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Knitting and Stitching at Alexandra Place, I have never been to a K&S before and managed to slip one into a visit to the family in the deep south, hence my lack of posts for the last month or so,

I enjoyed K&S and met lots of people I have previously only known via the internet, saw lots of lovely Textile Art too and didn鈥檛 spend toooo much money on goodies,

Sorry to those who like to see photos of work but most of the exhibitions had 鈥榥o photos鈥� signs up, the group didn鈥檛 though and I was very interested in some of the work so here are a few photos of my fav鈥檚,

Jacky Russell
I love these small works, Jacky is inspired by the faded paint work, peeling plaster and crumbling brickwork of Venice, I love, love the inclusion of the barred window, Jacky says she is fascinated by the life behind the barred windows and grilled doorways,


Dawn Thorne
I love blues so they always capture my attention but I also was/am very interested in the way Dawn has constructed her work, it is made up of layers, lacy see through with some solid elements, floating between 2 pieces of glass/perspex/??? This is a very long narrow piece and I really like it,


Liz Heywood
Liz鈥檚 work fascinated me, the build of layers I wanted to poke my finger in and explore, Liz is interested in hedgerows and the life, death and regeneration in them,

For more info and to see the other Artists in the group take a look at their website you will see one of my favourite Artists is a member Sandra Meech I have posted ,

Finally I have managed a post since I got back, I am trying to catch up on IB blogging, textile blogs and the e mails on lists plus the ordinary everyday things in life,

I have read the post on and the comments, the recent issue of the RSPB mag SCOTLAND NEWS November 2007 gives a name, number and e mail to contact if you wish to make further protest about the Lewis wind Factory, I am afraid I cannot give this information here but if anyone is interested please e mail me via my website there is a link in my side bar and put 'rspb lewis' in the subject line, you could also try the link in my side bar to see if you can find a weblink, I can't and I suspect this is because it is new news, which is what 'news' is suposed to be,

My wee comment is whether it is wind or wave think about the creatures that will be murdered,

I used to be pro wind energy until I looked into it further and discovered the main aim is money from selling shares to companies that have no intention of cleaning up their act, so they buy green units to make their company meet the necessary percentage requirements, so it is all just window dressing,

Apparently even if all the wind factories that are planned go ahead it will be about 6% of our energy needs, lets face it this is just a blip and in 25 years those tubines will be obsolete, large rusting lumps of metal, am I the only one who sees this (the wind factories, not wind energy) as a pointless exercise in saving the planet,

Now if the island is sooo good for wind power why is there not help for individuals and small communities to have their own small wind turbines to provide some of the energy they need (without the sale of shares),

I can鈥檛 comment on wave power as I do not know much about what is involved,

No I am not expecting answers but constructive comments are welcome,

I go away to see the family for a month and when I return there are many changes to island blogging, lots of new blogs, welcome to you all but especially to another textile artist woo weeee, Anne I hope you had a great holiday, congratulations Carol on your forth coming wedding, TWS鈥檚 blog seems to be suffering from climate change like the glaciers and is shrinking fast but he is still with us as noticed by the healthy comments left on blogs and there seems to be an Acutely Impostor commenter from Tiree!

I had intended posting during last week but another week has got away from me, the Lewis Art group had an all day workshop with who has a studio in Broadford Skye, he brought with him some of his landscape water colours which are beautiful, some of us started the workshop by going down to the harbour to do some sketching and wouldn鈥檛 you believe it just because I didn鈥檛 have my camera a seal was watching us sketch and came in quite close to observe us, I love the way seals do this, anyway the workshop with Duncan was very good and if you are near Boardford Skye do drop into his studio,

I did manage to get into the garden a few times last week which is nice, nice to work outside and nice to get done a few of the multitudes of jobs that need to be done,

Friday I met a friend for lunch and then went to an Lantair to see the exhibition of photos by , this exhibition had been on at the Comunn Eachdraidh Nis (historic centre) Ness in the summer and I had meant to go then but didn鈥檛 get time so I was very pleased when my friend suggested it as I had not realized it was on in Stornoway, the exhibition is about the archeologically dig in Ness, I love the play on the words of the title of the exhibit 鈥楴ess Remains鈥� (the remains of previous cultures but hey there is still a community there), Angus Mackintosh took photos of the dig in progress and there were also aerial photos of the Ness area taken by the RAF in 1946, all photos were in B&W and the ones taken by Angus Mackintosh had a lovely grainy texture to them, truly Art photos, on looking at his website I think they must have been the hand printed Platinum & Palladium prints, I am so pleased I finally got to see it and sorry folks it ended Saturday,

I have not done much art to be shown recently, my painting and drawing last weds is not finished and not to be shown, the only thing I have done is play paint, print and a little collage on a sheet of card, the sheet it not going to stay large the intention is to cut it up for some cards, here are 4 progress shots,

I feel it needs 鈥榮omething鈥� but have not decided what yet so it is 鈥榮itting鈥� I think it might be that it has gone far enough as a large sheet and the 鈥榮omething鈥� is for the individual cards, I did the printing with these lovely little wooden printing blocks I bought earlier this year from the , check it out,

Now will I get to blog again before next week-end?

I had fun today, at the Blue Pig studio has open sessions a few days a week and Wednesday is one so today I went along and just play with my 鈥榮tuff鈥�,

Some may remember my post about the in the cave on Mull, I recently found a book on rock art in Stornoway library and it explained quite a lot about it, there are lots on Orkney, it was done by 鈥榟unter gatherers鈥� about 3,000-5,000 years BC and the holes are known as cups, last night I made some printing blocks using some of the designs and I took them and lots of art stuff over to Jane鈥檚 and just tried things out, I want to do more playing but ideas for stitched stuff are forming, just for now here are pages from my textile sketch book,

I had made some string printing blocks and as I so often do I forget they need to be made in reverse, so the print is in reverse, I like this little one so I night make a block the right way round then I can play some more,

With this one it didn鈥檛 matter, I like the layers the design produces,

And this is one of my favourite shapes, I have made it dumpier than the original as that was the size of the piece of corrugated card that I had, it didn鈥檛 print well so the prints have been worked into with other stuff and I cut up the block and put the shapes on a painted background, I like the corded effect,

I went to Back today and as the sun was out while I waited for the Tolsta bus I took a few photos,
view across to Point, (the foreground is dark because it is on the shady side)



this gorgeous hydrangea in a garden, I just love the colours the flowers and leaves are turning,

don鈥檛 let the sun fool you this was underfoot,

I was so busy enjoying the sunny walk along the Back road I nearly missed the bus but my guardian angel was keeping an eye out for me and made me turn around to see if it was coming just before it reached me and the driver stopped, don鈥檛 you just love the way you can 鈥榟ail鈥� a bus in rural areas,

the morning was the 鈥榗alm鈥� after the winds of Thursday and by the afternoon the wind had come up again, they say it will be a windy weekend,

it鈥檚 the last Saturday of the month again ~ is it really December next Saturday???

we had a workshop with a local artist this afternoon and it was great, I really enjoyed it, Simon brought a model so we could do quick (10-15 minuet) sketches, to make it different we were to use only black and white gouache and/or black ink and so paint our quick sketches, for me this was different and I didn鈥檛 manage all the sketches but several members of the group were almost completing paintings, we did 5 altogether and I dumped 3 of mine but feel I can show 2 of them,
This was the first one I did and I felt good about it as a first, no feet,

however the second one was hopeless but the third was much better, still no feet,

we then had a tea break and then my next 2 were hopeless again, the thing about sketching in ink or paint is you can鈥檛 go over mistakes or rub them out so they show even when you correct the line, hence 2 lines for the lower edge of the jumper!

Simon then wanted us to try something he 鈥渉ad never tried before鈥� his words, we painted a sheet of paper completely with black gouache or ink then with white gouache we had to paint in the negative spaces, this means you have to look and think quite differently, mine was not very good but I am showing it for 2 reasons,
1) so you can see what we were doing,
2) because the model has FEET鈥︹�ah,

isn鈥檛 it weird that when I did the negative space I made the figure much smaller and got her feet in, the first time a tutor managed to show me I could draw was the first tutor who told me about negative spaces and she suggested I try to draw them and I would be less distracted by detail, I think I must try to give myself some exercises to do drawing the negative space,

I鈥檓 looking forward to going to Jane鈥檚 Blue pig studio tomorrow (Wednesday) and plan to use her press and do some collograph prints, I鈥檓 taking one plate I had made a few years ago but have not had the opportunity to use and I have just made a new one using one of the rock art carvings as a design, Jane has asked me to show her the discharge method with ink and bleach on paper so it should be a productive day this is a page in my sketch book using this method, I have really grown to like the cup and cross shapes and I have played with them on several pages I am hoping to find some time to do some on fabric this weekend,

When I was at Jane鈥檚 last week I noticed blue pigs all over Jane鈥檚 studio and asked if she collected them she does and she likes blue pig and pig items for the little shop she has at the studio so during the day it came to me would she like some Harris tweed Blue Pig lavender sachets, she would so here鈥檚 the first three, just for fun,

yesterday I went to Jane鈥檚 Blue Pig studio to work, the printer Jane has was not suitable for collographs (Jane had done hers in Edinburgh not on her printer, oh well) then as Jane was working on a commission there was not time to play with ink and bleach,
so I had to rethink ~ what was I going to do with my time there given I had not brought a lot of my stuff with me?
I browsed through some books and magazines, made tea ~ always a good diversion, then the light bulb moment ~ I had printing ink and sketch paper so lets have a play with some mono prints, still working with the rock art design symbols, here is a photoshop collage of a few,

These are all 鈥榠n process鈥� still needing lots more work on them,