krazy kat kapers

yesterday's 43 degree heat sent Nero a little more dippy than usual

oof!

January turned into a rather busy time - the coincidence of going back to uni, getting some part-time work and three art commitments meant that many things have been neglected.

We have however made raspberry ice cream

walked under the sunset spider

and looked at the moon.

I broke 5 needles making my entry for Brenda's Living Colours exhibition.

 and sutured another aubergine.

The Sketchbook Project

The Sketchbook Project is run by the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. The deal is you sign up, they send you a small sketchbook, you decorate it in almost any manner you choose (ie no porn or sharp elements) and then send it back to NY where it forms part of a permanent exhibition. You can opt to have the sketchbook digitised so  it can be viewed online and it will also go on one of the BAL's travelling exhibitions.

Mine was posted off to New York on Tuesday: ingredients included transparent gesso, indigo, paint, watercolour, pencil, black mica mortar paste, tracing paper, map and text fragments, digitised photos of the moon, silk, stitch, woad and glue. (pics by the lovely and talented Kind Dog)

too damned hot

43 yesterday, 41 today, 44 tomorrow.... even the toothpaste is hot :(

we're all fed up and incredulous at this sudden heatwave, especially Toby.

New Year, new post, new work

Yay we're in 2014! 2013 felt like going around in muddling circles - not a bad year or an especially good year but definitely muddling. It was quite a relief to stand on our roof last night and watch the fireworks - here's a rather blurry picture. 

It's a new year with new work planned and new habits to cultivate. My intentions this year boil down to this:

 Last year's intentions were mostly a success with the most important achievement being to minimise the presence  and impact of negative people in my life.  Although having looked at that list again I see I fell down badly on the spending money side of things and on the shoes under the desk. 

In studio news I spent the last little bit of 2013 making some tiny nests

and the first day of 2014 assembling the constituent parts of my entry for Brenda Gael Smith's Living Colours exhibition. I can't say too much about it but it's a piece that has been brewing for at least four years, waiting for the right time to be made.  And one of the joys of having a well-aged stash is that I can pull pieces out and remember who gave them to me or who or where I bought them from. This piece will have fabric I bought in Rome at the fabled Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti, a hand-dyed piece that Annabel gave me years ago and is a remnant from Jealousy, more hand-dyes from Dijanne and Deb, and silk from Fiona. It feels like this piece will have good karma - an excellent start to 2014.

Happy New Year :) xx