thank you for bearing with me while I've been away from this space and my other online places
I've been taking a break from stuff online for a while because, as you may know, I was very ill
from August to December last year with an auto immune illness that made me feel terrible
I found it difficult to juggle online stuff, which didn't seem as important as trying to
keep up with things at home and I really needed to give myself time to rest and work things out
during my time away I read a lot about auto immune illness and my own rare one, in particular,
trying to discover why it should come along now and how I could learn to manage it without medication (after initial treatment with steroids) and other stress management techniques
I've had to re-educate my sleep patterns, change my diet completely, cut down on caffeine
and drink a lot more water. These days I have to pace myself, take care in ultraviolet light and strong sunshine and generally re-think a lot of things. I don't spend so much time on the computer now and certainly try to switch off much earlier in the evening
there is a stress in my life that I carry ... that I have to learn to come to terms with and live with ...
it's a hard thing to bear but I do my best each and every day and I am, essentially,
a very happy person seeing the good and looking for the beauty in life
recently I have been feeling ready to write in this space again
and share my projects and things I find beautiful and inspiring
as usual ... I weather watch from the window seat
always in awe of the power of the sea
I made a little video of huge waves crashing over the harbour wall
it's a little too large to share here but you can see it on my facebook page
wild waves
in December I visited Amanda Richardson's show at The Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives
it's a little too large to share here but you can see it on my facebook page
wild waves
in December I visited Amanda Richardson's show at The Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives
Amanda Richardson is a Cornish textile artist
who hand dyes her own fabrics to create very detailed textile collages
of landscapes, seascapes, water, rocks and plants
there is no stitching on these textile collages except for when Amanda chooses to use stitches
to attach her finished pieces to a canvas, instead the pieces of fabric are intricately cut,
placed and applied to form the images
to attach her finished pieces to a canvas, instead the pieces of fabric are intricately cut,
placed and applied to form the images
the details are amazing and very, very fine ... her work is inspiring
I also discovered Ben Hecht's beautiful encaustic mixed media paintings ...
Ben is a mixed media artist working with encaustic and wax, embedding geometry designs,
old maps, music boxes, antique clock pieces, gem stones and fossils into his art
if you are inspired by nature and the natural world I am sure you will enjoy watching
Ben's video series and want to find out more about his work
St. Ives features again as the theme for
St. Ives Textiles Show during the St. Ives September Festival
to be held at Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives
I've been teaching textiles processes / sketchbooks
and the group have been creating wonderful journals full of samples
I will share more on that soon ...
