December 2005

29th November - 1st December

More sewing, labelling, filling things with lavender flowers and posh French soaps. I want to offer a few items at under £10.00 at the Something Special show in Plymouth on 10th / 11th December.

The lavender bags (made from painted silk handkerchiefs) look buyable but accurate pricing is difficult. The little soap-filled Japanese-style bags in last month's log also look good but are quite small and so perceived value and actual time / materials value are possibly in conflict. On the other hand, a few days ago I saw a very poorly-made silk bag (in a colour a dear aunt used to describe as chien constipé) with some naff machine embroidery and wobbly topstitching. It was in a shop I normally note for its lovely things and was priced at £28.00. I wouldn't have paid £10 for it. Of course, maybe no-one else will either.

My posher bag versions are below left, made with silk scraps. They are silk-lined and padded (but not quilted) and trimmed with old buttons. I have mitred the bottom corners so that they have a base. I have since added a bead trimmed cord from the front button which can tie the opening closed to the button on the opposite side.

Top right is the simple tote bag version, lined and also made from random-patchworked silk scraps. Not padded, no mitres. All the bags are about 9" tall.

This is the twelfth month of my log. My visitor rate has gradually crept up and up, which on the surface seems great. However Himself Downstairs knows what I do up here by reading my log and I thus suspect that he sits in his den going endlessly in and out of my site upping my hit rates.

I do also seem to have a number of incredibly generous readers purporting to be located in West Africa who keep e mailing me and offering me large financial incentives to disclose bank security details - after which I shall be so rich I shall never have to fill another lavender bag.

2nd - 5th December

The monsoon season seems to have replaced the Arctic phase and tomato soup puddles have gathered yet again in our poorly- drained lower garden. One day, when I've nothing better to do, I'll try to dye something in it. On the work front I have finished the patchwork bags (below). I've made professional-looking tags by cutting up my postcards into strips and using a hole punch. Cheaper than having some specially printed. I ran out of cord to tie the last two bags and had fun making a metre of my own, remembering the course I went on in Bampton during the Spliterati Ply Split Braiding fest some years back. I had to hand twist it which took ages but it doesn't look bad (it's used on the two bags lower left).

Devon Artsculture have produced a very neat little booklet about the Something Special event next weekend with a page about each participant and an image of their work. They seem to have done a good job of distributing them to art centres etc as someone in south Devon told me they'd seen one already. And there were adverts in the two county magazines as well as a small editorial in Devon Today which also used a small image of one of my scarves. But there are so many fairs, late night shoppings and studio shows taking place at this time of year it's impossible to guarantee anything. I've tried to make things that I can still sell even if it isn't Christmas.

My brother Alex, shipmate Pete and the Good Ship Berrimilla are drawing close to the end of their epic trip and could well be rounding South East Cape off Tasmania next Sunday, which would certainly make it a something special sort of day. Click here if you don't know what trip I'm talking about.

As I shall be away for a few days after the fair, I am also trying to work the Christmas preparations into my schedule and have been writing Christmas cards. I used to make them myself but they took a long time to do and eventually I decided I'd prefer to support a charity and so Survival always gets my money. They also happen to produce cards with the most superb images.

6th December

I heaved a deep sigh of relief as a package of scarves sent First Class to London, Recorded Delivery, arrived after three days plus a weekend. I was beginning to think it must be lost. It reminded me of the times when I have been paid for work stolen from a gallery and the fact that if an item is bought there is a "ping" of satisfaction not directly related to the "ping" of the pennies falling into the piggy bank. If work's stolen, piggy may ping, but the soul rings hollow - although perhaps one should be flattered that work is considered worth the effort of nicking.

7th December

Today I'll do a check through all the scarves I'm taking to Plymouth and make sure they have labels. All the smaller items are now done. I then need to get back to writing Christmas cards as the heap, like the bread I have occasionally attempted, hasn't risen for three days. I am beginning to think ahead to a week's break after the fair, when I am going to be away from the studio. I need to write a proposal for a residency - which always becomes a bigger job than at first it seems. Proposal and residencies both, as I recall.

In the New Year I want to reorganise this website whch has become unwieldy to manage and perhaps read, because of the studio log and the impending need to have an archive for it after the first year. I also want to re-create a gallery section which is clearly an archive and have a different gallery or other section showing all the key items of work I have available for sale.

I don't have the expertise to produce anything as elegant as Fritz Donart's website which I have visited several times - always a good sign. The site is focussed on the work but is a beautiful statement in itself . After a while I do turn the sound off, but that's a nitpick.

8th December

The Christmas Card heap has risen considerably and I am feeling highly organised and not a little smug. The scarves (for Plymouth) haven't been checked as intended, so that's still to do. But Display Consultant and I laid out all the work on an area the size of the weekend's table and now have a good idea of the gadgets we need to take to make it all work. It's at moments like these that I realise what a tough job potters must have going to shows. All that weight and care with packing, and the need for space in transport and display. I can probably roll up a year's work and carry it into a show under my arm.

Talking of arms, I have a hole in mine right now after a follow-up blood test today to see whether my virtuous avoidance of eggs, cheese and T Bone steaks over the last 6 months have made any difference to my cholesterol levels. It does also seem that the surgery scales and ours have some difference of opinion; perhaps I should introduce them so they can fight it out (a Heavyweight Bout?) and then we might know where we are. Ours read heavier, as it happens.

My website hit rate has zoomed up over the past week which I am assuming is due to the Devon Artsculture brochure which has been circulated over the last fortnight. That's interesting and I hope the show will be well attended if people have been picking up the details.

I have applied to Art in Action 2006 and to Crafts at Bovey Tracey in June 2006. It will be a bit tricky if I am accepted for both but at this distance there is plenty of time to plan ahead. If sales of the smaller items like the bags go well this weekend it's worth thinking of making them for other occasions.

9th - 11th December

Plymouth show over. Devon Artsculture had clearly worked and cared very hard about this event and they and exhibitors deserved a better attendance. The show was advertised widely, leaflets and booklets were mailed, flyers were given out in the streets over several weekends and posters were displayed all over the county. The visitors that did come seemed to me to be exactly the right people, appreciative and interested in what we were selling and making, and often buying from one or other of us. I don't know whether my disappointing sales were a result of general reluctance to spend or specifically due to low attendance. Who knows.

I shall now be out of the studio for a week on a family visit and intend to forget about wax, silk and lavender.

Here's a view of the Guildhall yesterday with my set-up in the centre. To the left, just in view, are some of Peet Leather's wonderful felt hats and on the right a collection of Love Lammie unique handcrafted bags.

December 12th - 21st

Away to Malta for a family visit. My arrival-time at Luqa coincided with a massive thunderstorm complete with spectacular sheet lightning. It had been more than a bit bumpy on the descent, so I concentrated very hard on my book and tried not to think about the very curious airline meal served up earlier.

News in brief:

I have been invited back to The Market for Art in Action 2006. This is good news as it's always a brilliant place both to show, sell and be seen, and also to keep in touch with other exhibitors who come from all over the country and abroad.

Berrimilla arrived back in Sydney Harbour on Tuesday 20th. See above picture (thanks to Steve Jackson for letting me use it) and here for more in a Sydney Morning Herald article. The article mentions my glossary but then misquotes the carefully crafted phrases..

A shawl (Savannah series, if you've been concentrating throughout the year...) I sent as a thank you from Alex and Pete to Mrs Webmaster in Hobart has arrived, and you can see it below being worn along with the lads, who seem in more than jovial spirit. Or perhaps Alex is just showing the strain of several months at sea.

Alex is on the left, Pete on the right and Tricia in the middle. Thanks to Trica for allowing me to use the pic, and to Malcolm for taking it.

AND for those waiting - like noble citizens at the gates of Buckingham Palace for a health bulletin to be pinned up- my cholesterol levels have now dropped to the acceptable. So my diet has obviously worked and it means I don't have to take pills. Woohoo, as Alex might say.

My studio is a complete tip and with Christmas approaching this is unlikely to be remedied forth - or even fifthwith.

22nd - 23rd December

Nothing much to say except the family is arriving for Christmas and very nice that is too.

Below are a couple of pictures from my trip to Malta. On the way out I was able to see the vast cloud of smoke still coming from the Buncefield fire near Hemel Hempstead. On the way back I saw Etna on Sicily smoking away in the far distance and remembered a night on the volcano back in the early seventies when we stayed in a creepy mountain chalet-type hotel below the crater, made of dark, sinister wood. I think it was eventually detroyed in an eruption, fortunately some time after we left. We listened to a jukebox in the restaurant where we found, to our amazement, a track from Phaedra by Tangerine Dream. I didn't even know I remembered that - until I saw this picture. Memory is an odd beast. Perhaps my imagination has always been a bit overactive, but I remember feeling that staying a night on Etna was like lying on a sleeping dragon.

A picture taken from inside a ruined farmhouse. The local stone is cream coloured and when first quarried is soft and easy to carve and shape. After exposure to the air it hardens. This building has been empty as long as I can remember but this time the gates had been pushed down and I had a wander inside. Property and land is so valuable in Malta, especially in country areas, I can't imagine it will remain "unconverted" for long. Possibly the ownership is disputed, which is why it has been left to decay.

24th - 27th December

Not a lot to report on the creative front, certainly not from the studio. I have started to sort out one thing every time I come in so the workload decreases in the manner of Chairman Mao and the Journey of One Thousand Miles. I made the usual fruit stuffing for the Christmas bird to the sound of the King's College Nine Lessons and Carols. This has been my habit for the last thirty years of being a Mum and I am aware that with the increasing age of the brood things may change. There have been years I didn't hear it (Kovalam Beach, Kerala in 1985 being one..) and another the year on Skye I realised I had forgotten a key stuffing ingredient and had to do a 50 mile round trip to Portree, stopping to listen to the opening verse of Once in Royal David's city in a layby at Edinbane.

The Brood at Bude, Boxing Day

On the 24th I was also reminded of my father's phrase to describe those in a state of total bewilderment as "not knowing whether it's Christmas Eve or Waterloo Station" and in order to educate my possible log reader this week I looked it up to see whether there is any record of its being Naval slang, or a quotation from something erudite - or even otherwise. Nothing comes up with Google, and so it may be a Family Special. I thus record it here as one antecedent of much nonsense, no less my brother's stranger Berrimilla ramblings. Now, at least, it should come up on Google!

My Christmas presents were my favourite sort: things to read, things to listen to and a new tree.The tree wasn't wrapped in festive paper but has already been planted in the wiggly bed, which is the last phase of our Planting Plan.

I have not been accepted for Crafts at Bovey Tracey in June 2006 and I must make a diary note to go and see the event for myself anyway. Last year I was involved with teaching and exhibiting elsewhere. Rejection in whatever form is never easy and however polite the rejection letter one retrospectively reviews the slides one sent, the words one used etc. But I do have Art in Action in July to look forward to, which is exellent.