Origami

I am one of 10 Artists exhibiting in Bon Voyage! in the local Artlink Gallery. I have used old maps to make tents origami style as they invoke memories of camping holidays as a child, both with my family and with the Girl Guides. With my brother and my parents I camped in Europe  in the 1960s. When I had a family of my own we natuarally went camping too.  I also made Origami Yachts as I dreamed of being a nurse in the navy "when I grew up". My dad used to have a boat and had been in the Navy and my brother made a dinghy and sailed it on the Hornsea Mere. I didn't join up but I did train as a nurse...on land. I get sea sick on the ferries! But... I still dream of sailing around the Greek Islands, stoppping off and camping and setting sail again.....I am running a workshop with children at the gallery making Origami boats.These are pictures of my trial pieces.

Rust Play

Playing with old squashed rusty drinks cans aquired from the car park at the shops ! I was going to throw away some small pieces of material when I spotted that they were the right size for a plastic tub, also about to be thrown away and both were perfect size for the squashed cans.  I layered up the material, squashed cans and more material and so on then covered the lot in dishwasher salt and water and left overnight. Being too impatient to leave them any longer I had to have a quick peek and Hey Presto rusty stains on the cloth !! Why did I use dishwasher salt? because I had found some at the back of the cupboard I was clearing out ! (yes I do some housework occasionally!) Now the fabric was pristine white so Lyn suggested that I tea stained it to knock back the colour so thats what I did. Love the odd grey and black stains, not sure how they appeared. Still thinking what to do with them.....I also chucked in some tissue paper and hand made paper while I was at it ! Play ! play ! play !

Dylon dyes

I dyed my fabric for Shelagh Folgates challenge with price slashed dyes. I mix the powder in water and bottle them and keep on using them, they last for ages. It seems that shops buy in a display package of dyes and so they sell off the old stock cheaply. These were 15p and 25p a package but I have paid as little as 1p each !

Singer bench

Couldn't resist this for my garden, it's my treat to me ! If you look closely its made out of three Singer treadle bases. the sides make the arch, the foot plate the bench seat and the fly wheel the back rest. Made by a clever man called Tom from near Liverpool and  it was featured in a glossy magazine, Real Homes, March 2006.  I love it because it suits my quirkiness. I'm thinking of making three "cotton reel" cushions for it.

car polish

Spotted some car polish in Netto's for less than a pound and it rang vague bells about it taking the top colour off glossy printed mag pics., bought some, tried it and it does work beautifully, it distresses the picture by taking out the colour and the picture is nothing like the orginal. Had an enjoyable play ripping, sticking, and polishing.

Horncastle workshop

My friend could not attend a workshop she had booked so I went in her place. The tutor was Linda Westerman and the venue was Horncastle college. Linda had been inspired by some wrapped sticks she had seen on a programme about an archelogical dig in South America and made a whole body of work around them. She went on to make books and bags for the books to be kept in. I had taken what was required on the list, others, more experienced students seemed to have taken half their workroom stash with them!! How I wished I 'd had this and that with me ! The little bags that Linda had made had been worked on canvas panels....well I don't really get on with canvas.... The other bags she brought were white cotton.... So I did my take on them but made them out of the silk and put a beaded handle on. They still need finishing Instead of a book to go inside I decided to do a wrapped stick with one page on so that each stick would have text or image and could displayed individually. Keeping with her dig theme I made a stump doll showing off the spica bandaging I did when I was a nurse. Aged it, rubbed dirt into it....It was named George by the other students and they even made a poem about him ! The bigger book has pages made from Pampas grass and leaves found in the grounds, aged, gessoed, aged some more, the cover is strips of silk aged, gessoed and then stitched. The little concertina book was made to write Georges poem in. Everyone agreed that George needed a tomb so Linda is going to send me a wine box to turn into a tomb for him. Really enjoyed the whole experience.

"The Wall" continued

So this the wall, or rather most of the wall ! I have managed to chop off a bit of the left side ! One of the cameras is in that corner. What you can see on that side is an aluminium square pan lid, if you look to the right you will see the pan ! These were made after the WW2 and supposed to be made from the pranged Spitfires ! (aluminium pans were handed in to make spitfires nas part of the war effort) There are several quarry tiles from a little cottage nearby. (Quarry tiles were laid on an earth floor in the kitchen area in old houses.) Theres an old ships compass, Dad used to have a boat that was moored in a creek and was in the navy. That's got me started....I'm off for a rest, Walls are easy, computers are not !

"The Wall" again..

My "bus shelter" is full of things embedded in the second skin of the back wall. the sides are traditional double skin, the roof is polycarbonate to let the light in. On a night, the moonlight is wonderfull and sitting the rain is great fun ! I can dye fabric, make felt and play with messy things, to my hearts content. It was smothered in a clematis but a short sudden downpour with a massive drop in temperature killed it off last year. It was most bizzare, the leaves went limp and turned black overnight. The bench is supported on the porch supports from next door, I rescued them from the skip. So pleased with them. Hopefully you will be able to bring the next photo up full screen and pick out various items embedded in it. Each thing has a reason to be included, there two cameras, the Box Brownie shutter still clicks, a bakerlite telephone, a pink glass candle stick that was a part of a dressing table set owned by my daughter. The handle off my late mums wardrobe, window stays off the old leaded lights that were either side of the front door. Old ink bottles, a shoe last that belonged to my uncle who was a cobbler. See if you can see them.

"The Wall"

The brick that started it all ! The one in the middle of the picture has blown in the firing process so we have a convoluted brick shape with a big blob on the top. the sand in the bit on the top has fused to glass like glaze. The garden sub soil was full of them and I had saved them over the years because I found them interesting. I researched the old maps and found that across the road from me was a brick works. I had accumilated various bits of sand stone, quarry tiles, odd bricks and roof tiles.... etc I wanted somewhere to sit and work outside and the idea of a three sided shelter (nick named my bus shelter) formed. I cannot walk far now, no more rambling through the countryside for me , but out in this I can enjoy all weathers, the wind in my hair, the bird song etc.

In the beginning...

no I didn't want to get involved with blogs, I mean that would involve faffing with the !@?!! computer wouldn't it? BUT as so many people are interested in seeing MY WALL from the tiny bit visible under my dyed fabrics photo I posted as part of Shelagh Folgate's CREATIVE CHALLENGE.   Give me a bit of this and a bit of that and ask me to make a something or other and I can do it but as for touching a computer..... so here it goes... my blog is born