Another of my new paintings called "Menopause" - so many of my friends tell me that this is how they feel - so I thought I would paint how they feel!

Latest Painting

My latest painting called "Head in The Clouds, Rooted in The Earth, Dreams Still Alive" a long title I know! But it explains the painting.

A few more of the paintings I've been doing over the last few years -

What I am doing these days -

I am sorry to those of you who have been trying to access my website, which no longer exists. I do not make jewellery any more as I am chronically ill and do not have the strength to use the jewellery making tools. Of course I could never give up Art completely, no matter how ill I am, so I paint pictures on my good days - very slowly, but I find it satisfying. I also sometimes up-cycle dolls - making old and unloved dolls into art pieces. The remains of my jewellery collection and some of my paintings are available on Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LeandraHolderArt?ref=hdr_shop_menu
The dolls are also available on Etsy -
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CrackedMirrorDolls?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Thanks for your interest - peace and love Leandra x

An Urn for Mum's Ashes

I haven't been on here for ages as I've been too busy being my mum's carer. Mum has now died and this is the urn I've made for her ashes. It's made from slip cast porcelain with a patchwork of dichroic glass glued to it on all sides. The stopper is a skull with Swarovski crystal eyes. If mum could see her urn she would laugh!

New Kiln!

I am thrilled to have a new kiln - well, new to me! It's a second-hand reconditioned one from Northern Kilns http://www.northernkilns.com/ It has all new electrics and a new control panel - they were so helpful and even gave me a lesson on how to use it - I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a kiln or for potter's supplies. I have attached photos of my new kiln and my studio. I have already done one firing and will be loading the kiln again today with a 2nd batch of my ceramic art. It is so brilliant to be able to fire more than one pot at a time, as up until now I have only had my Paragon glass kilns to use, this means that I could only fire one pot at a time - whereas with the new one I can fit in upwards of six pieces. This will so speed up my work and I'm buzzing with new ideas ...

When you look at the photos of the studio you will see glass butterflies and glass leaves hanging from the beams. These are some of the ones that were hanging on a tree in the New Ferry Butterfly Park for the whole summer. Myself and Chris Turrell-Watts, my artist partner in this piece of public art, had accepted that some of them were bound to be stolen - and had come to terms with that. Leaving attractively twinkling glass butterflies and leaves, that could easily fit in one's hand, in a public place for three months was bound to tempt somebody - or so we thought! When we took down the installation at the end of August and counted them we were thrilled to discover that the public had respected our work and every single piece was sill there. We then felt really guilty for having so little faith in people!

Anyway ... back to work ...