The Textile Cabin

06.03.08, originally uploaded by Ray_chel.

A newsletter I designed for my students at the beginning of their course.

This blog post is dedicated to my husband Roo who after a busy day out at work comes home to me and my mess and still loves me!

Tips on working at home:

• Waking up. Set the alarm for a realistic time. If you can’t actually wake up for the 6am alarm, don’t set it. If you can’t manage the first task you have set yourself for the day you might wake up feeling disappointed. When I am ambitious in my alarm setting, unless I have to get up for something, I don’t. Then I wake up an hour later feeling angry and disappointed with myself. When I set the alarm for a later time, I wake up and continue my day with a more positive approach.

• Working hours. They don’t have to be 9am - 5pm. Find a routine that suits you, be it midnight to eight in the morning or after lunch through to late evening. As long as you are getting the work you need to get done, done then do your own thing.

• Getting started - just start. The hardest thing to do sometimes is to start work. In amongst the housework, walking the dog, cooking the dinner etc is the nagging feeling that you should be working. Pretend the rest of the house is not there and just get started. Frustratingly the one thing I want to do (getting on with my art work) is the one thing I put off until I have done everything else.

• Saying No. It’s really difficult to say no to people especially if you are a people pleaser.
  • Don’t answer the home phone if you need to concentrate - have a separate line for work calls and check the home phone for messages later.
  • Get a sticker for the door if you frequently have sales calls etc.
  • Let friends and family know you are working.

• Getting the work done. Make a list - do the quickest and easiest things first and then move on to the time consuming jobs. You will then know you have made a good start, have a sense of achievement and the other jobs won’t be on your mind.

• Have a break! Don’t forget to have a break. Eat well, get some fresh air, get out of the room you have been working in and relax!

My sketchbook of 2007 had a boost of content when I spent a week walking along the South West Coast Path in Dorset and part of Devon, a few weeks ago.

My husband was on holiday in Iceland and so I had a whole week to myself with my pens, paints and sketchbook. The camera was also in Iceland so in order to record information and ideas I had to draw and paint. Being an artist, this should come naturally but I found that recently I have been rather lazy and relied too much on my camera so this was good exercise for me.

I began my week in Lyme Regis; visited West Bay for the first time; walked along the tip of Portland; bumped into an old friend from school at Durdle Door; avoided ricocheting bullets in Kimmeridge Bay and encouraged my dog to swim in Studland Bay.

Photos of work up soon.  

I am applying for an artists residency at Wooda and because of the postal strike I couldn’t post it in time for tomorrow’s deadline. So I have been busy using the joys of keynote, garage band and slideshare to make my application accessible.

I am quite pleased with it apart from when I say the word ‘raaaainforest’.

Well the year has flown by and we are once again in August with Hampshire Artists starting on Saturday 18th. This year I am exhibiting with Gill Drew who is also a felt artist.

I will be busy working on my Hamble River project during this time. The opening hours are on the Hampshire Artists Website.

I got a little muddy this morning after walking on some seaweed which suddenly turned to deep mud. Why is it whenever I am in these situations I try and think of what the newspaper headline would be if things went horribly wrong?

I was investigating some strange shapes along the shore and went a little too far when suddenly I found my feet had disappeared into the mud and when I tried to pull one out it went further in.

After a quick look around me to check that a) no one could see my embarrassing predicament and b) that there was someone around to help if I needed it, I managed to free one of my feet from the sticky, wet mud. Knowing that if I put my foot down things would not be any better I threw my new hardback sketchbook down onto the muddy seaweed. Carefully treading on the hard cover I pulled free my other foot and secured a step onto the firmer ground where I had just come from.

Mum, I’m very sorry that I put myself at risk and I will try not to do it again!

My shoes which have been trustworthy to the last are now clonking around in the washing machine and my adventure is over. I have learnt a most valuable lesson today: always buy a hardback sketchbook…no sorry that’s not it…um…

Having been a felt maker for just over 6 years now and a human being for nearly 29 years I am discovering a freedom in felt making that eases my anxiety and helps me to let go of my worries and inhibitions.

I have recently been feeling very anxious for no obvious reason to me and have been avoiding work. This morning I got started on a piece before I had a chance to start worrying about something and found that the work began to relax me.

I have been interested in Art Therapy for a while now and would love to study it as a profession. On applying to Roehampton University last summer I was thankfully rejected - I knew it wasn’t the right course for me and am glad I didn’t have to make the decision on whether to accept or not but hopefully one day when I am older and wiser I will be able to learn more. I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on Felt Therapy, please feel free to leave a comment.

Alice Kettle is a local textile artist who makes beautiful embroidered art. Gill and I visited Winchester to see Alice Kettle in the process of making an enormous ‘free machine embroidery’ at Winchester Guildhall. When we arrived she was hard at work and the panels of the 16.5 meter long embroidery were stretched out on the floor. Alice has nearly finished this work which has taken almost 2 years to make, ready to be displayed as a permanent embroidery at Winchester’s new Discovery Center in October.

After a tea and jam dougnut (which was delicious) Gill and I returned to the gallery to hear Alice speak. Some of the things she mentioned that I do not want to forget are:

• that when using embroidery you are doing two things; one is drawing; the other is constructing.
• when Alice works she stitches from the back and cannot see what she doing on the front which she finds liberating.
• I was touched by the idea that this piece of work has been created to last for a long long time and that she wanted it to be timeless. It is mysterious to think that people in hundreds of years will be looking at this work. Usually we are looking at work that was created hundreds of years ago and I have never thought of looking at something new the other way around.
• that when working alone you are your own worst enemy and how encouraging it is for people to visit and comment.
• I was also encouraged by her enjoyment of her work; her enthusiasm for colour; and her excitment about new ways of working by using old and new machines and involving other artists.

Alice will be working at Winchester Guildhall until the end of July and speaks about her work most Tuesday mornings. If you are in the area go and have a look, it is definitely worth a visit. The scale of the piece is breath taking and the colours of the threads intermingled with each other are glorious. I am really looking forward to seeing the piece finished and up and have been thoroughly refreshed and inspired by seeing it in patches on the floor.

The Hertfordshire Art Fair is two days in with tomorrow being the last day and so far it has been very encouraging. I have sold a few pieces of work (enough to cover my cost of the stall) and the comments I have recieved have been very positive. Thank you very much to everyone who stopped to look at my work and was kind enough to comment on it. I have heard the words ‘beautiful’, ‘unusual’ and ‘unique’ a lot but was really chuffed when a few people described the work as ’scrumptious’, ‘delicious’ and ‘comforting’.

The atmosphere is good with a steady stream of people coming through the door. There is jazz playing in the background which the exhibitors have had enough of and when someone sells a piece of work the other exhibitors are really pleased for the artist and an echo of congratulations can be heard. I am exhibiting opposite Richard Friend, and next to Ovendeart. Other exhibitors who are in the same isle as me are Hannah Biggs, Artphilogallery (a collection of greek artists), and watercolour artist Denis Ryan.

I have been spinning yarn in the moments between talking to people and straightening frames and generally enjoying meeting other artists and visitors to the fair. As much fun as doing the fair is I am looking forward to being back in my own bed and back in Southampton. I quite miss the general noise of my home, it’s a little too quiet here in the cottage we are staying in and we are surrounded by rapeseed fields. Achoo!