Holiday at home

Because of the heat, and having so many nice projects to keep me busy indoors, on this gloriously sunny (and warm!) Bank Holiday Monday I stepped out only for a few moments this morning, to water the garden and trim the hedge a bit (trying to stave off, or mitigate, "box blight").

Haven't spoken to anyone all day. This is unusual.

Have walked only 3000 steps. This is very unusual, the target is 12K. However, whenever the fitbit gave that hourly buzz, I dutifully leapt up and ran on the spot till it buzzed again to tell me that 250 steps had been taken. Pat on the back. Fine.

I made a "pot" - based on a wide bias tube. It elongated itself on the sewing machine -

 ... and looks quite elegant when turned inside out -

 Ideally, this should be sewn on the serger. Next time...

In the Woodblock Department, all blocks for the "Korean dolls" print have been cut, and I was ready to start printing -

But the apples got in the way. They have been dealt with, to the accompaniment of two episodes of Beyond Belief, which along with On Your Farm (and The Life Scientific) is one of my favourite Radio 4 programmes -

Tomorrow, the prospect of printing will have me leaping out of bed at dawn. Like today -

Studio Saturday - stirrings in both studios

Making a dedicated space to keep all my woodblock printing materials together was a good use of two hours -

 Meanwhile my drawings from the summer school were relaxing back into some degree of flatness after being rolled up. I looked at them again during the week and haven't thrown any out just yet....

 Meanwhile the final stages of this print were happening -

 ... and here's an indication of "how the light gets in" ...

 Sometimes the sky is wonderful. I do love a wide open sky -

 Having the table under the window clear has encouraged me to visit the studio every morning, to sit in the chair and ...breathe... and look around and pick up a pencil, eg to do some tracing -

 Somehow I tricked myself into clearing off most of the workbench. What bliss to have so much clear space! (Yes, I say this every time it happens....)

 And how good it was to go to the studio on Friday, if only to leave the pots that are ready for dipping. Sometimes other things need sorting, and you don't get around to what you intended.

It's made me want to stitch, though.

Studio Saturday - the table by the window

Since the sudden clearing of the table by the window I've been enjoying sitting there first thing in the morning, sometimes to get on with a bit of woodcut

 ... and sometimes to sit and think and plan -

 ... and sometimes just to focus on the marks on the table (once a door), perchance to photograph them -

 This week I've sewn not just one pot -

 but several -

 Four small ones in a row, their documentation stowed within -

 ... and the fifth, ambitiously large, with some double-sided, woodblock-printed "envelopes", a project that has almost reached its end -

 A "bit of a cleanup" was thwarted by finding this old bit of calligraphy, from the early 2000s if not before -

In sum: the window-table is usable, the workbench is still piled high, a few pots are ready to dip ... but when will I get to the studio? All next week is spoken for, by the summer school at The Drawing Room, and the joys (horrors?) of getting there by tube in 30-degree temperatures.

Studio Saturday - small steps with ceramics

Gradually some little fabric pots are accumulating, on days when I listen to a podcast and sew while having the first coffee of the morning. 

When I arrived at the studio I put the padlock and keys on one side of the desk, and my five little pots for dipping on the other side -

 Jackie had left some info on plaster moulds, in response to my mention of thinking of maybe using some -

 The fab five -

Oops, fabric can collapse, I had somehow forgotten that - but it led to a new way of gathering and storing info -

 Five pots drying out -

Studio Saturday - in the sewing studio (and elsewhere)

A commission to make a travel bag (Central line) has got as far as the handles and a bit of a dither over the lining fabric -

None of these were quite right for my "vision", but I've found something that feels right.  It will probably take an hour to finish, once I sit down at the sewing machine.

There's also this dress, which has been hanging around (literally) for about 4 years. It's been even longer than that since I put in a zip. Time for a refresher (via youtube etc) and some quiet time at the machine -

 The dress is now somewhat too large so my aim in finishing it is to be done with it and to get it off my back, and conscience - and onto Freecycle.

While searching high and low for my secateurs I discovered these pots carefully wrapped up in a drawer -

 Some are a bit chipped and might be faux-repaired with my slapdash version of kintsugi, which uses (real) gold leaf to highlight the broken edges -

One or two, the simply-stitched ones that got a bit slumpy in the kiln, are very much to my liking and might be the start of a series, or grouping. Ideas are knocking into each other and as soon as the weather gets warmer I'll be back in Studio 6, dipping and firing. Oh, and as soon as the series/grouping is stitched in fabric - there do seem to be a number of other things going on.... For instance, there never seems to be enough cuddle-time with the grandbaby -

and the gardens-over-the-hill needs a bit of TLC, but up close they're looking pretty good (imho) -

And there's my own little garden, with geum, tulips, forget-me-not, that grey plant that grows so well but whose name I've forgotten, the huge rosemary bush, and at the top of the steps, the pot with the luminous pelargonium and the euphorbia, which needs watering daily...

Studio Saturday

Getting pots ready for "Aurora"s first firing -

 In...

 ... and out ...

The cones show that it would be a good idea to try a lower temperature, 1220 perhaps, and save some electricity. This firing used 11.6 kWh.

Some results - using fabric strips and oddments of wire -

No metal, just gathered synthetic fabric and heat-setting

The rest -

All very light=fragile; one crumbled when I picked it up. Next time, thicker slip!