A more colourful spring

In this really cold and belated spring, the daffodils are only just coming out and the wind is freezing today. Helpfully I am starting on a project with RISC and have been dyeing recycled blankets a whole range of colours. Colour always cheers me up and seems to provide an energy that nothing else can.
After what seems like months of planning this is the first practical phase of a Generations Together project.
More to follow very soon I hope.

Tide and time

Thinking and working in preparation for High Tide:Mersey began a new phase of Waterways:Walking:Stitching

I have now printed the first of what should be a series of postcards of sites that are significant to individuals or communities, or have environmental importance for research or historic reasons. They are laid out like the most ubiquitous holiday postcards, except the reference is in longitude and latitude, not the name of the place. The first is where the site of 'Sea Henge' was excavated on the North Norfolk coast.

As always I am never sure that what I make and what people really see have anything in common, so the opening at Liverpool John Moore's provided lots of good conversations and feedback.
The selection process to make a clearer and more coherent show is all part of the slow making. Interesting to realise that what is shown is not really what, how or why it is made.

Travelling less, making more

This year seemed to start slower, the marmalade made, the process, colours, smells and resulting rows of filled jars on the shelf very satisfying. The same feeling is produced by completing a good piece of work.
An order for 12 willow plant supports was similarly seasonal, repetitive work on the allotment.
I am possibly growing into the pace that I have thought about for the last few years, at least when I make work. This includes the multiples, the aim for craft skills in each piece. The pace of making multiples is both slow and fast at the same time.
Learning to make exact same forms takes time, the making of each pieces has to be fast, or the work is neither elegant nor cost effective!
However, the pace of working on multiple tasks and commitments still seems to be other than slow and although that is my aim, time does not seem to stretch to fit them all.

Last entry of the year

The last entry of the year. A strange combination of slow and overactive, that happens sometimes. Not a sign of miss-spent time or of nothing done, just not yet evident in practice.
The image of our seasonal garden decorations, made by spiders and we had to do nothing except provide the environment for them! In the nature of Slow Making they are transient and seasonal and use sustainable materials. Contrast to the neighbours' bright lights, fashionable, brilliant and energy thirsty, I thought somehow Christmas decorations should be in harmony with the Creator they promote and celebrate, especially as we are currently trying to promote the Copenhagen agreements and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.
I have started a Flickr site to collect images of Slow Making with others, the first images are of these spiders' webs.
The New Year promises many things which offer new places and challenges. Looking forward to them always conscious of seasons and timings not of my planning!

Drawing with willow

Planning for a workshop at WWT Welney Swan festival, I planned to set the task of drawing a swan with one piece of willow. Surely a result of the workshop last week, I found myself drawing with willow and these are the first results.


They are almost balletic in form, the beginning of something new perhaps. Just realising the diverse variety of entries there are in this blog, the materials and processes; but the thoughts go along together in very similar ways all the time. The pace of growth, drawing and stitching have so much in common.

Weaving conversation and baskets

Mary Butcher lead a master class at NUCA, a chance to play and reflect; 11 of us were invited. to take part. The opportunity to have conversations about the nature of making, the processes involved and the character of materials; it was both refreshing and hard work. Good to see the variety of work approaches.
I found myself taking more and more and more apart! Learning how to leave stuff out was good. Leaving space for imagination and thoughts, always a good idea. Space to breathe. Again it showed me how vital it is to STOP and work slowly. Slow Making includes the spaces, the time to look, not constructing, just feeling materials and tools. There are images on a Flickr page, so just a taste here.

footprints and impressions of 350 Day of actions

Making simple actions in public, the theme was of footprints and walking in conversation. Sun and rain, together with hot cups of chocolate and generosity of spirit were overwhelmingly the feel of the day.
Most people are aware of the need to do something and want to change their dependence on oil products, I found a real concern but at the same time lack of knowledge about how to do that change. Now is the time to be informed and make a difference!

350 International Day of Action

'Coat to cover the Earth'

This work I made 10 years ago. It has a list of endangered species, many of which are now extinct I fear.
I have brought this out again because the 350 International Day of Cilmate Action is coming up on 24th October and I am going to walk next to the river in Ely, inviting 350 people to join me to take part in an action and making transient work. See the facebook group page to see when and where.
Not easy to photograph, the fragility of fine cotton and copper wire crochet does not show itself well. I made it as a model of a much larger piece, where the space between the two layers would be big enough to walk between. Not yet commissioned but I do have a place in mind, so let me know if you are interested.
Again walking and conversation are the priority.

Stitching and expression in Reading

Stitching and expression of community, cups of tea and cake shared by participants in the workshop and opening event for Fair Trade Material Matters at RISC. the Global Cafe is a hub for all sorts of activities where the work will become part of people's everyday lives for the month.

I found leaving the work in place hard this time, almost as if it had taken on a personality. The more relationships and faces collected, the more powerful the work becomes. I had not anticipated this effect. I need to reflect on Slow Making again, what it signifies and how the power of accumulative, collecting, repetitive work expresses Slow.
More details of the work are on The RISC website.

A month with no rain

This month was so dry, the whole of September with no rain. I don't know the records for previous years, but sure I don't remember any September without rain and so warm. I have been outside most days working on the allotment, cycling has been easy in this weather.

Why so preocupied? Because I presented work at CRASSH seminar 'Vegetable Love' about being an artist who grows edible plants.

The action, my allotment drawn and stitched onto a tablecloth, together with some of the vegetables grown there. Conversation about the process of growing, relationship with human and non-human neighbours, I found myself performing in a way that became poetic, lyrical and characteristic of the place.
Again the pattern is
Allotment
Stitching
Walking
Performing.