Crafting a Life

National Museum of Scotland and a day out in Edinburgh

2012-01-23T16:10:00.000Z

A few Saturdays ago, we had a trip over to Edinburgh to visit the newly revamped National Museum of Scotland. It has certainly changed and in some ways feels as if it has been pulled from the Victorian era straight into the 21th Century. I hadn't taken my camera with me, and these are all from my phone, so sorry for the lower quality images, but I wanted to share some of the things I liked.

These little items above look a bit like buttons, but apparently they were used to decorate the interiors of Egyptian houses about 3,000 years ago. To me, they still look really fresh and I could see the patterns being used in art today.

These dogs are part of 'Night Time Dreaming' by Australian artist, Wally Pwerle.

I am a sucker for Islamic tiles and this piece was fantastic.

Much of the museum remains unchanged, although the fishes have gone from the main courtyard, which is a terrible shame! They were my favourite thing at the museum when I was a child. However, the galleries and structure apart from the fish ponds looks unchanged.

The children made me go and visit the Space room, which is an area I generally avoid in museums. However, I found it fascinating and really enjoyed a short film about the Big Bang, which said we are all made of stars. I like that idea, being full of stardust.

Although the kids enjoyed the museum and want to go back, their attention span is limited, so we finished up at the Castle. It was bitterly cold, but the sunset was amazing. This a photo from the top as there was a beautiful and large full moon. Given the poor camera though, this becomes like the old game of 'spot the ball' - the moon is there in the top left quadrant.

The Museum is having an exhibition of Egyptian Mummies soon, so hopefully we can have another trip there soon. We had lunch at the fabulous Fruitmarket Gallery cafe and caught the closing days of the Bill Bollinger exhibition. The kids were totally relaxed with the 1970s minimalist art work. And I enjoyed watching the gallery attendants smirk at the visitors attitudes to seeing a piece of rope on the ground as the art work. As to the art work itself, I admit I struggle with it, especially as my practice is so labour/craft intensive!

So all in all, a great day out and it is good to remember that we have such fabulous places so close to home.

I couldn't resist

2012-01-11T17:18:00.000Z

Normally, I avoid the temptation of showing cute photos of my little monsters on this blog as they aren't entirely relevant to my work; they only contribute to the lack of it! However, when we found our daughter last night curled up asleep on the chair on the landing rather than in her bed, wrapped up in the little quilt I made, I couldn't resist it. It's goodto share how my art works are used!

Christmas Slippers

2012-01-10T10:51:00.000Z

Rather than do useful things leading up to Christmas, like get organised, make art or blog, I decided to make the family slippers for Christmas, using a pattern I had seen in Making magazine.
Amazingly, they all fit and the kids are enjoying sliding on our wooden floors whilst wearing them. I used a piece of over-felted felt for the soles, so hopefully they will last as long as the kids are their current shoe size.
It was nice to make something practical for once, although it would have been more practical to actually buy them and use my time more productively. I think the same could be said for the fudge made as gifts for teachers. It tasted great, but took ages and my pan still hasn't recovered from the burnt batch...!

New work

2011-12-15T12:39:00.000Z

This is my latest finished piece. I've called it 'Synergy'. Its approximately 20cm wide by a metre long. I've been playing around with patterns found on some Ancient Goddess sculptures and my figures. The patterns started from a book called The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe by Marija Gimbutas, which Mags Ramsay recommended on her blog after seeing my show at the Festival of Quilts. I love the patterns in it and have played around with them to make them my own.

Part of the reason for making this piece was to try out the embroidery unit of my Pfaff sewing machine. The software is driving me nuts, but that's because I want it to instantly create what is in my mind, rather than me spending the time getting acquainted with the software and understanding how it works. The potential is amazing and hopefully at some point over the holidays I will start at the beginning and learn how to use it properly rather than diving in and expecting to be able to swim straight away. Still, I am quite pleased with this piece. I used Aurifil variegated thread to stitch the figures and went over them several times. Often I find variegated thread a bit of a challenge to use cleverly, but this time, it worked well.

House for an Art Lover Christmas Show

2011-12-12T12:00:00.003Z

The House for An Art Lover is a Charles Rennie Macintosh designed building in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. It has a lovely feeling at this time of year, a real warm, cosy atmosphere, which is just what we need on a cold, dark and damp December day in Scotland.

I have this piece in its Christmas exhibition (£100 in case anyone wants an original Christmas gift!). There are lots of other lovely works too, including a piece by by Dad's art tutor, Elaine Woo MacGregor. I think he now believes I might be a real artist now I have a piece in the same show as her!

The opening was Thursday evening and we had intended to go, although there were rumbles of protest from two of the little monsters as it was a 'mulled wine and mince pie' private view, which meant no crisps. They rate private views based on the nibbles. However, Thursday was an incredibly stormy day, with the school closing at 10.15 in the morning. Most of the roads around here were blocked due to fallen trees and flooding, so we decided it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. Instead we had a candlelit dinner (for five) and the kids played with glowsticks in the hall as we had a power cut. We were lucky as it lasted less than a day, enough to be fun for the children but not so long as to get very cold.

The Quilters’ Guild Library

2011-11-16T11:12:00.000Z

Last Saturday I spent a really lovely day at the Quilters’Guild Library in York, researching quilt blocks and their stories. It is housed in a lovely room just off theexhibition hall, with a pleasant view of old brick buildings and roofs out ofthe window.

I was helped by Hugette, one of the fabulous andenthusiastic volunteers who enable the library and the museum to function. I wish I lived closer so I could use thelibrary more and help out by volunteering. Unfortunately, five hours of travel to get there make it logisticallyimpossible!

I stupidly forgot to bring squared paper and was trying todraw some of the blocks freehand. Itprovided me with new respect for the authors of the pre-1980 quilt books I waslooking at, as they had all drawn the blocks by hand, in the days beforecomputers could do it for us. Those werethe days of true dedication!

Fun in Venice

2011-11-08T21:58:00.000Z

Urs Fischer's Wax Man

It’s not all been hard work over the past few months. For half term in October, I looked to seewhere we could get cheap flights to. Thechoice was Milan or Berlin and we swithered as both sounded good. Eventually, we plumped for Milan as it wasfurther south and I fancied a bit of warmth for a few days and we took the kidsto Venice for the first time.

Detail of Monica Bonvicini's 15 Steps to the Virgin

Friends thought we were mildly eccentric (a polite way ofsaying completely mad) to take the kids there, but it worked surprisinglywell. They weren’t as excited as weexpected at going on the water buses, but they liked visiting the fish andvegetable markets and seeing the gondolas float past our living roomwindow.

The Saudi Arabian pavillion by Raja and Shadia Alem (and below)

However, much to our surprise,the highlight for all of us was visiting the Venice Biennale. We all enjoyed it so much we spent two daysgoing round the two main venues and managed to slip in some visits to otherexhibitions too. The kids took loads ofphotos, over 1,500 in the week, many of them of their feet.

However, the cameras helped them engage withthe art works and enabled them to spend time considering what was goingon. Particular favourite of us all wereUrs Fischer’s giant candles of people. These looked very spooky and the kids loved seeing ‘body parts’ lying onthe floor. They also enjoyed the SaudiArabian exhibit, which I found beautifully thought provoking. We were suitably grateful for the plasticineart work, which the kids spent ages playing with, giving me time to go andabsorb the other pieces in the show.

Concentrating hard to take one of our 1500 photos!

Successes and Failures

2011-11-08T21:53:00.000Z

So what’s been happening in my world recently? Not much art work as I would like, buthopefully all that is going to change over the next week and as I am aiming toget back into producing and spending less time on proposals and trying to getmy work out there.

I’ve lost track of the number of proposals I written in thelast month or so, which is probably just as well as I still have not developedthe completely thick skin required to deal with the rejections. Rejections are an inevitable part of being anartist, so you would think it wouldn’t bother me, but they do. The other week I had a spectacular fiverejections in one week.

Trying not to take it personally and looking at itdispassionately is obviously the right thing to do, but it is easier said thandone! The hardest bit is not knowing whyyou didn’t get the work/exhibition. Wereyou the next person on the list or did they look at your proposal andlaugh? Some people are kind enough togive you feedback and so last week’s one rejection almost felt positive as itwas due to me living too far away and the travel costs were prohibitive. It was hearten to know that the proposalitself was fine.

So in the midst of the gloom and writing proposals aboutaudiences and learning outcomes, it was delightful to know that two of myphotos were accepted and on show at the International Quilt Festival inHouston, USA last week. The theme wasfriendship and rather than suggest images of two kids looking happy, I sentphotos of rocks, waves and castles, with a vague explanation of why they wereappropriate to the theme. I think thisis the imaginative part of being an artist! These two photos were the two that were accepted.

Features in October's Popular Patchwork

2011-10-02T11:21:00.000+01:00

One of the strange things about writing for a living can be the time gap between writing and actually seeing your words in print. I wrote the article about the Loch Lomond Quilt Show a few months back, but as Popular Patchwork had so many articles to publish, it is finally appearing now. It's a quick tour around some of the personal highlights of the show, some of which I mentioned in a blog post in May. Seeing my photos of these quilts in print is great as it reminds me of how good the show was and how much I still enjoy seeing these quilts.

Also in this issue is a bit of fun from me. Sally, the then editor, asked me to write an article about Humility Blocks. These are deliberate errors made in quilts to show that the maker is no perfect. This seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon, based on the mis-guided view that this is what quilters of old did. Illustrating the piece was interesting as how do show humility blocks unless it is something you practice and have a big pile of quilts with deliberate errors in them? So I opened up my trusty EQ7 software package again and made some designs to which I added deliberate errors. As I didn't note them down at the time, I was a bit nervous when I opened the magazine and Mum and I tried to spot the error. Some of them were harder than others and it took us a good 10 mins, but I did find them all in the end. Can you spot the deliberate error in the quilt layout below?

In addition to my work, there is also a great article on the quilt collection of Cindy Rennels, which all have an American patriotic feel to them.

Greek Thomson Art Event coming up

2011-10-01T15:59:00.000+01:00

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front as I have been concentrating on trying to market my work rather than making, so there hasn't been much to tell. I don't want to bore you all with the details until I have something exciting to share rather than all the slog of phoning/writing/attempting and not getting far! I'm really looking forward to getting back into the studio and creating, but having neglected the marketing for years I really do need to give it a go.

As well as marketing, I have been busy planning our next community art event. This will be the Balfron Big Draw on 22 October from 10-4 in the McLintock Hall. We're theming it around the architect Alexander Greek Thomson who was born in Balfron. His work is everywhere in Glasgow and he was responsible for the Greek revival in the 19th century, which influenced architects like Frank Lloyd Wright. We have had great fun thinking up lots of different activities and I'm hoping I get a chance at them all as they all sound so great.

This drawing is one I made after visiting Holmwood House, designed by Greek Thomson and we are using it for our postcards advertising the event.

Holmwood House

2011-09-12T15:04:00.001+01:00

On Saturday, after the boys and I had been to art class (the kids made shelters out of cardboard for the clay models they had made the previous week and I spent much of my time being Dr. Gillian carrying out emergency surgery and glueing the models back together!), we went to visit Holmwood House in the southside of Glasgow. R's brother and sister-in-law were here for the weekend and as none of us had been there before it seemed like a nice trip out. I also had an ulterior motive as our Big Draw event this year has a Greek Thomson theme and Holmwood is one of the few Greek Thomson designed buildings you can visit. It was an interesting journey as the sign posting was almost none existent, however it was worth the effort.

Holmwood was built as a home for a paper manufacturer and it was a nice size for a house: not so big as to be unimaginable to live in it, but still lots bigger than homes today. The National Trust for Scotland is carrying out extensive research and conservation on the interior and you could see glimpses of the original decoration and patterning, all designed by Greek Thomson as well as the actual building. Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos of the interior, but these are some shots of the exterior.

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The interior decoration featured lots of Greek style motifs and I'm sure we will be able to come up with some interesting ideas for the Big Draw. Personally, I found it all really inspiring and want to think about some of his designs for my own work, when I have time...!

Cupar Quilters

2011-09-11T14:51:00.000+01:00

I had a really pleasant evening out at Cupar Quilters on Wednesday evening. I was there to talk about my quilting and art career and they were a lovely group. Even though it was a warm room, I didn't see anyone falling asleep - quite a feat as I know my eyes have a nasty habit of closing during talks, even when I am enjoying them and struggling hard to stay awake! They were hugely appreciative of my quilts and the little stories that accompany them. I was hugely appreciative of the group and they seem to be very active, with their exhibition coming up on 19 November and also a series of rainbow quilts which are going to be displayed at next year's Loch Lomond Quilt Show. I hope the exhibition goes well and I will be looking out for the quilts at Loch Lomond next year.

I love meeting quilt groups and I always come away energised afterwards and intending to try harder to attend a group myself. Life generally intervenes, along with the lack of baby-sitters, but who knows this time.

Quilts Around the World

2011-09-06T21:34:00.001+01:00

When I was researching the Irish Chain quilt pattern for an article for Popular Patchwork, I came across this book on google book search. It was so enticing that I had to buy it.

Quilts Around the World by Spike Gillespie truly covers the world. It has a long chapter on the States, various European countries, Asia and Africa. It tells of quilting history of each country and sometimes touches on current practice. It also has beautiful, enticing photographs and you can see the time that has been spent to create a lovely layout.

Each chapter or section is relatively short - bite-sized chunks of information. Obviously in a book that touches on so many cultures, you are not going to get huge amounts of detail. However, this makes it great for dipping into and it has filled in gaps in my knowledge of quilting in other countries.

Spike has written much of the book herself, but has also used experts from certain countries to complement her own work. For instance, Roselind Shaw has written a fascinating history of quilting in Northern Ireland.

Frustratingly, the images do not always match the text. They are gorgeous, but I would have liked to have seen more of the quilts mentioned in the text. However, I understand that sometimes she may not have been able to get permission to use certain images. And being parochial, it would have been good to have a paragraph on quilting in Scotland today, rather than just saying there isn't much quilt history here. I think even if quilting is not in our blood, there is a very active and exciting quilt scene in Scotland now, with quilters such as Frieda Oxenham and Pat Archibald and grass roots shows springing up like the Loch Lomond one.

Overall , I'm really enjoying reading this book and I'm sure I will be flicking through it for many years to come. I'd definitely recommend getting hold of a copy if you are interested in quilt history or quilts from other parts of the globe.

Continuing fame

2011-08-28T21:46:00.000+01:00

I'm still trying to adjust back to normal life following all the hard work that I put into the Festival of Quilts. It's strange to come back to reality and part of me does not want to: I'd rather be under pressure to create art work than deal with the cleaning, cooking etc! The little time I have available whilst our youngest is at nursery just seems to fly in and it appears as though no progress is being made. Already I'm wondering how did I manage to make the time to create so much work this year.

However, some things are continuing on: I was featured in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald last week (it's pronounced Mill-guy) and Just Hands-On TV filmed me at the Festival and it will go out on their website sometime soon. Being filmed was fun, although I'm not sure that I want to watch myself and hear just how Scottish I sound and being hyper-critical about whether I smiled enough. It was lovely to meet Valerie and by strange coincidence she used to own the quilt shop besides Hampton Court where I always managed to visit on our regular trips to Hampton Court when we lived in London. I still have some of the fabric in my stash which I purchased there.

At the Festival I also met Pam Holland, who did a short interview with me which may go out on The Quilt Show blog - fingers crossed it makes it through the editing process. It was fun to meet her as I had admired and written about some of her work for Popular Patchwork. The same piece which I had seen at Houston, won second prize at the Festival of Quilts.

I think this is one of the joys of the quilt world, making connections between people and quilts and the more I quilt, the smaller this world seems to become.

Jungle Fun in Edinburgh

2011-08-23T21:26:00.000+01:00

Having a weekend off has been a huge novelty for me! After our trip into Glasgow on Friday evening to the Collins Gallery felt, we headed to the other side of the country on Saturday to Edinburgh to see the Jungle City exhibition at the Botanical Gardens.

Whilst I’ve been working on my installation for the Festival of Quilts, Dawn and the others of FAB have been working with the kids who go to ArtWorks to paint a hornbill bird for this outdoor show. We were asked to do so on behalf of EasySpace and it was filmed for STV. Tons of work went into it and lots of children contributed. It is standing outside of the glasshouse.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering through the gardens seeing all of the other animals. There were tigers, elephants, orang-utans, alligators and other hornbills. They were irresistible to the children; all of the bigger animals were climbed on, touched, patted and stroked. We loved the inventiveness of the artists. The painting was beautiful.

The Balfron children were thrilled to see their bird amongst the animals. It looked stunning and a good thing to be involved in - supporting endangered species.

Friday evening in Philadelphia and Kyrgyzstan

2011-08-21T21:12:00.000+01:00

On Friday evening, we decided to do something brave/foolhardy. We took the children to the private view of From Quilts to Couture in Kyrgyzstan at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.

We were entertained on our way there by seeing the centre of Glasgow transformed into one giant film set for a big movie called World War Z (I was corrected from saying ‘zed’ to ‘zee’ – it sounds better in American!). Glasgow is standing in for Philadelphia and it was funny seeing US traffic lights and newspaper stands and street signs. Spying my old office transformed into the US Court House was slightly surreal. I’m not sure who were more entertained – the children or us!

Going from Glasgow to the States to Kyrgyzstan in the space of 5 minutes was rather strange. However, when we made it into the gallery, I was really pleased we had made the effort. The work was magnificent. The inlaid felt in strong patterns and bright colours were stunning and beautifully executed as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to take any photos of it as I was trying to stop any major child disaster: knocking the work over; eating all of the interesting looking snacks and whining about not wanting to be there! These are snaps of some of the little toys they had for sale.

If you are able to go, I would strongly recommend the exhibition. The Collins with Laura Hamilton has put on loads of interesting shows since I moved back up north and it is a terrible shame it is under threat of closure from Strathclyde University who own it.

Unsung Muses Video

2011-08-17T21:13:00.002+01:00

For those of you who were not able to make it to the Festival of Quilts, here is a little walk through my installation. Please listen with the sound off as this is my first attempt at filming and I haven’t worked out how to edit it yet and it is only background noise. Anyway, it should give you a flavour of the show.

Back to Reality

2011-08-16T21:09:00.000+01:00

After all the excitement of the Festival of Quilts, we finally arrived home at 5pm last night and today everything returned to normal. School and nursery started back and it rained all day!

In trying to beat the post-exhibition blues, I am determined to keep busy and so made a start on tidying the studio. After the two hours of child free time before I had to return to the nursery, I think I had made an indent, but there is still a long way to go. I do mean to keep going, although I do have a number of ideas floating around that I really want to get started on...

The Biggest Thank You

2011-08-14T10:00:00.001+01:00

Last week I said thank you to those who helped me in making Unsung Muses. However, I missed out the person to whom I owe the biggest thank you.

I can’t actually remember the last time I had a weekend off and we had to cut the family holiday short so I could continue to work. In all of this Richard has been uncomplaining and incredibly supportive. He has also given up a week of his holidays to help me hang the work and look after our little monsters whilst I am at the show.

So to Richard, thank you so much for all your help and support over the past year. I really appreciate it and I promise I will have a weekend off soon!