splish splash

seven follow in a row

The rain falls throughout the day these days and as the grass can't look green I can only assume the ducks are happy. The trees stand in line these days and as they can't help but look woebegone I can only assume the hedgehogs are having fun. The mornings start slow, the evenings come fast, day is night and night is all day. These are the days.
When inside in the studio I hold for the first time a ball of yarn spun by mine own two hands. Spin stop spin stop mumble and grumble stop spin stop spin spin spin stumble and fumble spin spin spin. One day I will create mine own very beautiful sustainable textiles with materials known from sheep to shop. That will be the day.

autumn in the air

The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock's loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow
A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

sit down have a chat

MOFFAT

the town to stop off at

Undertaking a project that focuses on sustainable rural development, myself and my lovely co-working partner in collaboration decided it was time to do some proper field research. So we hired a car and headed on the road west to experience the rural for ourselves.

Having passed through Moffat this summer on my way home from a hike up the Gray Mare's Tale (a National Trust hike with a mystical glacial lake at the top) the town made a fantastic impression on me. A pub serving baked potatoes and a good glass of guinness will tickle my fancy on the best of cold days, but to witness the spectacle of a whole town heaving with people out for the annual Sheep Race really was something else. Cue the one main street of the town barricaded off and rounds of six sheep running the length of the street with miniature knitted jockeys strapped to their backs, with locals cheering on waving their betting tickets in good humoured £1.00 a piece gambling. Yes, this is indeed the reason why we went back. They seemed to have a solid tourism structure in place, a strong sense of community and events and run on the time of volunteers - the exact criteria on our list of things we needed to find out. And why, for three days and three nights we met with some of the most interesting characters who make the town what it is and who were as kind as to give us so much of their time and assistance. 

Doing work and being in the countryside at the same time? #dreamlife.  

the basket weaving circle

It was the first Saturday in October and a crisp autumn day. I took the bus from Edinburgh along by the coast to a small town called Tranent to participate in a basket weaving workshop. Generally categorised as an old-folks activity, traditional handcrafts are actually, in fact, just that. My twenty-something year old self showed up to the given address and found there a small gathering of ladies well past their forties, each holding a cup of tea. All the boxes ticked? Yep. However, as an unashamed fan of aformentioned pensioner-style pastimes, I really enjoyed my time there.

The sun came up enough that once the morning had passed, it was surprisingly warm. We therefore decided to relocate ourselves from the workroom and place ourselves and our willow outside for the remainder of the day. Provided with endless cups of tea that were drank mostly out of politeness to our host, I concentrated in silence enjoying listening to the real, live BBC radio 4 happening around me.

To watch something that you are making grow right in front of your eyes through a meditative passage of time is a satisfaction I wish everyone could have the good fortune of experiencing. My own final basket is one called a 'Mudag' style. It's woven but not yet photographed... looks a bit like an egg.

chalk, cheese and cardboard

And the new academic year begins once again. 

Beginning the term by compiling a Materials Bank of various forms, textures, and colours that are interesting to us, we provide ourselves with an easily accessible source of inspiration for the projects to come. However, my little library features two halves, each very distinct to the other. On the left we have the natural, organic pieces whose essence is of great importance and whose value I feel so strongly about. On the right we have a box of fun; it's pink, fluffy, glittery, sparkly, shimmery, shiny, plastic, and oh so barbie. Please don't make me pick a side of the fence to sit on. My challenge will have to be finding the middle ground.

First to experiment with the natural. Inspired by a tour of an old paper mill in Amalfi, Italy over the summer, I try to re-create the process in a sustainable, vegetable loving, way. Maybe the results are not so beautiful but they are a successful sort of cardboard.

youfoundlunch

Every year graduate students from art colleges around Britain exhibit their collections in London. The event in question is New Designers where we flock in the hope of having our work seen by somebody in the industry and *eek* being offered a job!
A venture on the expensive side of expensive, Chloe and I decided to get together and fundraise ourselves some money. Current target: £400. That covers the cost of our stand in the Design Centre alone. After that I think we'll be ringing on friend's doorbells looking for a couch to crash on for the week.

*     *     *     *     *      *     *

During the summer we had splendid success selling salad boxes. But now the days are colder and the students newer, we thought a bake sale was in order. Theme? OATS!!!

Calling our day 'oatily delicious' we stood outside the main University of Edinburgh Library with an array of sweet and savoury bakes, each containing that one key ingredient.... oats!

For the savoury bakes we prepared small stacks of oatcakes, with a choice between spinach, pumpkin seeds or cracked black pepper. Sold as a set with a nice British apple and a wedge of either Danish blue or Gouda cheese, they were a perfect snack.

Over on the sweet side we had - Ginger and Dark Chocolate Cookies - Chewy Apple Cookies - Peanut Butter and Banana Flapjack - Banana Bread - Raisin and Pumpkin Seed Flapjack- Jars of Granola.  Many credits are due to DeliciouslyElla for her wonderful vegan recipes, thank you. 

Talk about a two-way twister

   

"Never knew how much I missed ya..." Gone are the days of having a 30 minute tv allowance in the evenings, being made by parents to choose the one programme you want to watch for that day. Here are the days of internet streaming and too many hours wasted away in the lazy indulgences that being grown up entitle you to. Here's to hoping my eyes don't turn square.