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everyday rituals...

 

 

“Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland

A quiet cup of tea and time to sit and think  for a moment or two.

Of one friend from whom the cup was a gift on my trip to Al Ain, UAE.

Of a winter trip to Paris with another with another friend, where I bought this tea here.

And of a friend who lived around the corner from our house in Windsor, UK who shared many a cup of tea as we talked about the small things of everyday life.

Happy memories, a bit of warmth and an excuse to take a moment out of the busy rush of the day. All this in a simple cup of tea.

 

shades of green...

I think that I have been looking at brown cardboard boxes for too long. I'm convinced that they multiply at night when you turn off the light- no matter how quickly I unpack them, there seems to be a never ending stack of them staring menacingly at me the next time I look.

Hence perhaps my current obssession with the garden. Or more precisely what I want to do in the garden.I need to see green things instead of brown.  I have a pile of library books on plants, planting, soil types and moon phases. Precious spare time is spent at the local nurseries with my notebook, pen and iphone on hand. I read, take notes and photos and plan.

I thought gardening was meant to be relaxing. Maybe, I  am approaching this the wrong way.  I just need to forget the botanical names and when, where and how they must ( they must, you hear !) be planted. I'll use my hands to dig a hole and drop in a handful of seeds.

Then just breathe and wait.

 

made of plastic...

Somehow, with a great deal of juggling and the generous help of grandmothers, anuties and friends, I managed to take part in a week long work shop as part of Objectlab at the Sydney College of the Arts at the beginning of July.

The workshop, 'Unnatural jewellery" was run by Australian contemporary jeweller Melinda Young, and explored and challenged approaches to making, materials and deconstructing the found object.

We were fortunate to have small group of four students so it was almost like having one on one with the tutor. It was an intense, challenging and very inspiring week, where I was encouraged to work outside of my natural comfort zone in choice of material, colour palatte and time contraints.

The week started with two days of quick making exercises ( some, the quick schmuckies, only 5 minutes long!) leading into the last three days where we started to focus on making a small body of work for an end of week exhibition.

Everyone, including Melinda contributed to a communal table of found or odd materials which we used for the weeks work. I was also reminded of just how useful and fun a hot glue gun can be ( usually a big no no in jewellery workshops but as we were working with plastic and 'junk" it was more than acceptable.)

Above is the material I chose to work with for my 'collection', the main material being artificial grass I bought in Al Ain,UAE. My theme was 'a crack in everything'

Pin #1, #2, #3 and #4 , silver, wooden blocks, plastic grass and foliage, Hama beads

 

plastic grass, ping pong ball, hot glue, metal chain, nail enamel

silver, nail enamel, plastic grass, hot glue, waxed linen thread

 pin #4 silver, wooden blocks, plastic grass and foliage

all upside down...

Yes, I've been silent a long time. Somewhere my blog seems to have fallen through the cracks and stayed there, quietly gathering dust. Several times I have sat down, typed a few random words then walked away without hitting 'publish'. I'm not sure why. Perhaps there has just been too much happening to try to put it into words.

Anyway, here I am. In the time I've been gone, I have taken up a few new sports (triathlon and ultra distance events)  I've relocated countries ( via a short stint in the UAE) and mostly unpacked a household full of stuff. For your information, if you leave cardboard boxes alone, they multiply overnight. Kind of like mice. And dustballs.

I'm very happy to be back with family and friends but miss my life in the the UK; old and newly found close friends, the Great park just outside my door & running on a crispy snow covered bridle way. Cinnamon buns in Golden Square and wandering through Liberty and Dover Street market making wish lists. A cup of tea or two with my wonderful friend after school drop off on a Friday morning. The amazing wonder of being able to fly to Paris for a day (thinking about that still makes me smile).

Things back here are quite strangely the same- somehow it seems that after being absent for over three years, it should be different. I feel a bit displaced and out of sync, which I am told is very common indeed. Life here will start to feel normal again. It just takes time.

I think that posting regularly might be a good way of just being in the now. A record of the small everyday moments that you sometimes miss in the all the rushing about. A way to reconnect to everything that is part of my life here.

So, here I am. Present and accounted for.