printed material: June 2009

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Fiona Watson

It has been another wonderfully sunny day and we're just heading off to our local beach at Amroth to sit and contemplate the sea at peace in the quiet of the early evening. Amroth is a beach comprised mainly of pebbles and thinking about it reminds me of the work of Scottish printmaker, Fiona Watson. I love these etchings. There is just something magical about them. There's more to her work than etchings of pebbles though so check out her website for a visual treat.

Fiona also has some wonderful photos on Flickr.

I am taken with these photos of unwritten books. It seems like a concept that could be adapted in many ways. Wonderful photos, so cleverly composed and displayed. Take a look here.

Sunday, 21 June 2009

The longest day

It has been a hectic week . I have been busy making printing plates, dyeing fabric, discharging fabric, overdyeing etc etc . I am working on a project that I might be able to post some photos of later this week. In the meantime I spent a wonderful day yesterday in the company of old friends from the Brecknock Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. We take it in turns to visit each other every year to coincide with the longest day weekend and we hosted this year so it was a busy busy day which finished with the decision to put out a trap as the weather was mild.

We had some fabulous moths, albeit in small numbers except for the hawkmoths which were super abundant! This picture below is of a Small Emerald. We had 8 of these - all in varying shades of green. Their lovely emerald green sheen fades as they age and makes some of them almost white towards the final stages of life.

These are a Green Arches and a Grey Arches. The Grey Arches in a certain light looks almost translucent and it is just as if you've laid gold leaf over the finest tissue paper in a wonderful filigree pattern. Sadly my camera couldn't catch the magic.You'll just have to believe me.

Alongside the hawkmoths were a couple of Barred Yellows. The colour is so buttery and rich.

.... and finally, the Coronet. What stunning marbled colouring. Nature is such an artist. No wonder there is so much inspiration to be found out there.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Swallows in flight

Our swallows have fledged! It happened this morning about 7.30 when I suddenly noticed lots of them flying around. Over the past few days the adults have been feeding at a prodigious rate going in and out of the pig cott 'like a fiddler's elbow'. The results of all their hard work are three or four strong flyers - I am unsure of the number because they're ducking and diving out there at such a high speed and it's all a bit of a blur.

It's still early enough for the parents to have another brood whilst these youngsters get their bearings. Over the next few weeks they will fly over the area and 'map' it into their brains. It will then be stamped on their subconscious and it will mean they will return here next year if they survive the 6000 mile round trip to Africa. They are my favourite bird bar none precisely because of this amazing ability.

Claire Brewster is a paper artist who uses maps in her work. I thought it appropriate to choose one of the swallow to celebrate the fact they are now 'on the wing'. Have a look at the rest of her work and scan the skies around you for young swallows. Their forked tails are not as long as their parents and their little bibs are not yet very rusty red but they will be out there!

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Creative people to admire

This is a snapshot of the work of Jennifer Angus. I first came across Jennifer's work about 4 years ago and I've followed it ever since, probably because she combines two things that fascinate me - pattern and insects! Jennifer is interested in the connection between insects and disease and compares the hysteria we have in the Western World about them with the way other cultures hold insects with a measure of respect. She uses the dried bodies of insects to create large scale installations. There is lots to see on her website and she has a great game to play called 'Whack the Weevil'. It's fun but there is a purpose to it - find out what it is here.

Similarly, I've long admired the work of Lisa Kokin who I came across through my interest in book arts. She works in a wide range of media but having a large button collection of my own, I would love to use them as creatively as she does below. There are a lot of button works to see on her website and I've just been left another large number of them by my Great Aunt Lilla so I have to find ways to use them - not that I have ambitions to do something so large or complicated.

I'm thinking of using them more along the lines of Ann Wood, who makes great paper sculptures. These horses are made of cardboard and Ann uses buttons as the hinge mechanisms to hold their legs and body together. She used the horses as a 'loosening up' exercise making and painting one on a daily basis and then gradually creating her stampede by pinning them across the wall. They all have names and some are fabric covered. Basically, it's an anything goes activity. Sounds like my sort of thing!

In fact I found a great word the other day which was 'ongepotchket'. It is a Yiddish word meaning 'thrown together without thought in a slapdash way'. Sums up my approach in a nutshell.

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

A Wing and a Prayer

I spent the weekend solar plate printing (disappointing - no sun!) and then visiting family and friends finishing at an Open Studios event in Chetenham yesterday. I came home to piles of post including two copies of old books on moths published in 1907 by F W Warne. Mine were cheap because they have been heavily annotated by the previous owner but I love that about them and it was partially why I chose them. It shows they were owned by someone who was really passionate about moths and these books have been cherished. I will do the same with them.

The latest Butterfly Conservation magazine also features someone passionate about moths. Artist Stephen Livingstone was alarmed by the decline in certain moth species and organised an exhibition with other artists last year called 'A Wing and a Prayer'. Looking at his work shows Stephen is a man after my own heart. He loves moths, making books and rust! What's not to like?

Five Scarlet Tigers

Grey Dagger

Ghost Swifts

I've only picked examples of Stephen's bookworks to show but have a look at his installations, paintings and drawings here.

In the meantime the national 'Garden Moths Count' event takes place in a couple of weeks time from 20 - 28 June when the search will be on for the Peppered Moth and the day flying Scarlet Tiger. If anybody is out there reading this, please have a look here and get involved. Look at how wonderful moths are. I promise you won't be disappointed if you find out more.

Thursday, 4 June 2009

It's that blue and brown thing again.....

The bag I made last week used fabric I bought in Ikea. At the same time I picked up a metre of a similar pattern with birds on. It was a lot thinner quality and quite cheap and it was white with black and grey line drawings on it. Well, you can see what I did to it today. On a whim, as ever, I was reading an article about overdyeing pre-patterned fabrics and thought 'Aha - I could do some of that today.....' So, in my usual serendipitous fashion I prepared a dye bath and although I always wear a dust mask until the dye is in solution, I forgot to put on my gloves so my hands are a lovely pale blue colour at present.

All dyers know that fabric should be prewashed before dyeing to remove size or dressing but this material was so cheap I just went for it and omitted this step. The first piece went in a terracotta dye bath but I didn't like the result. It was a bit patchy and although I am happy with 'patchy' usually, this did not suit. The second dye bath was a bit of Peacock Blue and a touch of Riviera Blue added - as you can see, I'm not a great measurer either - hence the fact that most of my dyeing is non-repeatable! I think it will dry quite a touch lighter than it appears on my washing line but I also put the terracotta piece into the blue dye for a quick dip. This changed it to a patchy brown which will also dry lighter. When they're both dry I'll decide what to do with it.

Right now my priority is getting my hands back to their normal colour.......

Monday, 1 June 2009

The bird has flown....

I'm beginning to think that I've become a nature diarist rather than blog about the creative avenues I'm meant to be exploring! It's just that it is such a fertile time of year that you can't escape Mother Nature at the moment. Take this beautifully constructed nest - which we found on the ground, blown out of a tree (probably because it was empty).

We have about a dozen nest boxes around the garden, most of them hidden, and we do not know what uses them until we clean them out later in the year. Most times we see nothing except for the box right opposite our back windows. Around the rest of the garden we have the swallows in our little outbuilding and now we've seen a couple of blackbirds using one of the ash trees as a nesting site. We found this little nest yesterday and you can see from the size of it in my husband's hand that it is tiny.

It is almost certainly a goldfinch nest which makes sense given the number we have around here. The size and material used to line it are spot on for goldfinches. I think it is exquisite.

Other things out in force at the moment are Painted Lady butterflies. It's been all over the papers about huge numbers flying in from the continent and friends have reported 'clouds' of them up by the North Pembrokeshire coast. We have not seen mass numbers but saw a large number yesterday in a short space of time.

My husband thinks it was the same butterfly going round in a circuit so believes we saw one butterfly lots of times. I'd like to think they're here in force but in truth we only saw one land and feed! I hope he's not right....

Last night saw a fantastic night for moths. These are Elephant Hawkmoths. Wonderful, just wonderful.

I promise to try and get back to my original focus for this blog soon but I am desperately waiting for the swallows to fledge and won't be able to stop reporting when they do. Every day is a vigil, keeping my eyes on the doorway or listening for the parents distress calls when the pesky magpies come sniffing around. When they do I'm over there like a shot clapping my hands and shooing them away. I'm a regular one woman vigilante group...... Do I need to get a life?