Author Archives: Alison McIntyre

I made some heart cards for Valentines Day. You can find them in Chirpy in Chapel Allerton or Colours May Vary in Leeds City Centre. Full stockist details here.

Curve stitching is a fabulous combination of maths and art. It takes me back to primary school in the 70s and spirograph patterns, which are probably from about the same era but still going strong I believe.

I really enjoy making them and they’re proving very popular. I have two stockists in Leeds now, Chirpy in Chapel Allerton and Colours May Vary in Leeds city centre. For more pictures of the cards and stockist details have a look at my Curve Stitched Cards page.

So I posted this photo of a sketch on Twitter/Instagram today and a few people have sent me lovely comments.

I thought I was fairly self-confident but apparently not when it comes to art, and particularly drawing (a long time weak spot that I am trying to improve with practise). Bizarrely, my first reactions to the comments were either 1) they had made a mistake and were actually commenting on someone else’s work that happened to crop up in the conversation after I had posted my photo or 2) it only looked good because it has an Instagram filter on it.

You would think that at my age I would have got over this kind of crippling self doubt, but apparently not. I must post more stuff on Twitter for all to see and you must all be very honest!

There’s been a lot going on since March, and not much updating (rap knuckles)

I completed the map mural at St Matthew’s Primary over Easter, they’re going to use it interactively in lots of different ways.

then launched into preparations for The Giant and The Bear in June. We took the Rayon Rose caravan down to the West Yorkshire Playhouse and made it into a tattoo parlour for the Unlimited Theatre show, we also designed our own tattoos and made momentos to sell from the caravan. It was a fantastic and really well received show and we had a brilliant time being part of it. Roll on the tour!

Have a look at some pictures on the Rayon Rose website.

My time since then has been taken up with Chapel Allerton Arts Festival (CAAF) and an epic family holiday to America. Now that I’m back I’m feeling rejuvenated and excited about the rest of the year; I’ve got that start of term feeling! Looking forward to all the pen & ink drawing, screen-printing and curve stitching to come.

I’ve been asked to paint a world map mural on the hall wall at St Matthew’s Primary School in Chapel Allerton. I’m just doing the research at the moment and finding it fascinating that the world can be shown in so many different ways. These sites are particularly fascinating:

Worldmapper – loads of maps based on data about the different countries.

Cartographical Map Projections – this is a really good introduction to how the globe is represented on flat maps.

I’m also starting work on a series of curve stitched cards. You’ll probably remember this beautiful combination of maths and art from primary school (I did it on felt backed boards with nails in!) but here’s what it looks like when you sew into card.

An example of curve stitching.