Jan Miller workshop

 I have just spent three wonderful days in the company of six other like minded women enjoying a workshop with Jan Miller. I have come home with a head full of thoughts gently planted there by this lovely person. It has been three days of revelation about what I value in my work - or more about  why I don't value it enough. I have a new regard for the overlooked and discarded. I see the joy in seemingly unrelated things being placed together and have a new regard for processes I have tried and so say 'moved on' from. Hmm. I need to retrace my steps with a few things I think and re-evaluate.

I stayed away from textiles unlike the others who dyed so much fabric in the tea bath that it went black with the amount of iron and tea bags that kept being added to it. It ended up like treacle but they produced some stunning results.

I have to absorb in workshops. I make mental notes and take photos. If I close my eyes now I can see the table laid out with some of Jan's treasures - calligraphy tools made with found materials, smudge sticks from sage tops, tree bark lined with vintage fabrics, folded boro like textiles and long, landscape textile 'maps' with simple, exquisite stitches detailing Jan's movements around her allotment.

I opted to work with paper and with books. I often call it my default mode. almost apologising for not thinking of anything more original, but as of now, I am stopping that. I have come to accept that making books is what I'm about. It's not the only thing I do but it works for me to cement all the ideas from a workshop and I made three yesterday that I love and want to do more with.

I fell in love again with waxing paper this weekend. It's been too long since I did this. So simple yet so satisfying. I'm even eyeing that bag of linen and rusted fabrics I've been hoarding and rumour has it that I might even take up the needle......

It was one of those workshops when everything seemed 'right' and I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of something so special.