The Royal Academy of Art curse strikes again

I’ve lived in London for over four years now and yet I’ve been to the Royal Academy of Art only once and not for the lack of trying. On Saturday yet again I decided to see an exhibition there. However by the time I got to London I was tired, hungry and very cold, so I choose to go to the closer National Gallery instead. And I was very glad I did. They currently have a main Pablo Picasso exhibition and to coincide with it a smaller one of his prints, including linocuts. Recently I was trying to make simple stamps following Geninne's tutorial (read from the bottom up), which is very similar to making linocuts, but on much smaller scale. Therefore I could truly appreciate Picasso’s mastery of the printmaking. Trying something for myself often results in better understanding and admiration of exceptionally skilled work of others.

Here is my first & not very successful attempt, since the eraser already had raised watermark image on it. I’m surprised I didn’t slice my hand open with the craft knife.

Slightly better second one, using linocuter.

And third one, in which I actually followed Gennine’s advise and tried to carve simple shapes.

The rest of the family enjoyed trying out the results and new ink pads.

Comfortable challenges

A challenge is something that will stretch your powers, with the likelihood of confirming them; you want to take on a challenge because you have confidence enough that you can succeed. A threat is a task that seems beyond your powers to accomplish or cope with.
John Holt How Children Learn

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Recently I stopped by a Julie's Pictures blog, who sets herself yearly challenges. Her first one was to walk for at least one mile from home everyday and record what she saw. Her friend, Fiona, just started a challenge to stitch a small picture everyday – they are so simple, yet interesting and visually pleasing.

I admire and respect their dedication, but recently I came to realise that for now I’m unable to commit myself to one year long daily challenges. I set myself simpler goals, like trying to make Russian pirozhki following these two Russian recipes: with apples and meat.

Recently I also joined Everyday Matters group, which has weekly drawing challenges. There is a list of 193 previous ones and so I’m trying to complete one old one alongside each new one. Here is the watercolour painting of autumn leaves for the challenge number 34.

The Knitting & Stitching show

Yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching show and came back home with a very small textile item by Jean Littlejohn.

After seeing her and Jan Beaney in action I understand better why they are so successful: they are so full of energy, humour, enthusiasm and wisdom; they are able to chat to people easily and make their audience laugh and feel inspired by sharing their stories. I wish I could afford to buy some of their big pieces. Their work wasn’t the only one I wanted to take back home with me. I was very impressed by the showcase of graduates work. And my excitement reached its peak when I saw something very familiar and on closer examination confirmed that it was work of Jeanne Beck, who’s creative journey I was following for few months via her blog.

Trying to see all the exhibits and the supply stalls in one day was a bit too much. I bought some fabric and took few business cards, so I can check out their online stores in a relaxed fashion at home instead of trying to make purchasing decisions while being tired and overwhelmed. I also now have a list of other fairs and exhibitions I want to visit. Maybe I’ll make it to Origin: The London Craft Fair next weekend.

Life afer...

(random photo of something I like, which has nothing to do with this post)

I used to stare in disbelieve at my friends when they announced their desire to die at 50, 60 or 65, because they didn’t want to grow too old, too weak, too sick, too dependent on others, etc. I never saw the point of choosing a random age to define being old, as there are plenty examples of the active & fully alive people of that age and conversely the half-asleep people of the younger age. Today I stumbled on the blog of a woman, who moved to London from Paris at the age of 74, and on the whole seem to be enjoying her life. I find her example inspiring and am wishing to be in the good health & sound mind when I reach her age. (She also appears to have an even bigger book addiction than I do, which makes her extra likeable)

Crochet beauties

I had yesterday’s post all written up and ready for posting in the evening, but I had two glasses of wine with the few friends to celebrate my cousin’s birthday (the lucky girl herself is in Australia at the moment) and since I don’t usually drink alcohol I totally forgot about blogging. I keep on wondering how everyday posters manage to find time for it. Anyway, here is yesterday’s post:

I love reading What Not to Crochet blog, though I don’t always agree with the authors assessments, but I have to admit that there is a surprising number of hideous crocheted things and crochet books often disappoint me with their impractical, boring and even ugly designs. Therefore I treasure finding beautiful crochet masterpieces. On Saturday in Fortnum & Mason store I discovered the work of French designer Sophie Digard. Sadly her website doesn’t have much information, but you can see examples of her amazing multi-colour work here.

Magic potions

The Book Book (bought after reading Soule Mama’s post, greatly enjoyed by me and waiting for the Little Girl to grow up a bit) has few small exercises to massage the imagination and one of them is to describe a magical potion. My latest one would be:
Some inspirational reading,
Followed by swirl of ideas,
Search for the handy materials,
Gluing down of some paper,

Painting over it with gesso and then watercolour,
Writing few words that feel suitable,
Finally sprinkling some shiny sparkles
And instead of stirring constantly contemplating my dreams.

What is your magic potion? I think Rachael’s one would include sewing machine, beautiful fabric, children’s laughter and some willing helpers. Please read her post to find out how YOU can help her to bring some Christmas cheer to Russian orphans and to WIN one of her beautiful creations.

Russian resources online

I was searching for information on English translations of Pavel Bazhov's wonderful Ural tales when I found some of them available online in Russian.

I also stumbled on this LiveJournal full of wonderful images including old book illustrations (more here), Russian embroidery and much more. Even if you don't read Russian, it's probably worth clicking around to see what inspirational design and paintings you may find.

Fighting blandness

The move to our current flat was supposed to be temporary (around 6 months), but we already spent over a year living here. Once the decision to stay in UK was made, we started looking for a new accommodation and were horrified to see how much the rental prices went up. And with the property prices falling, everyone agrees that it is bad time to buy. And so we decided to stay here for a bit longer, while we consider our options.

Therefore on Sunday afternoon we done something that should’ve been done months ago – we rearranged the furniture and swapped rooms with Cat. Now we are back in the main bedroom with the inbuilt cupboards. My workspace is also better arranged with the printer next to the desk and space for some drawers to store all my craft materials.

I want to use some of my free time to concentrate on creating items to make our living areas more visually pleasant, because I hate living in the bland environment and realised that I feel drained of energy surrounded by white walls and pale carpet. However as a small start and celebration of us taking the first steps in improving our flat (isn’t it ironic that flat is also synonym for dull & monotonous?) I bought a print from Rima Staines’ etsy shop. If you have time visit her blog and her website to marvel at the magical world she created. And even if you don’t have time, stop by Once Upon O’clock to listen and to see something unique.

New camera

My husband recently bought me a digital SLR camera. At first I just rolled my eyes and joked about his newest camera buying addiction. I’m not a very gracious accepter of gifts. I still haven’t read the manual and need time to get fully comfortable with the heaviness and behaviour of the camera, but what a pleasure it is to know that I’m not limited by the capabilities of my camera and can work on improving my photography skills. Every time I download the photos to my laptop I’m struck by one or two that while not perfect are beautiful and very special to my heart.

Today I stumbled on TweedleBee blog & shop – she makes adorable quilts, baby blankets, toys and is currently having a give-away on her blog. Looking at the items in her shop makes me want to have another baby and I won’t even bore you with stories about my daydreams of making quilts.

To keep the tea warm

I drink large amounts of tea everyday - mostly the loose-leaf type that needs to be brewed in a teapot. Yet I never owned a tea cosy until I won one in Driftwood’s give-away.

It arrived yesterday and I keep on picking it up to admire the neat tiny stitches she used to attach the petals.

If you are interested in sewing or quilting, she recently posted a tutorial for a Fibonacci inspired rainbow quilt that makes me want to learn to quilt even more.

Driftwood, thank you for the tea cosy and the inspiration.

Inspirational book

As parents, we’re given a tremendous opportunity to nurture, support, and encourage children in their early artistic expressions. A beautiful side effect of that effort is that we can nurture, support, and encourage our own artistic expression at the same time, even if we were never supported that way as children.
Amanda Blake Soule “The Creative Family”

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Finally my copy of SouleMama’s The Creative Family arrived this week. Just holding the book and looking through the photos made me feel happy: Amanda’s book, like her blog, is so full of love, respect and care for herself, her family and their creative spirit. I’m enjoying slowly reading through it – few pages everyday. The little girl loves looking at the cover of the book, pointing at all the kids and mama in turn. I wish I could show you a photo of her looking at the book, but every time I take my camera out I get this reaction:

The beaded bead

While looking for something else I stumbled on “Three-dimensional finite point groups and the symmetry of beaded beads” article (pdf) that was written for Journal of Mathematics and the Arts. Isn’t that the best combination possible? I wish I could get some copies, but it looks like it is only available by subscription.

However I got out my copy of Carol Wilcox Wells' The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving book and made a simple beaded spoke bead.
I used some left-over bead from a different project and ended up with too many shades of green. Also the colour of some lighter beads changed due to the dark green thread used - another valuable lesson learned. However now that I know how to make these beads I will try out few different colour combinations that hopefully will look more harmonious.

If you want to see some exquisite beads, head to Bead Infinitum site.

Hi

I disappeared from blogging again, didn’t I (at least the verbal, non photo type one)? I needed to be silent, to think, to adjust to the new life circumstances. I gave myself a week to plan and to finish off few non-urgent chores that were sitting at the bottom of my task list for too long. And somehow one week turned into two and I started to get frustrated at my perceived lack of progress. I have the tendency to focus on things not done slighting my own accomplishments. This leads to the discouragement and disinclination to do anything. However my awareness of this downward spiral helps me to fight it: I wrote down the competed tasks and improvements made (we are certainly eating better and healthier now), I made new task lists, cleaned up (after the house mess reaches a certain point it starts to affect my mood in a very negative way), looked at my finished craft projects and others posts and photos. And today seeing Cumin Cat’s finished crocheted necklace made me want to pick up my crochet hook and instilled into me the new desire to create and communicate, so I thought I’ll say a quick hello to you all today :-). Hope you are having fantastic warm weekend.

Plastic Bags

Unlike naturally occurring compounds, plastic does not photo-degrade, it simply breaks up into ever-smaller pieces and lingers in the environment as an invisible toxic dust.
THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH article (with some very depressing photos) by the Institute for Figuring

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I hear a flapping noise; look up thinking “a bird” only to see a brightly lit plastic bag stuck in the tree branch, thrashing about in the wind. We live close to a big supermarket and the sight of the abandoned plastic bags is sadly very common. Luckily not all plastic bags end up polluting our environment at the end of their lives. Some of them are fortunate enough to be turned into the beautiful artwork (Rubbish Vortex and Crochet Sea Creatures by Helle Jorgensen)

Nutcraker

I prefer opera over ballet and symphony music over opera, but I love Nutcracker ballet. Is it possible not to love this truly magical Christmas masterpiece? And last night I enjoyed it again at the Royal Opera House. As expected of Royal Opera House the music and dancing were superb, the sets and costumes very lavish. I always notice the sets and suspect I could enjoy sitting though an average play if I found the sets interesting. Thinking of it there are some play sets that I remember better than the storyline of the play they were for. And during yesterday’s performance I kept on thinking which parts of the sets/costumes I found perfect and what I would do differently, because my vision of the Nutcracker is slightly different. In an alternative universe I would be a stage designer, in this one I’m unable to sketch out my vision. I keep on promising myself that one day I will dig out my watercolour paints and learn to express my inner images. Maybe I should just set a date instead of talking (and now writing) about it.

I want to say a big thank to Naree, who babysat Cat. Thank you for giving me few hours of freedom to have this enchanting experience. I enjoyed every moment of it.

Edinburgh

(photo taken by my dad)

I fall in love very easily – with houses, cities, lakes, books, people, ideas. And from the first steps in Edinburgh I knew that I’ll love that town. Before our holiday one of my friends mentioned that she dreams of living there and I found myself repeating her sentiment. Edinburgh has everything to make it perfect for me: the beautiful skyline, the proximity to the sea and the hills, the wealth of history and culture, the cute little shops, the abundance of knitwear and relaxed atmosphere.


(another photo taken by my dad)

I drooled (figuratively) over all the beautiful designer knitwear and had to console myself with getting this little brooch by Hume Sweet Hume from Gifted exhibition at National Museum of Scotland. While there I again saw the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007 exhibition and again I was totally mesmerized by Yoko Izawa’s work.

We visited the other standard tourist destinations, walked around a lot, Clive and I took advantage of having two very good babysitters and saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age and had a nice dinner at Mexican restaurant. Knowing that too soon I’ll be back to busy, frantic London I savoured every second of feeling happy, relaxed, comfortable. And to keep our relaxed mood, we decided to stay in Edinburgh for the whole week – so our trip to Scotland ended up being trip to Edinburgh.

Some of my photos are on flickr

Pay it Forward

I was admiring Sand Fibers’ creations on Flickr for awhile now. And on Sunday night I somehow navigated to her blog despite my resolution not to look at any new blogs (that’s what happens when clicking around late at night). Her top post was invite to take part in Pay it Forward. Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a Comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blogs . I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward.

So now I’m looking forward to getting a handmade gift from a person, whose work I find inspirational. And if you want to take a part, leave a comment.

Beauty on the gloomy day

Since the sky was gloomy with clouds again and I’m weary of getting wet on our daily walks to the park, we hopped on the Tube and went into town to see Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007: Jewellery exhibition. It is a very small exhibit – two rooms of works by 6 artists. But I still managed to spend 40 minutes in there marvelling at the imagination, craftsmanship and beauty of each item on display (the maker’s profile pages have some pictures of the work). I loved the airiness and muted colour combinations of Yoka Izawa’s work and elegance of Susan Cross' metal weaves. The exhibition is in London until 22nd of July and it is right next to the Tate Modern, so you can always pop in there afterwards, if you want to extend your cultural outing.

We on the other hand went right past Tate Modern to see the man, who we can never get enough of.

Paul, French bakery, opened a shop next to St. Paul’s Catherdral. So my dear husband treated me to a lovely lunch and I got to take home this beauty to prolong the pleasure.

Creative women

Our real illiteracy is our inability to create.
Hundertwasser

Another reason for less blogging is that I’m trying to reduce the time I spend on the Internet. Reading blogs is tremendously addictive, especially when there are so many creative women around: the ones who are able put their feelings into beautiful words, the ones who can create such cuteness out of a simple sock, the ones who create their own jewellery and the ones who find some free time in their busy lives to create beautiful spaces for their kids.