More rememberings

Hello my dear friends, I am feeling very warm towards you all - what a lovely bunch of kind, friendly supportive people you are. As this is post 201 I am feeling very privileged to have joined the 'gang'. (Post 200 sneaked up on me as a 'draft') and want to say thank you for being out there.

I have been having quite a creative few days despite having over done it on the plums (I'll say no more) But no one else seems to be eating them!! So shortly I hope to be sharing some completed pieces with you.

Meanwhile I have also finished another section in my Norfolk memories book. I was stirred to catch a Radio 4 programme called 'Looking for the Singing Postman' which brought back all sorts of memories of my Norfolk relatives and their wonderful accent. When of the interviewees coined this phrase as a test of your Norfolkian knowledge which I shall attempt to write phonetically, I really had to smile, the answer came straight back to me.

     "Dar yar far keep a dicky bor?

I shall be interested if any of you know the answer.

My great aunt, grandmother's sister, Auntie Rosie was a Ladies Companion and when in London way back I know not when, was asked this by a London Bobby who recognised her accent and she was able to snap back the answer as quick as lightning which caused great mirth to the policeman in question and Auntie Rosie who liked to tell the tale. (Translation and answer with next post).

When you see the map below you will understand that in the years that followed 1958 we drove along the Norfolk Coast Road many,  many times. Through the wonders of Google Earth I have been virtually travelling this road and have been able to follow some of the tracks up to the dunes where we so often parked including the descriptively named "Cart Gap Road". I have also been able to virtually drive up  the road past 7 Langley which is now completely changed and see the other buildings I recognise. I hope it won't be too long before I can go in reality. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy my next instalment.



Art in the Garden

My good friend Sally is one of nine artists in residence at the Luton Hoo Walled garden and an exhibition had been arranged for this weekend to coincide Heritage Open days and Hertfordshire Open Studio month. I took my camera and managed to catch a few moments.

The volunteer gardeners have made a wonderful job and have re-planted a section of the garden.

The artists have all created pieces connected with the history of the garden.

This piece by Abi Spendlove is about the roots put down by Lord Bute, the garden's founder, in the course of his life.  Each piece was connected with a different location.

More delicate roots in the vinery.

This installation piece by May Down was a recording  and included interviews with Land Army girls who worked on the estate during WW2. I would have loved to have had a rummage in the suitcase which was full of vintage items including the corsets.

This was Sally's installation. She was inspired by seeing large chrysalises while visiting London zoo. She has used monoprints of plants and planting lists from the garden's archive to make a set of cocoon shapes from silk and wax suspended  on cottons along one of the glasshouses. Sally's inspiration is the transient traces left over the generations within the garden. 

Sally Tyrie

These carnations below were created by Suzanne Page, they made from copies of letters written by Lord Bute.

This is an installation by ceramic artist Nici Ruggiero

I thought you'd enjoy these details.

Finally I spotted these rather splendid  cuckoo pint/lords and ladies/Arum maculatum lily stems which were glowing in the shadows.

Thank you for all of your good wishes for my Etsy shop. Now I've got that sorted I feel I can get back to creating - more later.

Have a good week, 

Jill

Etsy shop now open

At last I have managed to open my Etsy shop. It seems to have taken ages and ages. I have posted a few purses and scented hearts to begin with. I thought that I would add a few items at a time. So there are some things you have already seen that are now on -

Of course, typically I am now having doubts over the name but it is too late now - I wanted to keep it simple and memorable - and it certainly meets those criteria. Now I can concentrate on making and doing  again!
There is a link on my sidebar, hopefully I can make it a bit more interesting later.
Thank you for your support and encouragement and here are a couple of reminders of what is up for sale.

The state I am in...

Do you ever feel you a living in chaos?

I thought I would share my work space with you, which may explain why I haven't managed to get on top of anything this weekend! I did tidy my desk up last week would you believe? My work room is converted from our small garage and I work on an old oak office desk. Usually when I sew I clear a larger space, but as I was just sewing zips in, I didn't need much room. Opposite this desk is the computer which I can swivel round to.  Here are a few close-ups.

Putting zips in these purses is a rather fiddly job and I haven't cracked it yet - not sure they will make it onto Etsy.

The windowsill is full - although it looks like chaos each thing is in its special place!

I made this pot from self-hardening Nu-clay back in the 70's, it has lasted remarkably well.

 Some sewing projects fighting for space...

I have a few brushes!!

I have a busy week ahead, lots going on, all routine stuff unfortunately, but hopefully I will find some time to locate the top of my desk!

It is absolute pouring with rain this evening - I hope you haven't been washed away and are having a good week.

Jill

September

Here is August, all 31 days of it, and how disappointingly wet it has been. I always find looking at my completed month interesting - for example it seems ages ago I had lunch with my friends, and yet it was only last week, but on the other hand only a blink ago I was planning the colour scheme for the page and here is the month complete.

What will be in store for September I wonder. It can be one of the most beautiful months. Don't you just love chilly bright mornings, when the air is crystal clear and every shrub and twig is decorated with a sparkling spider web? 

For my September calendar I have gone a bit 'mad'. I have been sitting at the computer for hours -  more work on setting up my shop. It will be such a relief when it is done. I have been taking photographs of the things I shall be selling.  I even went and cut the grass as an excuse to flex my muscles after sitting about for so long.  I needed to flex my creative muscles as well especially as I have been hand sewing and drawing those little illustrations for my memoirs. When I realized it was the end of the month it gave me an excuse to clear my desk and get out the paints.  I went a bit fauve and built up my autumn scene in orange and mauve - the colours haven't scanned very well. No stamping, no pens, but I did a pit of junk printing and stencil work. What fun, and I definitely felt a bit loosened up (although I could probably do with a few more days of sloshing the paint about). However I didn't want to lose my paint effects when I stuck down the squares for the calendar, so  ...

I scanned one of the pages, desaturated the colour and blurred it a bit with Picasa and printed out a couple of sheets which I cut into 4cm squares. I stuck these down in a slap-dash way and added the numbers and weekdays with a dip-pen. Everything is a bit blotty and smudged, I even started misnumbering the days and had to do a quick cut and paste job. But overall I have ended up with a rather effective page.

It is great to look back at last September's page when I was just staring out on my Art Journal quest. Everything was rather tight and restrained. I was very cautious about expressing myself artistically. I cannot emphasise enough how far I have come, mentally as much as artistically in the last twelve months - and now I am about to set up my own shop. I would say to any of you who feel unsure of your talents, just let go and enjoy yourself - it doesn't matter, it has taken me 60 years to gain the confidence to share something like this sploshy page, and know some of you will like it, but if you don't, it doesn't matter

Still here

I've been really busy over the last few days but wanted to drop in as I have been trying  to keep up on everyone's  posts. I have been working on setting up my etsy shop. I have registered a name and set up a paypal account, and now I am working on my 'blurb'. Then I have to take photographs Those of you who already sell on line have probably have got all of this down to a fine art, but I am great procrastinator and sometimes need to have  a bit of a boot to get me to make decisions. However today I thought I would go to the craft fair at Wrest Park for a bit of research and inspiration.

Wrest Park is one of my favourite local  venues. We used to visit years ago when it was owned by Silsoe College and paid 50p for a magical day in the rather run-down grounds. However it has now been taken over by English Heritage and although the grounds are now better kept, but it costs rather more to get in!

Queueing at the garden gate.

The house is still in use by the college.

The pavilion at the end of the lake, viewed across the croquet lawns.

Entertainment from a string quartet.

The orangery glimpsed through some of the magnificent trees in the park. 

I have lots more photographs of the park here on my flickr site. If you like lovely gardens - Capability Brown designed these - do take a look.

I had a wonderful chat to one lady in particular - Maxine Owen who is a textile designer whose work really inspired me. You can see her work here. I felt very reassured by her style with lots of wild stitching and wonderful fabrics I wanted to rush home and start stitching. She also had some incredible journals and altered books, I could have spent ages there. I did buy a couple of her pieces - I will have to photograph them another time.

I have been doing some myself stitching - I have been working on a couple of zipped purses and a paperback-book cover in patchwork, and I have decided to start stitching on the leaf book cover I started way back.

I am hoping to get the shop going in the next couple of weeks and hopefully some of these will be there.

 I also want to get my September calendar page made - quite honestly I am not sorry to see the end of August - what a washout! 

Thank goodness for the kitchen sink...

All is back to normal, the washing machine is fixed, there's ironing to be done, it is raining ... again and I am feeling quite bouncy after lunch with friends and I feel very encouraged to get on with my etsy shop. I have just got to choose a name - can't decide on one, and set up Paypal etc. (I think I have said this before). Eventually I will get it together. Meanwhile I have been working on my holiday memories which I share with you again.  Sometimes I get quite emotional when doing these and I do edit the text, but my style is a rather stream of consciousness, written from the heart. If you get fed-up with my prose I hope you enjoy the drawings.

P.S. Are these images too large-they are coming up as acual size on my screen?