A very happy Christmas one and all.
I had an enjoyable and productive day in the studio yesterday but I am taking a short break for the next few days as I am taking the air at my ancestral seat for the festive season. Suffolk is a beautiful place at any time of year and walking the Mere today with the dogs was particularly lovely, very full with all the recent rain and overflowing streams now gushing torrents; the scenery was fab and the dogs came home covered in mud, Polly was brown instead of black and spotty. The very old photo above shows the glory of the family home in previous times and my parents have the flat with the bottom 3 windows on the right hand side. Please note the church tower behind which has the church bells going as I write, they bong each hour through the night - I remembered to bring extra strong ear plugs.
I have been fretting a bit recently having been asked by Hannah at the City Lit where I teach, to run a class. Why fret, thats my job? Why was I losing sleep?Because this course was run with a difference, students signed up for the evening not knowing what they might be asked to do. It could have been anything, poetry, stand up comedy, play an instrument, astronomy, the list is enormous. So I had 16 brave souls prepared to have a go at anything and who made a cracking job of making a clay relief of a loved one, or worked using one of the 'celebrity' photos from the stock pile. It is possible that perhaps the wine may have helped a bit! I had no reason to worry, they tackled the clay with relish and really worked hard. I quite like the idea of bringing in the loved one next time, dogs and cats in the studio, now there is a course to think about! Many thanks to Hannah, Emma, Mario and David who really made it a fab evening and all the students who were great fun.
So cold today that it was definitely a 2 pairs of trousers day. I have spent ages thinking about this piece and today I drilled a large hole to take a v large dowel. If I didn't spend so much time thinking then I might be a tad warmer.
Thanks to the lovely Lucy, a glass artist in the next door studio I now have a fab plan chest. Those of you who have visited the studio will know that there is quite enough stuff there already, much of it is storage from the house move last year and I am slowly (so very slowly) working my way through the 'downsizing' ( anyone need a washing machine?). This is all piled up under a tarpaulin in the corner so it makes access to boxes tricky, but I cleared a shelf of drawings into the plan chest which gave me access to a box which turned out to contain some books I have wanted to find for some time. Result!! - plan chest doing its job, 2 boxes out of the way and more space created......With any luck I shall be able to set up some private classes very soon indeed.
