April in Kent - It's been snowing!

Well, it looks more like December doesn't it? This was the view out of my window this morning and by all accounts I hear that it has been worse in other places where the ground is higher.

I just had to share a couple of photos with you. These next two views are taken from the back of my house this evening.

What a sunset it was.

The next photo is very strange, I don't know where the flying saucer came from, lol?

Well, it's been a funny old day and these pictures confirm that. It's not the first time we have had snow this late in the year, apparently back in the 60's we had snow in May. So there you are. Roll on Spring.

Green Man

Well, as promised, here he is in all his glory. He's a doleful character, benevolent, He is needle felted in a slight relief.

He represents my love and trust of nature, trust, yes, because I do believe even with all this talk about global warming mother nature will see us through and hopefully correct the worst of the man made effects we might experience.

Having said all this, we should be doing our part, I was listening to local radio last night and they were talking about the low energy light bulbs. Apparently we should be very wary of these because they can be quite a hazard. There was some serious research done in Australia and it is said that they can be difficult to dispose of. They have warned us that down under they are not allowed to put them in the normal bins. That they need to be taken down to the local authority disposal to be put in a special bin. How many road miles is this going to cost the planet? Also that if a bulb breaks you are meant to ventilate and leave the room for at least 20 mins and they pieces must be picked up wearing rubber gloves and on no account hoover the floor. This does not sound eco friendly to me, does it you? The bulbs contain mercury and phosphorus. It was said that none of these hazards have been printed on the box, great isn't it.

Well, there must be other ways to keep this planet turning. Personally I would like to know why our governments have not issued everyone with solar panels years ago, it will be as at least sustainable as our planet is. After all, if the Sun isn't there, we won't be anyway! When these low energy light bulbs are forced on us in about 5 years when they will become compulsory who will gain from it? The planet, the people or the manufacturer's. Does our government really believe in these products or are they just paying lips service to the idea of being green?

Well, I couldn't put my green man on here without having a moan about green issues. It was the theme of my dissertation whilst I was studying for my art degree. Many artists feel the same as I do and there are many artists all over the world who are either campaigning or making art about green issues, there are even some who are really getting involved in the whole process of recycling.

In our household we do our bit. We recycle all our kitchen waste for our garden, we even tear up cardboard boxes and put them into the composter; it all goes back to the earth, it just takes a little time. We are quite aware of how much difference it makes as we don't have wheely bins where we are and we have to put our rubbish out in black bin liners so we try to limit how much goes into them. You would be surprised at what a difference a compost can make to the quantity of rubbish you throw away in the bin. Try it and see and watch your garden grow at the same time. Oh well, must get on, pop back soon and see what else I've been up to. Bye for now.

Busy, busy, busy!

Yes, I am being very busy at the moment. Since joining the blogging community as well as the fiber arts site I have been spurred on to work more and more, it's great. I feel I have been trying to work in isolation for so long but now I feel part of a great textile community where I can get feedback I have a real purpose it seems to keep working.

I also would like to get enough of a body of good work together to take to a local gallery to see how my work would be received by the public.

Well I don't want to spend too much time on here so I will just add a few more of the pictures and then I shall carry on working.

The piece above is needle felted and it is designed to incorporate a theme I have been wanting to work on for some time. The idea was to make a series entitled Celtic Landscapes, this landscape is based on a drawing I made whilst visiting Robin Hood's Bay. The Celtic shape was drawn from a Celtic brooch and the idea of having it as a frame, almost like a window looking through to the view beyond has been something I have been experimenting with but until now it hadn't come to fruition. I can thank my felting needles for this one. It allows me to work very small and detailed.

This is the same theme but with a different view, the view is taken from a drawing I made when I lived on the edge of the Peninnes in Weardale, County Durham.

This was another Celtic design with a picture taken from a drawing which I made of the Wear river. These designs are still in the experimental stage and I feel that given time I will perfect the theme to do exactly as I visualise it. Well, that's enough for now. I will probably add my Large Green Man piece next time. Do come back soon.

Helen's beautiful ATC

Thank you so very much Helen for the beautiful ATC that you have sent to me. It far surpasses my first little attempt, but perhaps I'll improve with time and patience and practice.

You've got me hooked now you know. I just want to do swaps, if they are all like yours I want to swap more. It's so delightful seeing how others work, especially on such a miniture scale.

I took one look at your piece Helen and felt as though I was beachcombing and that I had just found treasure. I'm not sure if that's what it's really about but boy does it remind me of the shore.

Knit Design

Well, here I am again, I thought I would let you see that since I left college with my textile training behind me I have been trying all sorts of things. For a while I was busy being a mother to a young baby, (he is now nearly 14) During this time I did a lot of knitting and so it was a natural thing for me to try to design some things. I was recommended to a company who bought designs and I did try very hard to come up with things which would be very different, I sent off for some lovely yarns from the shetland Isles and the first of these images is knitted from these plus some hand dyed/spun kid mohair (blackberry). This one was meant to be for a Jacket and obviously the theme was Autumn, it was drawn out on Graph paper first; This wasn't accepted because although they liked the colour and design the materials they said were too heavy.

This one is knitted from a combination of ordinary yarn and some of my own plied experiments. I also added some felt on to this one. The design was meant to be for a short sleeved jumper for Christmas; Obviously when you make these designs you add as much as you can because it is just supposed to be a swatch. Some of the image/design would perhaps be put on the reverse.

Here are a couple of detailed

pictures.

I can't remember why this design was rejected but it was, so that was the end of

my efforts as a knit designer.

Hard Work this blogging!

Well, I have just spent most of the day trying to get to grips with customising my blog but right in the middle AOL decided to have one of their regular blips, lost the lot and had to start again Grrrrr!

Still not happy with the design or layout so if there is anyone out there who can help me then please get in touch, I hate using the set templates, they just don't do what I want them to.

I have just finished taking photos of a lot of work. Some is from way back, some is from a little while ago and some is very recent. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put them into this blog.

I think what I will do is this: I will write a blog next to show a little of where I have been in terms of my creative journey. I will try to remember what was going on at the time when I made the work. Perhaps then anyone reading this will be able to see some sort of progression, I hope!

So lets see to introduce this journey, not right from the beginning but some of the way along in terms of the pictures I have taken I will show a picture first of a piece of work that was a breakthrough for me at the time. I did not like working small although this piece is about 18 inches square. I had left college and was hoping to get involved at the time with a co-operative of artists which I did for a short while.

This was small in relation to the work I had completed for my degree show which was 7ft x 5ft and was a 3 dimensional sculpture. I will not show this piece as it is no longer in my possession, I left it on permanent loan at a school where I worked later on in my career.

Well, I had been looking at Mola work having studied the textiles of South America, I marvelled at the work these people could do and it occured to me that felt could work very well under material as it doesn't fray. So carrying on with the theme I had worked on in college I made a 2 dimensional piece named the "Tree of Life". As I said it was a turning point for me as it was to encourage me to make Art on a smaller less ambitious scale.

Well, that's it for today, my family have to eat. I will be adding more in a sort of chronology so pop back soon when you have time.

It's been a while.

Well, I have come back, no more pictures of my work yet but it's been a difficult time. Late November last year I went in for an operation which has taken me a long time to recover from, just when I am feeling better it seems that I have been too optimistic and I need to take it easy again. Such is life, or lack of it.

I was really hoping that the New Year would have seen an end to all my inactivity.

I am hoping that I will feel more energetic soon, problem I have is that I have so many ideas buzzing about in my brain but I never seem to get any of them out there.

I am going back to needlefelting at the moment, I tried to see if I could do it when I first bought the needles and felting book, but I didn't have time at that point to take it any further than making a small ball. Well that small ball has just become the head of a little green elf like creature, Although I have been wet felting for years I have been very pleasantly surprised by the possibilities of felting with a needle. Now I have even more ideas and they really are begging me to try these out but I will have to pace myself because as usual life has to go on around my creativity.

Talking about creativity, I have rediscovered my love for home cooking. This may have been due to having to eat my husbands meals since being in hospital, no to be honest I can say his dinners are better than the hospital food, but I do prefer to cook from scratch and his dinners do tend to be limited to processed ready made pies etc... It has probably been coupled with the fact that I love home cooked veggies and after my op I had to keep things moving as it were.

We are falling into a new equilibrium of sharing roles too. I can no longer do very heavy lifting. So at last I am learning to delegate and ask for help where as once apon a time I would just dive in and struggle.

Hubby is also going to have to work very hard to get the garden well nourished with manure and other substances to lighten the heavy clay soil, we made a good attempt at this early last year, (being our first year here) but I have been told that I can't dig heavy clay anymore because of the strain it will cause me; and believe me I don't want to go through that operation again. I do however enjoy gardening so I will have to pace myself there too

I am hoping that hubby will start to encourage our 13 year old to do some of the garden as we grow our own veg now, he did try last year by buying some Giant pumpkin seeds, my husband ended up planting these and growing them, our son did however take an interest in making the pumpkin into an evil looking lantern once it had grown in time for Halloween. I managed to make a lovely curry with the flesh of the pumpkin.

We are still home educating, I did wonder if we would be nearly one year on. Talking about one year on, my 13 year old has only this week been harrased by the bullies once more over the internet and he is not sure how the so and so's managed to find out his details, I wonder if there will ever be an end to all of this. Just let anyone tell me he would be better off at school. In the short year that we have lived back down south I have realised that the state of the schools in Kent have really deteriorated. There is no real discipline or respect, I'm not just talking about the children either, the teachers down here have proved to me that they have also dropped their standards of respect towards the children too. I see no hope in the future for the next generations, not unless the parents take back responsibility for their children's education. Well, enough of that.

I am hoping to take some pictures of my work in the near future so that I can continue this blog in the way I intended originally. When I do put some more work on here I would appreciate any feedback as this is why I am writing this blog. A rather late wish to you all for a very Happy New Year.