Patch for a Blanket

After making the blanket for a friend, one of the people involved decided to take the lead on a second blanket for another friend who is stuck in bed. Here is my patch for it. 

 

Pencil Case

I made a pencil case for a friend. I made one for her many years ago and was amazed to discover that she was still using it! It was looking a bit worse for wear, so I thought I would reward such appreciation with an updated version. I think this one is a lot better than the first one, so I hope it will last for many years to come.

 

Birthday Card for J

I have been using my sewing machine lately and while it was out I took the opportunity to use it on this card. I also used some cyanotype paper that I had made feather prints from, and my Spirograph! It was fun!

 

Blanket with Patches for a Friend

A very good friend of mine is seriously and chronically ill, and was recently facing a long hospital admission. I had the idea to create a comforting blanket for her to take into hospital with her, covered in patches from friends. I wanted it to be bright and an antidote to the bland hospital surroundings and a reminder that her friends were thinking and caring about her, especially on days where she was unable to be in contact directly. I asked a few friends if they would join in with the project and people were very enthusiastic and willing to spend time making their patches really special. Some people needed help by others in the group to complete their patches and I also got help assembling the piece! It was a great thing to be part of, and I hope she will love it.

Here is the blanket:

Here are the patches individually:

this one is mine – signed with a little “Ash” leaf

Made by Alex

Made by Amy

Made by Andie

Made by Cathy

Made by Cusp

Made by D

Made by D

Made by Jo

Made by Rachel

Made by Rachel

Working on it:

And here it is ready to be set off to her:

 

Creative Joyful Thing No.2 – the results!

I posted the brief for CJT2 here. Here is what we did.

We both created a starting image then swapped. Here is mine:

The background pattern I took from The Yellow Book of Creative Colouring, by John Adams Toys (aged 8 and upwards!). I have had this colouring book for decades – it is so cool! Just geometric lines. I hope publishing my work here is not a copyright issue, after all, I just did some creative colouring! I also traced most of the seagulls from somewhere but as they don’t look much like the originals now, I don’t think it is a big problem. I am so confused when I use/change other people’s work where the lines fall about right and wrong. I am not making money but I am publishing here… Ideally I would like to just draw my own pattern and birds totally from scratch but it would have taken me much longer and used more energy than I had. But that doesn’t make it right. Hmm. A bit disappointed in myself. Didn’t think I would feel so bad about it. From now on you will be seeing my own (probably terrible) drawing skills exhibited, or at least ones done from tracing photos that I have taken myself!

Anyway, here is what she sent to me:

And here is what she did to mine:

I love what she has done with my original image. She copied it so that she could paint on it, as my copier left the lines water soluble (I tested it before sending). The red was lost but so much gained! Look carefully for the fish – they are sparkling silver on the original. She has put so much work into this and I think it is so exciting to be working together and making things we wouldn’t have otherwise.

Here is what I did with hers:

(Transcript of the text below)

I struggled to come up with a way to make her image into something different, apart from interesting colouring in I was a bit stumped and I didn’t want to erase the original meaning of the self-portrait about the missing filling. I am happy in the end with what I produced, but think she did a much better job on this one!

~~~

Text reads: You want to put your filling under your pillow? Yes I see the hole.

Well, scrap metal prices are high and teeth have dropped in value. What? You thought I did this from the goodness of my heart?

Tell you what – Get a quote for replacing your filling and I will pay for it.

BUT! You must buy an electric toothbrush ‘coz I want my assets kept super-healthy from now on.

Yes! The only money I make these days is from the “final collection” as I call it.

So do we have a deal?

Put your filling and the quote under your pillow tonight.

Sleep well!

 

Creative Joyful Thing No.3

This was an inpromptu addition to the CJT project. I was having trouble finding the time/energy to do my part of CJT2 and didn’t want to change to something easier than what I had in my head, so to keep a sense of momentum with the project, I sent my friend No.3 to do in the meantime. It was nice and quick and we both enjoyed it!

~~~

Creative Joyful Thing No.3

*Write a Haiku*

This is my favourite Haiku at the moment:

O snail

Climb Mount Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!

~ Kobayashi Issa

A definition:

Haiku is an unrhymed, syllabic form adapted from the Japanese: three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Because it is so brief, a haiku is necessarily imagistic, concrete and pithy, capturing a single moment in a very few words.

Because the form has been brought into English from a language written in characters, in which a haiku appears on a single line, many poets writing haiku in English are flexible about the syllable and line counts, focusing more on the brevity, condensed form and “Zen” attitude of haiku. The traditional Japanese haiku requires some reference to nature or the season.

Enjoy!

Here is my Haiku:

Raggle-taggle bunch

Picked on December 15th

You are beautiful

It was about a bunch of misshapen and partially formed flowers that I had found still struggling to bloom, despite the fact that they should be dead at this time of year. It was a pink rose and some blue anemones. In actual fact I could have picked them a few days ago, almost the same, a month later! We have had a mild winter so far, though it is very frosty today.

And here are the TWO Haiku Rachael sent to me (I am spoilt!)

The cover of the first (they were sent inside little cards)

And the Haiku:

Apricot, turquoise,

Charcoal and dark amethyst

Sky promises storm

And here is the second one:

She particularly liked the structure of the words in this one, being 3, 5, 3:

O wing-ed brethren

Help me! With unfeathered wings

Earthbound I remain

 

Creative Joyful Thing Number 1: My photos

As part of my project with a friend I have taken a series of photos on a theme (see previous post). The theme I chose was Texture or Pattern. I decided to make them into a little book!

(My friend has also sent me her photos and I will blog about them in the next post – it was so exciting to see what she had done!)

I made one for myself and one for my friend too. I put an index at the back and folded the end over to the front to create a spine. I then sewed a piece of wool throughout the set to make it into a booklet. Just a touch of glue to make it sit right and it was done.

Here are the images within my book!

 

Creative Joyful Things – A Project

After my friend sent me a series of postcards with themes to complete (see previous posts for my efforts), we have agreed to move onto a new collaboration of Creative Joyful Things (I thought “Art Challenges” sounded a bit too much like hard work!).

As is it September, I thought we could pretend to be on a very, very part-time art course over the course of the year and perhaps meet up next summer to share portfolios!

The plan is that I will make up and send her a Creative Joyful Thing to undertake in her own time, and I shall do it too, then when we have both finished we will send each other pictures of what we have done! This way we will both be independently working on a similar thing and not influencing each other, so we will see different takes on an idea/project. Once we are both done, we will move on to the next one. Here is our starting point:

Creative Joyful Thing No.1

*Shoot a roll of film/series of digital photos on a theme*

Themes:

• Texture or pattern
• A colour of your choice
• Wabi Sabi (not sure yet what this is exactly
  but it seems like the in-thing!)
• Noise – can you make me hear things when I
  look at your pictures?
• Silhouettes
• Your choice – Something else that you want to
  explore!

Enjoy!

We have both chosen a different theme – not telling YOU what they are yet though! Will post my work up here, and maybe hers too if she agrees.

If anyone wants to play along with us – please do! I am planning on making each thing very different from the last, so hold onto your hats!

 

I am a winner!

I have recently won, not once but twice (!) in giveaways from Michael Nobbs of Sustainably Creative.

Firstly he had a giveaway for new subscribers and I won a copy of his illustrated journal The Beany (I got number 3). I already have a digital copy of the fourth book, but I am loving the feel of the real and paper-based copy in my hand this time. I can’t wait to find some free time and a cosy place to indulge in that.

Then he held a birthday giveaway (on his birthday) and I won a book called The Artist In The Office by Summer Pierre and even though I do not have a day job in the traditional sense, I certainly do have a day (and night!) job in managing my illness so I hope I can adapt some of the advice to my situation.

So, Saturday was a very good post day!

I am really enjoying being a member and getting (amongst other things) a daily micro podcast to listen to what Michael is doing/thinking about and also to help me focus my mind on what I want to achieve creatively and to remind me that doing just a small thing can move my work forwards.

Thank You Michael!

 

Poem: Ten

I can now share with you my poem “TEN”, because the book people do not want to publish it. I don’t mind, i can’t expect my first effort to be successful and i am still happy with it, even if it’s no masterpiece! Maybe it being about M.E. is a bit predictable but they do say write about what you know, don’t they? I enjoyed writing it and working on it/editing it, which took some time. I have never really changed a poem or worked on it much before, or written anything with a particular title or theme and that was a learning process which i think will help me next time.

 

TEN

 

A decade, I say, though I try not to count;

But every time I do go out:

Hello, so nice to meet you!

What do you do?

I don’t. I’m unwell.

Oh, but you really can’t tell…

 

How long has it been for you?

Since I turned twenty two.

You were so young! Just making a start –

It must have really broken your heart?

 

Yes. And now it breaks again:

I never thought then

That I’d look back now and count to ten.

 

 

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.