Time for learning and exploring

 I am so happy I have finally gotten around to starting this course by Laurie Doctor - Speak to Me From Everywhere. I am a great admirer of Laurie's work and her approach and a week long residential course with her is on my list of "would't that be wonderful" things.

Instead, I am sitting quietly in the cottage watching videos and testing out ideas and techniques. A very slow and meditative time is being had, and enjoyed.

I have only managed to work through lesson 1. I have also started before all my supplies arrive so I am really just playing around a bit on different papers. I couldn't get hold of a chinagraph pencil easily so I have ordered one. Along with some BFK Rives paper (I have stacks of it in Maleny of course!) and some particular watercolours. They should appear soon and I will either continue on these pages or start afresh.

Our kitchen table workstation is clearly very multi-purpose!

In the absence of the chinagraph pencil Laurie suggested a candle, and I COULD get hold of one of those nearby so that has been an experiment of writing so you can't see it; and then letting the imagery emerge after a wash of ink (still waiting for the watercolours).

I had a square of sturdy kraft card in my stash so I am experimenting with that as well as a piece of unknown white paper - which cockled quite a lot with the ink wash, so I imagine its not watercolour or printmaking paper!

I am enjoying the way in which the words are there but can't really be read, unless you stop, focus and try to train your eyes. I also like the sideways, upside down, top to bottom blocks of text and the way they add interest.

And the sun rose with an interesting sky the other morning and here is  wide shot looking back up the road from the cove.

And the walk the morning was book marked by the rising sun over Armadale Bay in the east, as the Harvest moon set in the western sky.

Just magic.

Thursday Thoughts...

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.” 

Martha Nussbaum

This is another interesting thought that I have pondered this way and that. The thing that most grabs me is the suggestion that openness and I guess acceptance (of things beyond our control) are what make for a good human being.

Most suggestions regarding being a decent or good human tend to focus on the actions and the attitudes towards others. Do this. Don't do that, kind of thing.

This seems to say it is about your attitude to the living of life in general - your openness to the world. As well as acceptance of how little in this world we can control. Could this be a counterpoint, suggesting that people who seek to control things may not be good??? Eek.

Perhaps there is something in the understanding of the word good? Perhaps it's not about being a good person per se, but more about living a good life as human?

I nevertheless think that these two things (openness and acceptance), are both key understandings, approaches and attributes to help you live a good life, maybe rather than be a good person.

International Day of Peace

 Today, 21 September, is International Day of Peace.

Being in Scotland we get to hang our flags and celebrate a little bit after Australia, but I like how the message flows through the world and all the time zones, a consistent hum of peace.

We got our peace flags and our peace doves out this morning and found a few older ones from previous years as well.

And after a rainy start, we picked a gap in the weather and managed to hang them outside, in one of our plum trees, and along our barbed wire fence.

And we know some of our old and some of our new peace flags are also flying its the magnolia tree back in Maleny.

We hope there are small moments of peace for us all today, and into the future. May we find ways to make peace and create peace. May we seek and honour peace.

Peace is beautiful.

I would love to see images of the flags flying anywhere in the world if anybody would like to share them, and I will add them here to spread peace around...

Tinkering is me

 I have come to accept, and even embrace, the notion that a lot of my creative time here is about tinkering. Or pottering. Or feutering as the Scots could say.

I used to worry that I was being flighty, unsettled, noncommittal or the like. Now I think I can celebrate that I find moments for creativity in most days, take them and make the most of them.

I am beginning an online course (which B purchased for me back in 2023); I am pondering the making of more Conversations with Women Friends work in a couple of directions. I have begun making more pebble forms to take back to Maleny and finish. I am cataloguing images for another piece of work. And so it goes.

I think I am re-framing towards "I am pushing work forward on several different fronts". Sounds impressive!

Pebble forms in the making...

I cut and soldered twelve small pebble forms.

Looking to solder them into stacked pebble earrings on my return to Maleny. I have to wait to get back to Maleny in order to put them through the rolling mill and flatten them, before soldering them together. No rolling mill here in the garden shed workshop!

They get quite discoloured with the soldering flame, so it was back to making some home made pickle to clean them. Each and every time I get delighted when it works!

Part of me is now wondering how things would go if I actually took six of the forms and tried to hammer them flat (rather than wait to roll them smooth through the mill).  I image that textured stacked pebbles might also look good? We shall see if the notion sticks.

In other tinkering I found myself searching for wooden cotton reels. I found a set on eBay and went to purchase them, only to learn that this seller was still an auction seller! It took me back twenty years I reckon where sometimes Barry and I would sit on our computers as the last seconds ticked down and tried to make the bids faster than whoever else wanted the thing we wanted. And we never ever won.

I thought to myself I am not doing that again. I made a reasonable bid and left it. Then After the auction closed I remembered to go and have look and lo and behold I had won. I was chuffed!

I received 20 reels on Saturday. Here are 11 of them.

Their arrival was a real cause for celebration as the delivery company that was being used can be somewhat hmmmm problematic up here? They have been know to wait up to 6 weeks until they have a big enough load to head out west and I worried I may never see them...

These 11 are all unique. All different and I was just so excited to see that. And perfect for what I am hoping to do! The other 9 have double sod these so I have separated them out and will se how I go.

And then there was foraging - we went on a bramble ramble...

And for some reason or another I have got this itch to bake focaccia (never have I baked focaccia) and I simply had to scratch it. Done. But this has only made me want to bake more and I now have three more recipes to try.

We had a stare out with these sheep on an afternoon walk.

And today is a washing day - and as they say a good drying day!

Thursday thoughts...

“My head was a magpie’s nest lined with such bright scraps of information” 

Alice Munro

Oh my goodness me. It's as if Ms Munro had popped along and had a good look inside my own head!

I sometimes wonder how best to describe what it feels like on the inside of my brain. I can appear so organised, and structured and routine-oriented; and yet to me they are all just ways of dealing with the chaos and bouncing balls, and light bulbs that ricochet around in my head.

I think she has a much nicer way of describing the multitude of ideas, thoughts, reminders and images that we carry around in our heads, sometimes making connections between them; oftentimes just letting them roll around and be enjoyed.

Using a magpie's nest suggests to me a collection of things. Not quite a bower bird, but nevertheless it evokes a sense of a multiplicity of not necessarily related items all coming together. To have simply said a nest, might have made me think of coherence and structure and organisation.

Introduced bright and scraps also creates an image in my mind of a cornucopia - like a collectibles and vintage shop of wonders.

She certainly used her magpies' nest of bright scraps well.

Jewellery workshop

 On Sunday Barry held a jewellery-making workshop using recycled silver-plated metal.

We once again got to spend time in our great Village Hall and had a lot of fun with 9 keen participants. I was his able assistant!

It was a nice day weather-wise and this is the view out one of the windows, down to Armadale Bay.

Barry had prepared loads of metal pieces for folk and they had a range of ideas to work with. Everybody started by making a long rectangular pendant; and a large domed circular pendant. Even with the exact same pieces to work with, so many different ideas emerged.

These are Barry's sample pieces.

After lunch folk could go back and forth and collect more pieces to make their own designs or preferred styles with, and everybody got great results. A sample of the day's work is below.

Here, the filigree patterns from the original silver plated placemat shine.

Here on the other hand, the reverse side was use and buffed, to allow some of the brass to show through the silver plate.

The movement and swing in these pieces was fabulous.

These two small pendants were perfect for a fine silver chain.

Perfectly polished and shiny small domes.

A daisy with nail polish applied like enamel or lacquer to make for rich deep colours.

Some of the 'leaf' forms got re-interpreted into fish!

One of the large circular pendants got hammer mark texture on it.

A golden dome and a special stamped piece for memories.

There is always something magical in the making process - watching folk follow instructions and do what they are told, and then gradually they start to think they'd like to try this or that, take a chance, see what that might do and ask themselves the what-if? question and creativity just flows. Such a pure delight to see creativity waken and flourish.

With thanks to everybody who joined us, for working so hard and making so many beautiful pieces.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you." 

 Haruki Murakami

I read this quote and at first felt a little bit affronted by it. It seemed a touch supercilious or a bit condescending perhaps.

Clearly Haruki Murakami is a very talented and legendary writer, and I hoped that he wasn't really being either supercilious or condescending. I thought about it, and perhaps it is just a way of him saying that books really matter to me. They absorb my thinking; they fill my days; I think about them as I eat; I dream about them when I sleep. For him, perhaps books are all encompassing. Perhaps they are truly his life.

And then I imagined that if this were the case, he might simply be saying that I interpret my whole world through books. I understand the world through books. Books are the prism through which I perceive everything. In essence I speak books; they are my language.

And so perhaps he was saying that I have no way of talking or speaking that isn't about books;  and if we don't share this language then perhaps I might need an interpreter...

Tinkering and the light

 Once more I find my self tinkering - tentative steps this way; tiny tasks that way. 

It's OK, our life here is different and busy in many ways so I try to be kind to myself when I feel like I am not making enough time for making.

Tinkering-wise I have re-worked a pendant for a friend. She had lost one of the original pebbles, so I set about creating a renewed pendant. 

I sent her a couple of options and we both landed on this one that has four pebbles. As I worked with the three options, they felt incomplete. Her little family is four people and I liked to think the pendant could reflect that. We both separately felt that the larger pebble reflected her, surrounding them with her infinite love. Perfect.

I tinkered by buying a couple of coat hangers that might at some point belong to the work with the cotton reels! As well I inventoried my jewellery so I knew which sort of replacement pieces I need to make.

I tinkered and cut more linen strips. Clearly hopeful that may come across more cotton reels! I also tinkered and made a couple of cards and bookmarks along the lines of the white on black pieces in the background here.

I tinkered with buying some silk threads and some small books of writing. Both parcels arrived today. I unwrapped the threads and thought close, but not quite what I had in mind. And then I opened the books. And thought - I couldn't have done this if I tried...

And each day, whatever the weather, we walk and the light catches me every time the sun pops out. Sometimes it is brief, fleeting. Sometimes it hangs around all day, but most days are grey with a flash of sunshine scattered here and there.

Here are some of our moments..

Flowers in Inverness.

Rainbow against a cottage in the village

The Montbretias on our hillside, caught by the sun with the steely grey clouds behind them.

Some garden flowers on the front window sill, alongside one of B's comfort birds.

This morning's rain out to see, grey sky and fleeting sun on the hay...