Still here!

Just checking in to say that I'm still here.  Still feeling a bit discombobulated by life.  Still clearing out my studio for therapy.  Back soon. x

A very special boy

There's not been much creating going on around here.  I've finally found my studio and I'm feeling at peace in there again.  I've also been tying up loose ends of life and catching up on myself.  Also, the general focus of the last week has been on my special boy, who turned five.

Oh, and how many birthday cakes does a boy need?  Well, 73 fairy cakes, one beetroot and chocolate cake with strawberries and a rhubarb cake for good measure.  Oh we love a tea party here!

And the winner is .......

Chosen randomly by a very cute nearly-two-year-old, the winner of "The squirrel and the bird" is Colin!  It'll be winging it's way to you soon.

Hope those of you who received a parcel from the detritus of my studio enjoyed the contents!

Worldly goods

I've been feeling very unsettled.  The election result has put me on edge.  I'm feeling really unrepresented and very dissillusioned with the main parties.  The financial problems in Greece, volcanic ash, a soon-to-be-out-of-work-husband and I'm feeling rattled.  So I'm having a sort-out.  One of those big sort-outs where everything comes out the back of the cupboard and then you wonder what the hell to do with it.  I read this blog entry (scroll down to May 16th) and felt the need to do the same, or similar.  My studio is small and a dumping ground.  The way I work has really changed over the last few years and I'm filling space with millions of things I don't need.  I've been reading about living a more simple life and so I'm off-loading.

The Squirrel and the Bird. HH 2001

So here's a giveaway from my old stash of work.  It's a small felt applique and it could be yours!  Leave a comment and I'll randomly select a winner from the comments using a very sophisticated selection system!  You have one week.

Feeling blue

Patched futon cover, indigo cotton with kasuri fragments, and sashiko stitching, c1910-1930

I'm featuring this Japanese textile piece from Selvedge's Utility Issue (05) as it seems an appropriate metaphor for the day.  It accompanies an article by Stephen Szczepanek:

"In general, the process of deconstructing, re-constructing, layering, stitching, reinforcing and casting-off was a continuous and ongoing process.  Recycling grew to become a kind of domestic tradition, and the lifetime of a single garment from its inception to its final incarnation.....could span generations."

From that I am trying to take strength as we move into a new political era.  We're about to get a patchwork government and I can't help thinking that the country would be a better place if that quilt were stitched by women.  Instead I feel Cameron is hogging the blanket and we're not going to have a great end result, but as evidenced in this piece of Japanese textile art, the most beautiful things can happen by working and re-working. 

That's what I'm going to tell myself.

Mary Newcomb

Lady in an unsprayed field seen in passing, 1988

6 violas, 1985

Mrs Brown and black, 1972

I have just weathered the first of what will be many temper tantrums by my soon-to-be-two year old.  I had to hold in my head that "the moment could not last".  And now he sleeps so peacefully and I am calming myself with images from a beautiful book about the artist Mary Newcomb.

Mary Newcomb is a self taught artist.  Much of her work deals with the mood of a moment and using colour and light to capture her world.  She uses colour intuitively and with a heightened pallette translates her feelings onto canvas.  In her diaries, she wrote about the sounds around her as she painted, especially of birdsong, and of her efforts to record sound with colour.

Aah, feeling much calmer now.

Papier mache

On a visit home, I photographed all the objects that I have made and given as gifts over the years.  Here is a papier mache bowl I made in 1996.  Now that I've dropped off the gallery work I might give myself the luxury of a little play time and make some more.