beautiful and useful

Just some things to share that have caught my eye over the last few days…

Ann Wood’s birds (and ships and spiders and horses) are always a delight but something about this arrangement of birds in progress just made me catch my breath this morning.

Which reminds me, if you like arrangements you’ll love this Flickr pool (found via Ana Ventura’s Papéis por todo o lado).

I’m still finding my way around our new camera so I was grateful for a series of tutorials for point and shoot cameras by Ellie Won (Kitchen Wench) (thanks to Magpie Ima for sharing this). I now understand a lot more about white balance and exposure compensation than I did, and I’m looking forward to learning more!

Finally there’s lots of thought-provoking stuff at Greensleeves: Sustainability in the Fiber & Textile Arts by The Worsted Witch. A lot of the things I use for art (Procion dyes, for example) or am tempted to try (like Lutradur) are, I think, derived from petrochemicals. I worry about this. But then, how many air miles does cotton clock up to get to the UK? I really appreciate sites like this that make it easier to get information about environmental and ethical issues for the choices we have to make.

space to work

The room I use for art was my daughter’s bedroom (and still is when she visits), as well as being our spare bedroom and a useful storage area. Until yesterday it was full of my stuff, her stuff, and various other sorts of stuff, including several piles of (full) removal boxes, which are useful because they stack up neatly, but very large, brown and overwhelming. I could fit in a table for working on, but I could only just squeeze round it, the floor was invisible, and most of the supplies I use were stored downstairs, or piled up on the bed in ever-growing layers as I moved from one thing to another. I’m pretty messy when I work anyway, and I was wasting so much time looking for things I lost under the piles that yesterday I decided enough was enough. Many hours and aching muscles later, I’d managed to get everything not related to art and craft (except the bed and the laundry hamper) put away into the loft or shut away in the big cupboard in the corner. I carried all my boxes of creative stuff upstairs and found a place for nearly all of them – a few had to go back, but everything I use regularly is up there now. And I commandeered a computer desk no one was using any more for the sewing machine – not perfect, but much much better than before. I can still move it to the table for big things but what a pleasure just to be able to sit down at it whenever I want. I’d love to do lots more to the room, but for now I’m just happy with the transformation. And now I’m actually looking forward to getting in there to work this afternoon…

(these link to photos on my Flickr site)

art room art room
sewing table art supplies

catching up

Some time seems to have gone by since I last posted. We had a weekend away in Cornwall, and visited the Eden Project for the first time. They currently have a very interesting exhibition of recycled products from all over the world – kNOwtrash. I can’t find it on their web site, but it includes textiles, furniture, accessories and jewellery, and is on till 12 September. I came away with some ideas for my craft session at youth club – braiding with newspaper, jewellery with bottle tops, and flowers from plastic bottles. Many of the items were from groups and collectives overseas, plus some by individual artists including Michelle Brand’s beautiful and eyecatching work using plastic bottles and shop tags. I hope the Eden Project will archive some images from the exhibition on their web site – it was very inspiring.

My daughter Esther is borrowing a few of my samples for an exhibition at her church, so I’ve photographed them before sending them off. These were from a batik workshop with Nell Dale and a feltmaking workshop with Jenny Scott.

batik
batik

felt
felt and washboard

The Glass Queen is a lovely old washboard I found on eBay, she’s perfect for fulling felt.

book cover I had an exciting delivery this week – I’d ordered Tray Dyeing by Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn (Committed to Cloth) from the Embroiderers’ Guild bookshop. Wowowowow!!! It’s only a short book but packs in a huge amount of information and although I’ve done some tray dyeing before I was astonished at the amount of control that can be achieved and can’t wait to try.

I’ve been working really hard this week to try and clear a couple of days to do art as I haven’t been doing much at all with being away and having visitors. I was having fun experimenting with colour mixing on paper, but I’ve lost my impetus and I need to get back to it and back into it.

Only a couple of photos in Cornwall – I’m hoping to get a new small camera soon. This jaunty little seabird by the starry water, at Polkerris, near St Austell, and a random lobsterpot decorating the wall of the inn there.

seabirdlobsterpot