I made this little study yesterday in pencil and watercolour of the pile of needle-wallets i have previously made for workshops for vulnerable adults. I am hoping the facility in Lancashire that offers counselling for individuals needing it, is able to keep going despite funding issues. So this is a hopeful post, hoping that becoming and healing through creativity can be offered once again.

I made these drawings last week in the studio on some heavy handmade paper that was gifted me by my son. It is such a joy to work on. I also used pencils that were also a present from my friend Mo. The cactus I drew is a replacement for one that died from me overwatering it! This happens a lot to me, but am glad to say the new one seems to be thriving and has such energy. My nightshirt drawing inspiration came from a dream answering the question ‘What can I draw now?’ dreams help us so often if we choose to listen.

Have completed this embroidery over the winter months on Lithuanian linen. I made it into a cushion cover again because that’s what it wanted to be. I used bits and pieces of linen and ticking from around the studio. I always like to have something that is time consuming to work at over Christmas and beyond. I am high up in my studio and see the birds flying from above quite often so that spoke to me as a motif. I also used the little fabric collage I made from old clothes of an imaginary landscape as a reference for colour. It’s sad that I now have a bit of arthritis in my right hand ( I am right handed) so hand sewing may have to be limited, we’ll see. It breaks my heart. I can draw and paint still as that doesn’t have quite the close finger action that hand sewing has.

I completed this oil on Lithuanian linen piece in November this year. I stopped sooner than usual as have a tendency to overdo things if I’m not careful. It’s based on a sketch I made at Blakeney marsh in Norfolk in spring this year. I also took photographs for reference but rely on the memory mostly and the piece itself directing me.

I’m so pleased Lily @thewunderkammeroflily on Instagram chose my oil to go on her profile and site. I love working with her and the creative process of sharing sketches and contextual photos so she can create her creative writing response, here’s the link.

Here’s the painting

It was made in 2013 after a visit to Bruges in Belgium.

This embroidery has now become a cushion cover. I didn’t use oil paint on this piece so decided it could become a textile response as a cushion cover. I like the idea of people being able to touch the embroidery, and a cover like this lends itself to that notion. It works well as this and is now on a red chair in our living room. The soft pre-washed Lithuanian linen is ideal for soft furnishings and I really enjoyed working with it. I never know if a piece wants to become a mixed media painting or textile response until quite late in the making process, and just remain open to wherever it may take me. I was inspired by some applique cushions I saw at Blackburn cathedral Textiles Biennale last week but have already been making cushions with flanges. It must be in the air! The nomads tent at the Biennale was stunning. Here is one of the cushions

Here is the soft 6B pencil study I used to refer to for my embroidery, not slavishly copying but being inspired

Well, am sewing away on this piece and it is taking me a very long time as expected. My hand keeps hurting due to the fine work, but I keep stretching and resting it. The yellow seems to be working and am seeing where it all takes me. I won’t cover this piece in embroidery though, there will be space to breathe!

Have started developing sunny arcs of yellow backstitch on my current embroidery of Blakeney marshes. My embroideries don’t seem to mind being shared as I go along, unlike drawing and painting sometimes. This is going to take me a long time I have the feeling. That’s ok it is glacial in pace this one, and takes new directions almost having a mind of it’s own! I will leave space too and be guided by the embroidery itself. I would love to see the Bayeux tapestry which is an iconic embroidery in fact, but worry about it being transported to this country and being damaged. Embroidery is so mindful and reflective as a practice, I am so happy I came to it albeit late!

Well, have added more Pebeo dyes to this current piece and have turned a bit of a corner I think. I was coming to a natural pause with the hand stitch and needed something different. I love how the dyes can take you in a new direction. I stretched the linen on a board and wet it and then mixed some dyes. I always like the purply greys you can get with tertiary colours so went for that. It’s hard with the linen because it goes so dark when you wet it so you are working in the dark. That adds to the fun and makes you more inclined to take risks I think. I like the effect now that it is dry and am going back in with the hand stitch that is meditative and slow .Click  to  enlarge.

I do change the paintings on my wall at home, and recently swapped one near the window in our living room for this piece made in 2013 for a collaboration with Cambridge arts collective Artipeeps. Sadly, the group is no more but it is good to revisit those times by rehanging the painting I made on our wall. It interprets the story of Freya and the Brisingamen necklace that she had the dwarves underground in Vanaheim make for her. They said she could have the necklace for nothing, but she paid a high price for it. Freya was Odin’s consort, and when he found out what she had done he sent Loki the trickster shapeshifter to steal the necklace whilst Freya slept.

I really enjoyed interpreting this myth in my own way in oil paint then ink dipped in a crows feather. It seems to have so many parallels to our world today, as is often the case with Norse myth. I enjoyed drawing and discovering the history of the Vikings in my native Cumbria. Great Gable mountain was know as Odin’s mountain. I sketched motifs from the Gosforth cross with its mix of Christian and Norse iconography. A thoroughly enjoyable and mysterious collaboration.