Dragonfly podcast

I thought you might be interested in this great Podcast about dragonflies.  http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/nathistory/rss.xml

Hawkers, Darters and Skimmers

Club tailed dragonfly pen drawing

Dragonflies have always interested me.  I remember walking in Golcar in Huddersfield on a path beside a train track in the middle of summer whilst staying with my great Auntie Mona and watching the dragonflies demonstrating their remarkable aerobatic skills, hovering and chasing each other with such elegance, speed and control.  

They are amazing creatures often with elongated iridescent bodies, strong transparent wings and multifaceted eyes.  They are formidable hunters, chasing other insects at high speed through the air.   They move their wings in a figure of eight motion and are able to fly forwards, backwards and sideways.

The modern dragonflies have ancestors placed 300 million years ago in history, they were magnificent creatures with a wingspan of up to a meter!  

The title 'dragonfly' almost suggests a magical fantastical animal and many of the names given to the different species are dynamic such as skimmers, darters and hawkers.

A good place to view dragonflies in summer is Rodley Nature Reserve

Rodley Nature reserve have a brilliant pond system created to attract dragonflies and damselflies, perfect for a trip out with family.  They also provide free pond dipping and you can have the opportunity to scoop up the juvenile stage of the dragonflies, a nymph.  They look like little monsters! 

A dragonfly nymph

My fascination in these insects has shown itself in various aspects of my life and work.  On my wedding table we had napkin decorations made from wire and beads in the form of dragonflies.

Wedding table decoration

My logo for my business in a dragonfly.

Lino printed dragonfly wall hanging

An acrylic painting of an abstract composition of a dragonfly first executed as a mosaic 

...and my jewellery

One of the many pieces of jewellery I have made with the Club Tail dragonfly inset

I even have a flight of dragonfly gift boxes to package my work in, printed with my own stamp.

Gift boxes

So the next time you see one of these intriguing insects zipping past take a moment to watch it and just think of the prehistoric ancestor with the wings a meter wide!

A different dimension...

A blog.  You need to write a blog people tell you and deep down I have known that a blog is where I should go next but I have that problem, the little demon that sits on your shoulder and whispers in your ear, "But who would be interested in what you have to say?".  "What do you do that could be of any interest to anyone but you?"  What's more, I have tried blogging before as you can see further down the page but I have to say I struggled.  It is not something that comes naturally to me!

A week or two ago, myself and three friends met to discuss our progress and plans for The British Craft Trade Fair which we are all taking part in at the beginning of April.  We are quite diverse in our specialisms, Bec Gilray of Do You Punctuate creates beautiful letterpress stationery, Liz Samways makes stunning sterling silver and copper etched jewellery at InkyLinky and Margaret Glackin sculpts gorgeous ceramic yarn bowls and homewares amongst many other things at Margaret L Glackin Ceramics.  Despite our diversity we all have the same thing in common, we work alone all day submerged in our own worlds with no-one to bounce ideas off and so the chance to get together is really valuable.  The lure of cake helps too!

Bec's knitting notepaper

Liz's Fox pendant

Margaret's yarn bowl

At our 'business' meeting we got chatting about blogs, whether we have one or not, their relevance to a business and what sort of thing might be interesting to blog about and it turns out that I probably do have interesting things to share with you all.  Apparently, what I do from day to day when creating my jewellery is interesting to my friends!  My inspirations and the processes I go through to take a thought or an idea through to the end product are interesting!  Who'd have thought it?  So this is the beginning of a new journey for me into the land of Blog and a chance for you to see a different dimension to my work as well as the things I love and the lovely things other people make.