Christmas mostly humbug

Humbug. But, sneakily, there's nothing quite like adding a few silver baubles to a chandelier to get in the festive spirit......

Matthew Bourne's 'Swan Lake'

A week ago, went to the Matthew Bourne production of 'Swan Lake'. Am still feeling dizzy about it, even though it's the second time I've seen it. All I can say is I laughed, cried and was totally and completely and utterly enchanted.

Swinging Sixties!

Went to see Maddy Prior and the wonderful Steeleye Span and had a great evening - she still, as has Joan Baez, a clear and distinctive voice. Steeleye Span, ah, takes me back to the sixties. Sadly, Tim Hart was unable to be there as he is very ill, but Rick Kemp was definitely there - I love the casual way he plays, as if it's so so easy. As if. In spite of being close to the front, and even though I wait until the final encore before taking any photos, I do it hurriedly, so this is a bit blurred.

Coming home

On 25th November the troops came home to Abingdon from Iraq and Afghanistan. Whatever is felt about war in general and in particular, they deserve a welcome and gratitude.

Ashmolean Museum

I went briefly to the Ashmolean in Oxford, newly refurbished and quite amazing. As time was limited, I spent most of it gazing, mouth open, at the new layout and the staircase and the open freedom of it all - quite spectacular. A few exhibits caught my eye but I shall be going back to look at those in less haste. I was fascinated by the room with the pictures of people who had worked on the refurbishment, concertinaed on the floor.....need oh so much more time to look at this place at leisure.....

Wittenham Clumps

When my daughter and grandchildren came to visit from abroad, we had a full schedule of events, and a list was on display and tickets jumping excitedly in a drawer. On one day I had written 'spare day - maybe go and fly kites at Wittenham Clumps'. This caused hilarity as they thought I had made it up and there was no such place. As it happens, we never did get there, but I gave them a postcard of this lovely pen and black ink over graphite done by Paul Nash, called 'The Wood on the Hill' (Wittenham Clumps). Since then I have also had a weak moment and bought a lino print by Susan Wheeler. They are both so utterly different, yet to me they both in their way capture some of the magic of the place. There is a poem tree there, which I am ashamed to say I have yet to visit. However, I did find the sight of Didcot Power Station in the distance a bit depressing and so did a little poem of my own, for what it's worth:

Wittenham Clumps

The cluster of beeches
is motionless;
the silhouette branches
long for the wind
to let them
scribble warnings
in the sky, while

beyond woven fences
like linked arms
and fringed wings of kites,
the blood-red sky
slashes across
the fat grey throats
of the cooling towers
chain-smoking
and coughing
like consumptives.

Goldsmiths' Fair '09

Taking it easy today after a lot of standing yesterday - went to London to Goldsmiths' Hall for their annual jewellery and silverware exhibition. The most amazing array of talent here, and everyone willing to chat and discuss their work. Although the entries are for sale they were a little beyond my purse, but having said that, most of it was sensible pricing and some was affordable. It was the second week of the Fair (different exhibitors from the first week) and I think among my favourites were Amy Duggan ('Intriguing angles and surfaces discovered in the urban environment provide inspiration'), Adele Brereton ('gold and silver forms often combined with smooth handcarved wooden elements') and Sheila R McDonald's enamelling, which shows her love of colour and drawing. Finally, I have to mention the brilliant Jenny Edge's collection of colourful and sweeping curved pieces using the technique of anticlastic raising.


Jenny Edge Sheila McDonald Amy Duggan Adele Brereton

Joan Baez

All of those who remember the 60s - Joan Baez is still wonderful, voice as clear as a bell, can hear every word. Magic evening.

Three gifts

The goblet and bowl above took for ever and a day to make, but I am pleased with the result. I carefully carried them to London to be polished, and for the inside of the bowl to be gilded. The man who did such wonders is called Stephen Goldsmith, and he did a beautiful job. I am hoping that he will do the same for the bowl below when it is finished. The plan is to have the leaf sections gilded and the rest plain.

I have tried another computer skill! Managed (I hope) to scan the rough design I did for the bowl mentioned below, which shows where the tendrils are going to be. After the two previous items - a goblet and a bowl above, which were for present, this is my last one. That's all on this, I'm even boring myself, time for a g&t methinks...

Silver linings again

Had a lovely morning at the workshop working on the bowl I am making. Have managed to make it with several sections so that it can be taken to bits to polish. Am going to get the leaves and wavy stem section gilded. All I have left to do now is to make some tendrils out of PMC and solder them on to the disk section I have made - I say 'all' - I can foresee loads of difficulties between now and the finished product! Anyway, this is roughly what it looks like so far.

You know how it is...

Do you remember when you were a kid and got told off for doing something, you had to do it JUST ONE MORE time? Well, if you think the last entry was irritating....one more bird picture, one more leaf picture...

Colours

Oh dear oh dear, I knew this would be addictive.... The most glorious autumn today, and on my walk I just had to take a few photos, this will irritate everyone, as we can all take good pictures of autumn, but I don't care. After passing this little bird resting after doing his tightrope walk, I took a look at a few reds, and yellows...

Enough! I hear you cry. Oh. Okay.

Daylesford Organics

I think it's called Daylesford Organics - a lovely place in the Cotswolds where you can buy yummy fruits and vegs and cheese, all arranged in the most tempting way in beautiful surroundings. I went there recently with friends and a week or so later I heard that they had had a fire which had destroyed some of it - I hope it wasn't the old part of the barns. It was a bit posh, my VW Polo looked a bit of a poor relation, and you could cut butter with some of the expensively-dieted cheekbones passing by.

Jewellery

So proud of myself today - I managed to work out how to change the photo behind the heading. Feel quite light-headed. Celebrated by finishing a couple of necklaces and making some new ones - from some beads I made out of PMC (Precious Metal Clay - i.e. silver in this case). I'm hoping some are going into a mini-exhibition to sell, but no idea what to charge. Fun to do, and am into doing themes - beach and woods, sweets, and cakes! These three photos are : 1. A walk in the woods (using stone-inspired beads, birds-egg beads, silver acorns, silver sycamore, silver leaf. 2. Seaside (using stone-inspired beads again and silver shell beads. 3. Liquorice allsorts necklace (using some sweet-like beads and silver beads coloured afterwards).

Poetry

For some strange reason I am compelled to try and write poetry as well as voraciously reading it (Billy Collins being one of my favourite poets). This is a vice that should be kept secret and locked up in an inaccessible mental cupboard. So that I don't frighten anyone with too much on this subject, I will just say that I am in permanent pursuit of writing, one day, The Perfect Poem. I wish. So here's a thought...


THE PERFECT POEM

Will I be discovered dead
in bed, covers folded neatly
under my chin, the golden hair
of my imagination
spread out on the pillow;

and will I, before then, write
at last the Perfect Poem;
a nugget in a jewelled bag
produced at the drop of a hat
and read to admiring audiences,

or a beribboned gilded medal
awarded for Services to Literature?
Will it be so startling, so great
that pigeons hurl themselves off roofs
with a flag-waving of feathers,

and will the earth hesitate
for a moment, stunned with awe,
while the sun winks knowingly
as metaphors slink for cover
like rats down an alliterative alley?

Will it be so wonderful
that you, after my funeral,
heads bowed, say in hushed tones,
'No, I don't remember HER at all.
But I remember her Perfect Poem'?

(written on 15/6/09)

Summer School - Printmaking (Collagraph and Drypoint)

Another year, another summer school! This year I learnt drypoint, collagraph and monoprinting. Well, in fact I did this course last year and enjoyed it so much I did it again! The talented and very patient Christine Tacq inspired us all, and every night we went home tired, happy and very paint-covered... Intaglio and relief printing were confusing to start with, but soon prints were rolling off the press... I am now wondering whether I could try etching, as I love the amount of detail that can be achieved, and many more prints can be run off, as the drypoint was etched into board, whereas etching is into metal.

In the pictures, the one with three sections is a mixture of drypoint and collagraph and was done after going to Giffords Circus (a lovely, family-run circus with no creatures that should be in the wild). The fish on a plate is drypoint, and the butterflies picture is collagraph (material, sand, etc., glued onto a card).

Automata

Another moving toy - this one has a handle to turn, is of two children skipping, with one rope up when the other is down, and vice versa. I meant to put this with the other pictures but haven't worked out how to go back and do that!!! Anyway, here it is, complete with small boy with back-to-front baseball cap in the corner, reading a book.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here's the heron who is trying (and never does) to catch a bug - you just pull the bead below his wing (there have been some unkind suggestions as to what that represents, but believe me, it just represents something to make it work!!)

Summer School - papier mache

Another year I went to Summer School and did papier mache with James Cochrane, who was delightful, and is a brilliant illustrator. I made a very large green tree frog, which has now hopped its way over to Canada and lives there, and also a lady which I called "Ermintrude shows off her new hat". Her nose and her breasts are made from clay which are cooked in the oven, and when I made the breasts I wasn't sure how big to make them, so I made two pairs. I asked James whether he thought she was better suited to the 34B or the 36C, and we decided the smaller ones looked best. Later that day another lady, who was making a very large hippo, found that she was running out of time and needed eyes for him. I leant over and handed her the 36C breasts and lo and behold! They fitted EXACTLY into the hippo's eye sockets....

The other comment I have to make about this is, you might see from the closeup that she looks uncannily like a certain ex-Prime Minister (sorry, no prizes).

Summer School - Moving toys

Every year I try and go to Summer School to either learn a new craft or to improve on one. One of the earlier ones I went to was on 'moving toys' (automata) with Robert Race taking the class. It was fascinating to learn the effects of lead weights that swing to make parts move, or to turn a handle to make something move. I made one of two birds that look at each other, then when you lift it they look away, then look back when you put it down - the big bird looking rather aggressively at the little one.

Summer School - papier mache

Autumn glories

I have been given some lovely windfalls, and another friend brought round some cob nuts (note to self: buy nutcracker). Last weekend I picked blackberries and made an apple and blackberry crumble, and picked sloes and now have jars of beautiful deep claret colour sitting on my worktop and being shaken but not stirred. This means autumn has arrived.

More chandeliers

When the sun shines into my room it creates patterns with the prisms

The beginning

Firstly, I'll explain the sub-title because, apart from the obvious play on my name, there is another reason (or two) why I chose it. When I was at school one of the teachers was always on my side, and said that I was never to worry because 'every Macleod has a silver lining'. Secondly, I do silversmithing and Precious Metal Clay (which is also silver) and the other day I licked my finger when I had some silver clay on it, so I really do literally have a silver lining. Anyway, this is the beginning of my blog and I'm not sure how long I'll do it before I get fed up. It's really more for people who know me, so no need for any of the really personal stuff. Enough to say that, since a serious illness three years ago, I have made the most of life (well, I think I did before actually). Due to not being as agile as I used to be, most of my interests and hobbies are fairly sedentary.

So, to add a bit of interest I'll try and paste in a photo to get me going.

Nearly every year I go to a brilliant craft summer school, and one year I learnt to make wire chandeliers. I chose this because I had already started doing them, but wanted to learn more techniques rather than inventing it all. I had a wonderful time, and have sold quite a few.

Every Macleod has a silver lining

This is the beginning of my new venture. I have no idea how to do a blog really, so am blundering in the dark. I want to do this so that my family, who are scattered (and possibly scatty) can have a look if they wish.