A major change at home

My Domestic Carpenter, who runs a carpentry and decorating business, has an amazing collection of tools, and it was the need to store them that got the "home renovation" project going, which has a few items yet to be finished (Bookshelves!!). In his top-floor bedroom, which has a dormer window, he was able to make storage space under the eaves either side of the window, and has been keeping his special boxes of organised tools there. The saw table and such large items are stored flat under the bed, into which he incorporated a hydraulic system. 

But the top-floor bedroom is up a lot of stairs, and tools are heavy to lug up and down between taking them to job sites, so Tom had the sensible idea of using my studio - which had already become a store room - to store his tool boxes between jobs. Then the under-eaves space in his room would be free for storing what's piled up in the (former) studio, and the process of organising it to fit efficiently into the new storage would give me a chance to see what's there and let that information percolate in my subconscious until I can act on deciding what needs keeping and what can GO. 

We spent three Saturday hours on the reorganisation. At the outset, the studio was crowded and chaotic, and the portfolio stand was always in the way  -

The portfolio stand is now for sale on ebay. Smaller items have been consolidated into boxes (mostly labelled) and are efficiently packed onto rolling pallets for easier access. And there's still room for more!

The floor emerged, and also some clear counter space -

It made a big difference to empty "the Halifax trunk" of paint pots and unnecessary objects and lift it, and the spare microwave, onto the counter (the microwave will be moved into its proper position later) -

Out went the grotty carpet, revealing a vast expanse of grotty lino -

As tool boxes started appearing, the counter started disappearing -

Keep your eye on the poles, they're part of the painting booth; the paint sprayer is on the floor behind them -

 The booth is set up, ready for use ...

 ... and by late afternoon various boards had been sprayed and laid out to dry -

Behind the plastic is the sewing machine ... having it less accessible makes me want to use it more! The booth can be dismantled easily and won't be in use all the time.

Another interesting consequence of this conversion of hell hole into paint booth is that, to minimise the smell of paint throughout the flat, the door of the studio can now be closed. 

I hope that soon the bookshelves will be painted ....

Domestic progress and art concerns

It's been a tumultuous 48 hours as I ricocheted between 136A and Wrentham, seeing furniture etc move out of the house, and anticipating handing over the keys - but confirmation of Monday's completion date is still to come. Yet more items have arrived at 136A, but that's old news, more exciting things have happened ... well, exciting to me, because they might be the precursor of some sort of calm and "space" for getting on with making "work" (never mind that I still have no idea of what that work will be ... but that's the interesting part, finding out and seeing the idea develop).

Friday's spring cleaning -

The outset

The starting corner

"The horror, the horror!"

The safe stowing

The cosiness of a fabric capsule, the joy of a clear floor

Saturday's major rearrangement will be revealed later - computer problems beset me at the moment....

Thinking about The Big Art Project To Come ... the theme of Home is still very much in my mind. Looking back through my 2010 posts to find info about the art foundation degree show in 2010, I came across this intimation of themes to come -

At that time, looking to write a proposal for my MA application, I was thinking of "safety and danger" and that's still in the back of my mind ... and very much related to the safety we expect, or seek, at home, and how our body is a home in itself, and yet it's a dangerous place that can turn against us by developing diseases, or be broached by infections. 

Wrapping up

Final weekend of visits to the house ... just a few bits left to clear. More furniture has been sent to a new life via Freecycle, and the final bagfuls of books and stuff are going to the charity shop later today.

Empty rooms and forlorn garden -

Final lot of things left "on the wall" -

Yes, I feel very sad.

Spring cl****ng

After a lovely day yesterday, both weatherwise and in terms of arty activities - a talk at the British Museum on Hockney's 1967 prints based on Cavafy's poems (on till 14 May), followed by the Paolozzi exhibition at the Whitechapel (on till 25 May)

Paolozzi's pattern book, 1952

- and with a finale of an impromptu and late family meal at our favourite local vietnamese -

AND with today being another day of blue skies and springly delight, such as the rampant forget-me-nots in my little garden, and look at the spreading pillow of phlox, and the tuft of geraniums starting to flower (ignore the bags) -

the bags hold compost made at Wrentham Avenue

Well, with all this going on, one's thoughts naturally turn to ... Spring Cleaning. Though it was reading an article about the way moths are taking over our dusty homes - and seeing a couple of moths lately - that has spurred me on. Three free hours lie ahead, and my tools are to hand -

the feather duster, the yellow dust cloth; the rechargeable Dyson is looking fully powerful in the broom cupboard ... but can you spot the invisible tool? Of course not: it's "readiness". The part of the room that you see is as clean and tidy as it's likely to get (though I see how the counter could be improved!); my backpack has been cleaned out, ready for an excursion this afternoon; and the hidden part of the kitchen counter, and the cooker, are somewhat pristine. I feel ready to "work the magic" elsewhere, and will start in the Shoe Corner of my bedroom and see how far it can go in three hours.

A bit of background to my concept of "readiness". Do you remember feng shui? It was a hot topic quite a few years ago, and there are lots of pix of the bagua on the internet. Not exactly scientific, but useful - you take from it what you want.

This one names the areas somewhat differently from the usual - for instance, Completion instead of Creativity [my sink area], New Beginnings instead of Family [my Dan Hays print on the fireplace wall], Path in Life instead of Career [the place where our bags get dumped]. My desk is in the Abundance area - I'm here a lot. Relationships is the cooker, which my son hates to clean (hmm...). Benefactors is the broom cupboard, what does that mean?!

You take from it what you want. Some people do the alignment with their front door - I like to do it room by room. What brought this up again was a comment about keeping the loo lid down if the toilet is in the Wealth area, so that your money doesn't go down the pan. And sure enough, if every time you lower the lid you think about how to hang onto your money, or increase your wealth, that awareness should eventually translate into action.

So when I clear up the counter and wash the dishes, as part of getting ready to do Something Important, I'm usually thinking about what I'll be doing next (eg going into the studio, or garden). When I clean my cooker I always think of my mother, who liked a tidy kitchen and had made me a bit of embroidery: Mein Herd, Mein Stolz - she also worked quietly on relationships with family and friends throughout her life.

And I look over at that the Knowledge corner, where the bookshelf situation is unchanged...

But a little spring cleaning will change a lot in the bedroom, so I'm off upstairs to Make It Happen. Making hay while the sun shines!

Poetry Thursday - Field Guide by Tony Hoagland

... cue the dragonfly ...

Field Guide

Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,
up to my neck in that most precious 
element of all,

I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards 
pigeon feather
floating on the tension of the water,

at the very instant when a dragonfly,
like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,

hovered over it, then lit, and rested,
That’s all.

I mention this in the same way
that I fold the corner of a page

in certain library books,
so that the next reader will know

where to look for the good parts.


Tony Hoagland was born in 1953 in North Carolina and grew up on various military bases (his father was an Army doctor). "Hoagland’s poetry is known for its acerbic, witty take on contemporary life and 'straight talk' ", says this site. On his twitter account he describes himself as "poet, teacher, sarcasm enthusiast".

I found the poem in Nick Laird's article in an old copy of the Guardian review. It appears in Laird and Don Paterson's anthology, The Zoo of the New, in which a ragbag of poems [ragbags are wonderful things, as sewing friends will know] is arranged alphabetically by title of poem. 

The image is adapted from one on Beautiful Now, a site with lovely colourful photos and many closeups of Nature.

Wordless Wednesday - walks on the South Downs

Drawing Tuesday - V&A

Encountering Michelle at the entrance, and not having seen her for ages, led to a "quick" coffee before starting work. So to make the most of the time remaining it was a matter of "take the nearest" and this gorgeous ensemble of 19th century brass models of Sumatran buildings was the first thing I saw in the Architecture gallery -

 Perhaps the caffeine speeded my pencil - I did feel very focused - and this is the result -

"Could do better" (or perhaps "must try harder") with the perspective of the mosque at the left, but looking at the patterning and using negative shapes in the lower area seems to have paid off in the drawing of the rice barn.

 Others went to other galleries - Najlaa to Furniture, to find the chair-bench -

 Janet B to find a basket made of tiger bamboo -

 Jo was in Furniture, repeatedly tackling a Thonet bentwood chair with all its tricky curves -

 Judith found other chairs -

 Michelle found her subjects in the cast courts -

 Sue "went figurative" too -

 ...as did Carol, first in pen-and-ink and then in colour -

Tool of the Week: water-soluble coloured pencils -

Inktense (and isn't that a lovely holder?)

Lyra, with a list of colours in the lid

"Queen of Co-ordination" award went to Najlaa -

who was also busy in the Extracurricular Activities department - encouraging her 3-year-old grand-daughter to develop a sense of colour. The dinosaur is a stencil, and the plants are Najlaa's contribution -

Blast from the past - March 2013

Four years ago I was still fascinated by the idea of "the clay book" which Robert threw at us in the first ceramics class in the foundation course, that would have been January 2009. For that exercise we rolled out slabs and made marks on the surface. So, four years later, I was actually turning the "tablet" - which was the shape of the first books, if we think back to cuneiform tablets - into a codex-shaped sculptural object -

That led, not too long afterwards, in another course, to the first experiments with dipping paper "book objects" into slip. When they collapsed, they started their evolution into fabric pots ... that took several years and is ongoing.

I'd like to go on working in that little niche, rather than learning about different pottery techniques and glazes. Need a kiln....

Blast from the past - March 2012

Wild stitching

Rough and random stitching on a colour catcher, mounted on cartridge paper as part of something or other that needed to be submitted during The Camberwell Years. It's part of my former "conversational marks" project, which included lines drawn while being subjected to overhearing mobile phone conversations, and also small pieces stitched while travelling.

This sort of mark-making is now being used for stitching the fabric pots, with thick threads to catch and hold the clay. (Perhaps there's a metaphor in that?)

Away daze

Very excited to be going AWAY for the weekend, to the South Coast to stay with friends. I'm not an intrepid or organised traveller and need to leave in an hour - bag is ready to pack, but needs digging out of the cupboard, which is a feat in these times of the overcrowded home ... much must be moved.

Also I'm coping well with using my new phone - it has a quick way to "open" the camera, so I used it yesterday to take pix before, at, and after a lovely day at Ceramic Art London. Most years I've been able to sit in the lecture theatre all day, and this year again that was a surprising and informative thing to do - and made me want to carry on with my transformed fabric pots.

I haven't quite figured out how to get a whole batch of photos from the phone to the computer, so for the next few days the blog posts will be "blasts from the past" and then I hope to have a good long session catching up with the comings and goings of the past week.

Meanwhile here's the state of things this morning. The bookshelves-in-the-making have taken on a new configuration -

... and over in the kitchen, some dipped pots are firming up and must be moved out of the way asap -