May - October

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What can I say? I have travelled through Spring and Summer and now Autumn is coming closer every day.

There has been the most beautiful full moon, during which time I seem to have little need of sleep. I wake very early and catch the world whilst it is sleeping.

I feel constantly peaceful and have little need of other people. Is this a good thing? It seems so to me. I have so many characters inside my imagination from the stories I write, I am never lonely.

I have seen many clear blue skies, listened to innumerable  dawn choruses, sat amongst the sand dunes and watched bees buzzing from flower to flower.

I have taken the colours from around my home this year and painted and made jewellery as is my way.

This year is all about my work.

I have watched the ebb and flow of the tides every day and taken photographs of the changing colours across the river.

I continue to take photographs, though now on my iphone - so much more exciting than my first Box Brownie camera.

I take my images over to RedBubble and make prints on acrylic blocks and canvases and wrap them around very boring white ceramic mugs. This one of compressed cardboard boxes that once contained fruit looks particularly good. I also make cushions there and cards.

Bella was very ill during the summer - she is now 12 and we thought that she was just slowing down as her age increased but no - she had a pyometra - and had 1 and a half kilos of puss and blood removed along with her womb. She was initially misdiagnosed as having arthritis and being excessively fat by the first vet who examined her. The second vet came to her rescue.

She is now like a 5 year old - ready for everything that live has to offer.

Whilst looking after Bella - I found my comfort zone with Jane Austin and Pride and Prejudice.

Sometimes the most inspiring of things show up when walking.

I was asked to make a 3 foot diameter papier mache tray. Traditional methods and hours of work.

 I love my cave of a kitchen.

 And my studio that overlooks the every-day opera of life on the street.

THE GARDEN

I have to take you to a garden.
It is essential that you tell our friends.

I have one lifetime only here.

There is a void and then a vision.
The summer rain is felt as music.

The water and the wind whisper through Eternity, a language that we dream of.

Above the mist, behind the storm, beneath the rain.
Together in a thousand moments.
A delicate symphony of light, like diamonds shine and play.

Shadows fall away. Beauty would be these and death sweet, not sad.

All an elaborate chain of life.
All an elaborate chain of love.

January, February and March - April 2017

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Where does all the time go? Spring is on her way and my resident Blackbird is singing as evening falls at the end of another very productive day.
But what happened in the dark days of Winter? For me a sort of semi-hibernation - at least lots of sleep, something I hardly ever do but it has been so beneficial. I kept thinking of all those bears tucked up for the duration. I think it does us a lot of good as we get older. I see it as giving time to the processes of renewal and rebuilding and to dreams, of course. Recently my dreams have been almost as good as seeing a great film, coherent and adventurous.

Workwise I have been adding a new venture - porcelain jewellery. I think I mentioned in another post that I discovered a wonderful group of people - mainly women, who love to pot. It just gets better as we get to know one another. I have been making two trays - slab built to hold my pieces in the kiln and hundreds of beads, earring, pendants, bracelets and brooches. These will be a limited edition as we say.

New Work

I have been working on a range of Silver jewellery with fragments of my paintings set under resin.

New Work

At the end of last summer I went down to the South of France with my daughter, to explore favourite haunts and to discover new ones. I took a lot of photographs and made quite a few paintings plus revised aspects of a story I am writing that is set along that coast. These are some pieces of jewellery that emerged from my time there. They really do echo the colours and movement of so many aspects of nature and culture.