Snow and Owls

My lady with her heavy shopping bags is finished. The snow is bright white and crisp and the sky is heavy with more snow to follow, the little birds are chirpy and hungry.
Today I am starting a piece about an owl in the night time. I have not made a piece about an owl for a very long time and I am excited, as yet I do not know if there is going to be two people or just one in the piece, I started some little drawings on my train journey into work today and am going to have a lot of space in the piece.
I am so looking forward to seeing what this collection of pieces is going to look like all displayed together at Origin 2009. I am in the second week and have a wonderful stand, long and thin with a lot of wall space-lovely!

I went and saw my old studio share mate Lindsey Mann www.lindseymann.co.uk last week in her wonderful new studio which she shares with her colleague Olivia Lowe www.olivialowe.co.uk the studio looks out across rolling Hampshire countryside with spectacular views in all directions, very inspiring. The work they both produce is very inspiring too!

Tomorrow I am having the day off and Michael and I are off on an adventure on our bikes. I need to be outside for a day and to see the sky and hopefully feel the sun on my face.

I have almost finished a piece about a girl and her chickens, it has a lovely lavender filled border and a summer blue sky, I want tomorrow, to start a piece about the snow and little hungry birds being fed by a lady on her way home from the shops, weighed down by her shopping. I am having more space around my figures and trying very hard not to be tempted to squash as much in as I can, I keep listening to Janet Bolton's voice in my head "Less is more, less is more" like a mantra.

I listened to Cath Kidson http://www.cathkidson.co.uk/ today on Woman's Hour BBC radio 4 being interviewed by Jane Garvey and it made me nosey to go into one of her shops in Winchester's high Street. The shop has been opened for quite a few weeks and until today I had not ventured in. I have seen her fabrics so many times in magazines and catalogues that now it leaves me quite overwhelmed and numb, however what I did enjoy looking at very much was the real vintage pieces of fabrics, ironically I thought, put into frames and dotted around the walls of the shop. I also enjoyed looking at her crazy patchwork which was hung in the stairwell and crazy patchwork upholstered chair on display in the window.
I think she has done a great deal of good for textiles in general, this warm comforting feeling that is portrayed by 'homemade is cool' and 'have a go yourself'. I like to think that this confidence boosting marketing will not only encourage all women under the age of 30 to pick up a needle and thread or a pair of knitting needles but will make the youngsters have a go at sewing to, I am all for that, I can not think that there is anything more satisfying than the pleasure of making something yourself, either to eat, wear, use or to look at. I would be truly lost if I stopped making.
The Colouricious television programme that I was filmed for is very much about the pleasure of sewing, it is all scheduled to be shown later in the autumn http://www.colouricious.com/ it is going to be shown on Sky TV on www.countrychanneltv I wonder how it will be received? I hope it inspires the love of textiles.

Cornwall beaches and thirteen Sock Monkeys

I have just returned from Cornwall. I tried very hard to look at the light and remember the colours around me. Cornwall has a clear true light especially in St Ives. I was staying just outside st Austell and near to The lost Gardens of Helligan. http://www.helligan.com/ the nearest beach being Caerhays Beach http://www.caerhays.co.uk/
I had a wonderful time. My favourite time being sitting on the beach in the sunshine, watching the people around me and watching the sea. I miss the sea so much, I think it was growing up by it, it has never left me and think about it everyday. That's why, I am pretty sure that I make so many pieces about it, there is something so mesmerizing about the sea.
I met up with my friend Rebecca www.curiousthings and we had a wonderful walk along a coastal path and watched very noisy stone chats perched on the tops of bushes as we walked and chatted along the path whilst every so long glanced at the spectacular view and of course the sea.

The day after I returned from Cornwall, Jill www.blobglass.co.uk my studio space share and I held a Sock Monkey workshop for thirteen young people at the Colour Factory Studios www.colourfactory.co.uk The Summer Workshops are all over now until the next holidays, all went away very happy with their Monkeys, and Jill and I relaxed briefly with a cup of tea before the task of tidying everything away!

The piece I started before I went away is now finished along with a couple more pieces and ideas for a collection of "sister pieces" all about the weather- smallish pieces, people and animals all travelling through various weather torn countryside scenes. Of course at present I am making a piece about the sea! Oooh lovely!