Oh Golly Gosh! The quirky world of Elaine Hughes

Here is another crafty artist who I revisit often when looking for inspiration for students. Elaine Hughes’ magical paper, fabric and stitched collages look like they have been created by raiding granny’s sewing basket! I really love the haphazard, lopsided appearance they have – they look like precipitous cliffside villages of the sort you find in Devon and Cornwall. They certainly look like somewhere that I would like to visit!

I think that it is a really great use of materials to piece them together in the way that Hughes does. I also think it is great the way that the wording that appears within the pieces often seems to be tailor made for it!

I have chosen the pieces below, as I love that they include postcards and stamps. On holiday in Cumbria a few years ago, I bought an old hard backed novel from a market and when I  opened it up later, I discovered an old postcard from 1941, sent to someone in London during the second world war, just a little message saying not to wait for them at dinner as they probably would not be there in time. How charming! Who were they? Why wouldn’t they get there in time? I often wondered what to do with it and the work of Hughes has given me inspiration to perhaps create something that contains it.

Hughes also produces work in a similar vein to Priscilla Jones and a theme very close to my own heart – Tea time!

So visit Oh Golly Gosh and see what other treasures await you! I hope you find her work as beautiful and inspiring as I do!