Glimpses of light in the gloom of January

I am hanging on to any glimpse of light to get through this gloomy January and was struck by the joyful shadows created by my little artists models.

Mental light was created by volunteering to join an Extinction Rebellion samba band, and to decorate a drum.

Spirits raised by the colours on this test layout for the bookshelf quilt

Thoughts on fragmentation have turned to leaves and the decay of leaves. Plum showed some little quilts she had made,  trapping fabric under tulle, and this coincided with seeing one of the last journal quilts for 2019, where a participant had trapped poinsettia bracts and leaves under tulle. Going to my large supply of dried leaves, I tried that technique.

My intent was to crumple the squares to make the leaves fragment, but they look so lovely,  don’t know  if I can bring myself to do that!

I forgot to photograph the lovely, stitched gingerbread man, sent to me by Benta, before I packed him with the Xmas decorations, so please see her post where she shows her fantastic creativity with machine embroidery.

Positive actions for January:

• providing sewing assistance at The Repair Cafe in Oxford, where we repaired 12 items of clothing and the other repairers fixed 37 of the other 62 items that were brought for repair. Look out for the day of The Big Fix in the UK on 15th February, and volunteer or take along something to be fixed.
• Tickets booked to hear the wonderful “Lost Words’” again, touring the UK this spring
• Buying an electric cargo bike to share with my husband - we live at the top of a l-o-n-g hill, buses re infrequent at the weekend and traffic is therefore very heavy. Two trips up the hill with laden  panniers have already proved the benefit of this decision.If you haven’t tried an electric bike - they are amazing!

 

Anticipation of the solstice

When the amount of daylight is so meagre, it is good to brighten up the everyday in anticipation of the light to come after the solstice.

Superb laces in lots of colours from here.

Kew Gardens inspiration

Do go and see Life in Death by Rebecca Louise Law, a mesmersing installation at Kew Gardens, on until March 2018.

In, and out of the greenhouses, the light was wonderful

Edinburgh, Dovecot Studio, Daughters of Penelope

A fab’ few days in Edinburgh, with a highlight as ever being a visit to the Dovecot Studios. The light was shining down on to the studio floor, making the colours glow

Work in progress in the studio

Surrounding the walls of the viewing floor, an exhibition about tapestry as architectural commissions. One of my favourite artists, Victoria Crowe, has just completed a commission, in conjunction with Dovecot for the Leatherseller’s Company. Seeing the artist's  sketches, initial work-ups, weaver’s ( NaomiRobertson ) workups, the full working process, samples of weaving techniques is marvellous.  The heraldic blue, yellow and red are both historical and contemporary.

Downstairs, a superb exhibition called Daughters of Penelope. So many wonderful things to see here, on until January 2018.

A rug that was made to move within a dance performance

Monotone weaving

Ash seeds woven in to a textile

A recording of spinning songs that, from the comments in the exhibition notebook, divided the opinions of the attendees. I loved it and was intrigued by the circular notation of the singing. Great embroidery potential there.

Shell drawing

Three weeks in to the new term of the drawing course, and we have had the challenge to choose an object, divide our paper in to 4 sections ( whichever way we wished, but with straight lines only) and then draw our object using only line in one part, only tone in another, texture in the next and form in the last section.  We could use any medium we wished, wet or dry, but the drawing had to be very large, on at least A1 size paper.

I chose a shell, blurry photo below

and the result is

Furthermost left was line, the top section was tone, the middle was texture and the lower right part was form.  I got totally confused with form until I eventually realised that this had to be a combination of line and tone.  i used 4 grades of pencil, and about 5 different sticks of charcoal, both willow and compressed.

I can see now how my brain deceived my eye in drawing the inner curves of the shell  - drawn curving to the right at the topped, when they are clearly curving to the left. I need to write out the tutor’s mantras and recite them to myself at the beginning of each class:

- draw what you see, not what you know

- the light is your friend

- note down the light direction

- your object is sitting on something - what is it?

- a rubber is as important as a pencil or charcoal

Off to sharpen my pencils!

Travels and stitches

I have been away in Venice to hear my son sing with his school choir in St Mark’s Cathedral.  The whole visit was incredible - music, canals, gilding, carving, painted ceilings, marble, madonnas, crowds, fans, masks, mosaics, reflections. churches, walking, heat, gondolas, glass, more walking, vaporettos, palazzos, the Biennale.   After 4 days, I had much sympathy with the protestant movement, and understood the need for simplicity and minimalism.  The modern art museum had much to be admired, and I particularly liked the works of Giorgio de Chirico.





So much inspiration, it will take months to digest.
As two of the days were very hot, I retired to the air-conditioned room for a siesta, and did some hand-stitching, comparing French and colonial knots.  The colonial were much more even, but perhaps that was because I had recovered from the heat by then.

Coming home to a wet day, got this bound and finished.  To be displayed next to the quilts at our exhibition in October, to give attendees something to touch, when they really want to touch the quilts.  Most signs about touching the quilts at quilt shows are so negative, I wanted to give a more positive message.

The arrow is whip stitched which was good fun to do.  Maybe inspired by those stripey gondola hitching-posts?

Another one, finished off during the tennis.

and finally, following this tutorial from Benta, a little pouch, as you can never have too many pouches for stuff.

Let there be light!

I hate energy saving bulbs. The light is horrible, dim and uneven. These however are a revelation. I replaced 6 of our bulbs today and the house is bright ( however, not shiny, as all dust and cobwebs are now revealed) and my spirits are lifted.

I'm not being sponsored, honestly, and this is not a viral marketing campaign, but get these bulbs if you need to sew in the winter in the northern hemisphere.