rustycage11

Please note: I won't be signing up for any more swaps with a send date before Christmas - I just have too much to do.

I live in the beautiful university city of Cambridge (UK, not MA). I went to university as a (very) mature student and now have a degree in History with Communication Studies. I now know lots of 'useful' information about, among other things, the Chartists, Black Nationalism in 1960s America and Bataille's excremental philosophy :-)

I have worked at the BBC, in publishing and as an advertising copywriter. I am now a lazy slob, calling myself an 'artist' when anyone asks what I do - haha.

This year I am taking evening courses (now on my second) in Textiles Exploration, which involves printing, felting, embellishing, burning and fabric painting.

ATCs, Skinnies,Twinchies, Inchies, Postcards, Fat Pages. Anything with paper. I like to try different styles but lean towards the grungy/collaged style.

I like to enter blog challenges such as Think Monday, Think ATC and Sunday Postcard Art.

I love playing with Photoshop Elements 6 but am equally happy getting messy with paints and inks.

A small sample of my work can be seen on my blog.I also upload pictures of some the ATCs I make for swap-bot swaps onto my Flickr page.

Grungy - Retro - Zetti - textures - Tim Holtz style. Birds, beach/sea themes, shrines.

I like pretty much all colours but have a preference for jewel tones on the one hand and bleached, beachy colours on the other.

Peel-offs (unless used VERY creatively); cutsey (hedgehogs wearing clothes is just not me, sorry). Not too keen on decoupage either. Other than that, I'm pretty easy going.

My biggest pet hate is people who make no effort in the making of their ATCs. I'm not necessarily going to appreciate the style of everything I receive but I do appreciate effort.

Flakers. People who don't bother to rate - it's just bad manners.

I pledge to rate promptly. I hope you will do the same.

If you don't receive anything from me please PM me. I always honour my sign-ups and my swap may have got lost in the post. I am happy to remake/resend if that is the case.

By the way, I don't usually send extras in the way of papers, embellishments etc; I'd rather receive a heart for my art. Although I do sometimes send an extra ATC if I've been particularly inspired by the theme

Kurt Jackson,Mark Rothko, Teesha Moore, Angie Lewin. One of my favourite paintings ever is The Doge Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini.

The Band - Bob Dylan - Neil Young - Amy Winehouse - Fleet Foxes - Elbow - Mark Lanegan.

But I'm open to a bit of everything, with the exception of death metal and the whole Ibiza dance/chillout stuff.

Favourite song ever is probably Wichita Lineman.

Favourite radio show is Adam and Joe (Saturday mornings, BBC 6Music)

Gormenghast Trilogy - Persuasion - Craft Stamper Magazine

Pretty much anything by the Coen Brothers - Zoolander - The Last Waltz - Pride and Prejudice (Matthew Macfadyen - drool) - In Search of a Midnight Kiss - The Last Seduction.

Peep Show - Being Human - The Mighty Boosh - Bleak House - The I.T. Crowd. and I've just discovered Breaking Bad - brilliant!!