Mend

These are all images of a small dish I mended to hold and keep safe. It was inspired by the Japanese style of mending broken ceramics. This is Kintsugi. Traditionally gold is used giving a colour and acknowledgment of the repair done. It is not meant to be hidden. It is respect to the old and worn, they are valued. So I have stitched the broken pieces of this small dish using a golden toned thread. The fabric is all either ecodyed or as in the case of the pale blue a dip in a very depleted indigo vat.

This wee plate was always part of my memory of my mother’s collected items. She bought it during her travels in Europe when she lived and worked in London in the 1950’s. It was never used but just there. I had it in my possession for only weeks when I did something without thinking and it smashed to the floor. All I could do was pick up the pieces and place them in a box then hidden away in a drawer. So now they are united again into something special, different but held in this altered way in my memories. 

So now they are a 9 patch . Two missing pieces leaving gaps. The gaps are important because without them it would be 7 not the strength and balance of 9, 

and this is ‘where the light gets in’. 

Sulphure Crested Cockatoo

Another bird. Same style as the magpie .

I am loving these birds so much that I will do another. A kookaburra. A trio of Australian birds on ecodyed silk.

Vase

Mixed media ,flowers in a vase. Looking at it now in a photograph I see the stems don’t continue into the vase and some leaves are simply popping out of the flowers. But does it matter. If there were stems it would be too much.
Flowers on vintage book page . I have really enjoyed this process of building up a surface then layer by layer adding to it.

Collage

l have been working on some background in preparation for collage. This will be cut up and used . Heavy brown and black with a touch of gold for the mountain plan.

Boxing Day

The red Christmas table cloth has not yet been cleared away, the tinsel that came out of the confetti filled bon- bons is still lying scattered but I have pulled out a magpie to continue on with.
He is sitting on a piece of ecodyed silk which may or may not be where he will eventually reside.

He has tiny bits of lace for texture and various scraps of different blacks. He is only tacked at the moment and I need to consider an eye . It will have to be on the black part,  so maybe a button sewn on with white thread. Will add more of a tree or branch, but I know the exact pieces needed but can’t find them among my boxes of fabrics.

‘Hello Mr Magpie , How’s Your Wife and Kids’

The first Christmas

Tonight I got caught out in a thunderstorm. Walking at night on a trip that is twenty minutes from home. The lightning was in the sky, thunder rolling , sky dark and cloudy. Then nearly got knocked over by wind before the rain hit with a vengeance. Before too long the footpath was crossed by streaming floodlets of water, the lightening flashed closer. We sheltered in a bus shed half way home. Cold an d soaking wet.

One conversation went like this
Emily “wouldn’t it be awful to be killed by lightening tonight”
Me “ well we wouldn’t know about it then “
Emily “ but for everyone else it would be really awful”

So sitting sheltering in the bus stop with all this wildness going on I was regretting the last drink when we could have left to walk home ahead of the storm. I wanted to be home , dry, with the Carols by Candlelight on Tv , the Christmas tree lit up, sitting comfortably on the lounge.
Then My thoughts went to the very first Christmas. And I was filled with calm and was grateful.

Elves

I am not sure how long these elves have sat waiting to be finished. Years. So now here they are sitting on the piano. All I need to do is draw in their wee faces and to write a letter on each cotton reel body. The kit showed Xmas but I cannot stand that abbreviation of the meaningful word Christmas. So maybe Merry or Peace .oops I have deleted the photo so will take it again in the morning. In the meantime here are some decorations I made several years ago. Made with copper, beads , fabric, thread, stitch, wire and embroidery.