Merry Christmas

Just a few lines to wish you a Happy Christmas and much love in 2009. I meant to write a Winter Solstice message but the Golden Lion is especially busy at this time of year, so in between that and finishing designs for New Leaf and trying to make Christmas there hasn’t been much spare time.

Anyway, Season’s Greetings and let’s hope the New Year brings good things.

Peace and Love

x

Message in a Bottle

The trouble with working at home is that there is so much distraction, or rather, it is too easy to sit in pyjamas reading left over bits of the weekend’s papers! I should be sewing but I’m including updating this blog as part of my working day as it’s providing a link to the world beyond Witchmountain.

I was e-mailed by a student at CCAD this week and after a discussion about natural dyes she mentioned that my work was featured on WGSN (an online resource for students and professionals giving access to trends, inspiration and industry news). Its so flattering to see that they picked my designs after seeing them at New Designers and lovely to get a bit of an ego boost ( how nice to be included in the “Generation Now” section, ha ha!) but it’s made me wonder again about how on earth use of imagery can be controlled, or even if it should be…

If Helen hadn’t pointed it out to me I would never have known that WGSN had used images of my work, particularly as you can only access the site with a PIN number given to college.I guess they must have an arrangement with CCAD because photography at New Designers is not allowed without permission.

I was pleased to get to the Designer’s Market in Middlesbrough last Thursday, there were some great stalls and I’m kicking myself for not getting my act together in time to take one myself. It was so good to see a few people from my old college group and get inspired to start making some stuff to sell.

Time is the thing ;so enough of this waffle, its time to get some work done! Goodness, how am I going to fit Christmas in?

Snow

The snow has almost gone now but this was my “Little House on Witchmountain” last Thursday. Its been a while since we got such deep snow; Sara took the batteries out of the TV remote and managed to get these pictures before the camera gave up the ghost again.

In between struggling to think up some Spring designs ( not easy with the snow hiding all sign of green), I managed to make these little shoes for my niece’s new baby daughter Chloe.

I think they’re really cute but I haven’t tested the pattern on an actual baby so I hope they fit. How big are baby’s feet, I can’t remember?!

Its been quiet on the blog lately so it was heartening to get a lovely comment from Solomon, a Hand and Lock prizewinner who had stumbled upon Witchmountain while looking for work by Maria Lavigina.Have a look at his work on the Hand and Lock website.Thank you Solomon.

Winter

I haven’t been well this last week so I’ve been spending alot of time reading the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls-Wilder. There’s nothing like re-reading a childhood favorite when you’re poorly and those books make me feel so cozy with their tales of the hardships of pioneer life in the 1880’s. At the moment I’m up to “The Long Winter” which makes the two inches of snow today seem like nothing; however, I am snowed in and enjoying preparing fabric for some Spring designs.

The drawing above is of the willow house last winter.

I’m also doing a few postcard sized pieces which I wanted to send to the TS1 5X7 exhibition in Middlesbrough. The deadline is Friday though so it looks like I may not manage it unless the roads are good by then…

I’ve been thinking about the students at CCAD who will be just panicking about Minor Project and Dissertations around about now…Good Luck!