Looking, Buying and Playing

Friday I paid a visit to Art Van Go, for the first day of The Gathering.  I met up with old friends, and new.  Alongside lovely textile work from Bobby Britnell, there were 5 artists showing their practical talents.  More information and photos can be found via the blogs of Lynda Monk and Art Van Go.  I enjoyed seeing the practical and came away with "oooh must try that".
Of course had to do some shopping, well, rude not to isn't it?  Paper of course, another sketchbook, a texture roller, amongst.

Last week I struggled with a supposedly simple paint technique, easy peasy everywhere said.  Huh, right, here's my pile of failures, tried every pot of white gluey sticky stuff I could find, starting with builders pva, the stuff you can stand a spoon up in.

On way home from Art Van Go, I called into Hobbycraft, well one roundabout away, silly not to. As I said to someone, my one pot of school pva cost £30!
By coincidence, next day I saw this on a Facebook page

Playing 'Supermarket Sweep' in Hobbycraft! Such fun!

courtesy of KateCreates on Facebook, see her website

roared with laughter, I can certainly spend loads in 5 minutes, but not get what I went in for, which was the case.
Anyway used the cheapy pva for the technique, and it instantly worked!  So all these articles and videos are forgiven, it is easy peasy - with the right product.  Can move on to next part of the plan.

My bead edgings class didn't happen - suspect it being half term week is a problem.  Wonder about my next offering, Hand and Machine Cords.... simple, practical, decorative.  Tuesday 18th June contact The Sewing Box for details.

The intention is to use the sewing machines on the premises.  The requirements are a few machine threads, for practice use up the threads/yarns from your stash, knitting yarn, embroidery threads, even string! Full information from the shop.  It is my intent that we work on a rotation, with some learning the machine techniques, whilst others do the hand and others play with some equipment I have.  So everyone goes home with a range of samples, a practical dictionary if you like for future reference.

Tis the season for......

How come time seems to evaporate at this time of year?  Even though I've done my Xmas stuff, such as it is.  Cards and presents done and delivered.  Present, yeah, sorted my present for me for Boxing Day alone time.  Nope its nothing from childhood memory... but it is something I've drooled over for a while. Eeeewww  All I will say is it will involve glue and paper, given that I've also my own dedicated bottle of something fizzy and a box of posh chocs at the ready, the end result may not be as anticipated!

I had a nice trip out on Monday, meeting up with Janette from EAST.  When viewing their latest Exhibition him indoors came up to me and said he really liked a piece of work, so I said, why not get it then.  Here it is.  Made by Susan Canfield.  Thank you Susan.

I've also bought Lynda Monk's latest book, which I think so far others have had more of a look at than me, as I've taken it to show various people.  Lynda is one of the nicest people you can meet and incredibly generous with her knowledge and sharing.  If you get to see her work in person or take a class with her, do.

Today, a nice lunch out with Juliet.... finally updated all my accounts.  Sounds posh/important, its not, just not touched a thing, shoved receipts into a folder for the past entire year.  So now its time to hibernate for the duration!  As long as I have intravenous chocolate I'll be OK.

Wishing Everyone Who Drops by for a Read

A Very Happy Christmas

Textiles on the Hill 26th/27th May2012

As the time gets nearer to the weekend event of the Material Girls - Textiles on the Hill, at Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex, its time to publish the Schedule of Demonstrations.  Hopefully you will recognise some of the names as being well known in their field of expertise.  So take a note of who and when, and do come along to see us.

Schedule of Demonstrations

Textiles on the Hill

Saturday 26th May

11.00-12.00  Beverley Folkard  ie ME!

12.30-1.30  Helen Wilson

2.00-3.00  Sara Impey

3.30-4.30  Chris Spencer

Sunday 27th May

11.00-12.00  Margaret Lacy

12.15-1.15  Lynda Monk

1.30-2.30  Janette Bright

2.45-3.45  Juliet Bryson

I'm prepping for my contribution - its on basic bookbinding techniques - I hope some of you will feel able to be there for when the doors open, as I am very first up for the weekend, and I hope to do justice to things and get us off to a good start.  So please make a note in your diary, and don't forget there is the Bridging Waters Exhibition to look at, as well as supplies via Denise Gannon of Craft Arena, and Textile Art for sale from locally based Artists, and not forgetting, tea and cake!!

Tea Making for the Flustered!!

Well its all doom and gloom – and that’s just today’s weather. I hate this, constant grey, we have heavy mist this morning – its like the colour gets sucked out of the world, even the lovely autumnal shades lose their zing against this backdrop.
Saturday at EG, had the most wonderful talk from Lynda Monk. She is a very very generous lady in terms of sharing both her actual pieces to look at and the information on how its done. She did give me permission to take photos, but I didn’t ask for permission to put on my blog – so go to Lynda’s and see for yourself, I can tell you in the real they were stunning.
I’m feeling sad….. PaperWEIGHT of which I’ve been a Member for many years is struggling. Actually it’s a sign of the times, so many organisations are struggling for volunteers to run them, and also with finances being what they are at the moment, people have to make more considered choices as to where they spend their money.  I don't think anywhere is safe.
There was a time when loads of people volunteered, when all sorts of things, not just art, sprung into life and were realised by people with strong conviction and a willing attitude.  Times have changed, we don't live the same way as we did, time is precious.  Plus these days we can be overburdened by officialdom - I know several things have disappeared because of Health and Safety or insurance premiums - I do wonder what's wrong sometimes with common sense and being responsible for you and yours.  This brings about another problem because someone will say: "when I did it back in..... we did it like this" and they can't understand why it now has to be so complicated, thinking its now excessive in the minute detail.  But we've seemingly progressed this way, "risk assessment" everything has to be thought of and covered from every direction.  No wonder what was a pleasure to join in, help, organise and participate in the end result - by necessity has become lots of box ticking and headaches.  But it has to be like that, so everyone knows what's what, there's no bending and manipulating because once one does it, others follow and soon everything is more of a muddle, tasks get duplicated or not done at all, and lots of precious volunteer time is wasted chasing things up, checking on things, and volunteers end up thinking - never again.  So sorry but we do need some rules, just to make sure we all know we're talking about the same thing at any given time. When people get on and do the tasks they're allocated, the end result is so often brilliant  But still I think we ought to volunteer, we ought to try - because belonging to things is a joy, and if we want to take away, we ought to contribute, in whatever way we can - even if its just tea making for the flustered!!!  I don't know what I can offer to PaperWEIGHT, but ideas and thoughts have been requested, so, as someone who has taken - the very least I can do is to answer that request - to ignore would be very rude and insulting to all those who have put efforts in...

Terre Verte went to its new home at the weekend.

Let's Catch Up

Gosh where do I start.... a few days have gone by. Found out my charity postcard via the Rochford Art Trail was sold - and the new owner likes it and is known to me.  Enjoy, Helen.
Saturday I went off to Herts for the ERTF Conference on Colour.  So nice to have Juliet with me - as she is excellent at navigating (sat nav in the car is for shouting at!)  Ran into thick fog, and where did we go wrong?  Missed the turning for the car park!!!
Brilliant day - so much new to learn about colour, for a start that there are zillions of different colour wheels.  Joyce Honeysett was the guest speaker, very informative and kept us using our brains with various paper exercises.  Mhmmm what colours are these..... I greyscaled them at home.

Any ideas?   We used the same 3 shapes in different colours and arranged them differently each time to see what affect one colour has on another - right, this one was......

Our Vice Chair, Janet Cook also gave a talk.  Beautiful quilts and art dolls, a very funny entertaining talk.

It was a lovely day, if a long one, so Sunday it was collapse in a heap.

Tuesday off to The Material Girls for the monthly meeting.  A full on day, lots to go through, and yipee I've completed my hanging.  Wish it wasn't so dull as I need a photo of it to send on to Canada.

I've also been out in my capacity as ERTF Website Manager, to discuss ways of taking that forward.  Thank you Sally/Lorraine, and thanks to Sally for the excellent Lemon Drizzle cake to help discussions!!!

I've been in touch with someone who wants a small Art Works commission, and transacted my first ever PayPal income!!!  And I have a second commission of this ilk to make.  I wasn't sure about asking, you kow how it is when someone mentions, and you're not quite sure, is this a done deal or being polite?  Same as a sale I've made.  Wasn't terribly sure about it - but that was confirmed this morning.  Actually I joke with the person that they are my Saatchi sponsors, as the family now have a few of my pieces.

And tomorrow, off to the Embroiderers' Guild for a talk by Lynda Monk.

Workshop, Wonderment, Walking

I've lost my mojo, have you seen it? Got loads of ideas, but when it comes to getting down to it, suddenly they don't seem so exciting.

So I thought this past weekend might do something to wake up the creative spirit.
Saturday, I went on a Lynda Monk workshop. It was full on we worked hard, but we came away with lots of goodies. Not least part of the pleasure of the day was that Lynda had prepared everything we needed, so no hunting around for supplies, and better, no trying to fit stuff back in cupboards when returning home. Lynda provided the best 'kit' I've ever came across, generous with materials, and her knowledge. It was also nice to meet up with friends and new acquaintances for the day, so much what these events are about.
Sunday me and himself went off to London. I'm not a lover of the capital, being a country bumpkin, hate the swarms of people. But we had places/people to see.
First off to the degree show of the Julia Caprara School graduates, and in particular to see and support Chris Spencer. Many congratulations Chris, all that hard work. Do look at her blog to see the journey she's made to get this degree. Some of the other work I really liked, some I simply didn't understand, sigh. But this is what art is about, perhaps it makes you think, assess, look again.
Next and not far away, we went to visit a house. This has been on our wish list for sometime, its only open a few days in the year (again this coming Sunday), so very lucky to coincide with the graduate show. 19 Princelet Street. Although neither of us have any connection to the cultures or people who formed part of the history of this house and the area, we still wanted to see it. Its in a bad state of repair, but for me all the more poignant. I spent a lot of time, just sitting, looking, absorbing and imagining those peoples from the past, which is how I like my history... the ordinary folk, their daily lives, seeing the buildings/streets they might have seen.
As we left, look what we found in the pavement - a drain cover I suppose, but no others in the street like this one.