The full title is ‘Waiting to be rescued from the planet with two suns’; the eponymous suns being represented by two pieces of red bubblewrap. I showed admirable restraint, I think, in resisting the urge to pop the bubblewrap…er…suns. The spaceship — an impromptu piece of quilling — looks like a smile, don’t you think? Let’s hope the astronaut family manage to get away safely. [Space fans, click on the image below to see it muchos bigger. ]

My efforts in collage are going, as you can see, from strength to strength. (Tsk tsk. Anyone muttering ‘from bad to worse, more like’ should feel thoroughly ashamed. Clearly, such people do not understand art.)

This piece is called ‘Any old iron’. Iron is referenced in three different ways: firstly by part of the periodic table; secondly by the steam iron; and thirdly — and this is something that might be noticed only by those with truly artistic sensibilities — by the playful use of materials, viz. a scrunched and flattened portion of aluminum foil, which gives this work a more tactile texture and alludes to the act of ironing, i.e., pressing clothes. The question is, will that pink iron ever manage to smooth out the rough surface of the foil, or are my collage creases destined to become permanent?

My collage gets ever more daring. From an adventurous use of materials (i.e., sandpaper in a recent effort) I have progressed to wordplay. (‘Three chairs’? Oh, he must mean ‘three cheers’; that explains the three instances of ‘hip hip hooray’ over to the side. Haha. Hahaha. The artiste is having a little joke with us.)

Here, a close up section of the original work shows how an altered books technique has been used to create a surreal sentence. Snorkelling round the raspberries! Whatever next? Jacques Cousteau would be horrified.

We’ve been busy with the glue pot.

Here are a couple of recent experiments in collage what I have done. Notice the daring use of materials in the first example, most notably sandpaper used to represent hills and valleys. Symbolically (and less charitable readers probably think this is all a load of symbolics) this hints at how those who live and work in the countryside have to take the rough with the smooth. Can you guess who the handsome chappie on the gingham tractor is?

[Did I just write 'gingham tractor'? Oh, blimey!]

In the second example, I have again, as the great Frida Kahlo often did, decided to use a self portrait. The daredevil rocking horse rider is none other than…ME! I was five years old at the time. Sadly, I have gained a few pounds in weight since those days.

The sheriff’s star was cut from the bottom of a pie tray. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the what the symbolic meaning of that might be.