I have had quite a productive weekend, think what to take to Creative Stitches in Glasgow next month, and have decided to make a few small pieces such as notepad purses, sinamay bags, soap in a bag (as opposed to soap on a rope) and other small gems – and as ever- quite sparkly in the main. All of the items will be suitable as a  Mothers Day gift or even a small Easter gift as well as a few handmade cards. The picture shows a little of the needle felting that I’ve been doing which hopefully will transform themselves into……

I have just been writing my show guide entry for Creative Stitches at Glasgow March 8-11,  and decided to be a bit lyrical and quote T S Eliot;

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”

Pretty much sums up what I do everytime I go near a piece of fabric or paper ie in attempting to describe a subject or a technique I know, I end up with something familiar but different. And it’s only by getting to that point, that I step to the next idea or next piece of work.

I will be presenting a bit of a mixed (media) bag at Glasgow, showing my small pieces of mixed media work, demonstrating inkjet printing onto fabric and how to develop this technique further and generally producing the unexpected, as it is only at the shows that I have to remain fixed to one place for a whole day. So in the slow moments, I come up with some of my best ideas – because I can’t wander off to make a coffee or listen to the news or whatever other distraction is tempting me.

I won’t be doing official demos, but it means that I will be on my stand all day to talk one-to-one. Swing by and have a chat.
PS I will be recruiting ‘coffee angels’ to do  coffee runs for me!

I have just been notified that I have been selected to deliver a workshop at the Festival of Quilts in August this year. It will be a project based workshop called ALPHABETICA which involves a little inkjet printing text onto fabric and over printing with blocks and stamps – more on this at a later date, but it got me thinking. I really should get my act together and submit another quilt for consideration to be exhibited at this years event. So I have been putting my money where my mouth is. I plan to create a quilt with inkjet printed image(s) and superimposed decorative techniques. Don’t hold me to this as yet, but the first of my experiments is shown above.

I love messing about with size and scale in an unexpected way, and if everything goes to plan (so when did ever happen?!?) the effect will be different depending upon where the viewer stands. I don’t consider myself a quilter in that I don’t spend hours trying to make the perfectly constructed quilt, but my get out clause is that the only specified criteria for this exercise is that a quilt must consist of a minimum of two layers of fabric which have been pierced through the layers to complete the construction.
WATCH THIS SPACE……

Today was that slightly mournful day when the Christmas decorations came down, not that they need to just yet as we haven’t reached Twelfth Night*, but as my only window of opportunity in amongst the flotsam of my life at the moment. Why does the room(s) always look so bare afterwards? I’d like to say that it heralds the coming Springtime. For me it heralds the need for a spring clean. But anyway, back to Twelfth Night and the descent of the decorations. We all know this saying, and that it is bad luck if you dare defy this convention, but why? How? Well, the full convention is; take the decorations down by Twelfth Night OR you have to leave them up until Easter. Can you image anything more mawkish?

So back to the decorations (again). In my house, Christmas lives in a rather large carrier bag, you know the ones; the ones that you could probably live inside  and are almost impossible to carry with any dignity, and if you could control this monster, it would only be when there no actual contents, so in short, only useful for keeping Christmas. It is now back inside that other tardis, THE AIRING CUPBOARD. The place where all of my STUFF lives, including everything I need and everything I do. Nothing so much lives there, rather uses it as a contact address, or as in the case of the decorations, as a long term holiday home.

*Have you ever noticed that the spelling of Twelfth Night defies spelling convention. ‘Twelfth’ not ‘Twelveth’?  More on that and other miscellanea tomorrow.

I would love to be able to show you the designs I am currently working on , commissioned by a well known papercraft company, but alas, commercial confidentiality etc etc….

During the course of all of this computer screen staring exercise, I had to call the AA (or the equivalent of) my friend Elaine, who is a whizz with Corel DRAW, and unlike me, seems to be able to retain a working knowledge of these things although she no longer really uses it. She warned me, in her words, “it’s a bit crashy”….A BIT!!!! I have spent all morning trailing after its idiosyncracies  but am going to show off a bit  now, and give you a bit of a clue about what I’ve been working on. Rather strangely, it’s also now greyscale. Ah well, back to the drawing board, or should I say computer screen??

and again!!!!

Many people ask me how I achieve the look of my digital pieces. The answer is both simple and unanswerable in the same breathe. The source material is my mixed media paper/stitch pieces, which I scan as as high a resolution as my hard drive will stand and I put them into Photoshop and ‘mix’ them, much like a DJ. I have no respect for scale or size or colours, as Photoshop’s layers will contradict convention any way. Strangely, you have to close your eyes. Cast aside all of your conventions and predjudices. But most importantly, remember how you achieved the result, or at least save a master copy with all of the layers!!

For the last few days I have been starring at a computer screen, mostly inert, but with the occasional burst of energy. ‘Designing’ is one of the most difficult activities – to quote someone famous, 90% perspiration only 10% inspiration. The only advice to those who want it – is, you have to work through it.  Keep your concentration especially when the cupboard feels empty. Be workman like.

This morning I have just had a minor breakthrough. I may have mentioned in an earlier blog that I am designing some papercraft products for a couple of very well known companies. One company have set me a brief, just one word. Can’t say what yet, but I am pleased with what I have managed to produce so far, but I know from experience is that there is never an end point, never a point when you feel that you have done everything you can. I know that the ideas that I am about to send, would be better if I just worked on them for a few more days.

So, guess you know what I will be doing for the next few days.

I have been working in my sketchbook again just recently, reviving old skills and interests.

There is no doubt that if you use decent watercolours you will get much more impetus to carry on and do more. Any ‘artist quality’ range will do. Any range of paints marked with this phrase should indicate that good quality pigments have been used, be they watercolours, acrylic, oils, oil pastels or whatever your weapon of choice. What’s the difference? Well, when you mix two colours together there is a world of difference. You will get a clean, distinctive mix. There is a great painting handbook out there called ‘Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green’. If you’ve ever tried to mix green from a dodgy yellow and blue, you get a sort of acid coloured mud. Much like trying to mix purple from blue and red – you get a kind of luminous brown. Very disheartening for the inexperienced struggling with all kinds of other issues when trying to paint or draw. The good news that artists quality paints can be bought individually. You need a Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow, Vermillion, Ultramarine and a Turquoise (Teal. Cyan. Prussian etc) Blue and a good nylon brush. This is not a disguised sales pitch, I don’t sell watercolours!! But there will be plenty of other goodies in the grand Janaury Sale which starts at midnight tonight. FOr those of you who still have some money, or for those whom Santa topped up the coffers go to gallerytextiles.co.uk

TIP: It might be worth having a look later this evening, as I don’t think I will last until midnight, even fuelled on a now empty bag of Thornton’s chocs. Best go open the M&S Belgian biscuits then…….

I was just sifting through my photos and found this. I have a couple of friends who live in Bury St Edmunds and one Saturday morning, I trailed around after my friend Richard who waxed lyrical about all kinds of things, people, places, history….whilst I snapped away.

This is a collage of the sights of Bury and reminds me of Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, and particularly apt as this is one the off the BBC’s Christmas extravaganzas this season.

Starting with a swift review of the exhibition day that Angie Hughes and I held at the Jinney Ring Craft Centre, last Sunday.

Angie’s ‘stall’

My offerings

I was exhibiting (and selling) for the first time, some of my small pieces of paper/fabric collage pieces, which I have to say (modestly) went down a storm. Looks like I’ll be creating more soon. Angie brought along a couple of her large wall pieces and some of her fabric birds, which I have to say, has inspired me to get all my scrap fabric out and have a go.

See you tomorrow, here or next door (as it were!!).