Crochet + Taxidermy = Crochetdermy

When you think of crochet, you think of scarves, soft toys and the granny square. Have you ever thought of it as art? I hadn't until I saw these amazing crochet masterpieces by British crochet guru Shauna Richardson.

She uses standard crochet equipment-a 3mm hook, wool and mohair mix yarns. Each piece takes months to complete. As a newcomer to crochet I can hardly imagine the skill and patience required to execute these sculptures and attain the lifelike shape. I have now found a crochet artist who has inspired me to keep working on my crochet. Only through practice and perseverance will I improve. I will almost certainly never reach this high standard of crochet artistry-but I have been inspired and that is quite enough. Here are some more of her stunning animals:

(I think my iPhone has a way to go in understanding how to upload correctly to Blogger-apologies)

Hail the Possibilities of the Coming Year!

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool.~F.M. Knowles

Perhaps I am a fool, yes, regardless I cannot help but love January 1st.

I know we can make a decision to do something or to change something at any time of year but, for myself at least, the urge to do this and address issues is never stronger than at the beginning of a new year.

I used to make long, hopeful lists of things to achieve but I'm now wise enough and old enough to let my realist alter ego write my list of New Year's Resolutions.

There are a few things I'm planning to do this year and most of these resolutions are fit for public consumption. Writing them up here is a reminder to myself. Also perhaps people might say "How is X going?" and provide me with a grateful nudge.

So, here is my list. No "learn 1000 new words", "read 50 Classic books", "clear my debt" or anything which is simply not going to happen...just a few achievable goals.

   1. Learn to Knit

Last year I taught myself to crochet. I joined an online knitting/crochet community called Ravelry and found the online site overrun with knitters. For every crochet pattern there are about 10 knitting patterns. I hate having this knitting world and all its seductive patterns closed off to me so when writing my Christmas list I added knitting needles and a beginner's knitting book to my list. I've taught myself the basic knit stitch and am just working on my first little project

Rather sadly, I'm already excited about cables and knitted dogs amongst other things...


   2. Learn to Draw

I am keen to discover if it is possible to teach yourself to draw. Specifically to accurately pencil draw things I see around me and from my imagination. It is something I have never tried to master and has always slightly bothered me. I believed drawing was something you were either born with the talent to do..or not. I was in the second category. Conversations with many people last year made me reconsider and many said it would be possible to teach myself to draw. I cannot afford to attend an art class. Instead I've signed up to this:

http://www.drawspace.com/


We'll see how it goes! If I fail, at least I can say I tried and move on...


3. Buy a New Car
I walk blindly down aisles of special offers. The Janury Sale is a non-event. I haven't bought a single thing. My shoes are falling apart. My jeans have holes in awkward places. I no longer go to the cinema. I'm eating less. I don't buy music and rely on Spotify.

I allow myself an outing or two a month and the odd treat as life is worthless without fun. The rest of my money will be harvested for a deposit for my next car. Christmas and dental emergencies aside, it's not hard to save for a new car. All I need to do is think of getting into a car and being free to go where I want in my own time and all of a sudden I don't need that luxury packet of biscuits or the supermarket's special fruit juice quite as much.

4. Start Saving For a New Camera

A future investment for my livelihood. I need a more advanced camera that I can rely upon. I love my current camera and will be loath to part with my ancient Minolta lens...but it's not quite cut out for the type of work I'm starting to do. I need speed and sharpness.

And this leads nicely onto....

5. Sell Some Photographs

My cousin has very kindly offered to build a website for my photographs. As usual I have got swamped with other things and not been quick enough to provide him with the images. A part of this is because when I started to look through my photographs I decided that none of them were good enough to be used. I hope that after his kind words I will be able to go back through my files and find some I like.


I also have a Facebook page which I would love to do more with. I have some exciting ideas of things to do with my images but I won't reveal more at present as it remains to be seen whether
I have the energy and finances to realise my ideas.

 I'm no expert at photography and I hate that I'm even contemplating becoming one of these "having a DSLR means I am a good photographer and can charge a load of money for photographs". I am always happy to do a photography favour for a friend, especially if they cannot afford a photographer. I would however like to get an income from photography at some point as it's something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I didn't just buy a DSLR. I invested weeks learning how to use the camera. I have spent days, literally, on forums asking questions and looking through professional photographs. I have read about lighting. I have experimented. I have taken tens of thousand of photos and spent hundreds of pounds on petrol to travel around Kent and the UK to get beautiful photographs. I do this happily and I am investing in a dream. This year I would like to get one step closer to my dream-to sell my work.

6. Go on a Road Trip in England

With other priorities this year, it looks unlikely I will be having an adventure abroad in 2012. This makes me a little sad. I can't remember the last year I didn't use my passport. However, there are many places in England, which is as wonderful as any foreign country I've been to, yet unvisited. Here are some of the places calling to me the loudest:

Whitby and its abbey.
 I've wanted to go here since reading Dracula

Whitby

Ullswater

I could continue the Wordsorth theme started last year and visit Ullswater. Perhaps not in time for the famous daffodil displaybut when it's as beautiful as it is I would love to go daffodils or no.



Manchester

I hardly ever go north of London. And Manchester...well I've heard it's actually rather wonderful from a number of sources

Newcastle? Perhaps I could throw my inhibitions out of the window and enjoy some legendary Newcastle nightlife. OK, it's unlikely but the bridge is pretty special and the big, gritty Northern cities are something of an enigma to my thoroughly southern self....

Cheddar Gorge

Cornwall

My camera still twitches to visit Cornwall

Penwith Moors

As always, I am fizzy with the promises and possibilities of the new year

I think I have now dreamt enough for one night. Perhaps time to continue knitting or look at some drawings.

I hope everybody has a wonderful year!

(nB, the photos are kindly borrowed from Google!)

A Very Special Christmas Present

A true free spirit of wise words

Nothing is nicer than a gift which has been made with time and attention, especially for you. My sister commissioned our resident artist (Ty) to do this drawing of Snufkin for me, which they framed and gave to me as a Christmas present.

I love this drawing for many reasons. Firstly I love Snufkin. I completely understand why Little My decides they must date. Were Snufkin a real man I would have ensnared him too-hat and harmonica included. I don't usually feel much for cartoons and I can take or leave the Moomins cartoon as a whole (I struggle with the American accent. I just cannot bear to hear an American accent come out of the mouth of a northern European wanderer. It just doesn't work as I imagine Snufkin-lilting, soft and with a Finnish accent are much more how he speaks in my head). Snufkin is the only cartoon character I've really liked and wished I could suspend disbelief and believe he really existed outside of the television.

Neil asked why I was drawn to Snufkin. In answer to your question, yes it is mainly about the whole adventurous spirit, but also his love of music, his appreciation of nature, his wiseness, celebration of the seasonal differences and lack of material pretensions. And I yes, I guess I do love his hat too!

Here are some of my favourite Snufkin quotes, in case you are not familar with them already

"I own everything I see and everything that pleases me. I own the entire world."

'You aren't by any chance - er - a painter?' asked Moomintroll rather shyly.
'Or perhaps a poet?' suggested Sniff.
'I am everything!' said Snufkin.

"One can never be truly free, if one admires someone else too much."

"Today we must do something very special, for it will be a glorious day."

"I’ll come when it suits me” said Snufkin, “perhaps I shan’t come at all. I just may set off in another direction entirely.”
And I cannot resist sharing something visual too

The second reason why I love this drawing is because it has reminded me how much I want to be able to draw. I've struggled with a belief that I cannot draw so have never bothered to try. Instead I have stood back and admired other people's works and felt sick with envy. Perhaps I will never be able to get down on paper what I see in my head but thus far I have never tried and pushed myself.

In January I signed up for the 365 Day Project. I've had to take a photo every day this year. I've missed about 15 days in total but I'm still a little proud of myself. I won't provide the link for that just yet-although I have been tenacious about taking the photos every day, uploading them has proven to be more difficult. So what will next year's challenge be? Well, inspired by the Snufkin drawing I will be doing this project instead:

http://www.drawspace.com/

I hope I can complete it. I make no promises but that is half the fun of resolutions. Still, paper and pencils are in my possession and I've had a little fire to do something about my drawing skills for quite some time. I will chart my progress (or lack of) here.

I hope everybody has a wonderful New Year and sees it as an excellent opportunity to change things they don't like or be grateful for those they do like xxx

Fumi-Enigmatic Flower Preserving Jeweller

"People always told me I was eccentric, but I don't think so, I just do whatever I want to do at all times" - Fumi

I became a little obsessed with Fumi after reading about her in a book on lesser-known British artisans.

Fumi creates jewellery and wearable sculptures from real flowers. She preserves them using many layers of resin, over time.

Little is known about Fumi. She moved to Britain about 10 years ago and nothing is known of her life before that. A lecturer at her former University in Huddersfield said of her that she is highly secretive and communicates solely through her work. It is said she avoids all socialising and instead spends all her time in her workshop, with her flowers. After preserving the flowers with resin, they are combined with other materials such as metals, crystals and plastic to create her jewellery.

Her work is unique and incredibly beautiful. The flowers retain their delicacy, transparency and beauty in a way I've never seen in dried flowers

Her website is:
http://www.wix.com/fumisgem/fumis-gem#!portfolio01/vstc6=gallery03

(no idea of prices unfortunately)

I have to say, there's something quite romantic about spending your life in a workshop preserving flowers and I'm now very tempted to purchase some resin!
.

Teresa Wentzler-embroidery artist

Definitely my very favourite embroidery artist.

She's not a secret to anybody who likes embroidery or cross stitch but for those with an aversion to needles or who are not in the know...

Teresa specialises in cross stitch and designs the most beautiful and ornate patterns. They are often fantasy-inspired and feature dragons, unicorns, fairies and such. Her designs are considered to be amongst the most challenging to stitch-I've heard stories of the larger, detailed works featuring fractional stiich and blended threads taking years and years to complete. A labour of love if there ever was.

A lovely pattern to celebrate autumn

Probably my favourite of her designs

I also love this one

I can't even imagine calculating how many hours of work went into this

A selection of her popular Celtic bookmarks

Her blog is here

Her patterns can be purchased at Patternsonline here

I am still working on my first own (significantly less impressive) cross stitch (actually I have about 3 on the go!) but here is a sneak preview of a couple of them in their ebryonic stage:

"She has an excellent sense of colour"

The immortal words said of me by an art teacher about my only artistic 'strength'.

People always seem slightly surprised that I cannot draw. I guess I look like the arty type. I have a disheveled air, I'm scatty and slightly eccentric. However I assure you that I cannot draw. (I had art classes at school until I was 14, after which time art was optional and I was freed from the weekly humiliation). I have always felt slightly shortchanged by this. There are many people in my family who are creative, who can draw and paint and have beautiful, elegant handwriting and yet for some reason the artistic genes never made it onto my branch of the family tree. It has always bothered me slightly but the current popular return to 'arts and crafts' has really exposed my complete dearth of artistic ability.

Today I had a conversation with a friend about talents. I asked her what talent she would choose to have if she had the choice and she answered singing. I told her that of all the talents to have, my chosen one would be drawing and painting. She suggested quite matter of factly that I could get an art techniques book, a children's one even, and teach myself from that. It never occurred to me that you could 'teach' yourself to draw. Certainly, you can practice and improve but I've always thought that you need a little smattering of this elusive artistic talent or ability to start with. Like a little seed that you could water and nourish. But what if you don't have the artistic seed to begin with?

At home this evening, I was looking through my memory box with my sister and I uncannily came across a little pile of simple portrait drawings which I think I did about 16-18 years ago. I had completely forgotten about the existence of the drawings and cannot recollect now what had inspired the sketching experiments. I can only assume that I had a similar 'I am artistically inadequate' tantrum in my early teens and decided to try to tackle it for once and all. Or perhaps I did them the day after the only positive thing my art teacher had to say was about my ability to successfully co-ordinate colours (which these days is more like OCD than anything artistic). I chuckled when I first saw them as they are dreadful but at a second glance I realised that, even though they are very poor, they somehow resemble people. And that's more than I think I could achieve now-a drawing that actually looks like what it's supposed to. Or is it? Afterall, it was the same hands which drew those lines and contours that now resist even holding a pencil. Could I train them to draw? Or is it a case of 'you either have it or you don't'? Should I go to WHSmith's tomorrow and purchase a sketch pad and pencil, and see what happens? Or should I save my time and energy to continue trying to discover a talent I already have but don't know about yet?

(I always like to include a photo or an illustration with a blog entry and it seems apt to include the drawings I discovered tonight. Yes, they're laughable but bear in mind that it took quite a lot of courage to post these on my blog so it might be nicer to keep any unkind comments or hysterics out of earshot, even if this blog is about how dreadful I am at art!)