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.....

Going against the grain....

Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

Sewing,felting, folding, re-cycling, decorating!

After my friend Joan challenged us to use up by January some of the fibre and fabrics we've been hoarding I made a valiant start and then got waylaid by making the lace book. Then last week my friend Chris asked me if I would be prepared to make some bags etc that she could raffle this Christmas for the charity close to her heart - Combat Stress. In a year when too many young men have lost their lives in Afghanistan it is a salient reminder that not all those who return in one piece physically are un-scarred by the trauma mentally, so I am making something every other day for a raffle in two weeks time. I finally used up these tea towels I bought in Ikea. I always knew they would look great as a shopping bag. After all, who doesn't love cake?

As for the stash busting I am gradually using up my hoard of wool rovings trying to give up felting. So, I made myself a pair of wrist warmers at the weekend similar to a pair I made last year as a present for a friend. Of course I'm now restricted to the colours of wool I have left so the mitts had to be bright blue. I thought I'd 'pimp' them with a bit of hand sewing but my husband says they look like they belong to a 10 year old. Who cares as long as they keep me warm I say... plus there's no fear anyone will nick them in envy!

Mainly though I've been messing about with paper. It started with some origami hearts that Fiona posted here. I found a template and started making some but then I really got into folding things and started making stuff from tutorials I found online.

I folded these paper balls from this great tutorial. I thought they'd make great Christmas decorations and used the pages from an old book. Again, my husband passed a comment. This time he said the black ribbon didn't look that festive! Well, it was all I had to hand and I can easily make some more with brighter stuff if I want to. Luckily I have a circle cutter so they come together easy. If I had to cut them out individually I'd give up as these balls have about 75 circles in them.

With bauble mania in full flow I then found this video to make the above. These are called Polish Stars I think. I used an old map for my first one and tried another with an old book but the pages were too thin so they broke. Another one failed because the paper was too thick! Each one takes about half and hour or more to make and they do look really effective when they are finished. If you watch the video you will see the final move that brings it all together just like magic.

Finally I found this tutorial on a really interesting paper folding site. There were also tutorials for Christmas decorations from toilet roll tubes but we're not generating them fast enough for me to have a go at them. More up my street is this Christmas tree made from folding a magazine. I used my Crafts magazine because it is quite tall and decided to make a Polish Star for the top of it. I did have to buy a can of spray paint and it had to be copper because I had some copper glitter. I was trying to recycle as much as I could and make things that used stuff I already had or that cost me nothing.

I also made a start on making my Christmas cards this morning and then had an idea for an angel made out of papier mache and brown paper so I've been doing that all afternoon. I suspect it might go the same way as the willow reindeer but it keeps me occupied as I always feel very restless at this time of year so I shall keep stash busting and making raffle prizes. I hope some of these links lead you to other ideas for decorations and if anybody has a go at them I'd love to see the results!

What's happening?

I am trying to get 'festive' and think about ideas for the season. I wondered if I could make some mini reindeer decorations from weaving the willow we have growing in the field next door. My husband planted hundreds of whips there a few years ago and they are a good height to start cutting from so I went up to have a gander yesterday and noticed again how this autumn/winter has had a strange effect on the plants. Despite flocks of redwings and fieldfares a few weeks back all of our hollies have been left with their berries on; great if I wanted to make a wreath or garland. Most years it's a non-starter because the birds have had them all.

The paper bark maple is looking a little shredded but is still holding on to its lovely skin but the viburnum mariesii shrubs have had a show of glorious autumn leaves combined with a burst of their usual spring flowers. Now the leaves have dropped but the flower heads cling on.

Strangest of all - and I'd love to know if anyone else has seen this - are the teasels. We have a large stand of them right up at the top of the garden and I had to pass them on my way back from the field. The green caught my eye and I thought they were rotting and mouldy until I looked closer and noticed that next years seedlings are sprouting in the seedhead already! I always assumed the wind or the birds took most of them and dispersed them in the usual way. Or am I wrong? Perhaps this is not unusual at all but I'd love to know one way or another.

As a footnote: I cut some willow and tried to make a reindeer but the idea in my head did not communicate itself with my hands so they won't be making a blog appearance any time soon!

More books

We started having a conversation yesterday about Christmas and he said: 'Would you like a Kindle or something similar?'... One look at my horrified face must have given him the answer as the subject was dropped straight away and I suspect I will now get the usual sketchbook, perfume and CD package, but it reminded me of this great little video I saw the other day. It is the trailer for an animated film generated by the original children's book. I found it here, a site I frequent regularly and recommend wholeheartedly if you're interested in books and book arts.

On the topic of lace - part two

Thank you for the comments on the last post. I hope you enjoy part two which is very picture heavy. The book I received from Gina is quite simply beautiful so I am going to let the pictures do the talking although it will be hard to appreciate the quality of this book unless you are lucky enough to hold it in your hand. It arrived on Friday - co-incidentally, my birthday - and it was the best 'present' I could have had. One of the key things Gina and I agreed on was the size of the book and the fact that it either had to have a closure mechanism or be self contained in some way so she has made a sturdy box covered in a satinised cotton bearing a strong lace like pattern. Inside is an A5 book covered in the same fabric folded in a blizzard book style. In each of the compartments there rests a sample card of different lace patterns like Point de Gaze and Punto Naria, each one cut in some way to highlight shapes and throw relief onto the red cards placed behind them. It is a work of art and something to treasure.

In return I sent two books, neither of which stuck to the A5 requirement but for my main book I did at least have a container! You know I had a raft of ideas which came to nought but in the end I was saved by two incidents coming together in that serendipitous way that things do. I happened to be given a stamp collection by somebody who knows how much I love them and rifling through I came across a 1970's set of explorers including stamps of Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh wearing huge Elizabethan lace collars and ruffs. Earlier in the day I had seen a book on, Paperfaerie, the site of artist Yvette Hawkins and I suddenly had an idea. I emailed Yvette to explain what we were doing and to ask if I could adapt her idea and she kindly came back straight away with a 'Yes, go for it'. Yvette had sewn a series of books to an embroidery hoop and it struck me how appropriate that was for a textile artist and then how it could look like a collar. I had a circular wooden box which I have been waiting years to use so I measured it all up and went ahead. I stayed with my black and white theme and painted the hoop black. I then scanned in lots of snippets of lace and printed it out to stick to black card for the book covers. The pages are from an old book about making lace which was my only purchase for a penny from Amazon. I stitched it all together with white crochet thread and painted my box black and luckily it all fitted inside. Don't ask how many little books I made, stitched and sewed together. I lost count and did not want to know. Every time I thought I'd done enough I had to make a few more......

The second book was an afterthought but hankered back to an idea I'd had a few weeks earlier but had ditched because I needed five sqaure doilies and did not have them. Ironically as I finished the lace book collar I went to a boot sale cum flea market and picked up a set of six lace doilies for a song. Even though I did not need to do it, this idea was still in my head and there was a compulsion to make it happen. I thought about dipping the doilies in a water and PVA mix to stiffen them as I wanted to fold them into a lotus book but then I remembered I have a can of spray starch! So, I sprayed them, they stiffened and I folded them, ironed them and then bondawebbed them together, made a cover and it was done all in less than an hour. If only the other one had been so quick to come together!

Working on this with such a talented artist like Gina has been a joy. It's been hours of work, mostly made by my own choosing because that's the way I am. Never work on one thing when you can have a whole raft of ideas going all over the place.... I have received something very special in return and something more than just a book. Exchanges like these reinforce blog friendships with like minded people. People whose talent is willingly shared. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

On the topic of lace.... part one

I mentioned in my last post that I was taking part in a straight book swap with Gina on her chosen topic of lace. It came about by chance after reading one of Gina's posts. She'd been making some lovely small books and as usual cramming 36 hours of activity into a 24 hour day so I left a comment asking her if she fancied doing a book swap as a tongue in cheek remark i.e 'Surely you can make time to do this too?' When she sent me an email saying 'Yes, let's do it' I had a moment where I thought 'hang on girl, don't go there' but I can never resist a challenge so we agreed dates and mechanics etc and the topic for the content that is close to Gina's heart - lace.

Once I started looking at it I was overwhelmed with ideas but not all of them had 'legs'. In my former working life I used to get paid well to come up with ideas for clients but then, I never had to execute them so I could be as off the wall as I wanted to be. When you have to put your money where your mouth is and produce the goods yourself it's not that straightforward and I want to share the 'ones that got away'. The first photo was just a printed idea using some of my photos with a quote I found from Coco Chanel. I am an inveterate experimenter with Photoshop but never quite get the effect I set out for. I moved on from Coco to investigating Queen Anne's Lace. It is a plant I've used before for printing onto fabric and I have lots of them. There is a lot of folklore surrounding them and I had not realised that each flower has a purple mark somewhere in the umbel. It is said to be the blood of Queen Anne as she pricked her finger making lace. Of course it can't possibly be true but it was an interesting diversion. The flower structure is so graphic that it lends itself to lots of ideas but I couldn't come up with an idea with enough content that pleased me.

I found so many artists who are using lace in their work and there is even a major exhibition in Birmingham at the moment of contemporary artists using lace as an inspiration. I looked at lace bugs, lace moths, postage stamps about lacemaking, lace shoes, lace gloves, vintage lace etc etc and found little snippets that fascinated me. Bridal lace was an obvious area to research, particularly it's associations with the Royal Family. Queen Mary, who is always photographed and portrayed as being quite austere was quite bowled over by lace. She couldn't get enough of it apparently. All royal weddings have specially made dresses and Queen Victoria's was personally made of Honiton lace to a pattern that was destroyed after it was completed, ensuring it was a unique example of the craft. That link to bridal purity led me on to embossing some lace .

I wanted something pure and simple so ran some dampened paper through my press over a piece of lace chairback. One of my hoard of charity shop finds, it has a lovely, almost stained glass pattern to it and the finished pieces of paper look ready to maybe be papercut, but it looked too plain and unfinished as a book so I took it no further. These pages will have to be incorporated into something else now but I will enjoy using them somewhere, sometime.

The idea I was most keen on was influenced by researching the artists who use other materials
to create 'lace-like' art, particularly those who laser cut metal. Now I don't have access to a laser cutter but I did think of a way I could make some metal covers for my book. I was going to team it with some slides I was going to make and then place it all in a wooden box I have for keeping the slides in. The idea was to paint the slide mounts black, as all along I have tried to maintain a black/white palette for this project, and then print lace samples onto acetate and place them inside the mounts and inside the box with the book.

Well, it was a good idea in theory but it didn't come off in practice as you can see below. I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve and I picked the brains of my friend Sue of a way to go about it. I have been on a fabulous workshop with her where we did something similar but she phoned me and gave me a better idea which was to etch my aluminium plates with a copper sulphate solution and let it bite through the plate and give me some lovely lacy holes.

As you can see, it all went a bit awry. I rollered a wallpaper design onto the aluminium with some oil based ink and let it dry well. I made up the etching bath but did one crucial thing wrong, hence two well bitten, virtually crumbly pieces of metal at the end of the day. It didn't help that while the bath was working a bat somehow got into my shed and was flying around. All I kept thinking about was the bat flying into the solution and the ramifications of that. By the time I saved the day and diverted him outside (in broad daylight!) the plates were ruined and even a coat of enamel paint has not retrieved the situation so my best plan was scuppered and I had to come up with another. Luckily, I have managed to make something that passes for a book and it's packaged up waiting to go. Next time I hope to share the one that didn't get away and what delight I will have received in the post by return.

We have lift off.....

No comments required. Just to show that he does work!

Obsessed by acronyms

In the past few weeks I have been working on lots of things, not evidenced on this blog I know, but I honestly have not been idle. So much so that I've become a bit punch drunk with all the things on my 'to do' list. Although a lot of people don't have those anymore do they? Everything now seems to be a WIP or a UFO. Well I have enough UFO's to trouble Starfleet Command so I need to get myself sorted. First up are these decorations above. I saw them in my local B&Q and realised they were made of foam - perfect rubber stamps! I have cut the flowers from them and made them into a complete stamp and the idea is to stamp them onto card, join two together sandwiching a ribbon in between and then hanging them up. I had ideas for a garland of birds etc but I then got sidetracked by other things. I don't know when a WIP becomes a UFO but it makes me feel more positive if I believe I'm going to finish my outstanding projects within the mental timescale I set myself at the outset.

On my list to finish are the toy theatre I started a few weeks ago. The first prototype did not please me so I consigned it to the bin and I am now on version 2. Next comes the cardboard cake stand that I began, papier mached, primed and then hacked about with a carving knife. It is currently languishing on the side giving me pleading looks every time I pass it. Trouble is that if I finish the cake stand I then have to make lots of cakes out of cardboard to sit on it and I'm beginning to wonder if life isn't too short..... Third up is my strongman! I went on a second automaton course the other week and this time Toby persuaded me to make one from wood. Me and power tools are not a match made in heaven but he hasn't turned out too bad if you forgive the fact that one arm looks like Popeye and the other looks half the size.

I have not finished painting him yet as I want to put his name on it and I can't decide on one. Any suggestions gratefully received. You turn the handle and he lifts the dumbells up and down, maybe not the most exciting thing on the planet but it makes me smile. I have taken a video of him in action but can't seem to upload it. Perhaps it is something best left to your imagination but I can assure you that he works a treat even though the way I've painted his hands is diabolical.

Is there anything else on the horizon? Well yes, last week I met up with my friends and one of them challenged the rest of us to make things out of our stash of materials by the start of January, so I've made some bags out of some vintage curtains I had hidden away and intend to make a few nuno felted scarves as well. One of the others also challenged us to finish some of our UFO's but enough is enough.

To top it all, I am working on a book swap with the lovely Gina of Fan my Flame. A chance remark I made in one of my comments to her, tongue in cheek, was taken up with her usual enthusiasm and I am now completing a book on the subject of lace for Gina. Along the way there have been lots of ideas, many protoypes and quite a few disasters. Not so much WIP as RIP. We are due to swap at the end of next week so you will have to wait to see what I have made for her and vice versa. Anybody else out there sitting on a UFO that really should be finished by now. Go on, make me feel better and own up. I know I'm not alone. Am I?

Papercutting expertise

You can always rely on Ted to come up with some fabulous talks. I am always fascinated by the ways creative people think and work. The fantastic Beatrice Coron is no exception.

Papercutting delight

I don't understand all that's being said here but I understand the skill of a wonderful papercutter and film maker when I see it

Bargain of the week

Carrying on the book cover theme I just wanted to share my bargain of the week last week. Picked up for 35p on a run down market stall. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I saw those wonderful clashes of pink, yellow and black. It was published in 1949 and I've never heard of the illustrator Cicely Steed so will have to investigate more. So garish, but I love it.

Pattern and design

Reading 'All Things Considered'yesterday yielded a video interview with artist Mark Hearld. His work has been seen in a lot of places in the last few years and it is fascinating to hear him talk about his inspirations and influences. Do follow the link to see what I mean. He talks about the work of John Piper, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Enid Marx, liking them when they were not as 'fashionable' as they are again today. As his work is shown there is reference to 'Black Eyes and Lemonade' the British popular culture exhibition organised by Barbara Jones for the Festival of Britain in 1951.The above illustration is the cover to 'A Snapper of Unconsidered Trifles', a book by Ruth Artmonsky about her. I bought this last year and devoured it virtually in one sitting. She was an intriguing character who could turn her hand to many things and she was a magpie, collecting all sorts of folk art and ephemera. As the book says: 'She championed the 'unsophisticated arts', the simple art and artefacts of seaside memorabilia, canal boats, tattoo parlours, public houses and the like'. She wrote a number of books on her enthusiasms for the eccentric, all of them out of print and costing a small fortune if you can find them these days. I speak with authority after paying that small fortune for this lovely King Penguin that she produced on the Isle of Wight. I found it in Hay on Wye recently and had to add it to my King Penguin collection which I've mentioned before. Most of the others have been picked up for peanuts but not this one. I love the soft ice cream colours of the dust jacket and her illustrations and travels around the island in the late 1940's, early 1950's are very much of its time.

At the same time that Penguin were publishing this series of books in the early 1950's they were also producing music scores in a small landscape format. I had never seen these until a chance find in an antique shop in Devon recently, but whilst I fell in love with the patterns on the cover I couldn't justify the price, especially as (and this is sacrilege) I saw them as patterns to use for collage. A few days later though I found these in an Oxfam shop for 99p each and just had to have them.

The back cover shows the full pattern with the music detailed on the front. I think some of the covers were designed by well known designers of the time like Enid Marx but I cannot find out too much about them yet. I am on the trail though and of course, now that I have them, there is no way I will use them for collage. I really cannot bring myself to do that. I just want to find more. Ebay have a few listed but they are very expensive, showing that I had a lucky buy in Oxfam. Just something to add to my list of collections now I suppose.

I don't think my 5 Penguin Music Scores can compete with the volume of things that Barbara Jones collected but then I also have other collections (as we well know) so I am halfway to being a magpie I guess. If anyone sees any of these on their travels please let me know. I adore these patterns and would happily like to increase my collection to 6,7,8,9.......