Restless hands.....

A few weeks ago I received a lovely present.This sweet bag was made for me by Chrissie over at Niminy Fingers. She had used some small pieces of hand dyed fabric I'd sent her ages ago along with her own brand of inspiration. Now I know I'm meant to use it but I have left it hanging on the hook on my dining room door ever since hoping that some inspiration will rub off on me, especially at the moment as I feel very restless and unsettled.

I have long been a member of my local Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and , at our meeting last week, we discussed the stand we are taking at Wonderwool Wales this year. This annual event was set up to promote wool and natural fibres in Wales and takes place in early April at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells. We talked about making items to sell but it has been decreed this year that everything must be only natural fibres that have been woven, spun or dyed by ourselves. A percentage of sales received will go back to our Guild but the rest is ours to keep. It's not something I normally get involved with as I seem to have an inbred resistance to selling anything that I make, but I looked at Chrissie's bag the next morning and thought...... what if I use the rest of those dyed fabric samples and make small bags for maybe sock knitting projects and the like? I asked Chrissie if I could pinch her idea and she said 'go for it' so I've made 7 bags so far all using 100% cotton that I resist dyed with indigo and iron a couple of summers ago. I have lots of dyed fabric samples however and might make some zipped up purses as well.

I decided the show was also a good opportunity to go through my stuff and sell lots of fibres that I no longer use as I do not spin or felt with the same enthusiasm as I used to. I found a box of undyed silk chiffon scarves so I dyed them yesterday afternoon with their base colour and intend to overdye and resist them, finally screen printing them with discharge paste. They are a work in progress and a photo of brightly coloured silk scarves drying on my washing line is not that exciting but I will show the finished results when I have completed them. I also found a large bag of silk carrier rod waste which can be used by spinners or felters, so I decided to dye the lot of them and then batch them up into small packs for sale.

They are in their 'wet' state here but have subsequently dried and have a beautiful sheen to them. You can't beat silk for a bit of luxury.

I aim to make a dent in the stash of fibres and fabrics that I have and try and raise money for Breast Cancer Care at Wonderwool. It is a year this week that I lost my wonderful Mum to this dreadful disease and that probably explains why I feel so restless at the moment. I know it will pass and cracking on with something has helped.

I'm also hoping that Chrissie, Cathy and I will soon get a new project off the ground soon. For those of you who said you wanted to join in next time we're thinking of something small and bite sized like a postcard swap. If you still want to join us please let us know. In the meantime, the dye pot calls.....

Now I've seen it all....

For the past couple of weeks I've been watching a daily programme on BBC2 called 'One Man and his Campervan' following the travels of surfer, writer and foodie Martin Dorey as he takes his 1970's VW Camper on a tour of the UK, foraging for food and cooking up local specialities along the way. The food always looks delicious. Martin features a lot of the recipes on his website and it, as well as his blog, is well worth a read. It has been a little gem of a series and it ends tonight when he hits my neck of the woods, Pembrokeshire. It's always interesting to see how the TV portrays where you live so I shall be on the look out for places I know and maybe even people I know - it is a small place! It's based around St Davids so will maybe feature the surfers on Whitesands Bay. This then gives me the opportunity to show this silly film that I found the other day. Sheep and surfing. There's lots of both things in this county so why not?

All good things come to an end

The current course module that I've been doing with Aberystwyth University came to an end yesterday. After four months of seeing the same group of people week after week it was a bit sad to say goodbye to some of them. Half of us are moving on to the next module which explores abstraction but it was the last time I will see some of the people who have made my Tuesday's such fun to be part of. We all brought our course work to the session plus the work for the self directed project we've been working on. I have done shed loads of work. I had quite a few large pieces including a couple of lengths of wallpaper that I'd printed as well as lots of smaller pieces which I bound together into a few books to make it easier to see it all.

I felt that mine was a bit of a mish mash and not as cohesive as the others but I had some great feedback from them as well as really positive comments from our tutor. The whole thing has been a joy to do and I still have loads of ideas that are still to be realised. Once you get the bit between your teeth some things just go on and on don't they?

I made quite a few collagraph plates which I printed traditionally (as above) but also used to produce blind embossings and rubbing plates. I had great fun and will continue with the theme but don't want to bore you with my spoon obsesssion!

I took my camera with me to record some of the work I've seen develop over the past few months and asked permission to share a couple here on the blog. This drawing above is by Alex and features the beautiful chapel at Mwnt which is just outside of Cardigan where the course is held. I love the graphic simplicity of it and hope she develops this style further.

Alex's friend Kim has used the course to develop her drawing skills as she also develops her repertoire with pottery and ceramics. She brought along these small pots she'd made and decorated. My favourite is the one with the walking figures. There were other things I loved as much by other people but they were my real favourites. It has been a fabulous course to do and we were all so lucky that the group dynamic worked so well. Fingers crossed the next one will be as fulfilling. I hope so.

Just because...

As I struggle this week with setting up some screen prints for my college project it is a joy to see wonderful artisans at work. I love block printing on fabric but never seem to get the registration right. How I wish I had the patience and skills of these craftsmen.

Quite....

Working like a demon this week. I'm taking these words to heart and following my instincts, making a few memorable failures but for me it's all about what I take from that, what I learn. Thanks Woody.

Time and tide....

In the past couple of weeks I've gone from 'procrastination' to 'brain overload' mode. I know I am not alone. I think there are plenty of kindred spirits out there reading this. You know who you are! One minute you have an idea and the next you've gone off on a tangent before the first idea is fully realised - yet, in your head, you have almost completed it! My Mum used to say I had a 'butterfly mind' always jumping from one thing to another , although I've always described it more like 'lurching' from one idea to the next.

After my last post I gave my friend the bibs I'd made and she was over the moon. I was really pleased that something so quick could give pleasure like that. She knows she is going to have a girl and was so excited by the things she is going to dress her in that it reminded me of this photograph taken of me as a small child. My Mum decided to dress me in my gaberdine mac on a hot sunny day because she liked me in it. It must have been sweltering. No wonder I look like I've had a sense of humour by-pass operation. Don't ask me why I felt the need to print it onto card, cut it out and make a little model of it. I just did and I'm now standing guard on my kitchen shelves. Still ,it was something to do rather than get on with the tasks in hand......

....to put off getting on with my drawing projects from college. So, I also went out to do some shopping. I found these fabulous 50's and 60's knitting patterns. They came with a dress pattern for a child's dress I found in the same charity shop. I'll make it for my friend's baby in the summer and it only cost 10p. These patterns only cost me 40p for the lot of them too. Bargains, and just crying out to be used in some vintage book project or collage ... but I mustn't be sidetracked by new ideas as I have to crack on with my course work.......

First up we had to find a stamp and draw the image using coloured pencils. I did one and it went very well. I even cropped part of the image and made a sheet of them which I perforated on the sewing machine. Hey presto, my own sheet of stamps! Not legal of course but fun to do. The next stamp I chose was the one above.....

.... and this is my version before I added the lettering later. I also took scans of it which I spliced up and collaged with other things. It made me look at stamps in a lot more detail too. I have stacks of them and suddenly realised that they make great drawing practice. There's no excuse for lack of inspiration ever again but no sooner had I done this than I had to get into the life drawing sessions.......

This is definitely not my forte. I've cropped the hands from this page because they sort of disappear.... this is something I need to do much more practice at but it's all down to time. No sooner had this session ended than I was back to the work that has really been taking all my waking hours for the past few weeks.....

The final part of this module, before we move onto working with abstraction, is a self directed project that can be on any theme we like. Mine is spoons. I have been buying lots of unusual shaped spoons in charity shops and I'm caught up in the fact that these mundane things we take for granted have been used my many people before me. There are lots of memories attached to them and once I started to think about the different types of spoons and the variety of ways I could portray them I was hooked. I've been making printing plates, drawing directly in all different mediums and I plan to use screen printing and stitch onto fabric as well. I cannot sleep with ideas buzzing around in my head and I am constantly writing things down in case I forget them. The thoughts are coming thick and fast and I think I've forgotten more than I've remembered. I have ideas for book works and collagraph prints and many more. Now all I need to do is marshal my thoughts, make a plan, and get on with it......

Procrastinating

I can't quite get my mojo working yet this year. I'm dipping in and out of things but not spending any particular time on anything. Easily sidetracked into using up fabric scraps making cards. I have loads of that bird fabric from Ikea and fear I'll never see the end of it unless I use up bigger pieces...... ... so I made some bibs for my friend's forthcoming baby also using up some other fabric scraps

.... and when you fiddle about for half and hour tying a fiddly little bow to sew on a bib you know you have to kick yourself where it hurts and concentrate on something else!