Holiday Sketchbooks

I am off on my hols on Friday. also off to Art Van Go to teach tomorrow so have to go up today. Am trying to avoid the Olympic clogged M25. Wish I'd taken more notice of the dates.

Anyway I am packing. My best holiday sketchbook was the one where I forgot all my sketching gear and had to stamp paper in the dirt for colour. Luckily we were in Oz so lots of pigments around. I have blogged about this before but the reason I am reminding you is that I have set myself a challenge for this holiday to see if it works as well.

Remember these pics?

This one is sideways - forgot to printscreen.

They were all drawn with an ordinary ink pen, coloured with lip pencil, eye pencil (even the lemon from our fish and chips).

I also used the pogo handbag camera - a super little gadget - not sure you can still get them. Lovely to stick the little photos in a sketchbook and draw into them.


These pics were taken in the Kakadu National Park, Northern Territories of Australia. I was careful to ask our guide if it was Ok to use the images as I think you have to be careful of other peoples beliefs.

I have decided to upload the new lessons that are free with my Dissolvable Delights book when we are back as it seems silly to put them up and run away. Still just about making the July deadline.
Keep an eye by going to the site http://www.d4daisy.com/ and clicking on the free classes button.

Will show you my holiday sketchbook (if it comes out OK) the week after next.

Inspirational Friends

Every time I think that my inclination to stitch is drying up I become inspired by my wonderful friends. I have been lost in the mires of admin lately and never seem to get time to do my own thing. Don't you think it is true that you have to keep up the level of activity with any art ot craft or discouragement creeps in?

I am now on the up again as I was so inspired by the article that Sherrill Kahn has written for the September issue of Workshop on the Web that I immediately had to have a bash at some of her techniques. Here is one of her pieces.

The article covers the simple technique of rubbings from stamps but she shows so many ways and materials and then describes how to put it all together.

I had most of the media she suggested so now all of my rubbings are drying off, having been overlaid by lots of different paints. Can't wait to put them together.

Another great friend is Jane Wild who has just come back from Florence. We had lunch yesterday and then looked at her photos. She knows just what I like and this one of rust and graffitti had my name on it. Perhaps it could be used with some of the rubbings.

I also loved this view of the Duomo and was reminded of Val Campbell-Harding saying 'crouch down and photo up!' We once ran a digital camera course together and all the students spent a lot of time lying under bushes and viewing the undersides of leaves. It was quite a shock to the bystanders when we all emerged!

This looks like  a jigsaw. I'd like to print out the components, crumple them up and then stick them on Vilene. Then you could experiment with the spacing and work them up with stitching.

Jane and I are very pleased because Batsford has re-printed our book Paper, Metal and Stitch. We are always being asked for it, so it is good to have it back in circulation.

The new classes for my Dissolvable Delights book will be out next week so keep an eye on the d4daisy website.  

Did I tell you that Clive and I have booked to go on a Baltic cruise soon? We have always thought that we would hate cruising but we wanted to go to Stockholm and Copenhagen and it was more expensive to do our usual thing through the internet than to go on the cruise and get to see Tallin and St Petersburgh as well. I can't help but think that it is the first sign of old fart-ism but Fiona tells me that there have been signs of that for years!

Urchfont - the Last Post

This is the last time that our textile Group will meet at Urchfont Manor College - so sad. I have packed all the work up ready for home and am just taking five to do the blog. I've been working on my next Workshop on the Web article which is on metal flowers for dull spots in the garden. here is a petal - or possibly a leaf.

I shall miss the walks in the grounds, especially the vegetable garden.

We have had broad beans and lots of lovely strawberries - all home grown. Saturday is graduation day for the City and Guilds groups so we have been asked to put up a little exhibition. We are all going to bring a piece of work that we made on a course here. I will take photos.

Thanks for all the great comments on video versus books - lots of food for thought. I think the combination of the two is best and will work out a way to do it.

Winners were picked by Jane Lemon who is also a member of the group. We have:

Stitchety Grub, who wins a piece of my work, Maggi who wins some exciting 'stuff' and Wabbit, because we are all so pleased to see her popping up again. Please can you all send me snail mail addys (maggie@workshopontheweb.com)

back with you all soon.

Hearts and Catnip

A photo blog today. I have been working on the next lessons for readers of my Dissolvable Delights book. It's hearts all the way - perhaps because I love embossing powder!

Dissolvable paper is also close to my heart. I am working on a border here.

Really hoping that a free video will be up on the d4d blog (d4daisychains.blogspot.com) as part of this lesson.

I have been asked to make a video instead of a book for my next d4d project. What do you think - are they as good as books? I thought perhaps a video with a series of free workshops to do more step by step stuff might work. I think unless you run the video while you work you tend to forget the techniques. Let me know what you think and I'll give some stuff away to those who reply.






We have a new patio - thanks to Mark and Scott, who did a great job. We were just going to get the tarmac relaid but the quotes were astronomical so we went for gravel and a patio.

You can see the patio, below. I mixed two colours and I love it.


























Went to a great National Trust house yesterday.


Hinton Ampney has a wonderful garden and the plant stall was tempting.

Shouldn't have bought the catnip though as Smudge has destroyed it.

Mostly Singing

Singing

I think I’ve already bored you with some of the singing stuff so you can blog off now, with my blessing, if singing is not your bag. Comments on the last blog appear at the end and anyone wanting stitchy stuff can head over to www.d4daisychains.blogspot.com the blog that goes with my latest book.

We had a most fabulous day on Saturday at the Stourhead Festival of the Voice. Stourhead is a National Trust garden, not far from us  (in my book it is one of their best) and for the Festival they bring in twenty-two choirs, all very different, and each one gets a twenty minute slot in different parts of the garden. This is a pic of the Gasworks choir from Bristol – very professional and a great sound.

We went with Jane Wild and met up with our choir – Local Vocals. The whole day was full of joy and laughter. Sounds a bit twee that, but it is the only way I can describe it – lovely weather (eventually), great company, lots of laughs, good grub and we sang well. We do a real musical mix of songs from rock to Georgian drinking songs and our leader, Lesley, is so clever. No need to read music – she just gets us straight into singing. It’s like magic.

 Before Stourhead we sang at Wimborne Minster’s Jubilee celebrations. Although it poured with rain and we had to move into the Minster (lovely old Church) we were in good voice. Jane’s husband took the pics and you can see Jane and I clinging together for support and Clive, in among the bases.

I do think it is hilarious that Jane and I are lip-synched in these photos. We must be getting the words right, if not the music. Not a good pic – too many screen grabs -but you get the idea.

Finally here we are singing All Round my Hat. The last bit is the best with our sopranos on the descant.

Comments

I loved the warhorse, too Linnie – once again the commentators seemed at a complete loss as to what it was about.

Agree about the poor old Duke and the cold, Heather.

I’ve heard of a Marmaluke, wabbit but never seen one. It’s very easy to make friends with doggy people, I find, but we never know their real names. They were always Jojo’s mum or Sabre’s dad. One also had to suppress the desire to say, when meeting them in their civvies in town, ‘I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on!’ 

Jubilata

Our elderly garden table collapsed so we decided to get a new one as all the family were coming to a barbecue.

Contrary to our usual way of doing things we conducted extensive research (went to at least two shops) before winding up at B and Q. It duly arrived - in bits.











I tried to help by passing the bolts but as my hand is still not quite under my control I kept dropping them and was sent indoors to make the tea

Smudge was not much help - after making a good start by tearing at the packaging with tooth and claw he resumed his narcistic (the spell check offers no help with that word) gazing into the pond.


He has taken to doing this and we are not sure whether he has seen a newt or is just obsessed with his undoubted beauty.

Finally the base was finished and the time came to screw it to the table top. In true B and Q fashion three fitted perfectly. But the last one .......









When a new hole was drilled we were finally able to turn it the right way up. And have a cup of (stewed) tea.

We made a rather pathetic effort with a string of bunting and some flags before rent-a-crowd turned up to eat us out of house, home and garden.

I meant to take photos of everyone tucking in but, in true British fashion, the rain came down heavily. This resulted in a rush for the house in which several of the smaller grandchildren were all but trampled underfoot!

Actually we still had a lot of fun and the lack of photos was more likely due to the sudden advent of dry white wine. I've not had alchohol for ages as I've been dieting and food comes way before booze in my calorie priorities.

Spent yesterday getting over it and watching the pageant on TV. BBC coverage was poor, I thought - too many talking heads in the studio and not enough about the boats.

Great effort though - did you see the embroidered banners? Rachel de Thame's planting was wonderful too, and what can you say about HM?  I bet she's shattered today and she still has Madness on her roof to look forward to tonight.


Comments
Patchacha; glad you are enjoying Lynda's free classes. She's a great tutor.
We are lucky, JP. We do have lots of textile stuff in our open studio weeks. I'm just sorry that it doesn't look as though we will get to any more of them.
I'm not sure about the bras either, Heather. If they were decorated it would look good but, as it was, it looked a bit like a convent washing line.

The Classes are Ready

 The free classes that come with my Dissolvable Delights book are ready. You will find them on the d4daisy site www.d4daisy.com  Just follow the links from the online classes button.



Instead of a yahoo group I'm going for a blog as a means of contact. If smallish pics are sent to me I will post them and the comments will be used for general course chat. The blog can be found at www.d4daisychains.blogspot.com

I have put up two lessons at once - one on mixed media and one on design and stitch. There is a pic from the design and stitch one on the right and one from the mixed media on the left. Hope you will all join me.






Yesterday we treated ourselves to a day out on an art crawl (like a pub crawl but without the booze). It is the first week of Dorset Art Weeks and we had a great time.

Yes, a lot of eating was done. The scones were devoured at Poundbury, near Dorchester - the new-ish village built on Prince Charles' land, according to his, rather traditional, tastes. It is a mix of styles from small artisan terraces to posh Georgian town houses. Even Waitrose has an entrance with pediments and columns! I think it looks a bit of a hotchpotch and it has a strangely deserted air - as though an alien abduction had taken place. I think new communities have to grow rather than be planted. Anyone else have any views?

Lunch was rather more to my taste. Armed with sarnies from the aforementioned Waitrose we took off for the wonderful coast road that runs above Chessil beach. You can just see the sea behind the sandwich (who says my priorities are skewed).

We sat on a bench, serenaded by a couple of Robins.The grub was good, the sun was warm, the view was heavenly - what bliss.

Before lunch we had made a visit to the studio of quilter Kate Dowty - see below. She has written workshops for us and I love her work. The detail on the right is from a larger piece entitled Cliff Textures.

At the bottom is a detail from a lovely stitched concertina book. All Kate's work is so beautifully finished - this is something that I am not good at. Must try harder.

The next venue, also near Dorchester, was the Allsorts exhibition by a varied group of artists. In a barn, it had a unique approach with a fence lined with bras.

It was a lovely, varied exhibition with quilters (great stuff from Hilary Gooding in particular. I was also very taken with Joy Frampton's felting - see right.

Joy had a piece of work in my Embellish and Stitch book but I had not seen her larger pieces and garments, which were lovely - see right.

We had some disappointments as we hadn't checked that a couple of venues were closed. in fact the one I really wanted to see, in Abbotsbury, only opened at weekends. One wonders why they bothered!

All was not lost, however, as we had time to visit the wonderful Abbotsbury gardens - see below.


















 In the pic on the right, you can see a little dot in the middle, through the trees. This is Saint Katherine's chapel and the view has been engineered so you sit on a bench and see it framed by trees.

Needless to say we had an ice cream and today I am on starvation rations. Must have put on pounds!