Eucalyptus dyeing and wandering thoughts

 It was a beautiful morning so the dye pot had to make an appearance. I had planted a eucalyptus in the garden about three years ago, it wasn't happy but this year it has really taken off. I don't want it growing large so I pruned it yesterday, probably the wrong time of the year but it needs holding back a bit. My garden isn't huge. Anyway three scarves in the pot, two silk jersey cowls and one cotton scarf.

My studio table is looking a mess, my excuse is that this is all work related and actually most of it is.
I am now on Instagram, twice accidentally and I don't know how to remove the wrong one, I think you will find me under djpawle, still learning this slightly mysterious to me app, I don't think I am ever going to become tech savvy, I am also on Pinterest twice, how did I do that?

Sad

Still life now has a background and is waiting
to be framed.

I have been feeling very sad today after our Brexit vote and have not been able to concentrate on much. I have been wandering around in and out of the garden between showers and just doing some finishing off on framing some of the pieces for our Shoreline exhibition of which I have taken some pictures. Some finished and nearly finished work

Finished piece

Well what to say about this, it is in a state of disarray
while I work out what to do with it. Its supposed to be
one of those tangles of seaweed seen on the strand line.

Another strand line piece forgot the photo until I had put the glass on

A small piece for a driftwood looking frame.

On the beach

I went for a walk on the beach today, I haven't been for so long despite it only being across the road. It has changed so much. Masses of sand has been blown up so the dunes now encroach more onto the beach. The mass of small pieces of wood I normally find have been covered by sand and become part of the dunes. There are more wild flowers and self seeded cultivated ones. The Rosa Rugosa and perennial sweet pea have spread over much wider areas.
It will change again but when you don't go regularly you notice the changes more.

Scratched

I have scratches up both arms from pruning the dead branches out from my elderly venerable lavender bush. I tend to have a slight love hate relationship with the plants in my garden. Some grow so well I have to keep digging them up and dividing them and some have to be carefully nurtured. I have just bought a woad plant and discovered it is a brassica which doesn't bode well as they don't tend to grow very well here.
But where would be be without our beloved plants, Grace today paid homage to textiles, I am paying homage to the plants we make our textiles and dyes from, we would have a sadly diminished range of textiles without them.
Still no pictures, I have found them all, but they don't want to be here yet, I will persevere.

Stuff I need to write

Ok I am not writing this to elicit a response I just need to write it. I read this week that my favourite yarn company has gone into liquidation, a sad day indeed, But it got me thinking, I have been in a rut for a while with my weaving I seem to have lost my sense of direction, maybe in my life as well. I enjoy hand stitching but my eco printing isn't going so well either. I have masses of yarn to use so do I feel obliged to use it. Maybe I just need to take a step back. I am raising more questions than answers which is not why I started on this, I was hoping to find answers, I am not doing that.
I probably shouldn't post this, maybe one red wine to many but we all go through this from time to time, don't we?
I wish I could write like Grace, talk like India and Jude, express my feelings more often.
Should I post this, probably not but fate takes a hand every so often.

Read this

I have just finished reading Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, this is an epic novel, a masterpiece so much more than just a story it takes you through the whole emotive range of human stupidity, cruelty and humanity. The last chapter brought tears to my eyes. The book is beautifully written and has hidden psychological depths, its a must read.

Peace and Quiet

Its quiet here today, my daughter went back yesterday after a month long stay, along with my son and and his partner who were down for the weekend.
Its been a beautiful sunny day so I have been out in the garden planting the quince tree that my brother gave me for christmas and having a general tidy up and a bit of pruning. Jenny Wren was foraging around in the bushes nearby and Mr Robin joined me for a while.
The pond has a covering of ice which didn't melt all day, its quite cold and now the clouds are gathering over the sea again and the sun is hazy. Rain again tomorrow I think.

Procrastinating

It is time to stop procrastinating, stop reading blog posts, blow away the cobwebs and DO SOME WORK.
I am putting it off, why, because I collected my work from Ilminster on Saturday and hadn't sold anything, not even a card, it lowered my confidence in my work, which is never high in the first place.
I don't specifically produce work to sell but it still feels good when you do and bad when you don't.
Anyway I have to get over it, I am taking part in a pop up gallery which opens in two weeks, so I need to pull my self together and get going.

Dungeness

 We have just got back from a few days in Dungeness, Kent. This is a unique area that has something like 30 per cent of our native flora, the whole area is a nature reserve, and yes it does also have a nuclear power station. I fell in love with it at first sight though I do realise that miles of shingle may not be everybody's cup of tea.
The photos are just a small selection of the ones I took just to give a flavour of the area. It is also rust heaven. Its just laying about everywhere and there are loads of rusty old boat winches at intervals along the beach.

Sea cabbage 

Tracks from the lifeboat cradle

This is still an active fishing area

Derek Jarmans house

The tradional houses are more like overgrown sheds and would have belonged to the fishermen. They are mostly painted black and there are still some beautiful modern versions with picture windows being constructed. This one belonged to Derek Jarman the film producer, he made a beautiful garden which the current residents are keeping up. Most of the houses don't have boundary lines so it is difficult to know if are intruding on to somebody's land but some of the other gardens are very attractive, hard to acheive in such a hostile landscape.

Proud Mum

If you have been watching The Mill on Channel 4 in the UK or are interested in industrial history or textiles watch The Real Mill on More4 at 9pm tonight. I am shamelessly promoting this as my son was involved in the making of it.
He also has two films showing at the Venice Film Festival next week.

I think its over

Rust on silk

Detail

You may have noticed that I work in bouts of activity. I think this one may be over. I have finished all my little projects and probably will be having a break from dyeing experiments.











I will be working in the background on various on going projects but may not be blogging for a little while.

In the meantime

I have been trying to scan a page I wrote about eccentric weaving for the last three days, so in the meantime here are some images of the Glastonbury Festival.

My daughter and me

Sunset over tents

More tents

Arcadia

Not giant bats but aerialists, part of the Arcadia show

Part of the Arcadia show

Arcadia again, with aerialists hanging off the crane parts

I haven't been to this festival for about forty years, it was very small then, now it is massive. We had one day tickets being fairly local and I was quite apprehensive about going but really enjoyed myself despite it being quite muddy in places.

My daughter has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so hired a mobility scooter and had a great time going places no scooter should ever go, but we coped and other festival goers were very happy to help push her back out of the muddy patches.

My daughter and her friend/helper and myself with the Massive Attack light show in the background

Published at last!!

Today I received my copy of 'On A Wandering Wind' put together by India Flint, generously showcasing her students work. I am in it as are some of the women I had the good fortune to work with on one of India's workshops. So I am in print, admittedly only as India included all of her students who sent images to her.
I have only just started perusing it but can tell you already that it is a wonderful book full of amazing work.

At sixes and sevens

Do you get days when you just don't seem to settle down to anything, you start stuff and then stop, you have ideas but don't know how to convert them into work, or you simply don't feel like doing anything at all. I have been feeling like that for the last couple of days.
I think it mainly happens when I have been working very hard for a deadline and then everything just feels a bit flat. Trouble is I have another exhibition coming up in a couple of months time and not the faintest idea what I am going to do, not a single concrete idea in my head.
I guess the best thing to do is nothing, wait for inspiration to strike and hope it doesn't take to long.

In the meantime I have two new books on weaving to explore Lynn Gray Ross - Hand Weaving The Basics, which is just that but has some interesting design elements and Silvia Heyden - The Making of Modern Tapestry, which I had to pay a fortune for but is well worth every penny and may have me shooting off in new directions.

Also winging its way to me is India Flint's latest On A Wandering Wind, in which I am included.

Happy Day

The first day of British Summertime and Mothers Day. Happy Mothers Day to all those Mums out there who happen to share the same mothers day as the UK, and of course all those in the UK.

Finding things

About three years ago I lost my wedding ring whilst gardening, amazingly the other day it turned up, just sitting there on the soil after it had been turned over. Disappointingly it no longer fits, luckily I have had a replacement made, in the meantime I may try and get the found one stretched. I am now on my third wedding ring, the first one had to be cut off.
It amazes me how much our bodies change, my engagement ring only fits on my little finger now. So I used to have short thin fingers and now I have short chubby fingers which it would appear are still getting even fatter.

Santa and a slice of lemon

We were having dinner on Sunday night when we hear Christmas music, opening the curtains what do we behold but Santa and a light festooned sleigh being towed behind a 4x4, we waved, he waved back, how surreal.
The moon looked like a slice of lemon.

Words

I am no writer but these words came to me this morning and for some reason needed to be shared.

She continued on through time and space, set about by ordinary things but dreaming of another life.
She walked along beaches and through woods collecting objects and storing away thoughts as squirrels store their nuts,
She observed butterflies and bees and spoke to frogs gently coaxing them to safer hiding places,
She listened to the birds and ate blackberries among the brambles.

She listened to Mother Earth and Father Sea as they combined in ecstasy, washing away words written in the sand until she was at peace,
Sitting on a sea washed log carried by water from far off places.





Well this might become embarrassing but I'm posting anyway.

A stitch in time

Dyed with fallen rose petals and the odd cornflower head

The type of subtle colours I love

I have reached the last day of my fiftieth decade, changes ahead, I don't know. I have just finished working my way through Jude's 'Spirit Cloth 101' so will be looking over at 'What If', one change on the way.

Train travel will be 20 per cent cheaper so maybe I will visit more places. I would love to just take off to Northumberland and Scotland for about a month, on my own, but that is not possible at the moment.



My evening occupation, I have fallen in love with stitching. Once all these pieces are sewn together I will make them into one larger piece.

Fairies

Penny over at Art Journey has recently asked the question 'do you believe in fairies'. This got me thinking;  I am no great scholar of myths and legends but it seems to me that many of them are universal and are similar in belief systems, cultures and countries across the globe. This would indicate in my own personal view of the world that there is truth in them otherwise how could they exist in such a diversity of places.

Jung talks of the collective unconscious"..... there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.”. 

 I don't really understand a lot of this stuff but where does this collective unconscious come from? To me it seems that as we have become more 'civilised' and further away from nature we have mislaid much of our wonder and faith in our world. To me the collective unconscious is a bit like the force in Star Wars, outside there somewhere waiting for us to tap into it.