Tuesday 31 March 2015

gathering and listening

Last Friday was my birthday.....Year No.46

I don't know why but I find birthdays a tad emotional....I don't think I will ever understand why...I am a chirpy girl whose glass is always half full and never empty (normally with a good red)...the slight tearyness that greats me at the start of every birthday arrives unexpectedly and slips away quietly - never staying around for too long to be a concern...new year has the same effect....

This year was exceptionally special...Mr Hunter took a day off work and we went exploring while the kids were at school - it is rare that we spend time away without our little brood, so days like this day are precious ... Sleights-Egton-Sandsend all in four hours - I love our little nook of North Yorkshire.

We then had our thrice yearly night out at a friends cocktail bar The Sitting Room in Saltburn - you haven't been?? Then you must... our Becky makes the best Earl Grey Martinis in the land....

I love travelling through my forties...everything feels comfortable...calm...contentment covers me like a good old durham quilt....however I do look at the number 46 and can't quite associate it with myself...but hey-diddly-ho aren't we all like that...the years are whooshing by quickly like the wind....I still have the giddyness and livewireness of a twenty year old and hope that remains for a very long long long time... ;)

So I wonder what the next year brings....love these yearly journeys...










and taking this with me into year No.47

and cannot stop listening to this wonderful album

Monday 30 March 2015

crochet palettes

...part of the journey to anything I do is to not waste a scrap.  Any discarded fabrics or threads or general materials in my makings are re-worked-re-invented-re-claimed-re-dyed-re-assembled....recycling finely tuned....

One of the most popular products in my vintage haberdashery shop are these Potter & Sew Crochet Packs. Crochet mats and doilies from the thirties and forties that have been damaged over time are collected slowly over 6 months and re-claimed and dyed and dismantled here in the studio....

My favourite part is making colour palettes...all placed in collections ready for makers to re-make-re-work-re-present as something else..... they are now available in The Linen Garden









Tuesday 24 March 2015

The Sketchbook Pages (1)

...the studio is certainly blooming this year...not only with the constant flow of the floral hoardings I find for The Linen Garden shop but it is rich in ideas with personal visual seeds being sown, collaborations, mentoring and commissioned projects

...a more 'allowed' free spirited approach is starting to nestle - which has pleased me...a direction that I have wanted to follow for some time but commitments and ties and needing to 'work for a living' 'has' to take front seat...

I am committing a day or possibly two a week to a rooted project...a personal project...to just be indulgent...to draw and paint...to write...to collate...to stitch...to document...to collage...to discuss...to search for answers...to research the new...re-visit the old.... no particular deadline...just simply - 'the sketchbook pages'....

some I will keep secret...some I will share....but I want to develop a richer pattern in my posting here and this seems like a good place to start....no explanation (maybe a token few words)...just images....

here are the first .......an obsession I have had for many a year to the reverse of a print (and embroidery - but that will arrive later)











Monday 23 March 2015

studio details

 a commissioned gathering of ribbons made this studio a very colourful place to be last week.






Monday 16 March 2015

don't forget to leave a comment - you are my social life


...You may have read in my earlier posts that I am trying to post here more often...but what is more often?  It is so easy to document your day with a daily post on Facebook or to take quickly observed moments with a quick press of the button on your phone with Instagram.

I have been thinking over the last few weeks how I want to start using this little space on the internet that I own...I want it to be and feel different to my other on-line spaces.  The problem I have is that I feel that every blog post should come with a little ream of words..a few explanatory lines of what I have been doing. The Why's.  The Where's.  The When's.  It is this that actually takes the time and equally it is this that makes me put off until tomorrow.  We place so much pressure on ourselves to tick boxes, ensuring we have something visually captured to show to readers -  do we almost measure our success these days by the amount of images we can display in a day/a week/a month in the same way we worry if one image has had more likes than another on Facebook.  I have been known to feel slightly anxious if I haven't posted anything for a couple of days. And all the time spaces such as Facebook is becoming harder to understand...you may have over 4000 likes but only a handful of those actually see your news...just think of all that time we makers had before social media raised its important head.

I am not a wordsmith.  I write (type) as I speak ... but mainly my language is visual...

I have finally after many years realised that I can use this space for just that, to just visually document my days but in slightly more detail than a snapshot approach - why has it taken me so long?.  I have also listened to other makers/designers and looked at how they use their space.  So much planning takes place. Preparations of content weeks in advance.  Weekly 'feeding' images all taken in just one day but appear as though they are taken regularly through out the week.  I want to keep working on this journal of mine...I love looking back through the months, it is such a good way to see how The Linen Garden is growing - every week there are new visitors to the flower beds and I treasure that.  It is very easy here to feel that you are talking to an empty auditorium if you don't study weekly your traffic numbers.  But I am not that 'into' the behind the scenes mechanics of 'stats' and 'traffic' and to be honest I really don't have time or most importantly the interest, maybe if I was a full time blogger it make take a bigger slice of my time.

I spend alot of time reading other people's blogs but it is very rare that I leave a comment. Therefore why do I still have this old approach that if no one leaves a comment nobody is really stopping by? The wonderful insecurities of being trapped in your own little internet bubble.  So on that note I am now asking you to 'leave a comment' - I 'would' love to know from you is 'what other little snippets you would like to see here' when you visit.  I adore that you pop by and visit from time to time and I want to make sure you keep stopping by. I work on my own in the studio so your emails/your messages/your comments on all my social media platforms are so so important to me.  You are my weekly social life (true)....so please help me in my research - I would love to know your ideas.........and here is how my month 'visually' has looked so far.....'a splendid March indeed'..... xxxxx


....don't forget to leave your comment....