Pangolin Gallery.

One of my lovely patients gave me this egg, which her daughter makes, the daffodils are beautiful,very delicate its is too good to eat which is just as well as the diet starts tomorrow! We are fortunate to live about 4 miles from the Pangolin Gallery, they do the castings for Damien Hurst , Jonathan Kingdom & Terence Coventry, they also cast The Angel of the North.It is a fascinating place and they put on splendid exhibitions,including one on Lynn Chadwick a local sculptor, one on extinct species this one was sculptors prints.If I had a spare £800 pounds I would have been tempted with one of Lynn Chadwicks Damien Hurst`s screen print of coloured spots at £1200 for a limited edition print I wouldn't give wall space to.The bird below is one ofTerence Coventry`s and with very simple lines they have a great presence.

These next two were just stood outside I liked this one of the skeletal horse goin back to flesh.

This one is similar to Lynn Chadwicks work.

We were in time to see them pouring into a casting.

I spent the W/E overprinting and disperse printing some of my material that coloured with breakdown printing,some of the pieces needed ait more colour and shape.

These were stamped with disperse paste then ironed and stamped with thickened dyes.

This one in the flesh is great the grids are a lovely turquoise.

This one has a cow parsley stencil

I have finished my ammonites box canvasses and I am disappointed with them maybe its because I have benn working at them for too long,I have also just realied that the photo is on its side bother.

Happy Mothering Sunday.

I never realised until our daughter moved to Oz. that Mothering Sunday varies from country to country, or rather the date does.I thought that it was in the church calender,my husbands say it varies so that they can shift the cards around the world when they don't sell! Well I did not go to see my mother attired like the lady above as unfortunately I do not have her sylph like figure,but we did all go out for lunch and a walk along the river at Hurley.

A lovely old wall at Hurley,and the daffodils and cherry blossom by the river.

Carol choose the card this month for calendar girls and it is the most beautiful colours, it was taken in Korea and I think it was turquoise and orange netting or fleece .

I already had a satin material in the right colour and some kozo fibres dyed orange and turquoise
so with the addition of some orange organza I was all set.I did not alter the original much as I liked it the way it was.

A friend has lent me one of Yann`s books and the are great inspirations for textile pieces,the strangest photos are quite breathtaking ,the one I am thinking of is a shot of uranium mining in northern Aus.

Cracking up fast.

Well I am cracking up fast my apologies for not doing the draw on Sunday it was because I went on this early Thursday morning...... For three days of golf with 24 other members of our golfclub at Hardelow and Le Touquet and the sun even shone.

And thanks to great team members like Marian who got this close to the hole with her tee shot on a par three I won on 2 days! I did take my laptop but I didnt get on line so that is my excuse.

We then moved on to Lille where the traffic was awful and we would have gone on but we did not have the correct car lights so luckily we stayed and found a great old fashioned hotel in the old quarter.Lille is great for beautiful architecture some very Flemish and in with all these lovely buildings were these devils/angels which were oddly fascinating,made by some Russian co -operative.

This house was built for Coilliot a ceramic artist by Hector Guimard in the Art Nouveau style, the walls are made of enamel no straight lines or any symmetry,it is a stunning house now in need of some tender loving care.

Well I finally got around to drawing out a name or rather my daughter did and Guzzisue is the winner, well she could probably do with a warm scarf on that motorbike. Many thanks to everyone for taking the trouble to comment, lovely to hear from all of you.

100th blog

Well if my adding up is correct this is my hundredth blog,many thanks to all who have taking the time to look at it and comment it is very satisfying to know that someone does read it.I find it amazing how generous bloggers are with their help and sharing ideas it is a great community.So if anyone would like to leave a comment I will do the usual names in a hat and announce it next Sunday,the giveaway is for one of the indigo dyed nuno felted scarves shown below,or if you prefer one of the notebooks shown in last weeks blog.

Yet another book,this one was ordered in Jan but has only just come, and it is great, she covers random screenprinting,gelatin,discharge,soy wax batik,rubbings,stamping using found objects and discharge printing among others.It is written well with clear instructions so is enjoyable to read and really makes you want to start at once,I love books like this. Using found object stencils.

A serendipity moment.

Gelatin plate printing.Rayna Gillman `s book covers most aspects of surface design and is a joy to read.

This was a mock up for one of my final pieces for the masterclass,the general opinion was it was too blue should look more like rock strata and the strips of felt needed to go right across the piece ,so back to the drawing board. With Angie we had a "what did I buy this for day",I took some lutrador which I have not done much with as I find it very stiff to sew into, this bowl was lace machine sewn between 2 sheets of 70 lutrador then placed over an upturned bowl and zapped with a heat gun,much to my amazement it stayed in a bowl shape and I painted when I got home,I thought I could put a few eggs into it for Easter.

I bought this glass piece at Brewery Arts in Cirencester, as I fell in love with it.

One more to the hundreth!

Next blog is my hundredth so will have to think of a giveaway.

I have bought this book It is very good if you do not know anything about colouring, painting ,heat treating metal and then using it for stitching,I was disappointed with it as a lot of it I already knew and found most of her finished pieces uninspiring I have photographed some of them so that you can decide.

I always collect metal toothpaste tubes & tomato puree tubes to keep for the metal,after washing I smooth the metal out with a spoon and then emboss first onto the wrong side and some on the front,

beeswax is dripped into the indentations to keep them solid.

The edges have been wrapped around a piece of cardboard and then "rub and buff"is spread over the surface left to dry,it is then polished off in the raised areas.

These two have been painted with Adirondack alcohol inks

and this is a completed one.

Found this fungi in the woods in a damp spot it just glowed I was told it is red elf cups.

I kept so warm stitching the edging on my daughters quilt that I decided to make a lap quit for myself.I used some of the breakdown screen printed fabric that I did last year (managed to use some Shirley)which was edged with a procion dyed black and an orangey yellow which was dyed with onion skins.I had printed the kopopelli after screen printing,I did think that I would not be needing it but it has got much colder again. Art classes are going fairly well,a bit galling to find that your beloved husband is a "natural" at perspective I wish he would share it out. We also did some tonal drawing which I quite enjoyed but I need a lot more practise.

On Sunday went to visit my Mother and we walked along by the river,where these photos were taken, this is the trap to let the fish through

and at the Museum of rowing statues of Pinscent and Redgrave,most unusual as the faces are coloured I was not sure that I liked this effect.