A Little House of Your Own

We were having a discussion in the studios the other day about favourite books. If you could  grab one book in a fire which would it be? Here is my all time favourite book. You can tell from the state of it it has been well loved. It was a Sunday School prize and I read it over and over as a child and still really believe in its' message which is that everyone should have personal space even if it means getting under the table out out of sight or hiding behind a newspaper.!  I moved on to Virginia Woolf of course and "A Room of One's Own" but this book tells it all too. Every architect should read it.....

More pages from my sketchbook

Monotype and Book Art

There are still places left on "Monotype and Book Art", a course I am running in conjunction with Horsley Printmakers on Sat 15th and Sun 16th March. This course offers you the opportunity not to just learn about basic monotype printing but also to spend Day 2 transforming your flat prints using sewing, cutting and folding techniques. For more information and booking go to the site HERE.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a new pincushion I have made as a result of being fired up by my students' work on "The Stitched Hearts" course on Sunday. The central image is of Agnes Sorel. I have transferred the image from a postcard I have hung on to since the mid 1970s as I was so blown away by seeing the real portrait after a trip to the Loire Valley. She was an interesting woman, a mistress of a French king, but gained too much power and influence and was probably murdered through mercury poisoning. I was going to title this blog "Page Three Girl" because of the confident way she is displaying her assets but thought it might lead to the wrong sort of blog browsers!

Heart

In my studio today making this. Sorry about the picture quality, it was taken with my phone.

How do I love thee

Its THE week for romance so thought it would be timely to revisit an altered book I made a few years ago about one of the greatest love stories in literature, that between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. I worked in to an old copy of her poems. Many people do not know her poem "Aurora Leigh" but it is a bit of an early feminist masterpiece.

Stitched Hearts Course

Exhausted from teaching a Stitched Hearts course today. Enjoyed presenting the students with some lovely beads and trims in this old print tray. Have another pincushion on the go and hope to blog about it in time for Valentine's Day!