The Gathering of the Illuminated!

My mate Dave is an LED expert with a business called LED Fantastic. For the last couple of years his name (LED Dave as I call him) has come up SO often in conversation when I chat to makers about various designs that they would like to illuminate, and I have referred many people over to him for his expertise with great results. Above and below you can see Helen Musselwhites stunning 'Magic Cupboard' and below that, you can see Priscilla Jones's quirky 'Illuminated Teapot'.

LED's are great because they offer a low energy and low risk way of lighting things up!

Now the great thing is that Dave also runs the Hebden Bridge Hostel

which is an ideal place to stay and host a workshop.

We thought it would be great to get everyone together, artists and lighting designers for a weekend at the hostel to learn more about these wonderful 'Light Emitting Diodes' and how we can use them in our work. It's also a great chance to hook up and share ideas and enjoy a lovely relaxing weekend in Hebden Bridge at the same time. 20th- 22nd January 2012.

Here is a link to the flyer with all the information about the weekend and it would be really wonderful if you could make it!

Showtime!

I'm having a quiet sofa day today (with cats and tea) after a fast paced few days of doing the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester. It's been a great show. Always enjoyable to meet many appreciative customers and mix with other makers. My seed pods went down a treat which was very pleasing. It was nice to have something on my stand that wasn't a lamp. I think it was a first!

There was a really fantastic selection of work this year. Best yet I reckon. I didn't get much time off my stand to take it all in, or take any pictures as it was so busy, so I have just been perusing websites from the show exhibitor list to get a closer look and share a few things which I liked . GNCCF have a lovely photo album on facebook from the preview with some great pictures.

I loved Jennifer Colliers paper typewriter. She had also made a camera and a telephone and some lovely lampshades.

Rachel Eardley (sister of Ken, have his lamp bases at Radiance) makes jewellery by cutting the pictures from old coins. Such a clever idea. I love her gorgeous illustrative website.

I've been an admirer of Ruth Moilliets botanical metalwork for some time. It was nice to see it, and her (and her Mum) in real life.

Cathy Miles was there with her wirework. This is the robin I bought for my Mum a few years back. So sweet.

Sally Pawsons stand (and Sally herself) was bright and cheery and I bought a lovely pair of her earrings.

I think Suet Yi's ceramics was my favourite. I was too slow though. She had sold most of it by the time I got there!

This really barely scratches the surface. There was so much beauty and innovation.

Thanks to Matt who helped me Thursday night and Eleanor from Leeds Uni 3D Design course who helped me out for the day on Friday. Without her I wouldn't have been able to have a meeting with my editor so she could show me some possible layout options for the book! VERY EXCITING indeed. It is looking gorgeous so far and made it very real....

By next show (selection permitted) I will have my book on my stand with me!

H is for Home and Indie Quarter have done great posts about the show with some beautiful pictures.

Tree of Life lamp

It's all go in the workshop getting ready for GNCCF and doing some design work for The Russian Tearooms (more about that another day). I made a little Tree of Life lamp to take to the show. I like them altogether in a little forest. I have just added it to my website and if you're an Etsy lover you can find it here.

The book is finished!

I'm feeling happy today because THE BOOK IS FINISHED! It's been a huge project, and apart from the slight meltdown in August (we won't talk about that) I've really enjoyed it. The best bit has been making contact with all these wonderfully inspiring light makers from all over the world, some in person, some on line and hearing their stories and learning how they found themselves making lights. Some people are really new to it and some are very well established in their field but they are all doing amazing work.

Thanks everyone for being so supportive with this. I have needed the little nuggets of support that you have given me. I feel very lucky to know such lovely people!

As my editor says 'don't think it will be last you'll see of it!' It will come back for edits and re-writes, but for now I am celebrating because the bones of it are down, the images are collected and it is out of my hands for a while. Just got to get the GNCCF done and then I'm going on a relaxing break with my lovely friend Rachel Hazell up to the Isle of Skye to chill out, have fun and look at pretty mountains and lochs and stuff! Ahhhhhhh recuperate before the crazy Christmas rush ( I said that quietly).

On the way to the post office yesterday there was the best rainbow I have ever seen. Vibrant and unbroken and arcing right over Hebden, making it look like toy town. I was in a jubilant mood and will always be a happy association with finishing the book. I didn't take this photo(Andrew Back did). I didn't have may camera (the one time) but it was awesome and I'm glad somebody captured it.

The 'Do What You Love' film has been released!

I am SO happy to see this. To be able to go back and re-live such a very very special time for four whole minutes! Jack and Rafael from Nut Films have done a beautiful job and captured it so well. In the video you will see Matt Stinchcombe, head of Etsy for Europe, painter Flora Bowley , the traveling book binder Rachel Hazell and Beth Nicholls who dreamed up the whole big idea in the first place.

Do What You Love - Retreats 2011 from nutfilms on Vimeo.

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair Time

It has come round way too fast this year! Nearly time for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. I will be there on stand 16. I'm hoping to bring my new seed pod window hangings. People keep spotting them hanging in my workshop window and I keep promising that I will start selling them soon. I guess that now would be a good time! Just trying to figure out how to offer them...and wrap them up...and display them.

Anyway I hope you will make it to the show. Here are some pictures from last year so you can see what it's all about.

Writing retreat at Heartspring

I wanted to go away somewhere peaceful to finish the book. Earlier in the year I was craving Wales; missing the sound of the mud popping on the estuary and the curlews calling and the gentle rolling hills and the quiet. Rather than visit Laugharne where I used to live, I went round the bay to Llansteffan. Somewhere I had visited from time to time for a quick walk on the beach but not explored.

My friend told me about Heartspring House. A peaceful retreat centre where you can do group retreats or simply go and rent an apartment, which is what I did. See the big, pink house on the side of the hill. That's it.

Arriving at this grand house on the side of a hill took me back exactly 20 years when I went down to Art College in Carmarthen and lived in a large and beautiful house at the top of the hill in Laugharne. I was shown to my room with a large bay window and estuary and castle views, and I had the same sense of adventure and freedom that I felt when I was eighteen and saw my Castle House room for the first time. All alone, with a new stunning place to explore with no responsibilities , no phone signal and no wifi. Just tea drinking, walking, cooking, drawing, yoga, reading, a massage booked (ok couldn't afford such luxury at 18) and friends joining me at the weekend. Well I did have a book to write but I felt remarkably chilled about it given the long week ahead to focus solely on it.

The house has a deep peace about it. A really nurturing place, with inspiring books on the bookshelves, flowers from the garden in every room...

...shelves of herbal teas to choose from, cupboards full of herbs and spices for cooking, a flourishing vegetable garden, a big swing at the top of the garden, a trampoline...

...window seats to dream in and wonderfully welcoming and friendly staff.

Being on a tidal estuary the tide goes out for miles and you can walk and walk on the sands, which change every day. I loved it there. So utterly beautiful. Such peace.There are walks up to the Norman Castle where you can climb right to the top of the tower (about the only place I could find a phone signal) and walks through the woods right round the headland to take in spectacular views that photos cannot even begin to represent.

Even though I was there to work I found a good balance and went out to play every day....

collecting things on the beach (I got into feathers)...

and drawing. Every day I came to the writing in such a relaxed way. I'd sit down to work and hours would fly by. It was wonderful, and quite new for me, to get completely immersed in the flow with no disturbances, except perhaps the need for a cup of tea. This was good. Very very good. I tackled my intro (which I was scared of), tidied up lots of passages and reached my 20,000 word mark on Wednesday. Hooray!

My lovely friend Rachel came to stay for the weekend and Lynn joined us on Saturday. We had the best beans on toast and friend egg on toast ever in the beach cafe and then embraced the changing weather for a walk on the beach...sunny one minute, huge raindrops the next. Look at that sky. Shame that Rachel discovered a hole in her beloved wellies....and look what we found!

The rock people of Llansteffan had landed!

Let me introduce you to their creator. This is Mark and he lives at Heartspring, looking after the house and the guests, running retreats and being lovely. He had been telling me about his love for making art on the beach and showed me photographs of his beautiful sand circles so it was lovely to find him in mid creation on the beach making 'rock people'. Majestic and serene....

...and attracting quite a bit of attention from passers by!

I was very sad to have to leave my peaceful haven. I got up very early on my last day for a last walk on the beach. It was a grey morning when I set out but when I got on the beach I was greeted by an awesome sunrise.

There was a light rain too and the sunrise made a rainbow. The birds were going nuts and I closed my eyes to listen to them for a few minutes trying to bottle up the sound of the dawn chorus to bring it home. When I opened my eyes it was a grey morning again, not a trace of pink to be seen. Blink and you'd miss it!

I will definitely be going again. I might make it an annual thing. I feel very lucky indeed.

An attitude of gratitude on the sunny south coast

Me and the kids have just had a week away on the south coast. Going away right at the end of the holidays was sort of like saying goodbye to the summer in a celebratory way. We were blessed with proper sunshine which certainly made for an enjoyable time.

I have been very stressed the last few weeks with the deadline of the book approaching and I felt like I couldn't possibly have a holiday with such a lot of work hanging over my head. Robert had been listening to an audio book called the Happiness Advantage, The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology which he lent to me and it made me realise many things, one of which was that I wasn't going to get anything much done with my doom and gloom attitude and I needed to get my head screwed back on properly (my words, I'm not quoting from the book there haha). Having some fun with kids and friends was going to help with that. Amongst lots gems of wisdom and scientific studies, the book encourages developing a practice of finding three daily gratitudes, training the mind to seek out the positives in our everyday lives.

Here are a few of mine....

How lucky I am that my work path has helped me meet so many amazing people. I met my friends Terri and David from Brighton years ago when they exhibited in the Hebden Bridge Sculpture trail and visited my open studio. We had a lovely chat and they invited me to show in their open house the next Spring. For the next few years a trip to Brighton in May has been a highlight of the year and I stayed in their beautiful house each time and made friends with these lovely people.

We have just stayed in their lovely peaceful house. Me and Ffion sat at the kitchen table with the French doors open onto the garden, drinking a lot of tea, Euan made the living room his domain and listened to lots of football. Ffion did some proof reading for me (working in a very relaxed kind of a way I might add). Which brings me onto gratitude number two. I am so lucky to have this girl and thankful that she is always so willing to help me. She is a good book editor (a newly discovered talent to add to the mix), she made a wicked carbonara and she always makes me laugh!

The Japanese Anemones were out in the garden (always grateful for the simple pleasures). The very plant that inspired my lamp design.

And we met Ed. Ffion has been writing singing and recording music with Ed Tullett, a prolific young singer/songwriter for the the last year but has never met him as he lives near Brighton. They met on Youtube of all places, commenting on each others videos and with the wonders of music technology they have been able to make recordings from opposite ends of the country. Fiction on his Vices album is my favourite of them both singing. They spent the day recording and making videos. Here's them singing Bon Iver. Bless them. Very inspiring indeed.

Another friend I am grateful to have made through my work is Wendy. She was my next door stand neighbour at my very first British Craft Trade Fair eight years ago. We were friends at first site and go down to visit her and her partner Chris in Hastings as often as we can. Did you read my post about going down to help them give birth back in June? Well here I am cuddling the lovely little boy. There were lots of cuddles. He's a darling.

My boy was as tiny as him once but look at him now. Lovely handsome chap. He was on top form on our holiday and it was great to have him a round. He nearly didn't come but I am so glad he did as it was lovely (and unusual) for us all to hang out together for so long. He and Chris played Forza on Xbox alot,

and he had a swim every day. Love that boy.

....and we had a cream tea with home made scones on the beach, and fished for mackerel (unsuccessfully) and made pizzas (well Chris did, we just added our toppings), and went to the car boot (it wasn't great) and just had a fantastically fun and relaxing time and I am grateful for these wonderful people who make it all all right......

Cheers! So, now we are back, refreshed and ready to get back to work in a much better headspace. :)

Phew that was a long blog post. All my family has gone to bed. Think I will go follow them. Night night x

Tiny Tree of Life

An Etsy customer asked to make a tree of life to go on her set of wedding fairy lights. They just arrived back from the laser cutters and they are really very sweet. They are only about 5cm tall.

I'm just waiting for my laminator to get back from the menders as it was a bit poorly last week and get swallowing my work. When it's back I'll turn these teeny trees into lanterns.

Teatime at Gordon Riggs

So I've been in all day writing (it's hard you know it takes me SOOO long to write anything) and I needed to get out, so me and my Ffion took a trip to Gordon Riggs for some plant inspiration and I fancied a new succulent for the windowsill. I can't quite believe that plant in my trolley. What the heck is it? It's amazing!

It was very therapeutic looking at all the plants and smelling in the air and we marvelled at all the shapes and laughed at how we were both happy to see the simplest of things.

We had to bring some of the strings of peas home as we love them.

Tip for the day: If you're going to go to Gordon Riggs, go at at 5pm because everyone is at home having their tea! It was so peaceful and we had the place to ourselves!