A creative 2012....

In the past few days I have sent and received e mails or left and reeceived blog post comments and the overriding sentiment is the one wishing us all a creative 2012. I have a few ideas I've started working on but just in case anyone needs a kick start......

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

From the sublime......

I was born in 1953. It was also the year of the Queen's coronation and many people went out and bought TV sets for the special occasion. Even so, Britain still only had just over 2 million licensed sets, a fraction of the number today. When you realise how things have changed so radically - and within your own lifetime - it's quite a surprise. On Christmas Day in 1953 viewers were treated to seven hours of television from the single channel output of the BBC. With so many channels to choose from around the clock these days it sounds positively frugal.

The Queen's Christmas message was still broadcast on the radio only and came from New Zealand that year. On the tv people were watching the Beverley Sisters, Norman Wisdom and Max Bygraves. As I grew up some of my key memories of Christmas revolve around watching Christmas tv. Every Christmas morning, Leslie Crowther of 'Crackerjack' fame, toured a children's ward of a hospital. It was guaranteed to tug at your heart strings and it was followed by Top of the Pops, the Queen's Speech and then a big blockbuster film before ending with a Morecambe and Wise Special in the evening. By that time I'd usually finished my selection box chocolate bars and was considering eating those satsumas or that beautifully wrapped orange that had come in my stocking. They were such a rarity in my childhood, packaged in beautiful tissue paper. Back in those days food was most definitely seasonal!!

In times when there is so much to watch I have gone the other way and watch less and less tv. Just because there is more of it, it does not necessarily mean it is all good stuff but there is one 'must watch' thing for me this year. I cannot wait to see the way the BBC treat Great Expectations. In the year that we are going to be inundated with celebrations of Dickens they've chosen to kick off with one of my favourite books of all time. Even though the novel is not set around Christmas they are teasing us with previews and clips all of which are adorned with the seasonal music of The Carol of the Bells. It is beautiful music and sets the scene for what I hope will be sublime television and one of my tv highlights of the holiday.

..... to the ridiculous

Back in the summer I was lucky enough to be part of a group of 12 bloggers who got together for Postmans Knock. Quite out of season, but absolutely typical of her sense of the ridiculous, Cathy sent me this wonderful reindeer postcard with a link to this quirky little video. Watching it in the midst of glorious summer sunshine was surreal.....

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Winter Solstice

My alarm goes off at 5.15am and I rise at 5.30am each weekday. This morning the BBC 5.30 news began with the announcement that it was the exact time of the start of the Winter Solstice. It's all downhill from here until Spring and I always see it as a turning point in the year. People observe this time of year in many different ways. I tend to reflect on the year that has passed and the season to come. This poem seems to encapsulate for me what is happening during this time. The poet is Welshman, Vernon Watkins, a one-time friend of Dylan Thomas, and a man who was being considered as Poet Laureate at the time of his death in the 1960's. Not widely read these days so I'd like to change that, if only for today. The poem is called 'Great Night's Returning':

Great night's returning, midnight's constellations

Gather from groundfrost that unnatural brilliance.

Night now transfigures, walking in the starred ways,

Tears for the living.

Earth now takes back the secret of her changes.

All the wood's dropped leaves listen to your footfall.

Night has no tears, no sound among the branches;

Stopped is the swift stream.

Spirits were joined when hazel leaves were falling.

Then the stream hurrying told of separation

This is the fire's world, and the voice of Autumn

Stilled by the death-wand.

Under your heels the icy breath of Winter

Hardens all roots. The Leonids are flying.

Now the crisp stars, the circle of beginning;

Death, birth, united.

Nothing declines here. Energy is fire-born.

Twigs catch like stars or serve for your divining;

Lean down and hear the subterranean water

Crossed by the quick dead.

Now the soul knows the fire that first composed it

Sinks not with time but is renewed hereafter.

Death cannot steal the light which love has kindled

Nor the years change it.

Machine Embroidery

Last week I took delivery of Gina's recent dvd. Now, machine embroidery is something I've tried before but I've never felt quite at ease with. Mainly that's because I find it difficult to actually see what I'm stitching through the darning foot but I really want to crack that because I have been inspired by so many textile artists who used the technique with paper instead of fabric and have made the medium their own. It started years ago when I read an article about Louise Baldwin and how she often combines paper with stitch and it all came rushing back to me last week when I found the work of Helen Hallows.

Through a small comment in a magazine about an exhibition in the Sock Gallery here called 'Patterned Presence' I then went to Helen's website and instantly related to the colourful landscapes and images she creates by using found and painted papers with machine stitch. Helen uses old book pages and end papers etc and being a self confessed paper hoarder I must have a lifetime's worth of materials to play with if I can only master the control of the machine rather than let it control me!

An e mail to Helen gave me the OK to show some of her images but this is only a fraction of what there is to see. Have a good look on the link above and then follow the link to a great blog that Helen writes. Another one to definitely add to that 'Favourites' list.

In the meantime I am practising with the techniques before I trust myself stitching onto paper. Gina's dvd is a very professional offering. The step by step process really opened my eyes and I have learned some key things from it immediately.... despite falling at the first hurdle of having a clean machine. Oh dear. I always wondered what that little brush was for. Now I know and I've rectified the situation. It's all systems go now.... I just have to overcome the fear of cutting up my precious papers.....

Paper Sculpture? Amazing artistry more like...

Have a look at these fabulous, intricate, amazing paper sculptures by Patty Grazini. If the film intrigues you, visit here, to see a slideshow of these characters based on criminals all reported in the New York Times 1885 -1915 and re-created in bird or animal form. How I'd love to see these up close!

Seasonal stuff

I finally made some Christmas cards this week. Using some cardboard alphabets on sale in my local 'bargain box' shop I made a printing plate which I sealed and then used to run my cards through the press to emboss them. The addition of the bows was a last minute thought, not part of my original plan but those letters suddenly looked like little wreaths.....

I thought of sending them printed with 'Christmas wishes from _es_ey' and then inside saying 'Look, No Els' but then thought better of it. Some ideas should be abandoned at their inception......

After seeing some Christmas cards in the making over at Double Elephant I hope Sara won't mind that I adapted her sophisticated idea a little.... actually, a lot........ to make some cards for friends with children. Big robins with lovely googly eyes should go down a treat. If you know of anyone with children who wants to make cards with them then here's a lovely idea over at Mer Mag. I thought it was a gem and there's a free download to go with it.

As for that papier mache angel and reindeer.... well let's just say they're finished and will grace us with their presence for a couple of weeks.... before heading to the place wherever it is that all unwanted decorations go.....