TinkeringTimes

Happy Work

I've been asked to make something for an exhibition which is touring internationally, which is exciting! I can't say too much just yet but the general theme is about trying to communicate, and in turn spread, happiness, harmony and good will. It's taken me a while to find a way in to this in my mind, it's been mulling around for a good few weeks, but the ideas came this morning and I'm off...

So this is the first stage of my preparation, printing little fluffy clouds.

Textiles and the Trail

I had an interesting and very exciting invitation out of the blue. Would I like to do some work in a rural primary school, working with children to explore a new heritage trail that is being produced guiding walks around their village and the neighbouring one. The school has worked with textiles before and think they'd like to do more in this project. That was pretty much all I was told, except for "oh, and we really like the QR project you do, could we incorporate something like that, maybe with QR codes?"

It was a lot to take in, and to be honest, a tad vague. So I went over to the village to walk the trail and talk more about it. I came away in a complete creative spin - so much potential, so many ideas. It's a stunning place and the school sounds wonderful. We may or may not stick with QR codes but I'm fairly set on codes generally, and some sort of wayfinding, trail marking, navigating, signposting type idea.

The photo above shows the disused church hall which is attached the church which is attached to the school. The more I look at it the more I feel there's something special in there waiting to break out - lost stories, pieces of missing architecture, changed usage. Like a secret waiting to be discovered. I hope it will feature a lot, though I want to work with the children to see what ideas they have and what they find interesting so we may move on from this. But it calls me. 

Meanwhile a hundred textile ideas rush through my head faster than I can catch them. Exciting times. I'll be keeping photos as the work progresses right *here*.

Quietness

It's been a bit quiet here, I know. What that means is I've been hectically busy out there in that other world, the one that sits on this side of the computer screen that you can't see. There are new and unexpected sewing and textile and project plans a plenty. There is exciting progress with this and some work with a school here and some things on eight wheels with these people and more than likely some more of these. There will be proper updates soon, including an explanation of the picture above.