Tessa Spanton SWA Artist, tutor, writer



TESSA SPANTON SWA ARTIST, WRITER AND TUTOR

Welcome to my blog.
This is where I write about some of the things that inspire my work,
news of exhibitions and works in progress

Monday 20 December 2010

Winter White Monday Moodboard



Snow arrived early this year, transforming the landscape in the space of a couple of hours.
This brought traffic jams and trains frozen to the lines but eventually the commutors struggled home. When it snows like this, busy suburbia becomes quiet for a while. Cars are replaced by wellies and toboggans are towed along by eager children delighted to be missing school. The usually busy skies become quiet. We are on flight paths for planes and helicopters from Heathrow and Gatwick but for now we could be in the middle of the countryside.







Monday Moodboard

continuing on the theme of snow here are some of my favourites from the europeanstreetteam

Click for more information
Top left Dreamsfactory top Right NancyvdBoom
bottom left staroftheeast right Deerlola
for more Monday Moodboards visit Fleurfatale's blog here

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Feather Jewellery

I was inspired by a fascinating talk by Edel Zollinger at a recent meeting at the Guild of Silk Painters Surrey branch. We were shown some beautiful pieces of jewellery that incorporated feathers with the most intricate and beautiful embroidery.
So I bought some feathers and teamed them up with some of my jewellery findings to make earrings and a necklace. More details in my etsy shop.
They were fun to do and not something I would have otherwise thought of. I'll work on some ideas next for combining feathers with silk.










Saturday 11 December 2010

Wisley Light Trail, Icons of The Garden

Icons of the Garden - magnificent trees and a contemporary ice installation are brought alive with mesmerising lights at the RHS gardens at Wisley with a chance to warm up at the end with mulled wine and shortbread.

As I got out of the car into the dimly lit carpark I noticed a changing pattern of dapples of light projected onto the dark nightime clouds. The walk followed the route from the house to the milllenium glasshouse at the far end. I have visited this garden many times by day and at different times of the year but while still familiar the garden was transformed into the most atmospheric place. The scuptural beauty of selected trees was highlighted with coloured spotlights like the players in a ballet. The fountain played on the waterlily lake in front of the house changing through several different colours.









Ice Installation under the trees



The Millenium glasshouse changing colour and beaming lasers at the sky.








Laser patterns on the sky











Sunday 5 December 2010

Silk Scarf Progress


Both the scarves from the previous post were steamed to fix the colours and at last I have some photos of them.

The photo below is a close up of the scarf above and shows the subtle patterning that was caused by the salt. It is now available to buy from my etsy shop




The other scarf shown below should be a richer colour which hasn't come out in the photo.