Where did those photos go?
28 November 2011
Apologies if you stopped by my blog today and could only see one photo for the Bletchley Park entry! When I posted the blog yesterday all photos published fine, but when I popped in this evening (and how lovely to find a comment!) most had disappeared! Now how did that happen!!??
Anyway, I have reloaded them. Let's hope they can last the course this time!
If you have popped by you may see from the blogs on the LHS that I follow Angie Hughes. She is one of my heroes - being one of the people responsible for setting me on my creative path. There is a whole 30 minute programme on Youtube which features Angie. I know that some people who have stumbled across me do not live in the UK so may not have met Angie. Well this is not quite as good as meeting her, but I think it is possibly the next best thing!
And finally, if anyone reading this is in London this weekend, and specifically south London, then you might be interested in The Workshop Sale. Its on Saturday in East Dulwich. Its a fabulous event (I have been going for the last 10 years - I help my good friends at Rob Turner China) and has a few textile persons - not least the wonderful Linda Miller - a recent star in the Kirstie Allsop craft series.
Anyway, I have reloaded them. Let's hope they can last the course this time!
If you have popped by you may see from the blogs on the LHS that I follow Angie Hughes. She is one of my heroes - being one of the people responsible for setting me on my creative path. There is a whole 30 minute programme on Youtube which features Angie. I know that some people who have stumbled across me do not live in the UK so may not have met Angie. Well this is not quite as good as meeting her, but I think it is possibly the next best thing!
And finally, if anyone reading this is in London this weekend, and specifically south London, then you might be interested in The Workshop Sale. Its on Saturday in East Dulwich. Its a fabulous event (I have been going for the last 10 years - I help my good friends at Rob Turner China) and has a few textile persons - not least the wonderful Linda Miller - a recent star in the Kirstie Allsop craft series.
Bletchley Park
27 November 2011
You might recall that I committed to doing a quilt for an exhibition to be held early next year at Bletchley Park. I have had great fun doing the visual research for this project, a lot of which I have shared on this blog. Well, I am now on the final stages.
This has been a first for me - the first time I have applied to show a piece of my work. I still feel very ambivalent about it - part of me wants to share what I am doing (hence the blog) but part of me is very uncertain about the quality of my work. Is it good enough? And another part of me questions my motives - why am I doing this? Is it an arrogance or have I reached the point where I need to share my work in order to grow.
Anyhow, here are some of the latest images.
Darning foot ready and poised for some free motion embroidery.
The central panel.
Detail of the phone box (this was printed with acrylic paint using a hand made print block)
Detail of the bottom section of the panel - you can make out a scrap of mesh fabric that is underneath the organza. The silver squares are from a coffee packet.
Elsewhere, much excitement. As if I don't have enough distractions I have found another blog to follow - SiX and Friends. Go have a look. It includes some fabulous quilters, and I feel very privileged to have met a few of them.
Also - and I know my rule is to keep work and other life separate, but rules are to be broken and this stuff is getting too important - I have done a couple of blogs for work. I am pretty pleased with them. If you have a chance, stop by and have a look. I know energy efficiency can be a bit dull, but the B&Q house is pretty amazing.
I am pleased to report that the Whippet X hasn't caught any more pheasants, my good intentions to start writing Christmas cards has gone to pot and I picked more ripe (well ish) tomatoes today. It's nearly December for goodness sake. The world has gone mad.
Is it just me?
22 November 2011
Or do you also have random photographs in your collection?
For the day job I had to hunt back through my photo collection today and it reminded me just what a weird selection I have. Here are just a random selection of the odd ones.
This one was in Seville (now why would you leave a random bunch of padlocks on railings on a bridge over the river? And why would some mad English woman photograph them when surrounded by all that glorious Moorish architecture?)
And this was in Southsea, Hampshire. And you thought Southsea was all about beaches, ice cream, piers and the hovercraft. Really its all about stacks or army jerry cans.
I have got loads. I always carry a camera with me (for work - you never know when there might be an interesting building or some interesting insulation just asking to be snapped) but I am not the best of photographers, though I did discover today that in Picassa you can straighten up images that are slightly skew whiff. Now since most of my images are slightly drunk, those nice people at Google must have invented that feature just for me.
Having said that though, blimey but Picassa is frustrating. Or then again, perhaps it is just me.
Tidying up photographs, and I found these
17 November 2011
It has been another of those weeks with seemingly endless house guests - it is part of my responsibility as keeper of the company house to run a somewhat lax guest house (the guests sometimes get catered for but sometimes have to look after themselves - this week was more the latter though so far no one has lodged a complaint).
I don't mind at all but it does mean that I tend to be less creative than I would if I were on my own. So I used the chance this evening to do a bit of tidying of my random selections of photographs. While I was looking through my back catalogue of photographs I found these. These stone angels are destined to spend eternity guarding a grave in the churchyard at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. The photographs were taken last new years day. These angels were very eery in their everlasting quest - you would almost think that they moved when you weren't looking at them.
In no particular order..
12 November 2011
Some weeks pass in a complete blur – I hit Friday and wonder what
on earth happened to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This week was one of those weeks!
So I thought it worth taking time to take stock and just remind
myself what has happened, and infact there has been quite a lot! So, from the top and in no particular order:
This week’s highlights
The fragrant Grayson Perry has stepped up to the mark – Portsmouth
University Arts Department is proposing the closure of some of the practical
workshops (small metals, glass and ceramics etc)
and 16 staff face redundancy.
Daughter
is studying at Pompey and in frustration contacted Mr
Perry’s PR. She did not hear any more
and thought that it was all in vain and then this week the local newspaper carried this feature.
Mr P
was a student at Portsmouth Polytechnic, which later became the university, and
has called for the preservation of the workshops. I have to admit that, in a week when the PM
said that we had to ‘export more’ and following closely on the heels of the
brilliant series on ceramics, which featured Mr P but also highlighted the
catastrophe that is the British ceramics industry, there does seem some illogicality
for loosing facilities that impart practical skills. Here’s hoping that the intervention of Mr P
(no doubt with Alan Measles providing counsel along the way) will help Pompey
Uni big wigs see sense!
· The B&Q eco house – I am careful to keep
work and ‘life’ separate, but rules are meant to be broken and the inspirational
B&Q Eco house at Bishopstoke near Southampton is an example of when!
The house is simple in premise. A year ago B&Q (for any foreign readers B&Q is an enormous DIY chain in the UK – and Europe. Selling paint, power tools, kitchens, bathrooms etc. You get the picture.), bought a pretty average 3 bed end of terrace house and set about making it fit for the ‘22nd Century’.
While it is eco, it’s not scarily so. You have to look hard to find the eco features (no composting loos etc.). On the face of it, it looks like an ordinary house that has had a 'nice' face lift. Scratch the surface and you find all sorts of high and low technologies lurking – all of which add up to make the house cost about £16.00 per month to run for a family of four! (that’s all fuel bills!). My work life is all about energy efficiency in property and with rising fuel bills this is something that touches on all our lives. You can find out more on the B&Q website and I will be doing a blog about it on my work website– I’ll put a link in then, but for now I thought you might enjoy these features.
The house is simple in premise. A year ago B&Q (for any foreign readers B&Q is an enormous DIY chain in the UK – and Europe. Selling paint, power tools, kitchens, bathrooms etc. You get the picture.), bought a pretty average 3 bed end of terrace house and set about making it fit for the ‘22nd Century’.
While it is eco, it’s not scarily so. You have to look hard to find the eco features (no composting loos etc.). On the face of it, it looks like an ordinary house that has had a 'nice' face lift. Scratch the surface and you find all sorts of high and low technologies lurking – all of which add up to make the house cost about £16.00 per month to run for a family of four! (that’s all fuel bills!). My work life is all about energy efficiency in property and with rising fuel bills this is something that touches on all our lives. You can find out more on the B&Q website and I will be doing a blog about it on my work website– I’ll put a link in then, but for now I thought you might enjoy these features.
 |
| The back of the house, very ordinary looking but it has been insultated and insulated and insulated some more. At first floor level cork insulation was used and then cunningly disguised by very thin bricks, called brick slips, so you cannot see it. |
 |
| These really are 'brick slips'. The loft extension you can see behind was built in a factory and then delivered on a lorry. |
 |
| This is the high tech 'shed'. It houses all the gubbins for the Air Source Heat Pump, which works a bit like a fridge in reverse and provides all the heating (no gas central heating). |
(I should add that the shed is quite straight! It's my photo that is somewhat on the p**s)
 |
| And the furniture has all been bought at charity shops or retrieved from the local dump. All upcycled! |
The paints used in the house were either Dulux Eco paints or recycled paint from a company called New Life, based near Chichester.
If you want to know more about
any of the technology or finishes get in touch and if I don’t know then I will
find out from James Walker, the project manager on the eco house.
·
Carpets cleaned – Ok, so not quite as riveting as
Mr P or the B&Q house, but in my book an achievement! I have a new dining room carpet (acquired at
Auction for the handsome sum of £80.) It is a stunning carpet and now is a
super stunning and clean carpet. The
mustard yellow now sings out and it doesn’t smell of farmyards any more. Thanks to my good friends Rob and Andy for
picking this up for me (oh, and by the way, if you are quick, they are having a November china sale. Have a look at their website.)
Curtains hung – I told you energy efficiency was my work. Well after last winter (and it was sooooo cold here in Northamptonshire) I vowed that if I was going to spend another winter in the house then I needed to try to make it warmer. Hence the carpet above and now the beautiful recycled curtains (£5 the pair from the local charity shop and dyed using Dylon washing machine dye) are hanging over the front and back doors. They are thick cotton. They could do with being lined, but I might just get some quilt wadding to add to them. Just haveing them hanging up feels cosier.
· Threadnoodle’s blog and snazzy whippet jim jams –
treat yourself. Have a read!
The laptop had a hissy fit – and fixed itself!
And not so high lights:
·
The Whippet X caught a pheasant! (that’s me
owing the farmer £40 – it was from a shoot though had strayed! The gamekeepers told me that that is what
they are worth ‘in the air’)
The allotment has been vandalised (hanging is
too good for them)
·
My aged dad had a fall (nothing too serious but
a bit alarming to have Kent Ambulance Service on the phone)
Not a lot of progress on the Bletchley Park piece
– time is pressing on! That is my main
focus for the weekend (though Son No 1 is coming to stay tonight!)
A bit of gentle dyeing
3 November 2011
While the main 'Bletchley Park' piece is coming together, in my head at least, I thought I should turn my attention to the background.
I love rummaging through charity shops - they can be a great source of fabric, particularly cheap fabrics for dying. We have a great little chain around here, The Willen Hospice shops. And in the spirit of thrift and re-use, which remains key to the Bletchley Park piece, I turned to charity shop treasures.
Actually the men's shirts I used did not come from the Willen shops, but never mind. I cut them up (backs, front panels, sleeves) and then dyed them in containers - you can see from the pictures that even the dye containers stick with the re-use/upcycle theme. I stuck with the procion dyes I have been using to colour the background pages.
This is a very random and serendipitous process - as you can see from the results below. I scrunch the fabrics up, pour on concentrated dye (I dissolved the powder in warm water) and then top up with the fixing solution (soda and urea). I don't want the complete contrast of tie dye, but I want a blotchy sort of background that I can further pattern.
Meanwhile, it has been another busy week of house guests, so I have had limited time for much more work other than a bit more doodling in the sketch book. This time I have used handmade paper (from a stash I bought a couple of months ago at a shop that was closing down).
I like the effect of this - the paper 'rings' around the printing. I think you will see this technique in the final piece (if you're new to this I am using communication as the focus of my contemporary quilt with the old computers at Bletchley Park inspiring patterns that will creep into the piece).
The only other distraction this week was Kirstie Allsopp on TV last night. It was lovely to see Linda Miller and for some of her work to be shown, albeit briefly.
I love rummaging through charity shops - they can be a great source of fabric, particularly cheap fabrics for dying. We have a great little chain around here, The Willen Hospice shops. And in the spirit of thrift and re-use, which remains key to the Bletchley Park piece, I turned to charity shop treasures.
Actually the men's shirts I used did not come from the Willen shops, but never mind. I cut them up (backs, front panels, sleeves) and then dyed them in containers - you can see from the pictures that even the dye containers stick with the re-use/upcycle theme. I stuck with the procion dyes I have been using to colour the background pages.
Meanwhile, it has been another busy week of house guests, so I have had limited time for much more work other than a bit more doodling in the sketch book. This time I have used handmade paper (from a stash I bought a couple of months ago at a shop that was closing down).
I like the effect of this - the paper 'rings' around the printing. I think you will see this technique in the final piece (if you're new to this I am using communication as the focus of my contemporary quilt with the old computers at Bletchley Park inspiring patterns that will creep into the piece).
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