Sparkly things

Purchaed in Brighton - very appropriate as this was the weekend we went to see the Scissor Sisters!

What I did last summer

My finished piece, originally uploaded by KittyStitch.

Well, erm, summer was nearly over, but I feel the need to do a little bit of accounting for my almost 0% productivity over the summer. I went on a sumi-e workshop with my friend G. It was just the morning but we had a great time. This was mainly to do with the teacher we had, Takumasa Ono. This is my finished piece from the workshop. Unfortunately, due to my complete ignorance of Ganji symbols I wrote my name upside down and hence decided on a last minute swap of top and bottom of the painting. No matter, I am still pretty chuffed with the results.

After the workshop we went and looked at the artist's exhibition of paintings and drawings. Some of the paintings were in the traditional Japanese sumi-e ink painting style that we had been learning in the morning, but others were watercolours that the artist had completed as part of a project for the National Trust (the workshop was hosted by them). These watercolours were far from the traditional "photographic" style that usually leaves me cold, the colours were vibrant and the pictures full of vitality and movement. I was particularly interested in some of the painting on silk (there's a surprise) and especially admired a hanging that made me reconsider my attitude to textile hangings. I was completely swept away by a kimono painted by the artist. The colours were jewel like and an extended watercolour which could be wrapped around the body - but made a more impressive hanging (hmm there's an idea...) so you can get an idea of what I mean follow this link - though I do recommend you use the previous link above to fully explore the artist's site.

As I was sufficiently inspired I went straight home and ordered his book from Amazon. Unfortunately this took ages to arrive and college had started again. Anyway G has taken the initiative and suggested we give this another go. Watch this space.....

Little Bag

QuikBag, originally uploaded by KittyStitch.

Up to my usual tricks of not doing things that I should be doing for my course. This little bag was created from a kit bought for the Eurolinks Japan stall at this years knitting and stitching show I visited last month in London. I made a beeline for this particular vendor before the halls got too crowded. Stocked up on a few things: cute Japanese fabric, a white erasable pen for marking patterns on dark fabric (traditionally used for marking shasiko) and some thread for the ever looming goldwork. I spent plenty of time looking at the artists exhibitions. I could go on at length about some of them - in particular Barbara Lee Smith but I think I will save that for another day (and a computer with a better monitor than my widescreen TV).