Hayloft studio

Tags

country life, DIY, studio, summer

Three years since my studio was finished and it’s been a wonderful space, even more so since I had water installed. It’s also very cluttered however, the more I do, the more canvasses are stacked everywhere, done or half done, various supplies getting crammed into to few shelves. What I really need is a dry and dust free storage space and/or weaving room separate from the painting! (my dream is 100m² heated studio with straight walls including my office/library, but that is a completely different budget, especially the heating cost)

So I’ve been contemplating using the rest of the hayloft as a cold studio/summer messy space, eventually with inner walls to minimize moisture and cat damage. Only it’s taken me this long (20 months since I lost the ponies) to get rid of the 200 strawbales  dusting everything up as well as using the space obviously. I couldn’t even be bothered tidying up there, it was just so hopeless. Basically when I do have the energy to go make something, it needs to be easy access, not 2 days of tidying for half a day of painting.

But I finally got that part done AND I was gifted a window for my birthday, so next week the mason will fix the hole to proper size and I’ll at least have a bit of light without the wind, airflow when it’s too hot and a place to spray paint stuff so that I don’t have to leave the studio until the fumes are gone (as well as accidentally spraying my laptop and other sundries). I hope to build one tall wall to hang stuff to dry (or else cats) at least until it gets too humid in autumn.

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Plant pigment

Tags

close to home, colour, crafts, DIY, garden, mordant, nature, plants, primitivepaints, scruffyartsupplies, summer

Five years ago I did a brief test of concentrated plant dye baths to see what they were like as watercolours. I didn’t add anything to it as I recall and I’m not sure where my sample is now!

Micro foraging for art supplies

Tags

close to home, country life, creativity, inner conviction, inspiration, intention, life, seasons, summer, weather

It hasn’t rained here in 3 months and has been unusually hot too, so most blooming things are over and done with if they have even survived. I’m glad I didn’t make a dye garden this year, as the cost of watering would have been massive.

Summer briefing

Tags

blogging, country life, crafts, creativity, exercise, fatigue, garden, gardening, health, intention, life, summer, weather, weight loss

While I’m cooking up that promised weaving post, I’m going to drag you through a bit of a general status update of life at the cottage.

August!

Tags

autumn, garden, life, orange, summer, texture, weather

How has summer been treating you so far? Here in DK, children will be starting school again soon, in other countries I know August is the big holiday month. Do you have plans or did they already happen?

5 years

Tags

blogging, summer

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com 5 years ago.

O K I guess I ought to have some profound insights about that, but I’m really not very good with time and date keeping. It’s just something that whooshes by and then it’s gone and whatever.

What happened in those 5 years is all here anyway, I have a migraine today (well actually I don’t because I finally took a pill, so I’m under the influence), and the quickest recap I can make is: I did stuff and I made stuff and it was fun and some parts were really hard and I got fat. What’s interesting to ponder is, briefly at least, will I still be here in another 5?

But thanks everybody out there for keeping me company, you’re all awesome and I’m not saying that just because it’s a buzz word.

Pattern testing 2

Tags

clothing, cotton, crafts, experimenting, panels, pink, summer

I’ve been working on sewing patterns again, after not making any trousers from the muslins I developed last year – I wanted to be sure I didn’t grow again this winter and would be unable to wear them the coming summer! My handwoven fabric takes too long to make to be used just once, and I could just buy t-shirts, but then why would I weave? I don’t use scarves, tablecloths or many of the other things I could think of making. And G has declared that he does not want his sofa filled with hippie weirdo COLOURFUL cushions, blech! And for some reason, although fashion does nothing for me, I’m quite fascinated with fabrics and drape and keep collecting images of flowing, colourful clothes. In the end I had to make a Pinboard so that I can spot any personal trends after a while, in addition to the one I keep for clothes from panels. (We’ll get back to that eventually)

A day in the life of

Tags

country life, garden, life, nature, quiet, relax, seasons, spider, summer, tranquility, video, weather, wildlife, wordy wednesday

I’m blogging you today from my garden office, as we’ve suddenly been gifted with summer weather. So much of it in fact that I realize in a minute I’ll have to step inside for shorts and a lighter t-shirt!

A collection of bees

Tags

bee survival, bier, butterfly, country life, insects, nature, summer, wildlife

While the world population of bees is in danger, it seems my policy of not caring for the property – in the fashion my neighbours would prefer – has paid off. Every day when I fetch the horses from pasture, it has been buzzing with bumbles, I really should have filmed that during our heatwave, it was deafening. (how am I not getting these ideas at the time of action? I’ve thought about a video diary for quite a while, and yet…) During my little photo adventure the other day I met more bees. Some of them are possibly flies in disguise, I know we have those too.

Holiday at home

Tags

country life, green, nature, plants, summer, wildlife

Came upon this beauty grazing my pasture, as I was wading through a patch of tall grass and weeds. No cropping!

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At the cottage, holiday does not mean catching a plane to roast at the pool of some southern European hotel, it means prodding the big guy to do some maintenance on the wreck we call home. As a result, I also have to do some things of course, as well as assisting with comments etc, so nothing much is going on in the studio at all because of my aforementioned handicap when it comes to moving between brain halves.