In the midst of the Open Studio we had my Dad's funeral.  I mention it here on this blog, because I think it is from my father that I get my artistic gene (if there is such a thing). He was a fabulous, if under achieving, artist himself.

It was a lovely day - the sun shone and the tone of the event was just right.

Dementia is a cruel thing, so unfortunately he never really saw the artistic flourishing of my son and daughter - it had robbed him of his ability to appreciate the talent they too inherited from him and what they have been able to create.

The flowers we chose were simply stunning.

I blame Jane! (Jane and Yvonne shared the Open Studio space with me).

She had a book describing how people could do collaborations.

She set up  the materials sharing (we all nominated a few bits and pieces to share with each other) and the rule was that we could bring in a little extra material if we needed to but basically to use what we had and create on A3 size.

Our booty of goodies.

Well - I can honestly say that the last two weeks have passed by in a bit of a blur.

If you saw my last post here,  you will know that we started the Open Studio with a bang on Friday the 5th June with a private view.

But my Dad had died the previous Wednesday,  so I stayed with my comrades for the Saturday but left them to fend for themselves on the Sunday while I went down to Kent to spend a few days with my Mum.

That first Saturday we had a lovely steady stream of people through.  Sunday (when I was not around) it was a sunny day, but no one came until after lunch.

But I was back for last weekend and spent 2 full days here and it was busy busy busy! I cannot believe how many people we had through over the weekend.  Both days the crowds (well that is a bit of an exaggeration) came pretty much when we opened the doors and we had some lovely, lovely people pass through.



So we got the indigo vat up and running again (it's a green bucket!)

Well I survived hanging my first Open Studio (or indeed show of any kind - I don't think holding the screws when we hung the quilts at FOQ last year counts!)



And I have to report, dear reader, that those two days were two of the most exhausting I have ever had.

And I also have to report that, despite there being three of us, we need to oomph and organisation of my good friends, Rob and Andy, who came up to help us hang.  Without them I honestly do not know how we would have done it.

And it did not help my state of mind that my dear Dad - he of the artistic genes - died the day before we started to hang (but that is another story - let's just stick with the open studio for now).

So we three at Mix3d Stitch were like rabbits in the headlights - somewhat paralysed by the enormity of the task. But 2 men with step ladders and a hammer and a tape measure and we were rocking and rolling.

The space divided neatly into three areas (no forward planning there! ) so Yvonne took the 'living area', I took the 'dining area' and Jane took the 'Kitchen area'.  And that works so brilliantly with our individual styles - Yvonne is more traditional I would say, my pieces and then Jane's more quirky 'folk' pieces.  The work looks stunning hung and it all works so well with the other work.



So then we had the private viewing on the Friday evening - with no clear idea how many people were going to turn up.  Honestly?  I anticipated about 6-10. Well, dear reader, we ran out of booze (and we were watering it down with peach juice to make Bellinis - posh!)


And, to top it all off, we sold stuff on the Friday evening - that was completely unexpected I can tell you.

Then on Saturday we were open properly for our first OS.

Again, we had no idea how many to expect.  Yes there is signage all over the place, yes I have been tweeting and Facebooking like mad (as have the main Open Studios organisers) and yes, my good friend Annabel of 'Through our Hands' did a lovely piece about us, but even so we still had no idea how it would go.

Well - what can I say? We had a steady stream of people all day, most of whom stayed at least 3/4 of an hour, studied the work, asked us lots of lovely questions, drank tea, ate Rhubarb and Date cake (Jane, we all need that recipe!) and generally were just lovely.  And we sold more work - now that is a great endorsement.

And most special of all, our second visitor had travelled all the way from north London (we gave her husband tea and sat him in the garden) just to see us!  She had read about us from Through our Hands. Now that is a heavy responsibility - but she was just lovely and, though a professional artist herself, was extremely complementary.

And we did it all again the following day!

And we are doing it all again this weekend too - and if the weather holds we might get the indigo vat out.

So if you are in the North Bucks area do pop in. We are open 11-5 both Saturday and Sunday.  I cannot promise the Rhubarb and Date cake - we ate it all - but there will be tea and I am sure we can rustle up another cake!

I has been pretty full on of late - hence a bit of radio silence here.

Last minute fiddling and faddling about.

It is less than a week to go to the OS, and I am partly looking forward and partly very nervous.  It is weird - I feel timid about what I do and about 'putting my work out there' - but timidity is not my normal state.

Anyway, in no particular order an update from the studio.

As I mentioned in previous posts I have been doing some smaller pieces for sale at a more 'accessible' price point.

I needed to mount these for presentation.  I decided to use standard size mounts which can be easily obtained at places like 'The Range' (here in the UK).

I have created two separate ranges of the smaller pieces.

The first used a mono print, printed on tissue, hand coloured then simple machine embroidery all tied together with organza.


The shimmer is from the cellophane packaging. I did also add some hand beading. Not a great use of time for the price point for these, but it finishes them off.

The second group used painted papers, heart motifs and more embroidery.  I discussed these in the last post.  After letting them 'sit' I decided that trimmed and mounted they look ok - actually I rather like them.



Excuse the shine from the cellophane. I really do need to do a photography course!

Mounting and presenting these pieces took a fair amount of time!

And then I decided I wanted some greeting cards too.

Up cycling a few scraps of the painted papers.


And then finally I had to mount 'Alchemy'.  This has been sitting with the mount, but not all fixed down.  It has two layers - and the top layer was just laying there all loose and floppy.

This was another case of 'making it up as you go along'.  Luckily I had some small glue squares in my  glues 'stash' - and they proved to be the solution.

So now it just remains to tidy the space up, sort out the signage and hang all the work.  (tidying and cleaning is going to be a day in itself!)