The Gift of a Quiet Christmas.......
With almost a year of enforced solitude behind us, a potentially isolated festive week or two ahead may not be what we immediately wish for, but it’s worth considering that being quietly alone can give a medically proven boost to your health, both mentally and physically. Instead of fretting about cancelled office parties, family gatherings and the general hurly burly of Christmas and the New Year - they will come around again, fear not - try embracing the enforced down-time for a little while longer. Turn off your social media, take a regular quiet walk by yourself, and consider the real reason for the holiday by developing the habit of “mindfulness”. Medical research has shown that the people who make the most of calmer times like these to switch off from the continual ambient “noise” surrounding them, emerge refreshed, and are generally the people with the most active social lives during “normal” times.
Have I mentioned the artist Maxine Sutton before? I am a huge admirer of her work and had hoped we might be able to persuade her to lead a workshop for next year. Sadly her prolific work schedule won’t allow for one in 2021 but we are keeping our fingers crossed that some time in the future…..? Maxine lives and work in Margate, on the Kent coast of England. She did a BA in Fine Art: Painting at Ravensbourne College of Art, and has an MA in Constructed Textiles from the Royal College of Art and currently has on show her Magic Cloths and Worry Heads which comprises six new large works on paper and eleven completed cloth works, created out of a period of transition. The story of her latest creative journey is itself a joy to read….:
“I have loved the touch of fabrics and materials in my hands for as long as I can remember. In the Spring of 20199 i went to work in a new space that called for things with hopefulness , I hoped. Thinking of repair, recovery and re-use, I vowed to use only the materials ~~I had around me, however scrappy or undesirable. If I worked hard to listen, the materials spoke their language. Fragments of velvet, woven with double wefts, baggy knitted scraps and biscuits linens. Hairy crinkly lines in colour, washed cotton stripes and household checks, all recounted and recited fears, struggles and uncertainties. summers of hot, soft coloured cottons and winters damp woollens. And all the other days of cloth, unrolling, back to the beginning. Insecurities and chilblains in nylon socks, white cotton stained pants……”
ALL the works can be viewed individually and purchased in the Available Works.
We live in an environment where there are moving images constantly around us. ...But in 1897, this was startling and new and completely revolutionary. It was a different way of looking at the world.
In 1939, MoMA acquired a treasure trove of 36 reels of 68mm nitrate prints and negatives made during cinema’s first years. Everything that survives of the Biograph film company lives on those reels, including a rare bit of moving-image footage of Queen Victoria. To learn more about the incredible quality and clarity of this newly discovered 19th-century movie, and the efforts archivists make to preserve such irreplaceable snapshots of history, Curator Dave Kehr helps us look at the early film with the same awe-inspired, expanded view of the world of its first audiences.
BOOK REVIEW
“When Katie and I, with a few mutual friends, started a book club in the 80s it was a very relaxed and informal occasion and terrific fun. We would take it in turns to play hostess and chef and whilst we would definitely discuss “the book”, we spent as much time catching up on what we’d all been up to in the previous months. Because of our busy city lives, the book discussions were not regular, often 6 months between, so we decided to choose several books for each discussion though this didn’t seem to affect the time we spent chatting. My impression is that present day book clubs are much more serious affairs!
My reason for the above preamble, is that Katie suggested I recommend a number of books on a variety of subjects for readers to buy as Christmas gifts; but I am sure many of you have had a year to select numerous books you plan to give as presents; and the time to reacquaint yourselves with old favorites. Thus I am only going to praise one book for the season, by an author who has been around for a long time but whom I, personally, have not heard of before: The book is simply called Collected Stories by the award-winning writer Shirley Hazzard. Born in Sydney in 1931 to a Welsh father and Scottish mother. After the end of the Second World War her father joined the Foreign Service and was posted in Hong Kong and there at the age of 16 Shirley Hazzard began working for the British Combined Intelligence Services before the family moved to New Zealand. At twenty she moved to New York and there she worked for the United Nations throughout much of the 1950s, which included a posting to Naples, a city that became much loved by her. She married Francis Steegmuller, translator and biographer in 1963 and they divided their time between Italy and New York. They were introduced by Muriel Spark. Shirley Hazzard wrote three non-fiction books including a memoir of her friendship with Graham Greene, Greene on Capri. Her last novel, The Great Fire, won the 2003 National Book Award for fiction and the Miles Franklin Award, was shortlisted for The Women's Prize for Fiction (then called The Orange) and named a Book of the Year by The Economist. She died on December 12 2016 aged 85. Hazzard is a wonderful, engaging, clever and eloquent writer and I certainly plan to read more of her. “ Susie
For those concerned about the environment, and who isn’t?, I would like to add The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland by John Lewis-Stempel. Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughed land. But it is also recorded through the eyes of a man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. A real gem of a book!. K
Looking for a quiet way to be creative and mindful? Or just an activity to keep an older child occupied? Why not become an Origami expert? With the help of The Origami Simulator you can discover how any origami crease pattern will fold. It may look a little different from what you typically think of as "origami" - rather than folding paper in a set of sequential steps, this simulation attempts to fold every crease simultaneously. It does this by iteratively solving for small displacements in the geometry of an initially flat sheet due to forces exerted by creases. You can read more about it in the paper: Fast, Interactive Origami Simulation using GPU Computation. Not suggesting for a moment these simulations are easy to follow, but boy, are they clever and pretty.
Lydia de la Piñera and Luis Llamas head the creative team behind Madriguera Workshop, an artisan ceramics brand located in Galicia - Spain. Their aim is to produce creative and amusing designs which can be adapted to actual life in high quality finishes that will add a unique timeless touch to your home.
The process they use is entirely handcrafted, some pieces made by potter’s wheel in different stoneware clays, other reproduced with plaster molds. All are entertaining and functional….
If all goes well we are very much looking forward to welcoming for the first time the prolific collage artist, Anne Kelly, to lead one of her fascinating workshops in June of next year. If you haven’t come across her work I recommend placing one of her informative and inspiring books on your Christmas Wish List. You won’t regret it and it might just inspire you to join her here for a more intensive introduction to her wonderful techniques. Anne Kelly Workshop
I have mentioned in previous newsletters how delighted we are to be hosting a knitting workshop next September with the delightful Sue Rutherford, owner of the website The Knitters Yarn based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire - a county historically famous for its wool industry . It has never been a better time to either learn to knit or pick up the needles again and, for those of you looking to expand your skills and knowledge of this wonderful traditional craft, her on-line shop offers a number of Knitter/Designer Erika Knight’s quintessentially elegant knits and sumptuous yarns in the form of kits - a super-convenient way to avoid all the hassle of sourcing the various elements necessary for a project or as a complete gift for an enthusiastic family member or friend. Those below are our favourites, but there are plenty more on offer on her website. Sue Rutherford Workshop
There was plenty of interest in my previous post about Dorothea Lange and whilst researching her fascinating work and life I came across another terrific mid-C20th female photographer, perhaps a little less well-know named Marion Post Wolcott. Marion was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and educated at the New School for Social Research, New York University, and at the University of Vienna. Upon graduation in 1932, she returned to New York to pursue a career in photography and attended workshops with Ralph Steiner. By 1936, she was a freelance photographer for Life, Fortune, and other magazines. She became a staff photographer for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in 1937 and remained there until Paul Strand recommended her to Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration, where she worked from 1938 to 1942. Wolcott suspended her photographic career thereafter in order to raise her family, but continued to photograph periodically as she traveled and taught, in Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, and New Mexico. In 1968 she returned to freelance photography in California and concentrated on color work, which she had been producing in the early 1940s. Marion died in November 1990 at the age of 80.
As a long-time vegetarian, this Christmas poem made me laugh out loud!
Talking Turkeys
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos’ turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don’t eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate, an not on yu plate
Say, Yo! Turkey I’m on your side.
I got lots of friends who are turkeys
An all of dem fear christmas time,
Dey wanna enjoy it, dey say humans destroyed it
An humans are out of dere mind,
Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeys
Dey all hav a right to a life,
Not to be caged up an genetically made up
By any farmer an his wife.
Turkeys just wanna play reggae
Turkeys just wanna hip-hop
Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying,
‘I cannot wait for de chop’,
Turkeys like getting presents, dey wanna watch
christmas TV,
Turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain
In many ways like yu an me.
I once knew a turkey called
Turkey
He said ‘Benji explain to me please,
Who put de turkey in christmas
An what happens to christmas trees?’,
I said ‘I am not too sure turkey
But it’s nothing to do wid Christ Mass
Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be
An business men mek loadsa cash’.
Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
Invite dem indoors fe sum greens
Let dem eat cake an let dem partake
In a plate of organic grown beans,
Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
An spare dem de cut of de knife,
Join Turkeys United an dey’ll be delighted
An yu will mek new friends ‘FOR LIFE’.
Benjamin Zephaniah
If you are still looking for gifts, we have back in stock several of our popular textile covered Recipe Boxes. We can also send to within Europe a vintage wine bottle of your choice, again packaged in a beautiful box covered in fabric.
