Got my magic back..

....it's been gone for quite a while. Started a new Art class (Printmaking, Thursday mornings, with Avril again..), have cleaned up the workshop, made a few outstanding orders and am feeling like the world is the right way up again. I am preparing for my Autumn Exhibition, which is to be called Made/Remade, with Heather Hasthorpe and some other artists, and feeling stronger than for ages. And I bought some new shoes (waterproof!) a new cycling jacket (likewise!) and had a haircut... and I'm nearly thin enough...Bring on the world, I can beat it... Image is "Journal" by Heather, from a series to be shown at the Exhibition...

November 24th to December 2nd, 11 till 5 each day
at 4, The Raveningham Centre, Beccles Road, Raveningham, Norfolk NR14 6NU ....

Sun Dancing and All That

..no image for this post, as it has been a most interesting experience, but no photographs were allowed.

Went to Wreningham, in Norfolk, to be a Dog Soldier for the first Norfolk Sun and Moon Dance. Nick Hurn was Chief, and Sammy-Jo Harvey and Cindy Hurn were the Moon Mothers. 10 dancers took part, and about a dozen helpers helped, drummers drummed, and dogs chased sticks....

I feel revitalised, and am amazed to have had such a good time while working so hard. I have been on a sort of sabbatical from life for the last few weeks - no creativity and lots of scut work, and then I went to Hampshire to teach, to my Qigong Instructors' Course in Shropshire, then to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, then back to chaos and a very untidy workshop... I still have to catch up with myself, and have spent all this week playing with dyes and printing. And you should see the place now...



I will be teaching Japanese Bookbinding on Saturday October 6th at my workshop at Raveningham.


Email me on helen@raindropkites.co.uk
for details...

This is my Green Trees piece, which went to the Festival of Quilts last year as part of my attempt to swamp the show by entering (almost) every category... I have made a whole series of monochrome Tree Pieces in a variety of sizes - this one is about 30 inches tall... I sent it to the Horizons exhibition for Textile Art Group Suffolk last year, too, having noticed (after the fact) that it has a very nice horizon in it...
It's on here because I have been invited to teach this quilt as a one-day wokshop at Quilter's Haven in Wickham Market, Suffolk, on Saturday 10th November 2007.. and I've put it onto my Teaching list

Here's One I Made Earlier...

My piece for the Contemporary Quilt Suitcase Collection, on the theme "Figure It Out"... It's called Fat Man Washes His Hair...

The joys of Life Drawing in one's own bathroom...

Sorry...

...for the long delay.. Normal service will be restored as soon as possible. The whole diabetic thing seems to use energy like a city kid on speed, and as for the rest.. I have damaged a hamstring (too much kicking) and am limping and cursing (and not getting enough exercise - suggestions not involving swimming welcomed) - but I have been making the most of the last couple of Art Classes for the year.. I don't know what I'll do without - perhaps I'll have to do some structured Art Practice on my own..
Here are some images from today's frivolities - I took in a sewing machine and did some Life Drawing directly onto fabric.. Great fun, and I think these have potential..

Screen printing...

Well, this is one of a series, but I'm tired and haven't done the reduceandcrop thing with the rest. Later, later...

Pastel mono-screen-print. I love the results but cannot stand the chemicals, want to find a more user-friendly medium to pull through the screen... This was about number 3 of a series of six, all modified and redrawn between each pull, and steadily more complex as it goes..

Mutual project...

This is the piece I have just put together for Textile Art Group Suffolk's Summer Exhibition at Snape Maltings, near Aldeburgh, July 13th to 25th. The theme/title this year is Spectrum..

Each of us has made a piece of work 5 inches square, having been given a colour by Glenda Gerrard, and ~I have mounted the results on a canvas - it is to be displayed on the diagonal, with the red at the top, but I haven't worked out how to make the image do that yet...

Off to Art Class again, to make prints again... I plan to rework some of my earlier drawings onto fabric, in screen monoprint, and perhaps some more pastel monoprints, too...

A painting...

This isn't my usual style, but I worked out that it was done on the day or very near to the day when I tipped into the diabetes, so perhaps it means something. It's acrylic on board, about 13 by 15 inches, and was done very quickly. Perhaps it's an underpainting for something else. Or perhaps not...

Blood Sugar and such...

Well, officially I have joined the ranks of the insulin-challenged. I have to visit the doc tomorrow, and then I have to run the rest of my life. I have been heading for this for a long time, and in a way it's a relief for me to have gone over the hill and to be sliding down the far side...
More later. If you are reading this and have personal useful experience, I'd like to hear from you. If you have a story about your granny and her shortened life, please save it for another day. or another person, thanks.

helen@raindropkites.co.uk

To Keene Quilters, at Stock in Essex yesterday to teach Fabric postcards, in the afternoon.. A very big class, and all seemed to have a good time, and made some very nice cards (some of which are shown here)..

I am always amazed, and amused to see how many different ideas can be produced from one basic and simple starter, and it is fun to see people's fabrics and trimmings..


On a less happy note, I await the results of my blood sugar test from Friday. Looks like I have tipped over into diabetes, and I got in to a message on the machine from the surgery "nothing to worry about, but ring us Now.." something utterly sinister about the cheerful tone...

Teapot Quilters today, my own little group, and I shall have to watch them eat cake...