What a weekend!

Way back at the beginning of the year I put in my entry as an individual artist in Derbyshire Open Arts. 

Knowing that I would be showing both knitted wire and porcelain, I combined the two in an image. 

This was fun, as it is hard to tell the scale of the work from the image.

Towards the end of March the brochures were delivered to the studio, and I could start handing them out.

The entries for Long Eaton Art Room looked good together.

In the meantime, at the Art Room much organising was going on to showcase the various activities we provide.

Then came an unexpected bonus. 

I was mentioned in the Artsbeat May issue article about Derbyshire Open Arts. 

During the weekend I know that at least two people not from our area were prompted to visit as a result of seeing this mention.

I tweaked my studio to show off my latest work, and added a vase full of flowers from our garden. 

Knitted wire was shown at the window so that it glistened in the sunshine from around three in the afternoon.

 Porcelain was laid out rather in the manner of archaeological finds elsewhere in the studio.
Several people mentioned this. Maybe the couple of summers I spent in Cyprus on a dig are showing their influence.

Over the course of the three days I didn't venture far from my studio, mainly popping in to see the other studio spaces upstairs.

On Sunday the Henna Fairy was plying her art, and I was quick to take advantage.

Here is how it looked four days later, but today you'd have to use a lot of imagination to trace the remains of the design.

Like a massive game of pick-up-sticks ...

Being creative can be nerve-wracking at times.

Last night I loaded the kiln with some porcelain.
Here it is getting towards the end of the process.

On that shelf at the back are loads of beads and other small pieces.
Each had to be placed by hand, which proved to be a slow business.

Note to self: It would make sense to make more trays so that small items don't need as much handling!
Tomorrow morning, I'll get to see how it all turned out.

Fingers crossed!

I just realised ...

... that I started blogging on 29 September 2005.

Can it really be that long ago?

Looking back ... little did I know then how things would change for me.

I certainly wouldn't have believed that I'd be part of the team running a community arts centre.

At that point I just thought that I'd jump on the bandwagon, and use blogging to keep a rough type of diary.

Together with my tattered travel sketchbook that was started in 1999, it gives a bit of a hint as to what I have been up to.

Optimistically, I intend to spend tomorrow getting on with a few projects other than the Art Room.But as you see here, the garden and yarn pull equally.

There is a bucket of reconstituted porcelain ready for me to play with. These were made about the time I started blogging when I had so much more time to myself.

And how about the spinning projects? It is going to be a complicated day, isn't it?

Then there is the backlog of laundry that has built up as we were away in Scotland last week.

So don't be surprised to see sliced pears acting as inspiration for all sorts of activities. I might even try to dry some.

Art Room move

I've been a bit quiet here for the past while, and all because we have been moving the Art Room to a new venue.

We have been in business now for a little over 3 years, and our rate of expansion has been phenomenal.

When we moved into larger premises in 2007/8, we knew that it was only until July of this year.

It gave us a chance to work on a larger scale, and that proved to work well for us.

The decision as to where we would be after our lease ran out has weighed heavily on us.

It has been a bit of a cliffhanger, as our preferred premises were not available when we had expected them to be.

We only found out late last Wednesday that we could move in this last weekend.

We had to be out of our premises by yesterday morning.

So we didn't have to do a two-way move via temporary storage.

Now we are moved, and frantically trying to set up for next Monday when we will reopen to the public.

The builders also had no access until this week, so we will be working alongside them.

The good news is that our new landlords walked through with the builders yesterday, and the builders wasted no time, and started this morning.

We have long days ahead of us to get everything in place.

We won't have a telephone line in until Thursday.

So in some ways it has been quiet, as unless people know our mobile numbers we cannot be contacted.

I have been too tired to think much about the Secret Pal 14 exchange, which just started.

I am looking forward to taking part, having missed out on the last couple of exchanges.

But please bear with me for a few days until we are sorted out at the studio.

I did manage some spinning last week when very much stressed.

Some of it was sampling a fantastic alpaca silk mix in "Think Pink" that I bought from Krafty Koala at the end of UK Ravelry Day in Coventry.

I have also started on spinning some fibres bought from Skein Queen at about the same time.

This may be a long term project, and just possibly the recipient may read this, so no more hints.

And now a reminder that I do knit sometimes. Here is a quick snap taken with my mobile phone one evening when fetching the washing in (hence the bluish colour). Ian had hung a load of my socks together, making a burst of colour.

This is one view from bed early in the morning, which may inspire some wire or porcelain - fine spider tracery highlighted by sunlight.

And the little bit of wire knitting I did on my way over to Coventry for UK Ravelry Day - purple wire with gold thread, worn pinned through a piece of porcelain I had fashioned, but that broke in firing. Now (when I get time) I need to make some porcelain with larger holes so that I can pin things on more easily.