The love of nests

 I got a wonderfull surprise last week when B came home from his art class, bearing a box with three nests and some eggs in it! His marvellous teacher had told him to "take them home so Fiona can photograph them"!

And that is exactly what I did.

The eggs are a mix of chicken eggs and quail eggs and don't belong to the actual nests themselves, but they do look lovely within them.

Here follows a bunch of photos in all sorts way in celebration of nests (and birds, and feathers, and eggs).

I love the fragment of fabric here...

The final ones are taken using the app that the square point of sale device which we use recommends for taking shots of items for retail online shops...interesting and slightly ethereal.

Deep sigh. They are such glorious things. So clever, so remarkable, so robust.

Tidying up and using up

 We are well underway with the studio downsizing. Our lease runs out in February and we won't be renewing it. This means we have a major task on our hands to get rid of things we don't need or use anymore; get organised to move the things we will be keeping; and generally speaking tidy up and sort a lot of things out!

As part of this we have re-imagined our home office and created more storage there for things like books, work for sale and so on. As we did this I came across some leftover images from my exhibition with my friend Sheila back in 2024 - Exposed. They were the small proofs, most of which didn't make the final cut; some of which did make the cut, but only in a larger size; and some that made the cut but with minor tweaks.

Did they go in the bin? Or could they be re-worked somehow?

I went with the notion of rescuing some and re-working them. I thought about making cards; but then decide to make postcard-sized works. I wondered about putting them on another colour before placing on the card. And then I thought I would blind-emboss a square to frame them.

I first used this technique back in 2010 for a series of books based on glyphs - marks made either in urban setting or bush settings. More recently, I have come across it in the work of my friend and co-collaborator Annwyn Dean, who uses it beautifully to set off her prints in many of her books- for example here. 

My challenge was however, that as part of the downsizing we had sold our etching press. How to make a deep enough emboss without a press? I recalled we had a timber bed we could slot into the proofing press we use to print letterpress posters, and popped it in. But the rough timber worried me, so I cut some acetate and placed it on the bed. I put the registration template underneath that and thought I was onto it.

I cut a 7cm square from a desk mat, and then I needed to build up the pressure. So I put in several sheets of grey board to give it some oomph as the roller passed over it.

The only trouble was it needed so much oomph I was in danger of crushing my fingers; or having the whole press fall off the bench due to the uncontrollable movement as I pushed and pushed. I recalled there was a handle? But where? Luckily I found it and could fit it. I did have to turn the press around by myself which was fun given its weight, but I managed that safely, then used the handle to really pressure roll and it worked.

And then it was gluing and signing.

And bundled up, waiting for some of them to head off and out.

It felt good to rescue these images. I ended up with 26 workable images on postcards.

Photographic play

It's interesting to me how often I look at things and think about beautiful photographic imagery. Oftentimes, especially when I can't be making by hand myself, my eye enjoys creating beauty with my camera.

Here are a few shots from the last week.

This small arrangement sits atop the microwave in our kitchen here. Some dried honesty in a tactile ceramic vase; a matching but different spot vase bought in Bergen; a silver plate hammered by B; and a paper wasp's nest sitting upon it.

I love the tones, I love the forms, I love the simplicity.

I thought to see how it might appear if I played with the camera a bit.

I like how this one went all out of focus - the softness hints at something, tho I am not sure. A memory? A forgottenenss? Something just out of reach?

And this one I like for its clarity at the front - the detail on the new spotty vase are delightful.

Another arrangement I quite like is these wee hoosies that B made, set upon our fireplace mantle.  All well and good I thought, but really, twinkle lights would make it better! In my view, twinkle lights make pretty much everything better.

I think it might be the way the copper wire refuses to be controlled or trained to a particular shape. I love the random wriggles it draws.

This one reminds me of street lights on a misty foggy night.

A bit similar but simply noir.

And with this one I like the dark undercarriage and the contrasting brightness above.

Making this post really made me wonder a bit about how to bring beautiful imagery into our lives; not just something to be shared on our screens.

I pondered whether we could buy two lovely frames and have them somewhere we would see them; and on a weekly basis or fortnightly basis, simply print a new photo that made use smile, and pop it in the frame to enjoy for a while.

Moving art around, replacing and refreshing art is the way we do things now. In two small homes we have boxes or cupboards with beautiful arty bits, and I regularly move things around, bring these out for show, pop things away for a rest and create new arrangements throughout the house. It makes me smile to see beautiful art in sometimes unexpected places; and to be reminded of old friends when they re-appear.

So I am now wondering if I could use some photos in a similar way??? 

Any which way, seeing art and beauty all around me, spending a few moments capturing it and enjoying it are also ways of feeding my soul and nurturing me.

Prepping for the Pop Up!

 We are holding a Pop Up Art Show at the Armadale Village Hall this Saturday and Sunday. We are excited at the same time as uncertain about what might happen and how it might go, but looking forward to it and to chatting with folk and talking about art!

The show is mostly about Barry's small watercolours of buildings and boats along the North Coast of Scotland; and my sterling silver pebble and stone-inspired jewellery; but we decided to also add in a few more pieces that we have made (and are making!).

I have been testing out my jewellery-making capacity in our shed and this week completed three pairs of earrings. I was able to texture them and oxidise parts oft them, so I feel right at home now!

Different display options are available...

My inside art-making space is quite the clutter!

At a lunch a few weeks ago I chatted with a woman who had previously seen our work at markets here and she said" I love your cards, I hope you have some more". So I thought, right I had better make some more! This one became Welcome to the World when I completed the Letraset.

One of the birds was coloured in on these ones

The latest stash of cards. I bought the envelopes in Bergen!

I also have a few of my black and white photographs. This one is called Safe Harbour.

I have matted up the 6 collages working from the imagery of the fishing sheds here.

Our kitchen table is multi-functional that is for sure - currently typing on the laptop here, but we also do art finishing here as well. Oh and we eat at it too!

I have called these pieces Moments of Memory I-VI.

And last but not least, in line with my love of the house/cottage form that I always seem to end up playing with as I travel back and forth, the form that keeps me pondering what home means, and the form that just makes me feel good when I look at it, I have worked with B to to create these wee hoosies. I selected the timber and the size and the shape and B cut them for me and did an initial sand; but I have done the finishing sanding and the wire brushing and will add the varnish once we have bought it! They just make me smile. 

It feels like we are almost ready for whatever happens, and we look forward to hopefully sharing time with folks we know and people we will meet...

Photographic play

I still struggle to find my way in to making when I am at the cottage; I find it hard to settle and to fix on something and follow it through. The most recent visit made it a bit harder of course with the focus on the exhibition and its associated activities; as well as the fact that one of my art 'studio' desks was used in the exhibition almost halving my space available for 7 weeks!

So I find myself thinking about making a lot, thinking about what next, writing words, playing with photographs and thinking about courses I would like to undertake. In a way, it is a time of quiet pondering rather than creating and I think I can be at peace with that.

I have written some words about the way I feel at the cottage; the ways in which I move and observe more slowly; the way I think and see more deeply. I have plans for the words!

I have also written words about some of the landscape that makes my heart sing, and some of the features that make me smile.

I have plans for them too.

And somehow in amongst it all is the idea of playing with photographic imagery and blending things that go with words. They might be collaged; they might be softened and used as backgrounds, they may yet get more done to them; but I have enjoyed playing with the Snapseed app on my phone to create some layers.

Here are some of them - it can be a bit hit and miss, but most of these I find interesting, and full of possibilities.

I love the seed heads.

I have words about power poles rolling around in my head. The way they are vertical in an utterly horizontal landscape...

Ahhh the chaffinches!

A strange combo of birds, sea  and flowers.

A sheep placed into a rushing by image.

This last one is more of a miss than a hit I think...

But I shall keep trying to work with the images and the words and see where I land.