I’ve been making lots of penguins for the hand-made book I am making for London Zoo’s education department - it’s all about the zoo’s ferret, Toffee, meeting the other zoo animals.

Another one from the Compendium show.

Source: ‘The Girl’s Companion’, Blackie and Son, 1940s

Everyone at some time or another has felt a trifle discontented with their general appearance and wanted to change it.

There is no doubt that wearing a festive costume changes your whole physical appearance and personality. You do not feel yourself to be the same person, and it is so exciting to feel different.

The important thing to bear in mind is your type: before making a choice study yourself carefully in a mirror, both front and back view.

Never, never be embarrassed; because it is always a game of fun and frolic, and above all, ‘let’s pretend’.

Here’s another one of my prints from my show ‘Compendium’. This one’s a game called Bachelor’s Kitchen - instructions on how to play are shown below! I like the idea that the penguins have gone on a stag night and gone a bit silly after too many Dubonnets.

Source: ‘Three Hundred and One Things a Bright Girl Can Do’, Jean Stewart, Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1904

The girls sit in a row, with the exception of one, who goes in succession to each girl and asks her what she will give to the bachelor’s kitchen. Each answers what she pleases, such as a rolling pin or a warming pan.

When all have replied, the questioner returns to the first girl, and puts all sorts of questions, which must be answered by the article which she before gave to the kitchen, and by no other word. For instance, she asks, “What do you wear on your head?” “Mouse trap”. The object is to make the answerer laugh, and she is asked a number of questions until she either laughs or is given up as a hard subject.

The questioner then passes to the next girl, and so on. Those who laugh must pay a forfeit.

I’ve finally had a chance to do some drawing following my day as zookeeper for a day at Whipsnade Zoo a month ago. This is the starting point for my show ‘Compendium’, at The Old Sweet Shop in October. Now I need to develop the drawings into ideas about games and playing.

Just finished my demonstration book for the ArtisanCam project on the 28 and 29th - turned out rather romantic!

In a couple of weeks I will be visiting a school in north London for a project with ArtisanCam. A class of year 6 pupils will be getting a visit from a live macaw from London Zoo, then making a book inspired by the experience. Today I’ve really enjoyed making a demonstration model, using a selection of jumbled up words and paper collage.

Two new screen prints for the exhibition in Swansea next week inspired by animals created from shrubs in a park in Mumbai - and the contrast with the lively wildlife such as jackdaws and chipmunks. The prints are available from The Old Sweet Shop’s online shop.

Here’s a new set of screenprints ready for the show ‘A Pair of Drawers’ with my sister Alison Porter. The prints are inspired by the resident bowerbird at Melbourne Museum, and show the variety of blue things bowerbirds like to collect - pen lids, bottle tops, clothes pegs, toy helicopters…in non-urban areas they collect snail shells and feathers instead. 

‘A Pair of Drawers’ is at The Brunswick, 3 Duke Street, Swansea SA1 4HS, October 8 - November 22, 11.30am to 11pm daily.

I saw lots of exciting and inspiring wildlife in Australia, from the embryonic Portuguese men o’war that look like inflatable blue slugs to some very very cute koalas including one that sat at the very top of a thin tree just like a pinecone. But my favourite is the bowerbird at the Melbourne Museum - I am going to write a new story about bowerbirds and their love of blue things. The cheeky runaway koala was at Sydney Wildlife Centre.

Lots of people came and enjoyed playing with the giant cubes and looking at pictures at the private view at The Old Sweet Shop on July 17th.