Nightingales in the rain

Gosh, that sounds poetic...

I've been up to many things, since last here. Not least a little jaunt to France for a top-up of chill before the madness that is the summer term. (I don't know why, but everything seems to happen in June and July and if we don't get away before it all kicks off, we fear total collapse before we reach our ultimate goal of the summer holiday in Brittany - it's a tough life :)

So here is a little video I put together with some of my 290 holiday photos. It took me most of the day to work out how to connect the camera to the laptop, so to then produce a video - well, I'm astounded and feel I might just have achieved something!

Yes, the village we stayed in is beautiful, but for me it's all in the detail - the moss growing on the stone walls, the rain drops on the leaves, roses growing everywhere, the view through the vine leaves and across rooftops to a patchwork of fields and woods, a little snail (no, didn't eat any this time although I have before - I do it for the garlic butter), the rusty ironwork holding together the cracks in the cottage walls....anyway, enough from me - enjoy!

(If you can't get the video to play here, you can also watch it on my Facebook page)

Warm fuzzies

The other day I heard someone describe teaching as something that could either give you "warm fuzzies" or "cold pricklies".

Wednesday and Thursday were definitely warm fuzzies!

I forgot (as always) my camera for Wednesday, so I'll have to grab some pictures next time.  We are approaching the end of the City & Guilds course and there is some utterly fabulous work emerging.  I am stunned at what people have been able to go away and do after a session of vague and waffly teaching with me...(well, it feels vague and waffly to me sometimes!  I get side-tracked by ideas).  Promise photos next week...

Meanwhile, on Thursday we have been making holes in things.  Someone told me a while back to confront my fear of teaching with craft tools that could potentially burn down the building, as it was fun...and I think I'm finally convinced!

Here is my original sample (in a sudden flash of inspiration it is backed with FOIL - I have after all got quite a lot of the stuff)

And here is Ann's piece, pre-burning of the holes - this is Ann who said she was no good at free machining...I beg to differ:

 

Angela's (also pre-burning).  I love the frayed edges of the silk that Angela has used:

And Carole has been very busy, displaying her work beautifully in a hard-backed book:

 

And Sheila has also conquered free machining and produced some beautiful work:

 

Now that we've burnt holes in anything that will stand still long enough, we've started to play with shirring elastic:

The Girl has also been stitching cut-through circles for her plant cell quilt:

Girl tacked all the hexagons, I did the triangles (because the points were fraying) and then Girl stitched it all together by hand, and free-machined and cut away the blue vacuoles.  All nuclei and chloroplasts also stitched on by Girl's hand.  Since this (blurry) photo, I have stitched it up with wadding and a backing, and Girl will machine quilt it next time I can grab her to come and use the sewing machine...

Science homework isn't what it was in my day...

FINALLY we also managed a spot of tray-dyeing in class yesterday (no wonder the car was laden to the roof!)

 

Sneak preview...

I haven't ironed it yet...

Half term report

It all started quite well, with the creation of a button babe for Granny:

And Granny was duly chuffed.

I proceeded to make a little seascape on a canvas (new idea for presenting work):

I was quite pleased, but remain confused as to how to finish the back.  In galleries you can't just take stuff off the wall and see how other people have finished things and rigged up a hanging mechanism - which is a shame as I really really want to know!

Then it all went downhill, with my sudden urge to play with plaster bandage:

At least I ended up with a finished bowl, entitled "Are we nearly there yet?". 

And yes, there's a double meaning in that...

Having my fill of plaster and acrylic and glue and all manner of sticky stuff, I then got all in a lather and made some felt:

And so it remains: I haven't got any further with it.  It's loosely based on a cross-section of a plant stem.

During all this, the Girl was being wonderful and creative and exceedingly well behaved.

Shame I wasn't.  I got in a huge temper on Friday and slammed the airing cupboard door, so the hook that holds the ironing board (what's that?) got half ripped out and so I had to clear out part of the wardrobe to store it elsewhere.  In so doing, I had to dig this out:

It's my "metre piece" from my City & Guilds Diploma. 

It's now going in the Art Trail and may just save the day.

(It is also loosely based on microscopic detail of plant stems and cells).

Temper has improved now, and I have moved on to other things, much to the relief of the whole family.

Pale and interesting

Continuing on my theme of plants, leaves and strippy "patchwork",

I made a book

thick with handmade (not by me) paper pages, with a couple of cords to hold it together.

Here is the front:

and here is the back:

I got all worried that it wasn't botanically correct.

Which gave me an idea.

Maybe my university days and my BSc in Horticulture* won't be wasted after all!

I'm off to the woods later to sketch more wild flowers while the Whippet chases squirrels.  I also hope to find some more half-haycorns.  I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but I'm getting a little obsessive about finding them now.

*You certainly wouldn't know this about me from looking at my garden...

Phyllotaxis

It's amazing what you find when searching for recipes for romanesco cauliflower...