Tuesday

At my parents house. The field was being mown. And to a little boy who loves tractors it's a happy afternoon...

And walk in the field in the evening sunshine after the mower has gone. Brings back happy childhood memories of haymaking time. Memories of my dad helping to rake the cut grass into long winding rows for the baler, me jumping the rows and collecting stray pieces to add to the piles. Of my older cousins riding way up on top of the hay wagon. Golden evenings and being tucked up in bed as the sun drops behind the hill, falling asleep with the sounds of work and laughter drifting in on the breeze through the open window...

It's all done by machine now of course. But the smell of hay that fills the air hasn't changed at all. And the kids went to bed like a dream :)

Sunday

So its been a while. And I never really meant to stop writing here. But in the small spaces between looking after children, feeding and cleaning children, tidying and washing and cooking and working, and trying to catch up on sleep, there's not much time for making. And even less time for writing. But I miss it.

And I've just handed in my notice to my main day job, the art college print workshop technician job that I've had for nearly ten years and has taught me so much but that I can no longer make fit with my life. G starts school in September. I want to be there to pick him up. So, hopefully there will be more time for all of the above. And some bookbinding...

This is Vinnie. Here's evidence he does occasionally sleep...

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More prints, more cutting. And a wheelbarrow ride round the garden. Turbo blast off...

Album

I don't know why it's taken me so long to work this out. I've been trying on and off for years to make a photo album I'm happy with... one with pages sturdy enough to support the photos yet not too stiff; with spacers to pad out the pages and accommodate photos without looking unsightly or getting in the way; with a sturdy spine that will withstand the weight of added photos...

I've tried sewing a book with double the amount of pages then cutting alternate ones out but it's hard to get neat and wasteful of paper. I've tried sewing pages to a concertina spine which works as padding but just didn't feel quite stable enough. I've tried folding the edges of pages over and sewing, or gluing, with guards, without and it always came out wonky. To be brief I've tried a lot! And never been quite satisfied. 

But yesterday it came to me, just like that. I've been making concertinas from folded single sheets glued back to back for a while (like a line of alternating Vs), it's the Japanese method I think, and suddenly I realised if I pointed all the Vs the same way and put spacers at the spine edge I could glue it all together in the same way, and it would stay straight and square. Turns out it's sturdy with the sort of page thickness I want and the spacers are hidden too. 

So, this may be obvious, or just the way it's done, it's probably got a name but I'm just glad I've discovered it. :) 

Before the light fades...

Hand behind the tool. Don't slip. Practicing curves, wood chip in my eye. Soon I've got to walk across the park and it will be dark on our return, time for tea and pajamas and duplo and hopefully not tantrums. But for 20 minutes longer the (fading) light belongs to me. 

Wednesday

        

        

More woodblock printing today. Same blocks but after reading a few books and watching lots of YouTube videos I tried less water, better soaked paper and lots more ink. Gouach this time, not watered down and painted but straight from the tube and mixed on the plate with a little stubby brush (marubake). Getting there. Now I need to cut more wood...

More

More circles, more cutting. So hard to get anywhere at all in ten minute bursts days and days apart. Never getting to the feeling of loosing myself in what I'm doing, time is ticking not melting away like it sometimes can when things are good. Instead, getting stuck at worry, questions, doubts, is this right am I wasting the small bit of time I have, change it it. 

Anyway, just a note to myself; maybe don't worry so much. This is the way now. More circles.

Circles

This summer I had the opportunity to try cutting and printing Japanese wood block with my friend Jonathan (who makes very lovely prints indeed). Some circles...

Different to any print process I've used before, the wooden block is soaked with water and water-based ink is applied. Paper is laid over the top and pressure applied by hand with a baren. The ink is absorbed by the paper and this gives the resulting prints a vibrant quality which I love. I normally have such trouble with colour (with it looking murky or flat or clashing or just not how I want it) but on the thin Japanese paper the bright saturated colours look good to me. Although saying that...

A few weeks later I made some mono prints inspired by the previous circles. Paper stencils with grids of circles cut out. Two shades of grey because all the colours looked wrong. I'm interested in how the circles overlap and create new shapes as the ink builds up, the patterns left by the previous stencil. That's the beauty of the oil based inks to me, the transparency of a really thin layer, how the tone changes as the layers build up.

And I've been teaching George to draw circles. Round and round. He's getting it, less zigzag more curve (although zigzags are good too!) Mostly leads to ten verses of 'wheels on the bus' though... :)

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Spot the difference...

wednesday morning

Snow walks and blue skies. And now you are one.

October

After a lengthy seven months negotiation George has finally agreed to let me behind the sewing machine again, 10 minutes a day, on the condition I only make things for him...

So... A new quilt is in the making, to keep him warm on these rainy autumn nights. And beanbags!

george

6 months. 6 months. I wouldn't know where to start.

You like banana and sweet potato and pear. Chewing my fingers, kicking and grabbing and rolling and shouting. Bashing things, shaking things, throwing things. I carry you, I take you outside. We look at the trees, and the plants in the garden, I make plans in my head.

...

George Thomas

born 17th Feb

What a month. My world turned upside-down. Beautiful boy, today he smiled at me...

friday

First week of maternity leave over, and it still feels a little bit like I might have to go back to work next week, but also mostly like this is what life should be like! I've eaten proper dinners and cooked nice teas, the dishwasher and washing basket are empty, and the junk room baby's room starting to look less like a recycling plant (maybe). It's also been so nice to be able to make things in the daylight in winter...

I'm knitting a cotton blanket/shawl for the baby, a pi shawl, and my first attempt at a circular cast on (4th time lucky!) It's slightly disconcerting that the whole thing looks like a giant unattractive doily-like hat, but hopefully blocking will rectify that, if I can manage it. And I have some mustard yellow yarn for the edging if I dare...

I've also been making progress on my long term embroidery project. I love the work of Moira Blackburn; the colours and composition and the history behind the designs too. It's fun to design my own samplers, but much more relaxing to sew one of these. Half way there...

A couple of quilts completed too (for gifts, so no close ups yet...)

And Coco is feeling much better now, she is good at helping...

saturday

Today is quiet. I've cleaned the house from bottom to top, swept the cobwebs off the ceiling (then got mud on the carpet, oh well) and now I'm sat with an hour to spare. Peace.

And I'm going to go upstairs and carry on the clear out upstairs in the soon to be babies room. Yesterday I got rid of all my cardboard stash (what, you don't have a cardboard stash? Lovely large pristine bits of corrugated cardboard, no stickers or dints or print or writing, just waiting to be turned into packaging or storage boxes or who knows what... but also taking up about half of the wardrobe...) Its gone in the garden to be used to cover the veg beds in spring, the half built veg beds, oh well. Perhaps I'm starting to accept I won't use these things I keep just in case; that its better to use them now or to pass them on rather than to keep them there and have to keep track of them in my mind. Maybe my priorities are going to change, I want life to be simple.

 2012 is going to be interesting...

wednesday

Coco is home and looking much better (apart from a shaved patch, oh dear!) I think she'd kept the rest of the patients awake all night miaowing (she's a noisy one) but hopefully she'll be ok, back for a check on Friday (sorry Coco, cat box again). If only I could explain to her whats going on... oh well.

Photos from a walk across the park to the midwife today, muddy and very windy. Baby has jiggled himself head down, so all is well, and only a month and a bit to go of feet wedged between my ribs (hurray!)

On the way home there were hundreds of these birds, all picking at the moss and sitting in the trees and wandering about. They took no notice as I walked through them, then a few minutes later they all took off at once, filling the sky. I like birds.

tuesday

What a day. My little cat Coco is in the cat hospital tonight. She's been having kind of coughing fits for the last few days and I thought she perhaps had a hairball. She then started having trouble breathing so I took her to the emergency vets where she's had x-rays and scans and all sorts and been diagnosed with asthma. So I'm grateful it wasn't her heart or anything terminal, but it means medication for the rest of her life :(

She is a bit of a stress head anyway, and I feel so sad thinking about her in a cage at the vets all alone, can't wait until tomorrow when she's back home with me. Hope you're ok Coco.

friday

Well, the shortest day is over, and what a beautiful one. Sunshine, blue skies, unusual clouds... 

Today it's raining, but the mood lifting effects of the sunshine linger on. That combined with time off work, spending time with lovely friends and family and feeling my little baby swizzle around in my belly (trying and nearly succeeding to spill my cup of tea). More and more daylight now until I meet him...

tuesday

All the invitations are printed, and all that remains is to decorate them with tiny paper bunting, a task I'm actually looking forward to. I like fiddly repetitive activities and it's a good excuse to use up some of the contents of my 'white paper' draw (perhaps my favourite draw, who knows?)

These are just a few of the variations I printed as test pieces; three different card stocks, 4 background alternatives, three colours of ink. I'm terrible at making decisions about this kind of thing and usually just go for trying to do all the options, but I managed to narrow it down. It's really worth making test pieces like this (for me at least) as often things turn out very differently to how I expect. Even though it took me all morning I think it's time well spent as the final one I chose is definitely the right one. Although I didn't narrow down the backgrounds really, and ended up using 3 of them, oh well!

The actual screen printing went surprisingly smoothly. In the past when I've printed wedding invitations for others or large print runs there has always been a blocked bit of screen, or a break down, or botched prints with faint bits, bled bits, blurry bits. But today out of nearly 400 prints (two colours on the front, one on the back) only one went wrong and had to be binned. Very unusual. I'd made double of every screen in anticipation of problems, but really this ended up being a luxury as I didn't have to wait for screens to dry between layers, and instead of being stressful (like printing in a limited amount of time usually is) it's was actually quite enjoyable. Could've been because I had the workshop to myself and could sing as loudly as I wanted...