Bundles, Sketchbooks and Rumbles

Before Christmas Maggie Grey had an online auction of handmade books in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.  I put some bids in but was unsuccessful.  However, after the auction a couple of latecomers were offered for sale and I was lucky enough to get this very pretty book made by my friend Emma who lives on the Isle of Skye.  

For the moment I am just enjoying Emma's work but I do intend to add to it, maybe with some Gelli prints.  

When we saw Carolyn in Mousehole she reminded me about the Erosion Bundles that we had both done in previous years.  I still have quite a lot of the last bundle waiting to be used but I thought I would join in again and make a new bundle.  The idea is to collate various materials and add things that will create colour and wrap the whole thing up and leave it at the mercy of the elements for three months.

I've tried to keep things simple this time and have used blueberries, tea, plant material and rusty bits and bobs to generate the colour.  I've used all sorts of fabrics and wrapped everything up in a piece of Cornish flag that had been hanging on the shed for months.  I've tied the bundle to our back gate which has some lovely rust and mossy colours on it so hopefully there will be more colour.  It's going to stay there till 1 April when we'll see what we've got.  Hopefully it won't be crawling with yucky things like the last one was.

We had a bit of excitement here last week.  Last Wednesday night just before 10.30 I heard a great roaring noise that I thought was the wind getting up and next thing something clattered to the floor in my sewing room.  Turned out it was an earthtremor, 3.8 strength.  We don't get that many tremors in this area and the last time I was aware of one that strong was about 25 years ago.  There wasn't any damage anywhere but it was a bit unnerving for a while. 

Back soon!

Where to start?

You probably havn't noticed much difference as the gaps are pulling out between my postings here, but we have been away on the first of this year's holidays.  (Oops, that's a lie, we went to Cardiff, didn't we?).  

We've just got back from our favourite place, St Ives, and as usual had a fabulous time, meeting up with old and new friends, visiting gardens and galleries and getting slightly crafty.  So, where to begin?  Since this is supposed to be a creative blog I think I'll start there first.

Last year, as you may remember, I did a day's workshop with Dionne Swift at the Festival of Quilts on Developping Sketchbooks.  Dionne also offers this workshop online with the ability to have access to the videos and Facebook group for 2 weeks so I decided to 'repeat' the experience but with much more time to devote to it.  I started watching the videos before we went away and carried on with the course while we were in St Ives.

You can probably guess the theme of the sketchbook but I have to say that it was a really good decision to work the course again.  Dionne's videos are always concise and encouraging and there is a clear path moving through the procedures for building the sketchbook which can be used with any future theme you may care to choose.  My head is still full of ideas and possibilities for future work with circles and I have enough pages to make two sketchbooks and probably more on this theme.  It was lovely to have the extra time to play and the more I played the more ideas came to me.  Equally the Facebook page set up for all the participants to interact if they wished was invaluable.  It was great to see some of the work others were doing and to get feedback both from Dionne, who was tireless in her support, and from the group.  

I've made a start on a new book on a new theme and I'm hopeful that this time I will keep up the good work.

The crafting theme continued while I was away with a fused glass taster session with Terri Bunn in St Ives.  It was lovely to share this with my very dear friend Carolyn Saxby and a new friend, Margaret Garrood.

Margaret and Carolyn in Terri's studio.
 

This is the lovely Terri  showing us some of her work.

 I think you could say it was a bit of a breezy day.

This is Carolyn and I with the finished product.
 

And the lovely Margaret with her fabulous knobbly coaster.  The knobbly blobs were accidental but Carolyn and I loved them, very tactile!

Above, my coaster with spirals which are just visible.

Margaret gave me this lovely gift of fabrics (dyed by her), sari silk, buttons and a card holder.

As you might expect DH and I took many, many photographs while we were away, despite having taken 1000's already so there'll be more to come in a future post.   I will leave you with one or two to whet your appetite.

The intrepid photographer!
 

The view from our rental.

St Ives in a foggy mood.
 

And finally, an exceptionally low tide.

Hiatus

Have you noticed how, once there's a bit of a break in your blogging routine it gets harder and harder to start blogging again?  Just lately I have been finding it quicker and easier to throw a few words on Facebook and my poor blog has been sadly neglected.  I had so much to share with you and it's all still waiting patiently to be aired.

If you do connect with me on Facebook you will know that we have just had our annual pilgrimage to St Ives.  Two weeks of blissfully drinking in the wonderful light and colours and listening to the sea pound against the shore outside our rented flat. 

A certain lady who 'Loves Stitching Red' enjoying the view from our kitchen.

We saw Porthmeor Beach in all its moods including this early morning rainbow. 

We were even treated to a few sunsets

Following on from my workshop with Dionne Swift at Festival of Quilts I was excited to do some sketchbook work while we were away and I'm pleased to say I got quite a lot done.

These are collaged cottages made from waxed paper, newsprint and magazine paper.

 Inktense pencils above.

Background from my screen printing and squares from a collage project.

Collage inspired by St Ives.

Playing about with paint effects and masking tape resist.

I didn't have any acrylic paint with me other than white so I painted a base of vaguely cottage shapes in white acrylic and then added detail with Koh-i noor dye paints.

Our Sunday walk to Carbis Bay saw me picking up leaves which I collaged to a background of black tissue.  Once the piece had dried I pasted over torn coloured tissue papers.

Scavenging on the beach I found scraps of different tyre treads so printed with them.

The greaseproof paper I used as a pallette was torn up and applied to a painted background.

I had fun cutting out the alphabet from a magazine and filled in the background with Inktense pencils which I should probably add water to to bring out their strength of colour.  Can you spot the not-deliberate error?

Our visit to St Ives coincided with the annual September Festival and there was plenty going on in the town.

There was evidence of Yarn-bombing on the harbourside with Jo McIntosh's knitted bunting.  Jo held a joint exhibition  with Carolyn Saxby earlier in the year which sadly we missed.

This pretty little view is from Madeleine's Tea Room in the centre of St Ives.  If you ever go you must call in there and sample their delicious homemade cakes and cream teas.  

Various singing groups and Morris Dancers performed in the streets and you can see from their expressions how much effort they put in and how much fun they were having.

The RNLI opened up their station for a coffee morning and I found this view from inside the station fascinating. 

The surface of the lifeboat provided some interesting patterns.

I was also drawn to these markings on the bow of the lifeboat.  Maybe they'll appear in a future piece of work.  

Needless to say my eyes were open all the time for textures and patterns around us and I'llshow you some of those next time.  I'm going to be really busy for the next few days as I am going to th Knitting and Stitching Show on Saturday and then continuing down to Sussex for my beautiful stepdaughter's hen party!  We're going to Goodwood for their last race meeting of the season so if you're going be afraid, be very afraid! LOL