hung

i spent a couple of hours putting up two of my pieces, skyline I and skyline II, (above) up at the lady chapel in ely cathedral today. i'm really happy with how it went up, but the pics i took were pretty dreadful. the best one is above. the exhibition is up until the end of april and is called 'in response'. it feels very bare in my living room walls now, but strangely like wiping the slate clean...ready to start new projects.

oh, by the way, i got some good news about my secret commission today...two versions are being shown to the 'big boss' in new york next week....eeeek! sorry about being so vague, will tell/show you more when i can.

complete!

just popping in to say that the ely piece is finished and mounted, see pic above. man, it is so hard to take a decent pic of though! i picked the only spot in our living room with a big enough piece of wall to take it, but it's the only area that doesn't get any nice diffused light (and it's been strange weather today, pouring with rain one moment, then too-bright sunshine the next.) they aren't great, but if you want to see a couple more pics that show the whole thing, check out my flickr page.

good feeling

an update on 'skyline 2'. after a difficult week on a personal level, (two words: teribble twos) i've buried my head and got on with some work... i've made 16 of these little collages so far and i've mounted them on my living room wall so i can look at them while i work...they make me so happy, i can't tell you. i think it's the clarity of the colours against lots of white...and the strength of the black stitched line against the fairly soft colours. it's a good contrast, and i feel they are very 'me'. i'm terrible for surfing the net and finding stuff that's inspiring, which should be a good thing. but sometimes when i'm feeling doubtful and insecure about my work, it makes me uneasy and slightly depressed and i feel my work isn't 'good enough'. with this piece i've ignored those silly thoughts and really feel i've found my groove and it's a good feeling.

ely number 2

at last i have started my second piece for ely cathedral. the exhibition goes up near the end of march, so i'd better get a wriggle on. although no actual work has taken place, i've been mulling over ideas in my head for weeks and these two little pieces (5 square) are the first of 40 pieces i'm planning on doing. rather unimaginatively, it's going to be called 'skyline 2'. i love doing stuff like this...having a pretty clear idea and having it go well is so satisfying. i'd like to get a couple more done before getting ready for...wait for it...a valentine's day dinner with my husband, gasp! yes, after 16 years of telling me that valentine's day is no more than a load of old commercialised bollocks, sam has surprised me with a night out! organised more than two weeks ago. amazing. have a great one with your loved ones, folks.

up!

well, actually not 'up', more like laying (on a table, no wall big enough for this fair beast of a project.) as expected a couple of pretty god-awful photos, these only show a portion of it, but it gives a fairly good effect. it really reminds me a traditional patchwork quilt...a sort of modern twist on one and i'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

for the geeks...each cathedral square is a 2" square, and nine of these make up a 'nine patch' (did you see that coming? ;) 6" square, that i call a 'block'. the overall piece is 4 blocks wide (24") by 10 blocks long (60".)

done!

woohoo, drum roll please...'skyline' is finished! i've literally just finished stitching the last four and flung them in a heap to photograph. i will organise them on to a wall a take a pic later on so you can see the full effect. although it will most likely look terrible...all those blues and greys tend to blend into blurry sludge from afar. oh well, we'll see.

stitched

this is another little glimpse at 'skyline', a piece of work i'm doing for an exhibition at ely cathedral. it looks a little like i've gone backwards from my last post, but i really have been diligently snipping envelopes and stitching away! there will be 40 of these squares (4 across and 10 down) which will be placed onto a grey background...it has changed a little in construction, my original plan was to do these in strips rather than squares, but when it came to stitching it looked terrible...i like the untrimmed threads in each square anyway, it's sort of become a bit of a trademark for me. anyway, back to grindstone, only 23 more squares to go ;)

peek

i was worried today because i didn't think i had anything particularly exciting to show you or talk about (except the mould growing in my workroom. nice.) but then it occurred to me that you might like to see a piece of work in the very, very early stages.

firstly, a bit of background. i belong to an art textiles group called 'anglia textile works' (atw) a group of 6 like minded textile-y ladies all living in the east anglian region of the uk. we meet 4 or 5 times a year, and we usually have a fairly major exhibition of our work once every two years or so. next year at easter, we are having one in 'the lady chapel' at ely cathedral in cambridgeshire, called 'atw...in response'. our brief is to create two pieces each, with each piece being 24" wide by 60" long. they can be made up of any sized smaller pieces...which is where my piece comes in. the above piece (currently without a name, but probably 'skyline') is 24" by 12". i am planning on having 5 pieces like this to make up the size and my inspiration comes from photographs i took of the cathedral's exterior from unusual angles. well, that's the plan although with these things you have to be open minded. i'm likely to change my mind...or when i start stitching it may be total shite. in my mind, it's really good, but we'll just have to see. will keep you updated with progress.