mixing it

working on several projects at the moment..... as always really..... above is a sample of the cover for my next book project - a book of poems 'here and there' - it's coming along..... I'll hope to have the completed two-fold book, containing two little books of poems ('here' & 'there') completed soon....



and an experiment in mixing natural dye colours, those lovely soft earth tones with something much brighter.... why? I had a dream I was stitching a piece of pale cotton with many bright, vibrant running and circling patterns....... So I am trying this out, to see if the bright and the light can make it work together....

mosaic monday

1. From the Train, 2. Another Certain Woman, 3. Position 3, 4. transformations, 5. dusk, 6. etude 188, 7. daily sketchbook pages, 8. Vorundzurück mit Formen, 9. works, 10. charity begins with a swarm, 11. 。, 12. Errata, 13. Untitled, 14. business as usual, 15. le thé des écrivains, 16. dear to the moss, 17. No. XIII, 18. we give so much, 19. he is at war against hisself, 20. cause and effect, 21. swimming 4, 22. Image《像》 210*120, 23. Dwellings, 24. nigella papercut, 25. Nursery Pictures

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

A very warm Monday to you..... it is hot and the fan is blowing piles of paper on my desk but I don't mind..... here's a mosaic of recent favourite images via my Flickr contacts. Many thanks to the artists featured....

This week I am tackling that paperwork, making new items for my shops, and editing poems..... the poem/artist book I'm working on, 'here and there', has a design format and now I just have to work it all out..... it is going to be a very busy time so I better get on with it all.... Expect new things to appear over coming weeks and I'll share more soon.

Have a very good week.

sketchbook Sunday

A sketchbook page from the weekend.... not sure where we are going - perhaps this is the title for this sketch.... I am not sure where I am going with these interconnected portraits but while they come they will come......

Friday

Red glove.... one of a series of smaller sketches that you may have seen emerging in recent times..... more next week.....

I'm looking forward to watching Glastonbury this weekend and enjoying all the music ..... take care and enjoy

new dye, new wip

Work in progress....... I'm making a series of mixed media portraits sewn on 'tags' made from old book covers.... I'll share more once progress is made, early days.

natural dye colours coming together to make yes bunting...... a way of collecting together different hues..... this will be a slow project for the Summer.....

and Lady's Mantle, one of my favourite garden plants. It is not just a garden plant though, as it seeds itself about and can often be found growing on wasteland. Infact just today I walked by a swathe of flowering LM growing wild along a verge. I'd just got off the bus and hadn't noticed it there before. I like the frothy green flowers and the dewy look on the leaves in the morning. It is a herb plant grown for medicinal purposes, for many years associated with womens health.

I grow it for show and also to use as a natural dye plant. Usually I boil the plant up to obtain the dye colour - shades of yellow and beige, sometimes a lovely greenish shade. However I'm experimenting with not cooking in a pan, but wrapping it in cotton fabric and slow dyeing in a jar with lots of sunshine......

Today is St. John's day and I had hoped to share with you a post all about dyeing with St John's Wort etc..... but I'm not today, as 1. the plants around here are not at their peak just yet - the warm weather has only just arrived and a slow spring has put things behind a little.... and 2. I've been so busy with other things. But I will get around to a St. John's Wort dye post some time soon.... or you can look back to my dye experiments last year:
http://cathycullis.blogspot.com/2009/07/dye-studio-tuesday-part-two.html

Wednesday

.... and to think I almost didn't sow any sweet pea seeds this year..... first one to flower.... it is very warm today so I literally nipped out took a quick snap and came inside again.

I am busy packaging items to send - thank you for visiting my Midsummer event sale.... it continues until tomorrow evening. Thanks so much, I really appreciate your support.

There's a new poem to read, 'Someone', over at nevering.

Monday

A happy Summer Solstice Monday to you...... Apologies for no sketchbook pages yesterday so here they are today......

Unfortunately I have been feeling the pain of wisdom teeth nagging me - they flare up every so often, so yesterday evening I was in no mood to do anything but feel sorry for myself....... I shall be ok.....

I am busy getting things prepared for my Midsummer Event - starts tomorrow in my shop. I'm offering past work at special prices....



Just a selection of a few drawings and stitches.....

One of the things I am excited about offering is a 'surprise lucky dip' envelope of two or three original works on paper + postcard prints, moo cards etc.... from the recent past - each envelope for just £12. Each a surprise.

You will be able to see more tomorrow..... now I must get on with the task.....

Have a very good week.

Friday

I am fascinated by the texture of old books, when they start to fall apart, the woven fabric of the spine, the colours and feel of them...... I remember going to visit old bookshops when I was a teenager, my grandfather in Dorset would take me. We would visit an old Methodist church that had been converted into a big old secondhand bookshop full of musty piles of abandoned and often obscure-looking books.... And the smell... I didn't like it then as much as I quite like it now.




Two new works in gouache-watercolour and pencil..... It seems I am working on a series of these dreamers on paper... They will start to appear in my shop in July....

Next week there is to be a Midsummer event in my shop - it will look a bit different for just a few days! I am selling past work at special prices, drawings and textiles too.... My shop will go into maintenance mode on Monday as I get things organised and then will be open Tuesday morning - the event lasts until Thursday evening. So this weekend I shall be sorting through and deciding on etc... I need to part with some of the work that I have gathered over the past few years, I really don't have the storage space and would like to see it enjoyed elsewhere......

Have a good weekend.

Wednesday

I love how some aqueligia leaves change and become pinkish as spring turns into summer...... recent work here, new gouache/watercolour drawings..... 'sisters' and 'grey dreamer'...

mosaic monday

1. The Charming Ingri, 2. Day 7 Fly Postcard, 3. ., 4. Untitled, 5. no title, 6. Postcard from St. Ives, 7. Untitled, 8. S/T. Técnica mixta. 2010, 9. Untitled, 10. Hold me tight, 11. nest sweet nest, 12. * barn owl, 13. ..........., 14. S/T. Técnica mixta. 2010, 15. see all my dreams, 16. Untitled, 17. every single day, 18. Miss Morning Dove.., 19. Untitled, 20. old earth and sky

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

A sunny Monday here..... here is a new mosaic of favourites, a variety selected from Flickr contacts.... many thanks to the artists for sharing their work....

I'm working on new items for my poetry series and hope to add to my shop tomorrow. New ideas coming along.... there's currently recent things to see in both my bigcartel and etsy shops.

Must get on.... lots to do.... will share more photos as the week goes by....

I hope you have a good week.

sketchbook Sunday

a drawing in watercolour - two sets of moleskine sketchbook pages - a forlorn black pansy - semps in a tea cup....

you can see the drawings larger over at flickr

thank you for your kind comments this week - much appreciated....

Saturday

I am a girl not a snail
I am a rose not a clematis

*

I have been a fan of Mick Karn (solo artist, member of Japan etc..) for many years.... sadly he has been diagnosed with cancer. David Sylvian has recorded a version of Emily Dickinson's 'A certain slant of light' - you can hear and make a donation to the appeal to help Mick and his family.

friday

have a good weekend x

painterly

a framed abstract painting I made last year.... what I look at to one side when I am sat at my sewing machine..... (I have said this before, but, my alter ego is an abstract painter....)


another kind of painting..... natural dyes on cotton fabrics..... logwood and logwood with onion in subtle results - these are nearly all results from using dyejars for a second time..... these colours are similar to those in a poetry heart I have just finished making.

poetica - the story continues

a larger piece of work in progress..... the story continues.....

poetry birds

work in progress

a few changes to this blog..... I've been feeling for a while now that I may prefer to use this space more as a visual diary with fewer words.... and so I am going to attempt to post a daily work-in-progress or 'photo of the moment' shot.....

all shop update info will be posted to my facebook page and you can also see any notes over there on the left

new poems as and when over at nevering

mild musings will continue at twitter

photos as always to see at flickr

so I am tinkering with the header and layout here, and will probably play with it a little while longer until it suits the current mood..... I am enjoying the poetry stitching and realising how my heart is really a folk art heart, and how I want to reflect that hands-on feeling more and more here.....

thank you....x

mosaic monday

1. DIARIOS, 2. levandule, 3. little circus, 4. Being a woman 2, 5. beauty caught in a web, 6. panic attack, 7. future forward, 8. cards 3 may 10, 9. Estudio-2010-1, 10. dune's flora, 11. Collaboration with Some Milk, 12. White Noise, 13. P1030406, 14. Untitled, 15. Work, 16. god bless the kings of animals, 17. self portrait, 18. ......, 19. Untitled, 20. prelude

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

A sunny good Monday to you...... storms are predicted but so far we have had little rain in recent days - just a short sharp shower last night...... here is another mosaic of favourite images via my flickr contacts.... many thanks to you for sharing your work x

This week I am continuing to work on the stitched poetry series - expect to see new items added to my bigcartel shop as and when over the coming days....

I'm working on the stitched words and at the same time looking again at the poems that I wrote for the 'here and there' sequence over at nevering.... an interesting process, looking over recent lines and finding things that may translate into/ on to a textile piece...... but I am also writing new words and revisiting past poems-for-stitch..... as for the 'here and there' sequence - well I will look over it for a while longer and see if I feel a small booklet may happen, or not.... I've also been thinking back to the sequence I wrote over Christmas 'winter magi' - and thinking how that may becoming something else, perhaps if I collaborated with an illustrator or artists, or just worked on some of my own drawings...... I'm thinking out loud here...

So I'm thinking about how poems on the screen can become something more and how to develop ideas further into tangible 'things', whether they are stitched objects, little books or ideas that hang about and fade..... oh and I've also been thinking about writing on writing poems - the process and developing of ideas...

yes a great deal of thinking here......

I will wish you a very good week ahead and will now get on with my Monday things (starting with coffee).... take care, more soon x

sketch sunday

working outside the journal again this week...... another in my series of pen drawings.... this one is: 'the three sisters'..... the story goes there were two sisters who perhaps through dream, chance or fate - or all of those things - 'found' a third..... I shall let the drawing tell the story as it pleases you.....

I feel these drawings, as I have said before, allow me to work in a way that echoes my embroidery - and it feels like a very natural way of working....


I do enjoy paints - though I have to say a challenge is to work watercolour over acrylic ground - but that is what I have done here with these two sketches..... currently obsessed with yellow and black.....
all of these works are new to my etsy shop this weekend.....

gardening & poetry bird

Rose Souvenir Dr Jamain - this year my rose planted in a modest pot has really grown well and instead of just two or three large flowers has produced many smaller blooms..... I prefer this and the plant seems rather healthy right now. I think eventually I will have to pot on but perhaps not until the autumn....


A new poetry bird - first in a new series.....This bird will be part of a brood, with their distinctive handwriting and dangling buttons........ All my poetry series will be stitched items with my own words and poems....

An old crate by my kitchen door..... I've planted chives and peas..... now please tell me they like each other?? you know how some plants don't do each other any favours, well I just hope these are ok.... I have never grown peas before. I'm trying a little trial here to see if they like being contained. I am a novice veg grower. It seems to be harder than flowers...... for one thing the slugs like my salad.....



But I have grown some successfully..... a little bowl of salad that has grown really quickly, just a few weeks from sowing.... but I don't really like this leaf mix to be honest.... the jagged leaves may have survived the slugs but they get stuck in your throat - am I fussy? well yes, if I am devoting space to anything it has to be what we like, having only a tiny garden and a very modest gardening budget.... The handy ceramic draining bowl is by Rachel Dormor and is one of my favourite things to use in the kitchen - especially good for rinsing herbs and strawberries too....

Expect to see new items in the poetry series added to my bigcartel shop over the coming days and weeks. I will be adding things as and when they are completed, so a hint is to check often to see what is new as I may not always preview things here.

Also, over the weekend I shall be adding a few new artworks to my etsy shop - and a surprise stitched piece.

Louise Bourgeois

Yesterday evening I found a moment to sit and sketch.... I was thinking of artist Louise Bourgeois, who died on the 31st May aged 98. I sat down to sketch but not imitate - I was thinking of seeing the artist's work at the Tate in 2007. I have a strong memory of that recent show, and very much enjoyed looking with Mandy/ Feltbug.

In an article yesterday Adrian Searle writes: To be born an artist was both a privilege and a curse.

You can read Searle's article here.