Still looking for my Susan ..i.e. for the elusive thing that I can sell for small amounts of cash to keep me afloat and being an artist.(when is that supposed to happen?) just happily being creative at the moment….cant quite believe it’s a week since Brockenhurst …..A lovely two days showing my work and demonstrating paper manipulation techniques and book making. It’s amazing what a conversation starter putting a can of Felippo Berio on my table was ! Thank you to everyone who said nice things about my work …lots of interest in talks and work shops so that’s great! Also sold one of my little sculptures. So pleased! Hope it gives you as much pleasure as I had making it!
Also Ralph AKA The GOM. has gone to a good home!
Good luck to Worthing Young Embroiderers’ …Happy book making and email me your results will be great to see what you come up with! Been making more books this week …..
also been working on developing hand stitch workshops as well as work for the rural refugee network art sale on June 15th as well not to mention Open Studios in August…..
Check out their website ..rural-refugee-network
Didnt get much time to look around BRock .. Obligatory stop at art van go …goes without saying …..but it was fab! Lots of lovely stand there. The ladies who organise it are amazing!!! Thank you for having me. Great to talk textiles non stop for two whole days. Head buzzing with ideas!! It really is a lovely show.
Also extremely pleased with my Alison Hulme pinnie!! I’ve been trying to buy one now for the last two years but can never make my mind up,about a colour…. Got A to choose for me…very pleased!! Thank you! Can I just say the pockets are beautiful!!
still practising my Instagram technique.. Not good !!! I think your supposed to do more of a blue steel and plaster yourself with make up first ah well never mind!! Pinnie looks good….
also been making these…trying to revisit stuff and ideas I already have and develop them further….
Really interesting art talk at local art society this week.. Always good to hear about other peoples influences…..reminded me how much I love Edward Bawden and Eric Ravillious!
Just putting finishing touches to my presentation for the Embroiderers Guild AGM next Saturday….and looking forward to the chi art dept degree show next week
P.S Thank you for looking after me Sarah at Brockenhurst. Everything was perfect!! Hope your bee making workshop went well on the Sunday!!
P.P.S just back from teenage shopping trip on Oxford street… All I can say is thank goodness for the mad Canadian and a posh cake and coffee shop which provided necessary sustinance to keep me going and re-establish my sanity.. Urban outfitters is not a good place for me!!! Fenwicks however was ……Lancôme lady said she thought I looked like an artist… Which one said I….????
And yesterday well it was fab! I taught a workshop at the Ashcroft Centre in Fareham at their fabric day. It was great….my class was fully booked and we did my version of crazy patchwork ….think the ladies were a bit worried when my opening gambit to my ‘textures of quilting workshop’ was’ hi my name is Helen and I am not a quilter’… But think I pulled it back! There is something about the randomness and ‘more is more’ with crazy patchwork/quilts that I love. …. anyone who knows me, knows I am far from an exact person…and I am definitely not a quilter. There is nothing more satisfy thing than bringing together lots of old bits of material cutting them up joining them back together to make something new and beautiful that just sings!… Fitted with the theme of CAROL PARKER’s VISIBLE MENDING project – which was also at the Ashcroft …REPAIR – A participative postcard exhibition about visibly mending items when her allotment shed was broken into and she had to patch it up with whatever materials she could find.
Wish me luck!!!!
Before I left I managed to sneak into Jenny Rayment’s talk and let me tell you that lady should be doing stand up… So glad I got to listen to her. Her next book is evidently a hundred ways with a bathroom scrunching thingy!! Loses a lot in translation. Haven’t laughed so much in ages!!NB couldn’t find a photo of her as a bunny girl??
*’ see below’ as I cant manage to insert an EMOJI…Well what a week and it’s only thursday!
yes it really is the man him self…look in the back ground..check out those shoes! Starting with a conflab about room 6 exhibition at Birmingham NEC at the end of the month… to finalise arrangements. Sadly I will only be there on the Sunday but the rest of the group will be there ….come along and say hello if you are visiting the 
Tuesday started badly when I managed to fall over in a posh gallery in Grafton street looking at Tom 
Perhaps it was the post prandial seasonal lull..but I haven’t been totally dormant.. I’ve started an artist’s page and I’ve been making a lot of stuff . So with the glut of blue cheese and gin and too much Xmas cake a distant memory I am back in the blogosphere? (and arent you happy about that!!) Reading Nicky Barfoot’s blogs has made me laugh thru january , well feel happy then get terribly depressed when i realise i should be blogging too and that I need to get back into the saddle…. she’s also managed to provide me with displacement activities…good and not good..as I should be doing other things!!!! Check out her post on the textile challenge 
Anyway the good news is he sold and made lots of dosh for the canine trust..really pleased..it was fun to make …….
I love his work and the exhibition at the discovery centre last month was absolutely amazing!!!
also been finishing off my piece for the Embroiderers’ Guild on the celebration of 300 years of Capability Brown…heres a sneak preview.
Another reason for lack of blog is I have had to take on another paying job to keep me going on the art front but there are lots of nice things in the pipe line and, as a good friend said to me, Jan and Feb are the most miserable months and the best time to work lots. I’m also still in touch with uni and hoping to finish my degree next year, so I delayed the module I was going to do this term so can work to earn money to pay for the module..isnt that a 
?
And finally home and shopping…I went in to the marvellous ‘Stuff’ in Petersfield,..where Lyn has been selling my work for me ..she is rather good at it …. I took also took some of my mini sculptures in ….exhibited in Harrogate for the first time. ..the shop has the most beautiful items. If you are in the Petersfield area check her out..I have got my eye on one of her lovely kantha quilts…they are exquisite!!! ‘Stuff’ sells fab furniture, artwork and stuff for your home, and is at 2 London House, Chapel Street Petersfield. GU32 3DR and is open 10 til 4.30 Monday to Saturday or youican visit stuff on line at 
Definately worth a butchers on the iplayer…
on the front of the Guardian.. so here’s my starter for 10…………………………………………..⇓⇓⇓⇓.
…gutted that missed out on a place on the Opus Anglicanum stitch work shop a the RSN last week as I had to work..now there’s dedication for you…or stupidity!!! That really was a bleurrg…am on a cancellation list for the next one..so fingers crossed …….my spirits were raised by listening a great talk by Kay Ashby at Liss in StitcheS in the evening..very entertaining and lovely work.. I love that group..definitely builds your Wah!
no not me silly…I should have been packing but watched the first episode of super girl on demand with my son instead. He said he wanted to be with me for a bit longer as I’m away for nearly a week..personally I think the fact that we had found super girl and the flash had quite a lot to do with staying up late hmmmmm……
P.P.S MADE in Brighton was great! Really pleased you did so well Sarah!!! I enjoyed a sneaky ice cream on the seafront on the way there too!! Thank you to the mad Canadian for driving!!!
And also versions in larger cushions but can’t mass produce, will leave that to the professionals! thinking about doing commissions???????..marilyn has asked me to make some for her shop…I actually prefer doing the little ones and making them into people…they speak to me more.. I just need to work out why. But working out how to do bigger ones in the first place was fun! (And thanks for you advice Lynn!)
On Wednesday went to uni to have a chat about returning to do my final module for my of my first part of my final year come January. Talked about trying to work out why I do what I do and seeing if there is a similar vein that runs through my work. Also chatted thru marks for my last module…. got a huge list of theory books that I need to brush up on!!!Need to sell some flippin things at Harrogate to pay for it though….600 quid should just about do it!!!! I can dream okay! !Been making fabric bundles.. Not sure they are going to do it for me but every little helps!!! Also made more cushions big and small…. to possibly sell. Decided I would rather mass produce packs of raw materials with which people can create themselves something rather that mass produce a thing to buy(my idea of mass producing is 10 btw!) .. I like one offs!!!!!
helen sill 