This has certainly been a week to end all weeks! And one with more than its fair share of traumas - hence my not 'posting' for a while. All I have to say is that I am so grateful to all my 'sisters' out there who have been with me every step of the way - you know who you are!
The three with me above are Brenda, Elaine and Fiona when we were at Tate Liverpool today. I have developed a 'passion' for Klimt after a glorious immersion in gold leaf, spirals, mosaics and sumptuous erotic decoration on the one hand, and the delicate, exquisitely drawn faces on the other - and the sheer scale of the Beethoven frieze ... It's left me wanting to know more. Definitely a 'woman's man'! As mythology is 'my bag' I've had a glorious day. (And I could have walked away with the cutlery and the coffee set given half a chance ... ah, well ...
Thursday was a 'playday' when friends Elaine and Jennifer join me for the day and we either set ourselves a challenge or swap techniques. It's a good way to keep up our skills level and try new things - and, as the name suggests, have FUN!
As usual a lot of chatting and laughing went on but we did do some nuno felting. We are being really brave and challenging ourselves to have something ready for the Embroiderers' Guild exhibition in October. Here is the first - and probably still my favourite? - nuno piece. It's a black chiffon scarf which gets a lot of wear!
The technique I am using at the moment (for the four 'Jardin Majorelle' pieces) involves working with pre-felts. It's a technique I first encountered on a Jeanette Appleton course at Glaramara last year. The reason I am still working on it is because of another of my 'amazing' ladies, called Fiona. I was so impressed by her work on the course that we pressurised (bullied?) her into starting a local felt group. We now meet once a month and Fiona's work has been such an inspiration to us all. She is so encouraging to beginners like me and the group is now fully subscribed. You can see her work on flickr at fi@84. You'll love it! She's one of the group in the picture too.
Talking of passion, I thought I'd post a picture of three of the Passion flowers in my garden - they're glorious at the moment. Another flower that's full of symbolism - I think I might have had enough of that for one day?
I'm totally overwhelmed by all the comments you lovely people out there have left for me. Paula said that it was probably the most comments she'd ever seen on someone's first blog - and we all know why, don't we? That Jackie! What a lovely post you wrote - thank you once again.
