Our Collage Card Connection has finally come to a close and I want to thank everyone who went the extra mile and posted their wonderful work back to us. I am now in the slow process of uploading all submissions onto the online auction site Galabid and I will let everyone know as soon as it is up and running. I have been truly amazed by the support and positive, kind words accompanying the collages returned from all over the world. The entire collection can currently be viewed on our IG page and I suggest you pre-register with Galabid who will also notify you when bidding commences, sometime towards the end of this month (September).

To support the collage auction, I have designed both a short and long-sleeved T-shirt, available in several colours, that can be pre-ordered internationally online through Everpress once the auction is online; profits from these, as well as all proceeds from the auction (less postage) will go to our designated charity, womenforwomen.org.uk

Do please tell all you friends and family about both the auction and T-shirts as this is such an important charity that desperately needs funds in order to continue their work with women and girls in war-torn countries, especially Afghanistan.

2. If you’ve ever been uncertain about mixing your media, take a look at what Ava Roth , a Toronto-based encaustic painter, embroiderer and artist has managed. Ava has spent the past several years working almost exclusively with beeswax, foraged wood, birch bark, foliage and horsehair producing the most extraordinary and beautiful mixed media works that literally visualise the interaction between humans and the environment.

3. Our Blues & Boogie Weekend Concert is coming up and all tickets have now been sold. We are delighted to be presenting the amazing polymath musician, Deanna Bogart from the US and the charming, virtuoso jazz pianist Jean-Pierre Bertrand from France. Because of restrictions our weekend only consists of the one concert this year (and we’re lucky to have managed that!), but we hope to have a full weekend of concerts up and running again in 2022 and we’ll be offering accommodation to full weekenders. A really special event that we are hugely proud of and is guaranteed to lift the spirit.

4. This has been the strangest of all summers for us, as I am sure it has for most people. Covid 19 continues to restrict our movements and whilst the weather has been unpredictable here, at least we haven’t been traumatised by floods and fires. We can none of us any longer be confident of avoiding such disasters and our hearts go out to all those who have lost their homes, businesses and people they know and love. If you have been affected in some way and feel a workshop break at Les Soeurs Anglaises next year would help you recover, but would struggle with the cost of it all, do please let us know and we may be able to help.

In case you haven’t yet taken a look at our plans for workshops and events next year, here is a short list with links. Our policy is to ask for a deposit which will be fully refundable in the event of international advice or restrictions require a cancellation.

Laughter Lab III with InstantWit

EARLY MAY 2022 / 4 workshop days : 5 nights

Stitching a Sense of Space with Ekta Kaul

23RD - 29TH MAY 2022 / 5 workshop days / 6 nights

Still Life Beyond the Window with Jacqui Mair

8TH TO 14TH JUNE 2022 / 5 workshop days / 6 nights

Moving Memories in Mixed Media with Anne Kelly

6TH - 12TH JULY 2022 / 5 workshop days / 6 nights

Three Days with Lori Siebert

SEPT 2022 (dates TBA)

5. One of our plans for next year is to host more musical events, and top of our list of artists is the multi award-winning Antonio Forcione, a talented acoustic guitarist and composer who blends Jazz, Latin, African and flamenco sounds using every possible part of the musical instrument in a spectacular display of musicianship. Antonio takes the guitar to new levels of expression and his numerous awards around the world are a testimony to his talent. I hope you enjoy this little taster…….

6. Still enjoying the online shopping experience? I came across the website Le Repere des Balettes not long ago and fell in love with the beautiful website and delicious goodies for sale (talk about stylish gingham and lifestyle envy!). But seriously - making a tote bag is not rocket science and free patterns are readily available on the net - here is a step-by-step video. The same goes for the wrap-around apron - you literally need 1.5m of gingham, or any other length of robust fabric you might have - and a couple of hours to spare.

7. My recommended book this season is the Pulitzer Prize winner, “The Overstory”, by Richard Powers. It begins with an artist inheriting a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut tree and is the story of a group of strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, and brought together in a last stand to save the chestnut from catastrophe. Exquisitely written and almost unputdownable as is almost anything by this author.

8. A few months ago I was invited by one of our workshop leaders for next year, Ekta Kaul, to join her online stitching group called The Soothing Stitch Circle, an online membership designed for beginner to advanced stitchers. The purpose of the group is to help members strengthen their creative expression, find their artistic focus, develop stitching confidence and skills, explore without fear of judgement, whilst connecting with supportive kindred spirits on a similar journey. Ekta hosts a fortnightly Zoom meeting when she demonstrates techniques and suggests a “topic” to consider and work with - this could be “My childhood home” or “Contrasts”. There is a FB forum and one-one-one discussions with Ekta herself are planned. Membership is currently full (there is an annual subscription of around £200) but a waiting list if you are interested in joining.

9. Harking back to my current passion, collage, let’s not forget how the process can be adapted so easily to textiles. I began my journey into collage with the now legendary Janet Bolton whose work I first saw and the Chelsea Crafts fair. I tracked her down and attended one of her many workshops at West Dean (she then led two workshops at les Soeurs Anglaises before retiring) and spent a delightful week learning about the endless ramifications of story-telling using remnants and offcuts.

Merill Comeau’s work has been another inspiration. With over 80 exhibitions under her belt and as a teaching artist she has executed over 30 public projects resulting in individual and collaborative artworks mixing realism with the figurative to reduce large, impressive, colourful artworks.

10. ONE ART
by Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911–October 6, 1979)
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. who died not long after composing “One Art” .

End of summer blues........