Arts and Crafts

Lazy days…

Angela PorterLeave a comment

So tired

This has been another weekend of sheer laziness.  All I’ve done, mostly, is sleep or read or just potter and potch around the place.  All I can say is I must need this quiet time for whatever reason.  I’m most probably emotionally exhausted after a long term and a long year at school, as well as from such a busy fortnight with things happening in the evening.  No, not partying, but various classes and workshops and talks.  It all tires one out.  Perhaps this quiet time will mean that I recover sooner in the summer hols so that I can enjoy more of them.

Part of me is being hard on me for not using the time more productively, for not being busy, busy, busy.  Part of me is patting myself on the back for listening to myself and taking time out.  I wouldn’t sleep if I wasn’t tired or didn’t need it.  I’d have the inspiration to create if I was fully charged.  And if I catch up somewhat with myself I’ll have time in the summer hols to find the inspiration and lose myself in things that bring me pleasure.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

I went to see this on Friday afternoon.  It was good, but somehow anticlimactic.  I can’t put my finger on it, perhaps it’s simply because the book had so much more in it, or my imagination is so much more vivid.  Or maybe it’s because it’s come to an end, for now.  I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more of the wizarding world in the future; I don’t think J K Rowling can keep away from it for much longer!

Fallen Books

I’ve been reading these books by Lauren Kate.  It took a while to get into Fallen, but since I have done so I’ve been engrossed by them (hence the weekend of reading!).  I read Fallen in three or four days, Torment took just two days, and I’m stuck into Passion now.  All I can say is I’d never thought I’d be reading and enjoying books that had angels in them!  Wizards, witches, sorcerors, orcs, elves, fairies, nac-mac-feegles, and others yes, but angels?  I’d recommend the books as a lovely escape with exciting and heart-wrenching moments, as well as moments of that perfect, romantic, sensual love that can only exist in dreams (I think – though if anyone can offer me hard proof that such a love exists, then please tell me; I’ve never experienced it!).

Arty stuff.

My artistic endeavours this week have centred around my latest sketchbook which has pages being filled with work inspired by a photograph of a leaf skeleton.  I’m working with different media, developing shapes and patterns and colours and so on with the aim of producing some textile work.  All I know is that I’m enjoying the time I get to spend on it, which isn’t enough really.  It’s not long, though, until the long holidays…not long to go.  I just need to remember to borrow back my books of inspiration, particularly “Drawn to Stitch” by Gwen Hedley.

I’ve been asked to create a piece of textile art similar to this one for someone at school.  That’s a summer holiday project I’m sure!  Other projects will come from my sketchbook work, I think.  I’d also like to spend time trying to work out how to do landscapes…my way.

Weight loss…

I’m considering joining Slimming World to kickstart myself into eating healthily, taking care of my body via the food I eat, and losing weight.  Over the past couple of years my weight has steadily increased and I’m now where I was the summer after I finished with the long ago ex, which was some 13 years ago now.  I’ll have to be incredibly brave and firm with myself to actually go to a meeting, and then incredibly strong and firm with myself afterwards … and forgiving should I lapse momentarily too.  Believing I deserve to look after myself, treat myself well, be kind to myself is still a huge stumbling block for me.

I’m hoping that the work that has been done with me over the past three years or so will have done the equivalent of ctrl-alt-del and restarted the programs that are ‘me’ as they should run, well most of them; kind of like having the viruses removed, or at least the ones that have been identified.

Second Dragon ‘a’

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Dragon a 13 March 2011 © Angela Porter 2011

I finished this one not very long ago – and it is finished!  I decided not to fill the whole of the outline in with this one, though I am pondering thickening the outline to make it look more like a window frame made of stone, but maybe not.  I do like the empty space – it’s not so busily confusing.

It’s a little less than A4 in size, worked using black in in Rotring Rapidograph pens and white Pilot Uniball and Sakura Souffle pens on brown paper.

Other things …

I’ve been off work since Thursday.  Sore throat and cough, and that turned into a raging upset tummy-tum-tum yesterday, so I’m feeling just a little ‘drained’ today.  I’ll see how I am in the morning before I decide whether or not I’m up to facing the concentrations of confrontation/defiance/disrespect/aggression that are also known as pupils.

The time away has given me a chance to complete the ‘a’ above – it’s always a pleasure to lose myself in art – to do some work on negative automatic thoughts (NATs) and to find out where my deficiencies lie so that myself and my marble-sticker-in-place (counsellor) can work on dispelling the NATs and coming up with strategies to help me change them to PATs (positive automatic thoughts) as well as find the reasons for me to put strategies in place to help me treat myself in a good way, to lead myself to having a healthy lifestyle, and to intervene gently and positively with my comfort eating.  The NATs that are left are ones that lurk deep and have great power still, even though they don’t shout; their messages to sabotage me and my efforts at self-love are fare more devious and catching them in the act will take a lot of stealth on my part too.  They’re likely to be pretty ugly when I finally catch them at it.

No, I’m not mad.  I’m assured I’m not.  I just try to use my imagination to help me find my way through this counselling and on the way to becoming comfortable with who I am, caring for me, loving me in a healthy way, and imagining the NATs as some kind of beings that I call my inner beasties helps me in identifying and confronting them.  I do believe that underneath all the rubbish and poop that has stuck to them over my life time there is a shining, positive version of them, so self-hate is really self-love, and all the work I’m doing and have been doing is cleaning them up, layer by painstaking layer.  However, the deeper down the layers one goes, the longer they have been there and the harder they have stuck; as the layers have been removed, I have become stronger so I’m sure I’ll get to the shining positives beneath.

 

Golden Fields

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Golden Fields –  Abstract Textile Work

Golden Fields 4 Mar 11 © Angela Porter 2011

I finished this little textile piece yesterday evening.  It’s approx. 9cm x 10cm and made from cream hessian painted with acrylic inks and then embellished with matt and metallic embroidery threads, beads and panels made from gold and copper leaf.  The inspiration came from a piece of abstract art I did a little while ago Golden Gloucestershire Hills of Corn.

It’s taken me a week to do, half and hour here and another one there, as school does interfere with my creativity.  I’m quite pleased with it, but prefer to work on felt as the contrast between the beads, threads, fibres and custom made panels/sequins is so much more apparent.  I do need to get some cream felt and see if the inks will work on that just as well …

Mind you, I have loads of these little bits of textile art to mount and frame now … that will really finish them off nicely I think!  As well as make them ready for sale …

School…

Yes, it was the return to school on Monday… huge sigh here.  The week started off with an hour and a half meeting about what to do about the behaviour/attitude in school, with some refusing to acknowledge there is a problem.  Every time the teaching staff, or care staff, or non-teaching staff mention that things are getting worse we get the comments of the last inspection report thrown at us as evidence that it is not bad.  Errm, the inpsection was five years or so ago now, things HAVE changed in that time.

Five years ago relationships between staff and pupils were good, they still are now, in well defined pockets, but there are an increasing number of disruptive pupils in every single class…  We have one of the highest exclusion rates for schools in our county, yet we don’t have a problem.  That’s a contradiction if I ever heard one!

At the end of the meeting there was no change.  Any ideas the teaching staff came up with were dismissed as either un-staffable, unaffordable or needing the consensus of parents to put into place (which begs the question – who is in charge of the school?).

Has anything changed since?  No.  I still get verbally abused, aggressively spoken to, shouted at, defied and questioned ‘why’ when I ask, quite firmly but politely, for a pupil to stop talking, to get on with their work, to stop disturbing others, to take their coat off … I did comment about the defiance as not being the same as The Defiant, a tough little ship featuring in Star Trek Deep Space 9, though it could be useful to have around as a defence.  Mind you a pair of Klingons or Jem’Hadar would work wonders in the class; you’d have no messing with them around.  A couple of Jedi with light sabers may work just as well …

Thank goodness I was told about a light at the end of the tunnel to aim for, maybe, but more of that when it all comes to pass …

Stress and marble-work

Another good point about the week is that I’m finally learning that this attitude is nothing to do with me, particularly, other than I’m a teacher.  Although it seems personal, it’s not really.  My stress levels do go up, I do my best not to lose my temper (though it can be incredibly hard at times) and do my best to calm down asap afterwards, so these are all very much positive steps forwards.

I do seem to be coping better in school, though maybe not as well as I would like.  This gives time in the weekly marble sorting out sessions (also known as counselling) to work on the knotty issues of self-love, self-esteem, self-image and so on…and hopefully unlearning the messages from the past about myself, what other people wanted me to believe about myself … it’s not easy, but it is possible!

Another golden piece of textile art…

Angela Porter2 Comments

Golden 24 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter

I have just finished this one.  It’s approx 6cm x 7cm in size.  Gold plated wire, metallic threads, beads and custom made ‘sequins’ are applied to black felt.  The photograph doesn’t show the beads are layered or applied in curves in places to give height and texture to the work.

I now have a fair-sized pile of pieces of textile art that need framing!

Golden brown … teenie tiny textile work

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Golden brown

Golden Brown 23 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter 2011

I have just finished this little piece of textile art.  It measures just 7cm x 7cm.  I’m not entirely sure about it, as the shapes/patterns are not my usual kind of organic spirals and curves, but … it was different to do and I’m actually proud of myself that I didn’t give up part way through the process.  There was a point where I was going ‘yeuch’ mentally about it, but it seems to have worked out ok.

I also used matt embroidery threads in this one to get a different kind of texture involved, so this is really more of a test piece, an experiment to see how things work out.  I’m also glad I went with the metallic purple/brown/blue/dark gold/green beads in places as they give a nice contrast to the gold that is used in so many places.

So onward with the work …whatever will appear next, I wonder?

Interesting work …

I found my way to First andFifteenth -the website/blog of Steve Powers who does some rather interesting stuff with words and pictures.  I particularly like the plays on words that he makes.  It’s different for sure!  I found my way via a mention given by Neil Gaiman on Twitter.

Another blog I found my way to, again by Mr Gaiman I believe, was Whodunnknit, run by DeadlyKnitshade, another denizen of the rather puzzling thing that is Twitter.  I do wish there was such a group of knitting guerillas/graffiti knitters nearer to me *sigh*, yet it seems such great fun!

Finally … destressing at last!

I actually feel more like myself today, calmer, more relaxed.  This is good.  Mind you, I woke at stupid o’clock this morning and managed to get back to sleep over an hour later after trying reading, puzzles, and finally meditation, which did the trick.  When I settled back down to sleep, the purryfurryone had already given up trying to bounce and clamber all over me and had fallen asleep and was snoring, just to add insult to injury!  I must say, however, I absolutely adore my pusscat, he’s certainly one of a kind, totally neurotic, insecure but he does seem to be very attached to me, sometimes quite literally so!

Proudly presenting the letter ‘i’ (and some jewellery)

Angela Porter2 Comments

The letter ‘i’

Initial 'i' © Angela Porter 21 Feb 2011

Approx. 5cm x 13 cm worked using wires, metallic threads, beads and custom made ‘sequins’ on black felt.  The colours are silvers, blues, greens and purples.  Again, my poor photographic skills do this a disservice, but then again, no photography would capture the way this shimmers and shines and catches the light in different ways as you view it from slightly different angles.

I’m quite pleased with it.  The letters are a much more rigid format than I’m used to working with, but there’s still scope for so much embellishment and patterns within them.

The bonus is that it’s very relaxing for me to do this, almost meditative in nature.  That can only be of benefit to me.  Also, it’s been nice to be cwtched up under a fleecy blanket whilst working both this letter and the jewellery.  It’s a chilly day here, with heavy rain from time to time.  It’s nice to hear the rain on the windows and know that I do not need to go out in it.  It was doubly nice this morning as I was sat in bed, the purrfurrball (cat) draped over my legs, purring loudly, as I could hear the rain on the windows.  It was a very comforting place to be.  Also, it is the only place that the cat will sit on my legs/lap – his favoured spot is upon my chest, head nuzzled into my neck or shoulder, and that brings an end to anything that involves using my hands!

The Jewellery

Jewellery 21 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter 2011
The earrings are approx 2cm x 3cm.

The pendant is approx 3cm x 3.5cm.

Both worked with silver beads, purple/green iridescent ‘sequins’, silver threads.  The earrings have purple beads on them.

Just a few little items made for a friends’ daughters’ birthday this week … they didn’t take too long to do either, just a couple of hours, simply because I kept the design simple and not over embellished.  The pendant has a different ‘edging’ to  my usual over-stitched beads; I’ve used bugle beads sewn close to the edge of the felt so that there is a black border around them.  I don’t know if it works well, I’ll see what the feedback is from my friend!

Pink birch abstract

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Pink Birch Abstract © Angela Porter 2011

The third of the day!  This one is 4cm x 6cm in size and the photo really doesn’t show it at all well.  Pink, purple and silver beads, silver and pink metallic threads, and wavy pieces of pink/purple/rainbow custom ‘sequins’.

During my last summer hols, I did some work for art in school based on a photograph of a silver birch wood.  The patterns from this are from my memories of  the patterns that emerged from that work.

Busy fingers today!

Sea square

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Sea Square 20 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter 2011

Just a teenie tiny one – 5cm x 5cm.  Finished not too long ago now.  The colours aren’t quite right on the photo, they’re a little washed out, but there’s greens, blues, silvers and purples there, and the larger beads are white/pearlescent/iridescent.  The colours and shapes remind me of the sea …

The last couple of days have been bliss – losing myself in creating stuff.  I have a few more to go yet; thank the gods for half-term!

 

A heart for art’s sake?

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Heart 20 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter 2011

This was completed not too long ago.  For some reason I felt inspired to create a heart … so I went with it.  The picture really doesn’t do the little piece justice, however.  It is just 7cm x 11cm in size.  The beads are a lovely warm red, towards the blue side of the red spectrum rather than the orange size, and they are finished with an iridescent sheen.  The large, custom made ‘sequins’ are copper coloured with rainbow iridescence, but change green when viewed at different angles.  The wires forming the heart and the patterns inside are copper, as are the metallic threads that are used to embellish parts of the piece.  It’s all worked on black felt, the matt nature of which provides a lovely contrast to the shiny, sparkly, iridescence of the things on top of it.

I know that once pay-day comes along, top of my shopping list, right next to the monthly purchases of mog-pog-fod (cat food) and kitty litter, will be frames and mount-board so that these latest creations can be displayed to best effect.  Mind you, this one will challenge me in framing it as I’ve not left much of a border round it.  I suspect  I’ll be attaching it to a bigger piece of felt in order to frame it.

What to do next in terms of textile work … hmm?

Proudly presenting the letter ‘a’

Angela Porter2 Comments

Initial A 19 Feb 2011 © Angela Porter 2011

I finished this earlier this evening.  It’s taken me several hours of work, and I’m quite pleased with it.  The organic swirls that fill the framework of the letter are inspired by La Tene culture art (early Celtic art).  The large ‘sequins’ are custom made by myself.  There’s not so many beads on this as in other examples of my textile work; I found the heavy application of the metallic threads created a lovely shimmery and dense finish that didn’t detract from the letter shape.  I also haven gone to town embellishing around the letter; I got the large custom ‘sequins’ in place and realised that that was about it for the embellishment around the letter as they seem to enhance it not overpower it.  So, all in all, I’m pleased with this for a first-time go at something so structured, so to speak.

I’m also pleased because I think I’ve found a way to create works of art using words and symbols, something that is uniquely me perhaps.  Only time will tell.

Other textile work

It’s now half-term for me – hooray!  I’ve been told by my pal that she wants all my textile jewellery and any textile works I have for sale as the people at the offices where the Princess Royal visited and received a piece of my art on Monday want to buy my art/jewellery!  She said she’ll take over that side of things, and of course I shall make sure she has a commission for doing this!  I now have to decide what to do next – another textile picture or to start on more pieces of jewellery …

Whichever I decide, I know I’ll enjoy doing it and it will help me to de-stress after a very stressful half-term.

De-stressing from the distress…

I had a major stress-out on Wednesday which resulted in me being home on Thursday with a horrible headache and a very upset digestive system.  Not that anything major happened, not at all, but just the constant day to day stresses increasing the level within me … I am now coming down, and I will make sure that this week has me relaxing, meditating, creating as much as possible.