to do. hopefully i will earn enough to pay for the service charges my car will incur. last saurday i was hoping i would earn enough to pay for my flight to the Algarve. uhuh summer holiday booked a week in the Algarve with B/F, shamelessly romantic will post pics elsewhere on pic blog.... now simply have to save to pay for holiday....... oh i am soooo distracted lately we just put up an very large exhibition for Zandra Rhodes in her museum of textiles and costumes in Bermondsey, near london bridge railway station. don't have pics of that yet. i have been working on a very large order for Paris mainly men with painted hair and an enormous order for 'Zara' Spain, also men with painted hair very stylised and a pleasure to do. 'they' are very exacting and came in 3 times to oversee what we were doing. one of them can only be described as a gay sean connery, looks, depth of voice, body build ...mature oh he was gorgeous.....and spanish to boot... fantasie heaven... whoops now where was i? this is a 'tattoo' that S has painted on a mannequin for a client. good isn't it? here is another pic of completed work before they are wigged and or shipped to clients. and this is what my studio looks like at 6am in the morning on a saturday, yup 6am...!!!! now i best get ready for work..... later start today 9am will do fine cya....

9.2.05 07:57 Permalink / 4 Comments / comment

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