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...

Skittery and scattered

It is always of interest to me how the jet lag plays out. I am utterly functional and can do pretty much everything, but I get tired at odd hours, and occasionally wake at inopportune times, but one of the things I notice most is how hard it is for me to settle into making.

And so it has proven once again. My mind has been turning over lots of new ideas and plans, but the sitting down and starting takes time. I have happily researched and investigated, purchased some things like Letraset, been on the hunt for old wooden cotton reels and the like, but the actual doing? Not so much.

These cotton reels have got me thinking...and I would love to find some more of the taller ones so am having a happy time sticking my nose into every charity shop or collectable shops and sorting through the haberdashery. As an aside, before we left a friend told me about a friend of hers, who volunteers at a haberdashery op shop. An op shop/charity shop just for haberdashery and sewing notions! What a splendid idea. 

Out our bedroom window each night, the sky is always worth a look, especially this portion of the hill with the fence line.  I keep looking at it and wondering what it is trying to tell me. The best I have done so far is it feels like the fence is stitching the land to the sky. As if it is joining the celestial to the corporeal. There is something in there I want to explore... just not sure exactly what it might be.

I have been thinking about containing small amounts of text in 5cm x 5cm squares. I started out with just my handwriting in capitals, and then turned the square around and over wrote it. It makes an interesting texture. Very dense. Completely illegible. Looks a bit scary. Not sure it is saying what I want it to say just yet.

This is pretty typical of this time. Things are saying something, but I am not yet grasping them. Or I am not yet able to get them to say the right things! This too shall pass.

I have drawn some lines in the next square for my next thought...

And so, instead, I continue to look at the landscape, soak in the softness and the light and get inspired in so many different ways.

The cottage with the hillside of crocosmia/montbretia we have planted dazzling and bright.

Sunlight on the hay and the crofts. More fence lines...

Looking out along a headland.

The mist was in.

The late evening sun caught this line of cloud above the hill line. It was like a bright torn edge of some paper. Or worse - like a fire pouring over the hill.

And bringing some of the garden into the cottage.

Softly, softly. Gently, gently. The making will return.

Safe arrivals

We are back at the cottage safely, after a smooth travel experience - not something you can bank on these days. We had several fall back strategies should the air space over the Gulf be closed...

We spent our first night in Scotland at Pitlochry - a favourite spot to wander around. It is a sight to behold with its many baskets of hanging flowers; and this time we also got to visit the Book Shop at the Pitlochry Railway Station. What a brilliant idea this is - who hasn't sat at a train station wishing they could buy a book for the journey?

All books are donated and all sales go to the six charities they support. We got a couple of goodies and a cook book!

I think I need to find me a railway station with a vacancy....

And so to the cottage where the summer of rain has meant we have loads of growth - we have apples, potatoes, flowers and plenty of weeds!

We have since weeded the apple and hydrangea garden and it looks much better now! Before we left in May we planted out several containers with potatoes. They look utterly straggly, but we have harvested one pot and eaten them all!

Flowers are still going strong and I have brought some into the house just to keep the smiles going.

Out in the rockery.

Some of the wee heather remains on the hillsides.

And the cove looked majestic on our first morning here...

'Tis good to be back.

Departing and arriving

We left the cottage on a bright sunshiny day, just right for a road trip.

We made it to Aberfeldy, one of our favourite places to stop, and settled in for the night. In the morning the mist and low cloud was in as we visited some Standing Stones nearby.

 

Which seemed to echo, or mirror, our morning walk in Maleny this morning!

We have arrived safely and are happily settling back into life and friends and community here.

Getting back in the groove

 We have pretty much finished the chores we set ourselves to do this trip - the painting, the pointing and the planting - so we have been able to grab  few moments here and there to think about, and make, some things artistic.

Whilst this photo looks like I have a fur hat on; it is actually the reflection of the hay bale in the field beside us! It took me a while to work out what was going on.

This is me hard at work in my workshop. Also known as the garden shed behind the cottage.

When next we are here, we are planning another pop up art show and I thought to myself I should get down and start making some jewellery.  It seemed like if I could grab an hour here, and maybe an hour there, I could cut some silver wire and solder some forms.

Nothing too fine or too tricky or too elegant; just get down and get the basics underway. I think am snipping solder here, ready to make a few more pebble forms. It was about 6 degrees outside with a sharpish wind, so I am pretty rugged up. My hands really felt it tho!

It was a good productive hour!

All these forms need to be cleaned, and to have the lumps and bumps filed down, but I am well on the way to having a bunch of pebble forms to play with to make some new jewellery.

And a few photos from around the cottage. Out the bedroom window as we headed to bed one night.

Our apple tree is in full bloom.

And the lambs are being cute.

As we round the corners to home...

Turn left into Armadale...

Typewriter 2!

 Well, we went and did it. We went and bought ourselves a small compact 1970s typewriter so we could have one to use when we are in Scotland. 

Decadence. Indulgence. Whatever it is, it is nevertheless fabulous to have this wee one with us now and I couldn't wait to get started using it! Here it is all primed to go on my multi-purpose studio bench.

I had so much fun remembering the little quirks of a typewriter, setting tabs and line spacing; and loving the ding when I had room for just a few more characters in my line. I tied it on the usual 80gsm bond paper and that fed through really well. 

The ribbon is brand new so it was quite inky in places. This image also shows how easy it is to make typos; and how you can't readily remove them by simply backspacing or deleting. I like the honesty of the work.

I can't yet tell that ghost effect is me thumping the keys too hard because maybe the typewriter is too high on the bench; or if there is a setting I need to get sorted that will change it.

For the time being I don't mind it - perfection is not the goal - but it would be good to be able to understand what is going on.

As is my want, I then went and picked up all sorts of papers I had lying around - Japanese papers; lightweight tracing paper; used teabags; heavier art paper; and card; and checked to see if they would go through and if the keys would work on them.

I popped the tea bag onto a piece of copier paper and held it down with washi tape, then fed it through. All good.

The 'ghost print' equivalent on the copier paper was a bit of a bonus!

So I can see a lot of fun happening here.

We went away for a couple of days through the week - taking my Dad to see some of his favourite old haunts and some new ones. Here are a couple of shots from our road trip.