July 2007

July 1st

The personal disruptions earlier in the year have had two major effects on my work. One is that there is no back-up work available when a gallery sells out fast. The other is that at the time of year I normally draw a lot and produce new design ideas, (usually January / February) I was unable to do so. The hours I spent working with natural dyes also ate into experimental time.

So now I find I am up against a rather tight deadline and an unexpected demand for my scarves. With only two new design ideas (Gozo and Birsay) I also need to use or modify tried and tested designs to make sure I can produce sufficient work of good quality. It hasn't often happened before and it's good discipline but there is a part of it that can feel like a bit of a slog. I think the key is mentally to return to the inspiration source and try to recreate initial excitement. It's easy to plod through the mechanics without thinking, but I am keenly aware it doesn't produce such interesting work. It's also easy to lose technical concentration. I am so sure I know what I'm doing that I stop taking care, and suddenly there's a large blob of wax in the wrong place or the colour has taken leave of my senses and is thumbing its nose at me.

Metaphor-mixing is clearly a July Thing.

July 2nd - 5th

The pile of completed work is growing. Work went to the dry cleaners' and as there were no funerals, carnivals or weddings to prevent its being processed it's back already. I am waiting for a fine day ( please...can the rain stop?) to do a wash and rinse-out before procrastinating over my favourite job - sewing on the labels..

At The Devon Guild of Craftsmens' Summer Exhibition Carbon Footprint I have three scarves (see last month) but also three small hooked rug wallhangings. I have made about 6 of these over several years after going to a workshop given by Lizzie Reakes in Oxford. She doesn't seem to have a website or I'd give her a link, but she's written lots of books. She was an enthusiastic teacher and I loved the technique.

My main work this week is a series of clamped scarves (see opposite column, in progress) and a series of Birsay scarves on organza. Also at The Devon Guild is an exhibition called Craft Focus and I have taken down a selection of tools, materials and a sketchbook which look very grand, and somewhat bewildered, to find themselves in an elegant glass case with posh lights and captions. It will give them all ideas well above their stations and I can see trouble ahead when they come home in September. My brother might be somewhat amazed to see where his old shaving brush is spending the summer.

The sketchbook shows the original drawings which led to the Birsay scarves.

Birsay sketches from Orkney, 1996

Studio with Birsay scarf in progress

July 6th -13th

It's night time in the big city. The wax pot's cracked residue is a cool, rebuking lament for the unwakeable, and the yet unwoken. Slumbering plastic clamps tensely dream of gripping times. Dust dances in the studio moonbeams....

No, it isn't Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. It's Isabella's studio now she has finished her work before Art in Action. If she gets her skates on, she might be able to label it all before Wednesday.

But the big push to make work is over. I'm not quite sure how I've done it, but the thing has been, just don't think too hard about quantity. Like a nervous mountain climber I have tried not to look down into the number-and-list abyss. And except in the early hours of the morning I have managed to ignore the hovering Spectre of the Empty Stand.

Most of my useless store of knowledge comes form Radio 4 and the other day I heard a story told by a collector of miniature soldiers. He said his recurrent nightmare is unexpectedly to come across a shop full of all the pieces he most covets - and what joy! All are being offered at amazingly affordable prices. Checking his pockets he finds he has no money, so off he rushes to the bank. On returning he finds that the shop is empty. Everything has been sold while he has been away.

He shared this story on an online forum and found he was not alone. Many other collectors had similar nightmares.

I have two main ones associated with my studio work. One is that my stand is empty at the fair but I am surrounded by the wonderful work of hundreds of other people. That one I call the Spectre of the Empty Stand. The other is that my stand has a lot of work on it, but that I have made nothing that is not blue. That's the Blue Spectre.

Thinking about that, I wonder what the nightmare of the indigo-dyer might be.

July 14th - 16th

All work for Art in Action is now labelled, priced, photographed and rolled up ready for transport. Here are some images of my most recent work, including a couple of the natural dyed scarves.

I'll be leaving the Support Team at home in charge of dog and studio and will set off for Oxford on Wednesday. It looks like we might have a wet show this year.Wellies in Action?

1. Indigo and logwood on georgette

Hatherleigh Festival

On 13th July I ran a card-making workshop for the Hatherleigh Festival. It was the first time I'd done one on the subject and I think it went very well. I certainly enjoyed it. Students made wrapping paper from printing blocks and all managed several cards using pre-cut blanks, recycled papers, homemade and commercial printing blocks.

Some of the cards made by students

On Sunday afternoon I went to a performance in the very wet square given by a small band called Poisson Rouge - playing Breton and other French music. Despite the rain and our being English they managed to get us to dance. Astonishing. You can see me here - if you know where to look.

July 17th - 26th

Art in Action and La Niña

Readers who do not live in the British Isles may be unaware that we are suffering the wettest summer since records began. Some articles here and here. The Wet began in June and has continued almost sunlessly ever since. The country has suffered very serious floods, thousands have been evacuated, many are homeless and currently living without power and fresh water. The period between May and July has seen 38.7cm (15.2 inches) of rain, double the average.

Met. experts are ascribing our poor weather to La Niña. This is a climactic phase opposite to her more famous sibling, El Niño, both of which operate in the South Pacific and on the west coast of South America. El Niño is a warming of the waters; La Niña is characterised by unusually cold sea temperatures. This has the effect of allowing the Jet Stream to operate further south and drag in low pressure systems to our shores. A better explanation here.

Apart from creating a large dollop of human misery, La Niña is rotting crops, drowning livestock, felling trees and making us feel sad and blue from lack of sun. Our bees aren't getting out much and I have only seen one butterfly this summer.

In view of the problems others are still having - and some live with these problems permanently, of course - it seems almost churlish to mention our own difficulties at Art in Action. We set up in good weather on the Wednesday and were forecast a sunny Thursday but there were severe weather warnings for the Friday. A record crowd came the first day, clearly wanting to avoid the second. Quite right.

The situation in the fields on Saturday

Heavy overnight rain on Thursday / Friday had begun to saturate the parking fields, wash out the campsite, rise up underneath some of the tents and create middens of the pathways through the site.

Those with stands in my area each arrived in the morning with individual tales to tell of leaking tents and sodden belongings, roads closed by floods, cars bogged down in mud, concerns about animals they'd left in fields and so on. We all wondered how we would get out in the evening.

At the outer edges of our tent water had cascaded off the roof to pool and create muddy bogs. Exhibitors in those areas had to deal with a very unpleasant situation. But they cleared up, carried on and good humour generally prevailed. The organisers found straw and grit, dug ditches to take away excess water, laid strips of roadway, brought us tea at regular intervals and maintained the calm level of care that is a feature of this amazing show.

Happy boy strewing straw on muddy ground. Note examples of British grit having alfresco coffee in the background.

Given the day, it was amazing that people came to the show at all on Friday, but they did.

Art in Action - despite La Niña

I wouldn't want to give the impression that Art in Action was a washout because as usual there were beautiful things to see, hear and experience. I also sold a lot of work, met old friends and enjoyed getting to know other exhibitors near my own pitch. I spent less time with my camera than usual because of the weather but here are some images to remind me of a most extraordinary few days.

Davod Azad - master of classical Iranian music, Azeri folk music, Ancient Persian and Persian Sufi music. Here he is playing a frame drum called a daf.

And here am I at the beginning of a very soggy wet Art in Action 2007 day in posh faux chenille jacket teamed with muddy welly boots. No, I didn't make the jacket, but I could have sold it many times over. I probably could have sold the wellies too.