Tree Killing Witch

I happen to have unfortunatley met the tree killing witch. For as long as i have lived in my house and before the witch moved here there has been lovely trees at the bottom of my garden. These trees are shared and enjoyed by lots of surrounding neighbours,and no one is quite sure of who they belong to. They provide a screen from the main road and stop some of the noise of the cars. The birds nest in them every year, the squirrels climb in them and the badgers live under them. They are one of the reasons i like to live where i live.,and why I bought my house


Yesterday to my horror I found some men in the trees chopping them with chain saws. They had been ordered by the tree killing witch (who hasnt lived here as long as the rest of us) to chop them down. i explained that the trees didnt belong to the witch and were enjoyed by lots of people and I begged them to only chop them down about half way. They agreed that this was a good idea. But when i nipped into town to put up an exhibition the tree killing witch demanded that they were chopped to the ground and when i returned home there were no trees. This has made me very very sad and i am sorry that the nasty selfish inconsiderate tree killing witch ( who i think hates anything that grows) decided to kill tunnel top trees, and make lots of people and animals sad. Im so sad she came to where i live.

car boot finds

there are not many car boots now as the weather changes, but I still managed to find a small one. I bought
a tin with a pirate picture, for treasure


some wooden puppet faces


some souvenir dolls


and a dolls that walks by itself ,shouts wee wee wee when you lift its arm, and when you lift up its little winkle ( yes it a boy
dolly) it makes the sound of a little boy having a wee into the toilet!!!!

Manchester Craft Centre

I went to see my friend in the craft center in Manchester, and to put some of my books in the shop. I love this shop its called lily greenwood and is run by two artists Liz Evens and Kathryn Edwards. Kathryn is my friend who I met at university and I just love her work. She makes beautiful stitched canvases and tiny books that reveal her unique observations about people and life. This I think goes hand in hand with her song writing and her music and voice is quite amazing. I sold some of her books at the Manchester Book Fair and have one of her books in my tunnel top library. We drank lots of tea and talked about baking cakes yummy yum. They were also baking cakes on the radio!! to Hear
kathryn Edwards amazing voice visit her my space www.myspace.com/kathrynedwards
Ive been altering my studio/library and have bought some new cabinets with money i made at the Manchester book fair. Its looking more like a library now!

Of course not all my dolls have moved out tho!!

Leaves Comin off

Today the leaves were coming off the trees and i went for a wonderful walk in Marbury Park. its nice there in the weekday as it is very quiet. one of my most favourite trees has got so big that it is starting to split and its too dangerous to walk near it. how sad.

My dog still thinks hes a duck, and i still think im a child as i have collected lots of leaves to make rubbings. I might even think about printing with them. I used to do this kind of thing when the girls were little but now they are grown i feel ive got to find an excuse to play with crayons and paint. I have also bought lots of vegetables and made a soup. this is to try and make me feel better. i get so depressed at this time of year, hormones dont help, neither does xmas and of course there is that wonderful "sad" but if i eat well it seems to make me smile more.

october make me feel better soup

heat tsp oil in pan, add chopped onion, 3cloves crushed garlic, two slices of bacon chopped up fine.
saute for a bit
then add, 2tspoon pesto. (i used ginger and parsley pesto) 3 chopped carrots, 1/2 chopped red pepper , 1/2 chopped yellow pepper, 2 chopped stalks celery, 2 chopped sweet potatoes, handful chopped green beans, chopped small butternut squash.
mix it all up put in big pan and add, tin kidney beans which have been drained and washed, and some butter beans also drained and washed. then add tin of chopped tomatoes.
add pint or just over of boiling veg stock, i cheat and use marigold, and 1teaspoon apple juice and season with black pepper.
put lid on simmer for 40 mins, then add a chopped courgette.
simmer for 10-15 mins.
season to taste, i blend the soup a little, tastes better next day as always! if any is left over

im also making some small tags to send out in my mail art to promote my book about the wind. they are gifts really that can be held in the hand.send me mail art if you would like any sent to you. my mail art blog

Mathew Barney sends me Barmy

I have just come back from a trip to London. I went to the museums, and a fantastic pie and gravy pub, but I also managed to see Mathey Barneys Drawing Restraint 9 at the fantastic Gate picturehouse, and his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. I wasn't too disturbed as a few years back I saw his Cremaster Series, so i kind of knew what to expect, gooey things, phalic shapes, round objects, pain and dance, but this time i found that seeing the film and the exhibition closely together helped me to make a kind of sense of it all and almost touching the goo made it all seem so much more real and dare I say beautiful. I didnt try to understand it but just took my own interpretation and applied it to my personal work at present. I guess it simply made me think of the materials which i am using, and how i want to experiment more with wax. Of course it naturally inspired me to have a Mathew "Barmey" day and i dressed up inspired by the man himself and bijork of course. Really wish i had some giant shells. (been put right off prawns at the moment tho!!!)

Manchester artists book fair

well the book fair came and this is the reason that I havent been keeping up to date with my blogging. I was determined to have a full body of work for the table and yes i did fill it. It was really nice to prepare the stall to fit in with my work. China plates and mens tie balls completed the look and sat next to my original and small edition works. Overall my original books which are housed in recycled containers, such as a jewelrey and music boxes inspire my small editions. i then further contain my small editions and each one has an appropiate form of wrapping. for example wax books are placed into appropiate fabric soft envelopes and my junk shopping book are slipped into envelopes made from vintage wallpaper.




China Plates ,this is a unique book made to fit inside an altered jewelrey box. It was inspired by one of my blog enteries and my interest in archiving internet blogging as a tactile experience. each of the draws has a book so the narative is split into three parts. the books are concertina in style, have different covers, and have the origional collage on the pages. The box also holds small china objects such as a horse, flower brooch and tiny china plates. collaged board images which are removable and represent the narrative hang on hooks inside the box and are visable through the window. The concepts of this interactive book are further inspired by the way in which we use and view a dvd, where the reader of the book chooses the order in which the book is opened and revealed, and its seperate parts can be juxtaposed to form interesting combinations, but which are still contained in the overall theme.



China plates parts one, two and three come in editions of ten, are a concertina style book, and come complete with a coordinating cover and label. each one comes with a handmade envelope made from wallpaper.



Wind in the city (music box)
this is a unique bookwork contained in a music box. it reflects my time spent in the city of manchester combined with my experiences of the memory of fabric ( the loss of my granddad) and my research in the contents of sewing boxes and pockets. A wax book tells the story and hidden text can be found in the handkerchief winders, the tin box, the pin cushion,and in the back of tiny hand pieced patchwork. Two small textile books are also contained within the music box, and archive the marks found on linen. One is round and contained in a round box marked by a vintage ticket found in manchester (at victoria baths), and the other held inside a handmade cuff which is fastened by a hat pin.





The wind is a small edition of 25 wax books, each one is handmade and so is origional. the book has its own wax label and fabric cover, which is recycled from mens clothing.



The sea, is a wax bookwork that tells my story of missing the sea, (where i grew up.) made in an edition of 15, each one is individually crafted so is unique in its own right. it is wrapped in a fabric bag made from recycled mens shirting, (which i am collecting to make a patchwork quilt!!! )



Junk shopping, my first book made to try to archive my blogging in a tactile experience. inspired by scrapbooks this concertina style book tells the story of some of my personal memories. edition of 15, and wrapped in an envelope made from vintage wallpaper, fastened by string, label and a button.



Popcorn books, textile book with tactile collage, beads, hair clips, magazine cuttings and ribbons, each one unique, inspired by a book i made to illustrate my changing relationship with my daughter, as she grew up and became a teenager!!! (five of a series- ongoing!)