The days are short and the nights are cold but if we do some dancin' we will be ok

KKKketchup.
Okellydokelly here's a little overview of what has been going on in the tremendous days of me (Miss Sally Elizabeth Leach)

Bestival (god it's good isn't it?!)

Back yonder in early September, before the cold set in, I spent a fun week out in the garden preparing a rainbow of fantasy animals for the wonderful portacabin that becomes Bestival Radio HQ.

Painting my characters on a big scale is one of my most favourite things to do. It really feels like they come to life and I have to say it's pretty hard to say goodbye to them sometimes

 

So off to the sunny fields of the IOW we went and with my trusty helper Tie by my side we set about turning 20 rolls of sticky back plastic into a 20 foot Zebra. Believe it or not, the top of portacabins are not the cleanest of places, thank god for the sunken bath at our heavenly pre-festival digs The Mission

We also added a few zootime friends to the roof, which helped it stand out in the packed main field.

And so it was...with a few gloriously tacky leopard print bedsheets around the barriers we created our own little festival menagerie!

Inside I wanted the space to be as colourful and bright as possible (an essential element, especially if the rainy year had itself a repeat)

I used a mix of flat painted character and 3D taxidermy style heads, and lots of jungle bunting, on a background of bright pastel colours.

We even had a little visit from the dudiest dude himself...Mr Motivator! AWESOME

I have to say that Bestival just gets better ever year I've been, the rest of the site was looking incredible thanks to the design team headed my Josie Da Bank.

My favourite was the Wishing Tree which poignantly became the closing bonfire of the festival

Much thanks to Tie, Ayesha and James Bacon for the pictures!


LET Project 
The next phase of the wonderful LET project in Blackburn has taken over what used to be an old jewellery shop in the town centre and turned it into a hive of creative and interactive projects.

I hung some of the characters I built in the window to attract people to the activities within. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of the other ones I made at some point too.

John Soane Museum's 'Building Explorers'

Next was a postcard I designed for the incredulous John Soane Museum in London. The 'Building Explorers' program is an after school club for local children, encouraging not only participation with the museum but to get them excited about the wonders of architecture in London.
I designed a matt-finished postcard that is just begging to be coloured in by these new intrepid explorers!

New Website!

I have redesigned my website, and although it will be changing again in the very near future, I am happy to say it's mine. It has pictures and words and you can click some things too. If you haven't visited it you most probably should, it's webtastic address is www.sallyleach.co.uk HUZZAH!


New Shop (and things for you to buy with your pocket money)

I've been working for the past month on some designs for products to start selling in my very own tinternet shop. They'll be a reet good mix of thing you can look at, put on your wall, carry your stuff in, cheer you up when you're feeling blue, give to your new crush and even some to pop your zits in.
I wanna keep most of it under wraps till I launch but here's a little sneaky peek...

 There's even some Santabulous things coming along...

Woooooooooooo, ok that's me! So how the hell have you been?

xxx

BESTIVAL 2010!

.....phew 3 blog updates in one day? It's what Wednesdays were made for fella!

Now, just a little sneak preview into the designs I've come up with for this year's decorations at Bestival Radio HQ....

The theme for this years radio is FANTASY ZOO and I've decided to turn the portacabin shell into a massive Zebra!

Lots of animal print and funny taxidermy animal heads are in the making

Animals are for FANCY DRESS, not Wheely-Bins!

Lots more coming soon...but in the meantime you can get excited about Bestival and it's AMAZING Radio Station on their Facebook Page.

By Jove I'm excited!

Exciting times indeed

Whooooopsie it's been a while........well it feels like it, there's been so much going on.

Blog photos like to upload in the wrong order, and I meant these the other way round, but hey screw it.....


I'm getting (a little too) excited about the upcoming set design I'm doing for 'Spaceship 87' which starts rehearsals mid November. It's Manchester Royal Exchange's children's Christmas production, and is being written and directed by my sister's amazing children's theatre company En Masse.
The story is about a little girl called Leyla who has to save the world in her spaceship bedroom - that comes to life in the famous Hurricane storm of 1987. Micheal Fish narrates the story......

......what an absolute fox (I WANT THAT JUMPER)

Can't wait to get started on it, I've been saving clippings and looking in my favourite moon books. We're building it at Lanterhouse creation centre near Morecombe.............it's a bit of a hippy commune and we're gonna be there for pretty much a month (plus it's near home which makes me smile, a nice bit of time up north please)
I did a drawing for the new edition of 'Egg Mag' which is out this week I think. It's for an article about 'Big Green Giants' asking 'How green is your energy?' I decided to brighten it up with a dude who's being super green by powering his own energy machine. I'm excited to see it in print, you can pick up at copy from 'Leon' restaurants amongst other places.


The ever expanding 580 group have just launched another cracking venue, this time in a little town called Brixton. The Rest is Noise is one of the most interesting places to have a beer in London with a plethora of amazing artworks on the wall and in the street gallery window.
I crowned the fireplace with the family of troopers........

Was really nice to draw in a different style for a change, tiring too!

The venue is also one of the new places we're taking the 'A Little Bazaar'......we had the first one there a couple of weeks ago....

......they have a light wall on the dance floor!

We're also taking it to 'The Book Club' this (and every) Sunday......we are franchising!


Ok........last thing, some pics of the stuff we made for Bestival......man I need a website update!

Some Bestival Highlights

Reverend Milo Speedwagon (a very kind soul) and two gold stars

Mr Spoon! It was just like being at Burnley Mechanics circa 1988

Man, I'm gonna miss her.

Bramble FM doing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' (with man digging a hole)

Dirty knees, windy portacabin roof, flapping glitter curtains.

Sunshine Star

Bestival exploded in my face

So, I'm in a state of shock as to how good Bestival was this year. God saw that everyone had made a lot of effort and sent the sunshine to toast our little faces and warm the ground for us to lay on whilst watching the wackiness unfold.

We worked so hard on the artiness for Bestival Radio and it surely did pay off. The station ended up looking like it'd been through a tropical glitter hurricane and everyone seemed to like it. A lot of the decorations even came home, which almost never happens.....ever.

I send a lot of time watching the weird little things going on this year (something you can't really do when the site resembles a muddy apocalypse)

My favourite thing has got to be BRAMBLE FM radio roadshow. Lots of daftness with Maureen and Leslie. Indeed.


Here's them doing their thing at Camp Bestival:

I love my studio

.......it looks a bit bloody crazy at the moment.
Bestival T-minus 2 days EEEEEEEEEE

Thoughts for Bestival Times

BESTival fever is with us once more, and this year carnival is the theme of the radio. Today me and Maddsworth trailed around East London cooing over pieces of plastic and paper, annoying fellow bus riders on the way back to the blessed studio.

Ordering things from gaffertape.com is my favourite.

Expect pictures soon (the from here looks a bit like a disco and a pigeon had a fight)

EXCITING TIMES INDEEDIO