We’re in!
All the wishing worked!
Our dream has come true…
Thank you to all of you who wished for us.
This is such a special day.
We LOVE the house,
and are so excited about turning it into a home.
You are all welcome for tea and home baked cakes anytime.
Over the next few weeks
I look forward to sharing a window on our little place
as we unpack
settle in and snuggle up
Just wanted to share a couple of cool things I am joining in with this summer, in case you fancy having a go yourself.
The lovely Louise over at Dream, Inspire, Create has launched a ‘Creative Color Challenge’. It’s a great idea, and gives you a bit of a steer for creating but also gives you a lot of freedom to play with juicy colours. I will be sharing what I make over the next month right here.
And Susannah Conway has just launched the ‘August Break’, a photo blogging challenge for the summer – so I will try to share a photo (nearly) every day in August.
And I am also trying to keep up with learning some new techniques from the very talented Claudine Hellmuth. Her class ‘@ Home with Claudine Hellmuth’ is very cool. I will share some of the things I make over there in the coming weeks too.
What creative challenge are you setting yourself this summer?
Cherry blossom (Japanese ink on rice paper 12″ x 6″)
When I started learning Japanese 15 years ago I used to stay up until the early hours of the morning in the college library copying characters from an old dictionary, dipping my brush in juicy ink, sweeping it across the rice paper and marvelling at the words that spilt out. Such a beautiful script, each word a picture in itself. The therapeutic quiet rhythm of shaping the text belied the speed at which each piece was created.
Although sometimes it is good to work on a creation for days, weeks, months even, there is something fundamentally satisfying about finishing a piece in under a minute. I took out my old brushes again yesterday and tried this with sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) with a little help from Takumasa Ono. As the ink flowed through the bristles the memories flooded back.
Girl (Japanese ink on rice paper 12″x9″)Just wanted to introduce you to this delicious foodie/love-of-things-homemade book ‘A Homemade Life’, as author Molly Wizenberg has just announced a new book tour of the US. As I am not planning to be in the US in April I sadly can’t go to any of them, so I thought I’d tell you about it instead, so maybe you could pop along and indulge for me! The dates are on her award-winning blog Orangette, along with lots of tasty recipes and ponderings about food and life.
Following the death of her father, Molly took herself away to Paris, a city that ‘held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat’. There she discovered that her heart was in the kitchen, and she goes on to tell a tale of cooking, eating, reading and love (with recipes!).
It’s funny, reflective, inspiring, and you can almost taste the vanilla bean buttermilk cake. Yum.
ART: Manolo Blahnik Drawings by Anna Wintour – a collection of sketches of some of the world’s most gorgeous shoes.
ADVENTURE: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – ‘one woman’s search for everything’.
STORY: The Other Hand by Chris Cleave – on the back cover it says ‘We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It’s a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it’. I won’t spoil it either; let’s just say that it is stunning and shocking, sad and uplifting in equal measure.
A Friday ritual from Soulemama. In her words “a single photo – no words – capturing a moment. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.”
What special moment have you captured this week?
What better breath of fresh air during the working day than a quick gallery fix? One of the most wonderful things about London is that apart from special exhibitions, all the museums and art galleries are free, and no-one tries to sell you anything (except when you exit via the gift shop…).
Anyway, finding myself at a conference near the financial district, I snuck into the corner gallery of ‘Bloomberg SPACE’ to see Damien Deroubaix’s contribution to the new Comma series of special commissions.
Enitled ‘ A place to lose oneself’, the blurb says ‘The visual noise that Damien Deroubaix energetically orchestrates in his paintings, sculptures and woodcuts is overwhelming: brutal, deafening, sharp and dissonant.’
His piece is a tree.
But somehow it is more than that. It is an angry tree, and in the silent white gallery space, it really does create visual noise. Not my ‘taste’ and perhaps not the most peaceful lunchbreak, but certainly a thought-provoking one.
It made me think about what makes me like some art and not other, and in the end I think it comes down to whether it speaks to me, tells me a story, and whether the colours and textures draw me in.
How do you know what you like?
One school night last week I blissed out at ‘Craft London: the exhibition of emerging new talent’ in Clerkenwell. I headed over to the cosy gallery space of Craft Central for wine and chat with some of London’s most talented makers. Having been challenged to rediscover their city and represent this visually, the exhibition was as varied as the capital’s 32 boroughs, and reflective of the city’s incredible cultural diversity.
French-born illustrator Julie Vermeille (above) translated her love of fairytales into 3D characters living in her installation, creating a fantasy world of fabric pigeons, lace clouds and stringy stuffed people based on children’s book Arthur’s Seat. Quirky and cute.
Ruth Babajide celebrated her West African heritage with a range of loud, colourful ceramic storage units, in stark contrast to the delicate and peaceful collection of hand thrown porcelain whispers created by Hannah James (below).
Jessica Light is a woman on a mission to revitalise the dying craft of tassel-making. Jessica was responsible for the ornate embroidery on Buckingham Palace’s balcony hangings, and now works with designers such as Vivienne Westwood to find a new life for a centuries-old skill.
But my favourite of all was the set of magical cobwebs created by Katie Barton. ‘Spun’ from metallic embroidery thread and fixed into jewellery cases, they took two days to install and will be destroyed after the exhibition. Katie, who describes herself as having an obsession with making repulsive things beautiful, said she loved the ethereal nature of piece. I felt simultaneously privileged to have seen these gorgeous creations, and sad to know that they will soon be swished away to nothing, as if they were never there.
We entered into the age-old ‘what is art, what is craft?’ debate, swiftly followed by a lively discussion on the pros and cons of being university trained vs being a self-taught artist.
These are topics I shall return to, as I ponder them often. What are your thoughts?
The exhibition also featured fabric craft, ceramics and jewellery from Laura Felicity, Jo Davies, Ana Meneses, Daniele Geargeoura, Yuki Sasakura Assiter and Alexandra Simpson.
Something quite amazing happened today. I have been thinking of my ‘Mondo Beyondo’ list for some time – not that I need help with dreaming big, just juggling all the dreams! Anyway, this morning I sat on the train racing towards London, and put pen to paper. As the countryside flew by and the morning opened up to a bright blue sky, I spilt my long messy delicious list of dreams, big and small.
And then I arrived at Kings Cross Station, packed my notebook safely at the bottom of my handbag with a smile, and got on with my day.
And then, just five hours later, the weirdest thing happened.
One of the small but important things on the list I wrote this morning was ‘get published’. And by 1pm, someone had asked me if I would write a chapter for a book being published later this year.
Unbelievable.
Maybe the Universe is listening…
Over 1,500 years ago, this misty mountain land was home to the Ohlone Indians.
Thought to have been descendents of aboriginal tribes that came to North America from Asia across the Bering Strait, the Ohlone were sun-worshippers, hunters, and fishermen. They were also keen crafters, and their womenfolk wore deer skin aprons and bead necklaces. They found cinnabar at the Almaden mines and used this bright red clay to paint their bodies.
Fast forward 1500+ years and the mountains of Los Gatos are visited by another tribe. A tribe of women who have migrated from all over North America and further afield, armed only with Golden Gel Medium, Shiva’s Artists’ Paintstiks and Tim Holtz Distress Ink, collectively beating out the war cry “Let us paint!”
I feel incredibly lucky to be part of this tribe, tightly bound together by a shared passion for creativity, a curiosity to learn and a love of life. Our aprons aren’t made of deer skin and we haven’t come here to weave baskets, but we feel the same magic in the redwoods that has been felt by tribal women for centuries before us.
We were gathered in Los Gatos, California, for Cindy O’Leary’s ‘An Artful Journey’, an art retreat which could have just as easily been called ‘A Heartful Journey’. It was a rare opportunity to indulge in the luxury of a four day creating adventure under the supporting guidance of inspirational artists, and in the company of some very special souls. Safe in the knowledge that ‘there are no mistakes’, we happily painted, laughed and told stories into the early hours. It was absolute bliss.
Thanks to Kelly Rae Roberts and Mati Rose McDonough for being such fantastic instructors. You shared your wisdom and techniques and talent so generously. And thanks to the rest of the tribe for leaving the everyday behind, and wholeheartedly diving in. Together we made many things – a chunky book, a happy mess, and a whole bunch of wonderful new friends. (Workshop photos to follow in the next post)
