Just getting the last things ready for my show, which opens tonight at The Old Sweet Shop and runs until 31st October.  I have a very messy desk!

I’ve been wielding my scalpel to cut out chairs for one of the images for my exhibition at The Old Sweet Shop next month. It’s for an illustration of a game called ‘winking’ - a sort of Victorian parlour game.

I’ve spent the last week working at St Paul’s C of E primary school, Hook, creating two large textile collage panels to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary. The red words are the school’s values. Everyone from year 1 up to year 6 took part, and I completed the work by building two wooden frames and stretching the fabric over them for a neat finish.

I found the perfect T for my Wandle alphabet at the river cleanup at Kimber Road, Wandsworth yesterday. The alphabet is nearly complete - now I only need B, H, W and X, then it’s ready to turn into a poster.

I’ve been preparing the publicity materials and posters for my show in October at The Old Sweet Shop. It’s called Compendium and is about animals playing games.

Life models Billy and Mabel visited the studios today. 

We fed them strawberries and drew them.

It was like having two little clockwork toys on my desk all day. Thanks for the loan, Cathy!

Today was the end of the School Arts Partnership project with the National Trust at Morden Hall Park. I was the lead artist for the whole school year, and today we had an exhibition to celebrate, featuring the lovely paintings the children made in the park in May,

and the lanterns from the floating lantern festival last November,

as well as the mosaics we made last term. Then all the children from the two schools involved - Wimbledon Chase Primary and Cricket Green special needs school in Mitcham - wrote their memories of the project on a postcard and tied them to a tree with a ribbon:

In the evening Wimbledon Chase Primary School organised a special event for parents, also attended by the press and the Mayor of Merton, to mark the end of the project. It was a lovely evening - there was a documentary film, poems and singing, and then I had to sign autographs! A great way to finish the project - thanks to everyone involved.

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.

I’ve been putting together another demonstration book, this time for a workshop plan I am writing for the education programme at the  Mall Galleries. It’s on a theme of doors, and children will each choose and create a character, then make a book with open-able doors to lead to a series of adventures. Back at school after the gallery visit, the children can write the narrative to go with the visuals they have created.