Unfortunately, sometimes the unexpected is very difficult to welcome. Shortly after I started taking photos for this topic, something very sad happened within the family. We had, to some extent, seen it coming, but it still arrived very suddenly, with no warning. The dust has not settled yet, but for the foreseeable future we are likely to have significant changes to our lives, and we’ve had to put long term plans on hold. It’s not all bad news though – we will be seeing more of some of our dearest family members, and I think it may be for the best in the long run.
But it has meant that Adventures in Seeing got put on the back burner, and my creative spark is currently out to lunch.
I have kept up with Creative Sprint, which has been a life saver – I can do as much or as little as I can manage, and it’s about playing rather than making ‘art’.
I’ve managed a little bit on the new Year of Stitches sampler, which I started before the news broke. The background is canvas and Bondaweb coloured with Inktense blocks, and then sheers added. Given that these are not at all my usual colours, I’m surprised I have so many threads that work. It needs concentration though, and I don’t have a lot – it took four goes to get the spacing of the bottom line correct. I’m also finding it difficult to make decisions about how to proceed, so it progresses slowly.
The knitting has been the biggest victim: I’ve shelved the sampling, which demands more brain space than I currently have available, but I have a relatively mindless scarf on the needles which I can just about manage, albeit with frequent mistakes. I suspect it will be a scarf I never wear, because of the memories associated with it, but it keeps my hands busy.
So that’s why I’ve been MIA. Curiously, I’ve been sleeping really well since the bomb dropped, and managing to control any tendency to brood. But last night I had a really bad night – so maybe things are getting back to normal…
Paper, Plastic, String - and Fabric and Thread too 