The calendar tells me that we're already two weeks into November. I'm not sure how that can be. I think I must have fallen into some sort of time vortex that's sucked me into a dimension where time moves faster than the speed of light, kept me there in a dark, sensory deprivation vessel, and then spat me out right in front of my laptop at my dining room table. How does that happen? I think it must have happened when I was asleep - that's when all of the craziest things in my life happen.
Anyway, so here I sit down to write a blog after a tremendous long while. It feels like such a luxury to have the time to type out my thoughts. This morning my husband walked the dog before leaving for work at dark o'clock, leaving me with a quiet, empty house and a couple of hours to kill before I make my way out to Charlbury to see an art publishing company about my work. They discovered me at the Art in Woodstock Festival, so whilst my inclusion in the Festival didn't result in copious amounts of sales (or any, for that matter), I did get noticed. Which feels great. I'm not exactly sure if they're trying to get me to buy their services, give me an opportunity to sell, or actually purchase any of my work - likely it will be a combination of all three options. They want to see a little bit of everything, so that's a good sign.
Anyway, so here I sit down to write a blog after a tremendous long while. It feels like such a luxury to have the time to type out my thoughts. This morning my husband walked the dog before leaving for work at dark o'clock, leaving me with a quiet, empty house and a couple of hours to kill before I make my way out to Charlbury to see an art publishing company about my work. They discovered me at the Art in Woodstock Festival, so whilst my inclusion in the Festival didn't result in copious amounts of sales (or any, for that matter), I did get noticed. Which feels great. I'm not exactly sure if they're trying to get me to buy their services, give me an opportunity to sell, or actually purchase any of my work - likely it will be a combination of all three options. They want to see a little bit of everything, so that's a good sign.
With two full hours to blab on my blog, I'm at a complete loss of where to start. See, this is what happens when I don't walk the dog. That's where I get some of the best ideas. OK, so it's probably best for me to start with what I've been working on in the studio, which I think is really exciting. I've started making boxes to house assorted sets of greeting cards using my designs. The box is made from reclaimed materials, which is really cool. They come from my husband's work place; they start out as sleeves covers for these expensive binders that are used to hold client itineraries. They just throw the sleeves away. Well, they recycle them, but they might as well be thrown away for the energy it takes to transform them into some other functional item. Not to
mention they're in perfect shape, so it seems a waste of energy to put them
through that process. So, my husband rescues these helpless little sleeves from
this fate and tucks them soundly into my studio. I then strategically measure,
score, and cut then bend and glue and voila! I have a box. I'm really proud of
the little monkeys!
mention they're in perfect shape, so it seems a waste of energy to put them
through that process. So, my husband rescues these helpless little sleeves from
this fate and tucks them soundly into my studio. I then strategically measure,
score, and cut then bend and glue and voila! I have a box. I'm really proud of
the little monkeys!
I've also been a crocheting maniac as of late. The O3 Gallery in Oxford asked me to supply them with some of my tea, mug, and caretiere cozies for their Christmas sale - how very exciting! So I've been crocheting and sewing away, making cute little items that are just begging for a new home. I am feeling optimistic for them - how could anyone turn away something so cute? It's been good practice for me to be doing production-style work on these little cozies, because it's forcing me to write down my steps. You see, I don't work from patterns. I suppose I could if I wanted to, but I find it so easy to be confused, especially when I'm trying to visualize written instructions. It might be different if I had my Aunt Marlyin next to me to show me how to do it. But since I can't afford to fly her out here to be my private crochet tutor, I approach the craft like just about everything else in my life: I figure it out for myself. This is where walking the dog comes in handy. I will picture in my mind what I want my finished product to look like. Then I will sort of crochet with my brain. Until I figure it out. And then I go to the studio and make it. And I find this works really well for crochet. Not so much for knitting, which is why I stick to the former. And usually it works out great - I problem-solve as I go along. The drawback, however, is that I never write my steps down as I go, so each time I sit down to make one I remain idle for a long time, just trying to work out the steps in my head. Thankfully, this only happened once yesterday. The mug cozies, no problem. Got those committed to memory. The cafetiere cozies, however, that's a bit more complicated. I inspected one I'd crocheted months ago for about an hour, trying to figure out how I actually did it! In the end I just had to make it, screw it up, unravel it, do it again, screw it up, unravel it, and then repeat about four more times before I got it, then wasn't sure if that was right, so unraveled it, re-did it the wrong way, unraveled it again, and then repeated the correct step which I'd previously thought was the wrong step and took it to the finish line. That one took a little while. But, I wrote down the steps! So next time, it should be much less of a painful experience.
Besides working in the studio, I've been trying to enjoy the English landscape as much as possible. My husband and I have gone on some beautiful walks over the last few weeks (we're in severe austere budget mode at present as we're in the process of buying house - walking seems a good alternative to spending money at the pub or movies) and for our a second anniversary we went to the Roman Villa in Chedworth. It's the second largest standing Villa in England and it's in incredible condition. It was discovered during the Victoria era by a farmer whose dog got stuck when digging for rabbits. When the farmer went to dig the dog out, he discovered a complex network of catacombs that weren't the handy work of a rabbit! They continued to dig until they revealed this several thousand year old structure. Imagine finding something like that? I can't fathom it. Turns out when the Romans abandoned the Villa in 400AD to go back to Rome to protect their home shores, the place fell into disrepair, as you can imagine it would. And being situated in something of a valley, it was easy for nature to move in. Then more nature moved in, until finally the whole place was covered by soil and grass - so much so that it just looked like any other rolling hill in England. I find this just completely amazing and intriguing. It makes me wonder what other structures are hiding beneath the surface? In another life I would have been an archaeologist.
Anyway, back to the story - so these farmers dug out the place and found that some of the walls still stood and a good portion of the mosaic floors were
intact. They had the foresight to protect the mosaics and built simple lean-to sheds to protect them from the weather. They lacked the foresight, however, to leave some things alone and either built on top of existing walls or capped them off. Ah well, their intentions where in the right place. Now the place belongs to the National Trust and they've just built this wonderful, state-of-the-art, humidity and temperature-controlled building to protect what had served as the main bath house and dining hall of the Villa. I'm sure in another hundred years our ancestors will be scoffing at our lack of foresight. So it goes.
intact. They had the foresight to protect the mosaics and built simple lean-to sheds to protect them from the weather. They lacked the foresight, however, to leave some things alone and either built on top of existing walls or capped them off. Ah well, their intentions where in the right place. Now the place belongs to the National Trust and they've just built this wonderful, state-of-the-art, humidity and temperature-controlled building to protect what had served as the main bath house and dining hall of the Villa. I'm sure in another hundred years our ancestors will be scoffing at our lack of foresight. So it goes.
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