Samhain

Glennie Kindred describes Halloween as: ” A night for making inner journeys, for facing fears, consulting with the ancestors.” Its wintery up here on the moor so we’re celebrating Samhain with a big pan of pumpkin soup and some cinnamon-apple cake, while the pumpkin lantern I carved this afternoon glows cheerfully.We were going to have a bonfire but its far too wet out there.

Here are some sketchbook pages from my project on folklore and witchcraft. I’m busy with another group of designs but wishing I had time to spend making a sketchbook. The books I did at college are so useful; since I don’t have as much time to draw I’m reworking some of the ideas I didn’t have a chance to use at college.

Well, the soup is bubbling so I must go. Happy Halloween.x

“I Sit At My Table…”

This was the scene at my kitchen table yesterday as I tried to do some canvasses using worn out heat transfer stencils, paint and stitch. I’m looking for things I can make that people might actually buy, since the designs I’m doing for New Leaf are only garment shapes.Other than buyers in the fashion industry, who wants half a dress or just the front of a cardigan!? Anyway, I’m not sure about the canvas idea because as soon as you make something that is intended for someone’s wall then it starts to call itself ART and that is a whole other ballgame…!

I hung some of my latest creations on the line in the sun, before they got posted off. They looked quite sweet and made me feel as though they would look good as real garments, in fact I might have to make some and see if I can borrow a small child to model them!

Yesterday I had a look at the Hand and Lock website to see who had won this year’s prize. Two of Maria Lavigina’s images are shown below and the stitching is so immaculate it makes me feel as though I’m doing mine with two left hands. This year ( 2009 that is) the competition is open to anyone rather than just students so I’ve downloaded the brief, just in case!

Now I must go and see if my neighbour can lend me some chicken food because its getting dangerous setting foot outside the door, those little beasts are ravenous!

Red Sky in The Morning…

Looking through a rain spattered window at 7am one morning last week… what a sky! The rhyme “Red sky in the morning, Shepherds’ warning…” held true and the rest of the day was stormy and grey.

Well last night was Timorous Beasties night at Dance City in Newcastle. It was interesting and encouraging to hear Ali McAuley and Paul Simmons talk about how they set up their business in the middle of the last recession, at a time when Minimalism was all the rage and wallpaper was very unfashionable.These days Timorous Beasties have shops in Glasgow and London and design for a variety of other companies as well as maintaining a strong connection with the hands-on process of drawing, design and traditional methods of production. One of my favorite projects was the building in Bristol for which they had designed and created a massive floral stone plinth with the help of a gravestone engraver!

So, apart from a lonely hour spent waiting for a train connection on Darlington station, I had a great day out, thanks to Carl who organized the tickets and also prevented me walking into a wall in the dark and weird Steve McQueen installation at the Baltic!

Back on my mountain,with enamel pan of coffee warming on the stove, its time to get back to the stitching…

Indian Summer

A misty view of the hills for you today, with a very fat Impy looking greedily at the nettles! I’ve had such a busy day ( after a slow start ) managing to do a bit of painting and decorating as well as spending a productive hour or two in the garden where I collected masses of potatoes, some sweetcorn and some very weird deformed carrots.

My one and only sunflower stares out across the hills wistfully,if it ventured into the field Impy would eat it quick as a shot!

Anyway, its now time for sitting and sewing, with a large mug of coffee and some white chocolate. I’ve been having fun with the heat transfer paints which work fantastically on fleece- just be careful not to melt the fabric. I sent another batch of six designs off yesterday and I’m just about to start work on the final three of this group.

Tonight was the first meeting of the North East Fashion Network in Hartlepool. I wanted to go but had to make a choice between that or a talk by Timorous Beasties in Newcastle on Monday. Carl had got me a ticket so the Beasties won. I’m looking forward to a day in Newcastle with maybe a trip to the Baltic and its fantastic bookshop.

Now I must work and hope tonight I won’t be kept awake by a giant full moon glaring through the window.

Leaves and Berries

Here are some lovely Rowan berries to get into the Autumnal spirit. The Rowan or Mountain Ash is also known as the Witch or “Wicken Tree” and is supposed to bring good luck if one takes root in your garden. One hasn’t taken root in my garden yet which could explain the lack of people hammering at my door offering me work!

At this time of year the berries look almost luminous on gloomy days and today is certainly one of those. It is cozy though to get the stove going and curl up with my latest bit of design work (some more heat transfer prints on fleece). I also got a chance to follow Lyndsay’s instructions and learn how to put a © watermark on to my images-thanks Lyndsay!

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Helen Stevens at Cleveland College of Art and Design,telling me about an event she is organizing at Middlesbrough Town Hall. It sounds great and I’m hoping to be able to get some stuff together for a stall.Apparently there are still stalls available so anyone who’s interested should take a look at the website, www.designersmarketplace.org.uk. Should be worth a visit anyway and as I’ve said before its about time Middlesbrough made the most of its creative talent.

Winter Bird

October already. I went for a walk yesterday (and about time too, lazy beast!), the moor was rusty orange and brown,Rowan berries and skeleton cow parsley. As usual my camera failed me, or rather, I failed to feed it new batteries so I can’t show you how wonderful it all looked, but here is what I did for the rest of the day…

I’ve started a new group of designs, this time on fleece so they’re more obviously WINTER! I did a bit of heat transfer printing with stencils and then worked into that with embroidery. Annoyingly, it looks much better from the back(story of my life, ha ha!). It just looks more sketchy and spontaneous…still, there are five more to do so hopefully things can only get better…

Apparently I was very close to selling a piece of work in America last week, but at the last moment the client changed their mind. At least I got some good feedback, but close is not near enough.I will feel so much better about all this time spent sewing if I actually ever sell something.

Meanwhile, its time for another shift at The Golden Lion so I’d better go and try to make myself look respectable. At least there is an endless supply of good coffee!

(Reading: “The Constant Gardener” by John Le Carre

Listening: Bjork “Vespertine”)

Return of the Bear

I’ve been so busy lately I’ve been neglecting this but I took a day away from the sewing hoop on Friday to visit the Fashion and Embroidery Show in Harrogate. Cleveland College of Art and Design had a stand there promoting their Textiles courses and it was a lovely surprize to see that they had chosen to use some of my work on the stand. Nice to see that red bear dress again after a few months and still quite like it! The stand seemed to be doing a roaring trade in collage packs, buttons etc. so it looks like 2009’s graduates will have a fortune to spend on their degree show!

I went with Heidi Turner and whilst loitering around the Bead Merchant choosing pots of delicious looking beads she introduced me to James Hunting whose work I’ve admired for a while. Such intricate and totally gorgeous stitching but also lovely expressive “drawing” of figures that seem infused with emotion.

Take a look at the rest of his work on his website, its fabulous.

It was also good to see some familiar faces from college; Rebecca Hawkin had a stand there,sponsored by Medeira, where she was showing examples of her delicate floral embroidery.

Well, I’m off to eat some more biscuits and do a bit more stitching before a well earned trip to the pub!