Hello - today while in Kilmarnock I saw a small stenciled rat on a "Welcome to Kilmarnock -The creative town" sign and thought Banksy !
 At Dean Castle and the first thing we saw was a Clydesdale horse!  It was Harvest festival day and the leaves were lovely - I wish I had brought my camera! There was a display of scarecrows done by local schoolchildren which was quite scarey. One looked alive!
Over the last few weeks I have thought about how I would teach art to senior pupils and how to make art lessons relevant and interesting. Some ideas have got me thinking more about the importance of product design. I thought about a simple item such as  a straw and how a small change in the design makes them more practical i.e. the bendy straw and the slushy type of straw with the spoon shape on the end.  Then Gordon reminded me of the bendy type of straw - which was so much fun !!

So if you can tweak the design of ordinary items to make them more useful and use straws as an example - then maybe you could also do the same with an item which people hate the design of i.e. a cycle helmet ! That's my first lesson planned!  Using knowledge of technology and design skills - redesign a cycle helmet..!!
Or it could be redesign a scarecrow or even redesign a car mirror.. I see so many car mirrors every day especially at the queues at  roundabouts.  Years ago all mirrors were square nowadays it is possible to create any shape required and the finish at the back must be aero- dynamic! Some are chunky to go with the car image and some are very elegant.
Design is all around us. Today I was amazed at the marvelous design of the chestnut leaves we saw and this has helped me to become more aware of the beauty of our surroundings.  I even thought the large pot bellied pig we saw running round a pen - beautiful in it's own way!
Thanks to Evans and Gordon for encouraging me to keep going with my blog.  Here are some weird and wonderful designs especially for you. If anything I have learned about art is that anything is ok however I do have morals and hope you can see this in my art.
The above images are based on aliens. The first is called Invasion - the second image is alien faces and the third is just an expression from inside. Thanks x