Playing

 Locally, there are a few people I know who want to get together as a group and increase their printmaking skills. I'm currently trying to find a way we can do that together and pool our shared skills whilst following our own particular passions. In recent weeks I've been listing the methods I love working with and deciding which ones I want to do more of either with a group or on my own. One thing I've not done for a while is screen printing so I had a playday on Saturday and really enjoyed myself with some paper stencils and other materials. With only one screen there's a limit to how much I could do but it was fun. Of course I then had to scan in the rubbishy offcuts and play around in Photoshop, as you do, but it reawakened the thrill and immediacy that screen printing can give you and I intend to do more. Sometimes the best things come from spontaneous play don't they? .....why can't I remember that more often?

Women who 'can' and who definitely 'do'

 Last month I went to an exhibition  showing a wide range of work by textile and mixed media artist Rozanne Hawksley. Rozanne lives in Pembrokeshire, as do other artists, Audrey Walker and Eirian Short. All three worked together at Goldsmiths and are internationally recognised in their field so it was wonderful that we were able to see a selection of Rozanne's thoughtful, poignant and very moving work locally. Every time I went into town I went to the exhibition, often seeing visitors to the area moved by what was on show. The exhibition culminated in a talk by Rozanne which felt more like a chat with a great friend. It was a very informal Saturday afternoon finale to something very special. At 82 Rozanne is still exploring the themes of death and mortality in different religions and cultures and she is currently working on a commission for the Naval Museum that will form part of their centenary commemorations of the Great War next year. Currently in the local hospital recovering from a hip replacement I was energised by her desire to keep working through all the ideas she has still to realise. To say she is an inspiration is an understatement.

Earlier in the summer a friend and I spent a day on a workshop with Welsh artist Mary Lloyd Jones, another person still passionate about her art and still working in her late seventies. Mary was working at that point towards an exhibition at the Craft Centre at Ruthin, an exhibition which is now on tour and which has just opened in Carmarthen. I went along to see it this afternoon and it is a joyous mix of new paintings generated by a trip to New Mexico and her vibrant textile pieces. There is a great review of it here. I remember reading quite a few blog posts after the Festival of Quilts in 2012 where her work had been on show. People were bowled over by her use of colour and the scale of her work. The textile pieces in the new exhibition are large and contain little vignettes of pattern that I wanted to put a frame around just as they were. What I remember most about the workshop was Mary's genuine pleasure and excitement at some of the work we produced. She kept making us question what we were looking at, what we were feeling and encouraging us to go with our instincts and work intuitively. We worked hard that day and all most of us wanted to do was rest after it but Mary was excited about a party she was going to that evening where she hoped to catch up with her friend Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales...

.... and in the way that things go full circle I went to a poetry reading on Saturday night by Gillian Clarke and another friend of hers, Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate. Again, held locally in 'out in the middle of nowhere Pembrokeshire', they were performing as part of a local writers festival and the venue was packed to the rafters. I've long been a fan of Carol Ann Duffy and it was magic to hear her read some of her witty, clever poems from 'The World's Wife' but I had never read any of Gillian's poems before so her work was completely new to me. At the end of the night I felt ashamed of my ignorance. Her poems were a joy and to hear them read by the person who knew every nuance of the meaning was something special. It was also beautiful to hear the Welsh language spoken by such a lyrical voice. Hearing her talk so movingly about growing up in Wales during the war and visiting her Pembrokeshire granny with her father as he travelled the country as a BBC engineer was fascinating.

All three of these wonderful women have enriched the world for me this summer. As I creep up to my 60th year and start receiving letters about cashing in some of my pensions I know that the old idea that this was the age when things wound down is long gone. When I think of the things all three artists have achieved and are still achieving, whilst having a 15 to 20 year head start on me, I am humbled. Time to start planning for my 60th year and beyond. There is obviously lots to look forward to and get on with!!

Stitch by stitch, page after page

 When I came home from the workshop I wrote about in the last post I was obsessed with the idea of embossing packets of hooks and eyes through the press. Gill, one of the girls on the workshop had produced some great prints using them and I suddenly wanted to see how they would look if they were blind embossed  because I'd started gathering stuff together to make a book loosely about sewing for my friend Sheila and I thought the hooks and eyes would work for it very well.

After producing a few samples of them I went off on another tangent for Sheila and left all the sewing book odds and ends on my table for another day. Well, today has been that other day. There is a major event taking place in Wales today called Ironman Wales. After a swim in the sea at Tenby at 7.30 this morning, the competitors hopped on bikes for a lengthy 40 mile bike ride before getting back into Tenby for a marathon run. They have until midnight to complete the course and it means every road for miles has been closed to car traffic since early morning. This means we cannot go anywhere so I just picked up the sewing book pieces looking for something to do and suddenly got carried away. I had an old sewing pattern that was falling to bits and lots of haberdashery stuff as well as a couple of old books I thought I could use and this is the result. I just love cutting and sticking! Now I'm making a small box to put it in as I was a bit gung ho in the making and did not factor in a cover or a closure.

 The book I actually made for Sheila started out from a book called Needlework in Education written by Theodora Graham and published in 1939. Long out of print, it has some lovely illustrations inside so I just scanned some of them in and then printed them out into an accordion book. I started to colour them in Photoshop and then decided I'd let Sheila do that herself. I sent them with a small plea to her to give them a good home, to rescue them from the musty pages of an old book and put colour back into their lives. I went a bit over the top and gave each one a name and a bit of a background but they have found a loving home and Sheila is making new clothes for them as I write.

I have a few bookmaking workshops lined up as part of the local adult education classes this autumn.I'm running a series of four in Fishguard and they are fully booked so I'm hoping I can get other people enthused and interested in making similar things or even re-purposing an old book and giving it a new life.

Speaking of books, news of the new library in Birmingham is everywhere and it looks a stunning building. There are some wonderful events happening there in the inaugural three months that are well worth taking a look at. I hope to get to see it in November when there is an exhibition which is curated by artist Susan Kruse. Do follow the link to The Library of Lost Books and read how Susan saved some old books from the library from destruction by distributing them among other artists, all of whom have now changed the original book into a work of art. I cannot think of a better way to save books that would otherwise sit and rot away or go to landfill. I have nothing but praise for everyone involved in the project and can't wait to see them in situ. Makes me want to do something similar myself so I'm off to Books for Free tomorrow to look for a suitable candidate. I know I will find a book there that I can save from landfill and give a new look to. Well, that's the plan. Watch this space.

It started with a stitch

 

 I've been away to beautiful Shropshire this week and spent two days of my break at a wonderful workshop, part of a programme developed by Bobby Britnell and delivered by Shelley Rhodes. In the company of some very talented people we painted fabrics and papers ...and then we did some stitching. It's a bit of a running joke that I don't stitch things but I had a go, using my photos taken of the graffiti marks and initials etched into the walls of St David's Cathedral as my ongoing inspiration. Then we made plates and printed them , drew on the pages with sticks and inks, laminated papers to fabrics and did more stitching. I think I was the only one who actually stitched the book together but as I look through it the silk organza pages reveal and hide the drawing or stitching on the other sides.There is more to do. I may laminate some pages together and then re-draw or stitch over them. It's a long time since I made anything so enjoyable. I loved every moment of it.

Big Butterfly Count

Today is the start of the Big Butterfly Count organised by Butterfly Conservation. After the wash out of last summer followed by the cold Spring and now soaring temperatures they want to see the effect on numbers and find out which species are thriving or, sadly, struggling. It only takes 15 minutes at a time to suit you and results can be easily recorded online.Follow the link to identification charts and information about photographic competitions and lots of other interesting stuff.

 We are seeing loads of Large Whites and Meadow Browns here. Numbers are down for Speckled Woods, usually one of our most frequent sightings, and I've yet to see a Tortoiseshell so I own up to this photo being from a trip to Rosemoor a couple of years ago. There are no sightings of day flying moths, not even the prolific Silver Y, but on a positive note the moth traps we are running at night are overflowing.We are easily getting over 200+ moths per night and they are frisky in the warmth. When we take the covers off in the morning we are surrounded by clouds of moths flying off to the nearest hedge. Not everyone's idea of fun I know but seeing such high numbers gladdens my heart.

Ironically, the book I picked up at the library this week is all about British butterflies. The librarian told me, in that quiet voice they reserve for some, that I'd already borrowed this book. I told him I knew that but that it was so good I thought I'd read it again ! It appears that re-reading a book is a bit of a surprise to them but I can recommend 'The Butterfly Isles' by Patrick Barkham if you enjoy natural history.It tells the story of this amateur naturalist and his attempt , in one year, to track down all 59 of our native butterflies. It is an excellent read  and as one reviewer put it ...'shows us why we should give a damn...'
The count goes on until mid August so I hope some of you will find that 15 minutes and have fun.

A mini flower show

 Because 'wild flowers' are uppermost in my mind at the moment it's hardly surprising that a visit to the Books for Free shop yesterday saw me trawling through the boxes looking for books to draw me further into the theme. I am always drawn to the children's section and picked up these two little gems. The blue book is a bit the worse for wear but I was thinking what a great cover it has to save and use for a new sketchbook maybe?

The other book was first written in 1944 and reprinted in 1946. Often books printed at this time carry small stickers mentioning the paper quality as it was wartime but this one makes the point most clearly when you read the foreward in detail. 

 

 When you read about village flower shows and the like it sounds like something long gone yet these events are still the mainstay of village life during the summer months. Our local agricultural show is in two weeks time and it is always - if it does not rain.... - a great day out. I love looking at the entries in the veg competitions. If it wasn't for the rabbits here I might even have entered the 'five straight beans' class this year! Similarly, look at this line down below written in 1944......

..... because we went to a cinema down a winding country lane only last night! In a village about three miles away the village hall started showing recent films sometime last year. The events are free but a donation is asked for. I often notice that some people don't pay but for a fiver we have a good night out. Last night we saw 'Quartet' and I know it's not current in the cinema but it was an easy watch and we were home in less than five minutes. Can't be bad can it?

The flower show mention in the book reminded me of a wonderful post by Celia at Purple Podded Peas the other day. She was reminiscing about cut flowers and has some beautiful images of them in a bucket, picked from her garden. I always love reading in magazines about people who make a living growing cut flowers but it is too easy to forget that it is really hard work. Whilst we've enjoyed glorious sunshine and soaring temperatures for the past week it has meant getting the watering can out to keep even some of the perennials from drooping. As so many cut flowers tend to be annuals imagine the effort needed to keep them going. Our garden comes into its own in a few weeks time but I went out this morning with the secateurs intent on following Celia's example and picking a jug full of the few  flowers in bloom now. I started in  my front garden and got no further as I  just couldn't bring myself to pick them for some reason. They all looked so beautiful in situ that I decided to let them off for today. I'm just waiting for the dahlias and the cosmos to get going and then I'll be out there with the gloves off to follow Celia's lead. Perhaps then  I might swap the 'five straight beans nibbled by rabbits' class for the 'jug full of blousy late summer perennials' class at the local show. If I do, I'll let you know how I get on......

Summer time... and the living is easy

 For the first time this year it really feels like summer. It's warm enough to eat meals  sat outside. The swallows have finally managed after a couple of fallow years to brood six babies who flew for the first time yesterday and sat on the overhead wires twittering as we ate our breakfast in the sunshine. They are not flying too well yet but it looks like being a good year for them.

Our neighbour Trevor tells us it is set fair now until the end of August. I believe him as he always knows when to cut his fields. He cut the field next door a few days ago and turned it yesterday and he always gets it right so I'm planning my summer trips based on this assumption. Trevor is also the church warden and we went up to a concert at the church on Thursday night by local group La Volta. They play early and medieval music on traditional instruments and as the church was originally built in 1390 it seemed absolutely appropriate. Everyone in the village seemed to turn out and it was lovely to see it full. We are not churchgoers but I love churches and churchyards and I felt a real sense of community sitting there toe tapping to a Tudor jig!

I'm waiting for a pack from Plantlife , after seeing a piece on Springwatch, to monitor the wild flowers in my area but I've already started my own project with them too. Walking back from the church, I was taken with the number of white and creamy flowers in the hedgerow. Lots of elderflowers,  stitchwort, cow parsley, dog roses and honeysuckle everywhere. White flowers at dusk give off a luminous glow and in the warm night air the smell was lovely. A perfect summer evening to match perfect summer days. Let's hope it continues.