October 2005

October 1st - 6th

Rather a busy few days. My youngest children hit 18, which made me feel like a relic; thus there were Celebrations of which the Berrimilla crew would greatly approve. Nevertheless, I managed to make 6 scarves, and even deliver new ones to the Chapel Gallery at Saltram House. The journey to Plymouth, which I navigated and he drove, was a complete nightmare of roundabouts with onward destinations changed at every junction and which had the main object of our journey seemingly located down the central spiral of the map book. I am not the wincingly inadequate female map-reader of cliché, as it happens, and so this deeply dented my self-confidence. The ongoing sense of an ancient reliquary was reinforced by my falling backwards in the studio as my rear end missed my stylish Scandinavian stool and an expressionistic design in black dye arranged itself all the way up the studio wall. Fortunately the dye didn't seem to reach the scarves hanging on the same wall. A lesson in always putting things away or covering them up.

Below is the edging being sewn on the armhole edges of the celebration coat. The macro lens makes the sewing look even worse than it is. Today is the day I measure the hem, with the aid of a friend, and I will ask her to take a picture.

October 7th, 8th 9th, 10th

Preparing to teach, and a teaching weekend.

Safely sitting in my other stylish Scandinavian seat, the one that doesn't hurl me across the room in order to create unpleasant murals in black dye, I used to tap away at these keys with the happy illusion that no-one really reads what I write. And as I'm not into libellous accusations or intricate instructions on how to create weapons of mass terror I felt more or less safe from feedback, an imminent visit from the local plod or even MI5. Then... shock horror... I discover that one of my weekend students has regularly been reading what I write and even feels disappointed if I haven't done an update. Eek.

Thus in the interests of maintaining the fervour of this daily site visit I shall reproduce some pictures of the weekend's doings.

Last day of teaching tomorrow and as neither student has access to the internet tonight I daresay I shall sleep safe! It's been a great couple of days and as ever making them look at things has made me look harder too. For instance:

A stem of willow-herb just as the seeds are being released. The remains of the flowers and stalks up the stems have curled around in an almost calligraphic set of graceful lines. I only noticed it doing a preparation for an "observation" or "inspiration" walk (which involves dragging poor students around soggy moors) when the idea is to point out the many wonders of nature ... which I only noticed myself two days before.

10th October

Final day's teaching. It was a great weekend and here are some of the results including some steamed work from a former student:

11th October

Today The Times includes a major sailing article about Berrimilla, Pete and Alex. Their incredible adventure, undertaken with such understatement and modesty, is no longer the private property of friends, family and a few others who have come across their website along the way, as the Gust Book puts it.

To read the online version click here.

A textile artist requesting help from a pair of old salts making history off Tristan da Cunha must also be something of a first, so I will quote my brother's reply to an idle question I made about the best knot for joining lengths of dental tape:

For your dental tape dye ties, a reef knot tied with long tails and use the tails to tie a rolling hitch at each end of the reef knot to lock it and prevent slip - usually works. Gives nice tight small knot. Fisherman's bend needs a solid loop, as in fishook, so no go. Else a standard granny loop with double or treble sheet bend through it? Have fun kiddo!

So I shall try this out and report back to the Berri crew in their new advisory capacity. But I am somewhat concerned at the reaction of the Berrilog-reading public to the reason WHY sister Isabella might require to knot lengths of dental tape together, should they miss the crucial word "dye" in his reply. Perhaps they will envision dental plaque of unequalled squalor; strategically placed cavities requiring wider abrasive surfaces, or maybe that I'm just so effing mean I scab around people's dustbins picking up used tape to knot together, for reasons of economy. Or maybe to tie up parcels of work to send back to students after courses. Ok, ok, C F and A, don't panic. I'll use the regular string for yours.

12th October

Since the innocent aims of my dental tape-joining activities are now clear to the world via today's Berrimilla Log I shall direct any interested readers to the magnificent web-world of the Animated Knot. The diagrams for making knots are brilliant. Try this one for the Rolling Hitch. and this one for the Sheet Bend. I have yet to try them on the dental tape because I am first trying them out with string.

Sewing the hem for the coat has turned into more of a performance than I'd thought. Because the actual garment is so wide, being the full 44 inch width of fabric, it drops at the sides because despite my natural talent for tearing phone directories in half, my shoulders aren't yet quite as wide as the fabric. This means I will have to shape the hem, cutting more off at the sides, because if I hemmed it straight across it would drag on the ground at the sides.

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The coat is shown on the left. You can just see the side seam running up the garment towards the chair leg. The centre back and two fronts are where the hem needs to be cut least, hence the wavy line. To get this far, Chief Sewing Consultant and I pinned it up, but pins seemed to distort the hang of the fabric and made life more difficult, so very light tacking was necessary to check that everything looked sensible when the garment was checked again. I then took a deep breath and cut the fabric in a straight line, just above the fold in the hem. This allows about a quarter inch to roll up and whipstitch, which is my preferred way of finishing.

I have more or less prepared handout sheets for my workshops at St Albans. I wonder if students realise how much time and preparation go into these short workshops - probably more for short ones than long as there must be a properly realised result in a very brief period of instruction.

Also been sorting out my work for Patchings Christmas exhibition and another batch of work for the Art in Action Gallery.

13th October

Parcels went off to students and galleries today. I cut the hem of the coat (see picture for yesterday) and have started to hem it. Lovely autumn weather. This is the view over to Dartmoor this afternoon. Oak trees are just beginning to turn.

14th / 15th October

Oh dear. Coat hem is now whipstitched and looks really nice. Slightly wavy and floaty. But it has the effect of making the bound armholes look heavy, inconsistent and clumsy. I am wondering if I might actually unpick the binding and re-sew with the whipstitching. Do I have the time. Does it matter. Probably not, and yes it does.

The studio is looking is looking confused as I have several jobs and ideas going on at once. I have only a couple of days of work time available this week as we have a visitor coming, and on Friday I am driving to St Albans to the Guild of Silk Painters' Do. So prioritising is the key. I need to do a steam because it will be better that my painted samples for one of the weekend workshops are finished, and not vulnerable to splashes.

Phone call from Berrimilla last night at G&T time. Quick chat with brother, fulminating about onboard computer crashes. We opened a fizzy bottle to share with them and wished we could send the grizzly duo thin slices of lemon and chunks of ice to wash down the Old Medicinals. Gins in this Devon-based family, if you are at all interested, come in three standard strengths. In descending order: Industrial, Admiralty and Medicinal. There is probably a fourth in quantity diminution, the sort you offer great-aunts or the vicar, but our vicar never visits and the delightful recently-visiting aunt doesn't drink anything stronger than tea. So we'd certainly have nothing to do with it.

16th October

Studio confusion now total and involves laminator, cutting board, paper waste, gouache, clear varnish, painted samples for weekend workshop, scarves ready to steam, half-painted scarf on frame, assorted files, clamps and cloths. I shall wrap up the stuff to steam this morning to keep in safe from the unpleasant plans of my Scandinavian stool (see October 1st entry). The Evil One is probably plotting as I write.

I have one dyed stitched / twisted scarf to unwrap and am keeping it as a present for myself later. I love unwrapping dyed scarves. I haven't found time to unpick the coat sleeves yet but it's nagging. I shall have to see how things go this week.

This is a dreary update so if you've clocked in specially to see what I'm up to, sorry. A pic of my studio floor is not what you were dreaming of, unless it makes your own floor look better.

17th October

Confusion in the studio continues, nothing new to say, so no more of it. Instead, and for something completely different, a picture of Brusher Mills, New Forest Snakecatcher at the turn of the last century. He died in 1905. I lived in the New Forest as a child and knew nothing of him until I picked up a postcard of him in Exeter a few years back and started Googling. Here's a good link to his story. Assuming the image to be out of copyright by now, here it is:

Adders were not unusual in the New Forest, or our garden, when I was growing up. We had a dog that used to catch them, rather as described by Kipling in Rikki-Tikki Tavi. I am not especially frightened by snakes but go very peculiar about spiders and one has just stumped across the room and disappeared under a cupboard. Eek. What is it about them that does this to me?

If you are here seeking inspiration, quick new ways to twist a scarf or break a creative block, forget it. Not today. Tomorrow is the day to sort myself out and tidy up. And where the hell's old eight-legs?

18th / 19th October

And so tomorrow becomes today. The steamer is bubbling away below and I have just printed out a map of St Albans which reminds me that its Roman name was Verulamium. As a child I read lots of Rosemary Sutcliffe and my first big book turn-on was The Eagle of the Ninth. I think they did a radio adaptation too, in the days when children had their own programmes. So I rather like the Roman names for towns and places. Isca Dumnoniorum, Vectis, Aquae Sulis, and the one that always defeated our Irish history teacher at school, Camulodunum. She'd end up with something like Camulodunumumum. Or never get beyond Camulo- Camulo and have to bung in Colchester at the end. Beasts that we were, we tried to get her to say it whenever we could.

And now to Covey Crump. I offered Steve, Webmaster General of Berrimilla.com, to prepare a glossary for the Berrimilla website as a result of a very sensible suggestion in the Gust Book. I am under no illusions that this will end up being a larger enterprise than it at first sounds because one is dealing with Australianisms, Naval slang, sailing talk about sails and bits of string I know nothing of, literary, historical, meteorological, geographical, astronomical, biological and scatological terms as well as sheer unadulterated gibberish invented by my brother. I remembered that a dictionary of Naval Slang was compiled by one Commander A. Covey-Crump, RN, in 1955. I don't remember him doing it of course, just felt the facts should be put before you all. There's a lot about it here and the dictionary is quite a delight. So maybe I shall call the Glossary the Covey Crump of Berrimilla.

So again, it's trivia today as I start to sort myself out for the Weekend in Verulamium. And the spider still hasn't turned up again.

20th October

Trafalgar Day tomorrow and I won't be at home, so here's a big Horationic Hurrah a day in advance. I shall raise a consultative glass in St Albans at some point tomorrow evening, and probably do it tonight too since in Australia it's the 21st already. Nelson was a major hero to my Naval Dad and we lived just across the river from where Nelson's flagship, the Agamemnon, was built at Buckler's Hard in Hampshire. The ponds where the oak for shipbuilding was seasoned were large areas contained by raised banks in the saltmarsh. I am not sure if the wood was kept totally waterlogged or was just covered at certain stages of the tide. But the banks can still be seen today.

My brother Alex took Berrimilla down the river when he was in the UK and took the picture (above left) for me, looking down the river from the old slipway at Buckler's Hard to where we used to live - in the trees top right of the picture. I mean, our house was in the trees, we were not really a family of early primates despite local gossip. The oak ponds are across the river to the left, but just out of picture. The right hand pic is one of mine, looking over to Buckler's Hard (you can just see the buildings lining the old slipway) from the marshes on the river bank near our house. The oak ponds are over to the right but you can't see anything of them in the image.

It is the area of saltmarsh where I took all the pictures that so inspired me in my Savannah series of scarves and will probably always be the bit of landscape to which I feel I most belong.

So that's it for me until after the Guild of Silk Painters' Do which starts on Saturday. See you next week. Splice the Mainbrace.

October 21st - 25th

Drove to St Albans on 21st. Not a bad journey and listened to a play about Trafalgar on the way based on contemporary accounts. I hadn't realised that John Franklin, later Sir John Franklin of the North West Passage Expedition, was a Midshipman at Trafalgar. I had begun to wonder about "Lord" Franklin a long time back as I have always loved the folksong of that name and wondered what it was really all about, so I investigated. More here if you are interested too. Actually, I first liked the tune in the Dylan song "Bob Dylan's Dream", and only later realised that it was from a traditional source.

Here's a pic with the White Ensign waving above St Albans Cathedral on Friday afternoon and an interior, looking up at the wood ceiling. The choir was practising before evensong at the time.

The event I was attending at St Albans was to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Guild of Silk Painters. I have been a member for a few years and am really impressed by the committment and hard work the committee put into keeping the Guild up and running, encouraging higher standards, making people aware of the medium, running exhibitions and demonstrations. I had been invited to teach three two-hour workshops.

The first was Layered Dyeing. I decided that, rather against my usual practise, I'd have to set a very structured project to ensure that all the students worked through a set of "problems" so that by the end they understood some of the principles involved.

On the left is a part finished version of my design which I photographed when I was originally working out how to structure the workshop. The white arrow is pointing to the area which is the last to be painted, and you can see the final application of gutta forming circles and dots around which the darker browns and reds are being painted.

I composed a design of a fish with a piece of weed in front, weed behind, and a pure white area around the eye. This meant that at least 4-5 layers of dyeing had to take place. Each student had two sheets of paper with the fish outline. One they could cut up as a gutta guide, and the other was for reference. Here are some mid-way images of students' work. In the centre image you can see the cut paper template the student has been using below right. All the students achieved very different results and as you can see managed to create individual work, despite the rather rigid structure I had imposed! Some students brought their own dyes, others used mine.

The second workshop was called Stitch and Tie, Clamp and Dye. Offering this title to the Guild back in October 2004 I had based it on a workshop I'd done using silk with acid dyes, and Dylon on cotton. (Dylon only for convenience in a workshop situation, not because I'm a huge fan of the dye!). With stitch and cotton, we'd had some good results but I'd never done much with silk and stitch unless I was also dyeing with indigo, when I'd found it very effective.

So when I tried to prepare some advance stitch samples with acid dyes and silk, I was very disappointed . I had some nice soft textures, but no drama. In the future I should call this silk-and-acid-dye workshop Twist and Tie, Clamp and Dye. The workshop went well although I should have had some more irons available. Most people wanted to try the fold and clamp technique and it takes a while for a novice to learn the fold and create the wad of fabric to clamp. So people had to wait around a little, which I hate. This delay was not overly-assisted by my losing the plot and forgetting how the fold went myself. Complete gibbering idiocy, like forgetting one's own phone number in a crisis. Eventually I got it together and the workshop went well, with some interesting clamped scarves emerging. Some students took unwrapped work home so I hope it went well for them when they opened up. I'd be interested to know how Clare's samples turned out.

On the Sunday I ran a two-hour workshop called Design for Silk-Painting. I have run parts of this course before in other circumstances but never in a short, sharp hit. I wanted students to consider what creativity is, what design is, how ideas might be derived, gathered and developed, and how all of it related to the function of the wearable scarf. We fitted in a number of activities and managed some discussion about what seemed to be happening in them. I ended up the session with a colour-memory test done with household paint colour samples. There were more activities up my sleeve, so I think I had assessed the timing about right. I kept notes on the length it took to complete the activities as I'd like to develop this course in other directions.

The image shows four collages done in rapid time on A4 paper with L shaped masks isolating a selected area. Students were invited to isolate an oblong shape with a composition that pleased them. We then looked at all compositions and each student chose an oblong which interested them and tried to explain why.

On the Saturday evening there was a Dinner for tutors, committee and members of the Guild - which included visitors from France and Norway. The menu I had selected on July 24th turned out to be beautifully cooked and presented! Afterwards, those who had made garments for the Fashion Parade were called up to the stage to show off their garments. I don't know everybody's names, but there were some wonderful pieces of work: Alison's turquoise and purple lined jacket; Tessa's blue (I think wax-resisted) outfit; Mary Day's stunning flame-coloured draped dress, Denise's sculpted scarf and a scrummy rose pink coat - don't know if she made the coat too- Jackie's slatey-black patterned dress; Lee's delicate pink and black jacket, Keiko's kimono jacket; a stunning devore velvet dress with a shrug, worn by a member whose name I am happy to give if someone out there will tell me who she was...! and so on. I don't have any photos as I was so busy trying not to look self-conscious it made me unable to use my camera, so would welcome the chance to post any here if anybody can send me some. Full photo credit will be given. I think my coat was a success. I didn't have the time to re-sew the sleeves but a respected authority at the event agreed with me that the armhole edges needed a re-think.

Lee Creswell on the left, wearing a jacket for which I have no construction data! I will try to fnd out. And the coat is there, with me in it, on the right. Thanks to Lee for sending me this picture and giving permission to use it.

Apart from the teaching, the best part of the event was catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. I am so delighted to have, at long last, met Lee Creswell and Leonard Thompson.

Now I'm back at home with the studio smelling of lavender. I ordered some from Jersey to fill Christmas bags for a Fair in Plymouth in December. Time to work and remove myself from this machine!

26th October

Not a huge amount to report. Using some scarves with pre-dyed backgrounds (I mean, pre-dyed by me) I have clamped and further-dyed some scarves to see if I can achieve an effective result in one working. Out of the 8 scarves I did yesterday and today I think I have 6 or maybe 7 usables, which isn't bad. The one or two losers will have to go round again. My aim is to produce a really quick result so that I can market a scarf at a very reasonable price for the Christmas market. At the Plymouth Fair I will need low-priced but attractive items and I want to be able to produce a scarf for under £20.00.

27th October

With good weather forecast for the day, we decided to go out to Bedruthan Steps on the north Cornwall coast. The steps are closed from Monday 31st for the winter so there was just time to snatch a visit. What a spectacular place.

Looking at these images and also some I came across in an old sketch book recently I think I might try to work on a design using the texture of sea and waves against flatter rock shapes. The picture top right is the closest to what I am describing. When I thought of doing it some years back I wasn't using wax and I didn't like the feel of the design using the rigidity of gutta lines. Now, with wax, I can see it working.

I also want to go back to my old surfer design (it's the design that is old; the surfers were young Hunks) and see where I can take it. I think I kept an "archive" scarf as I thought I might need it again some day. Tomorrow I will try to find it. I was pleased with the surfer designs but I put them onto a gauze silk, which is vulnerable to pulls and snags and wasn't suited to an intensely worked design which surfer is. At Fistral beach, Newquay today (below) the sea and beach were heaving with figures holding boards, running into the sea, swimming and even catching some waves. Good colours, shapes and textures.

October 28th

It just so happens that today was dental check-up day and so the whole family rolled into Torrington for the Great Inspection. It also so happens that Torrington is where I buy all my dental tape because there's one of those bargain shops selling shampoos and combs and cards and mirrrors and toothpaste in Arabic - and it is all amazingly good value. Dental tape costs 99p for a 50 metre roll. Most supermarkets don't get within washout and spit distance of that price. Today I bought 5 rolls and trotted into the dentist's waiting room just willing the receptionists to remark on my spectacular commitment to oral hygiene. But sadly, no-one noticed. Maybe it happens all the time and they are just tired of asking textile artists the same dumb fool questions about their bulk purchases of dental tape and waiting for smart-ass answers regarding assisted dyeing.

Started using it this evening for a new batch of scarves as I am selling them well and keep needing to top up stocks. I am aiming to get 20 done this time, because last time I did 12 and they are all gone.

And unfortunately we are at firework time of year, which means the collie becomes a quivering wreck every time a rocket goes up. A helpful set of pet-care hints in our local paper offers the practical suggestion to "play games with your dog" during firework displays. I am not quite sure what they have in mind but rallying the whole family around beneath the kitchen table to play Monopoly with a dog threatening cardiac arrest probably isn't one of them.

October 29th -30th

Oh. Could be that Monopoly would have been a good idea given the state of the floor and dog-bed this morning. I've spent the last half hour looking up advice on how to help your dog when it freaks out at the sound of fireworks and gunfire. This was a helpful set of pages but there are lots more.

Started tying the new batch of twisties. They are lining up like a head of white dreadlocks.

October 31st

Goodbye-day to October. Wind whistling around and flailing chains of rain lashing at the windows. We are trying to decide what types of trees to put in our final garden planting phase.We have a clay soil that looks like Death Valley in dry spells and the Somme in the monsoon season. The flower bed in question is badly drained and heavy rain makes Heinz Tomato Soup coloured puddles with our red Devon soil, which are slow to drain. Only a few trees will put up with that sort of nonsense.

More twisties tied and some now dyeing.

Life Class tonight. This is my third weekly session after many years without having a class nearby. It is great to be able to spend an hour or so on just one drawing. And so I get greedy. Can we have a whole day drawing please..? I shall ask.

While I was out a large bloodstained, masked figure turned up outside the door weilding a bloodstained baseball bat. Fortunately I had remembered to buy a variety of jelly snakes, wine gums and those fried egg thingies. Apparently that soon got rid of him.