In a Vase on Monday – Vintage Plough Share

Eucalyptus clippings and self-seeded wallflowers in a glass vase and a little found shrimp paste pot; an old brick found on the beach, and put in the fire to clean off the black tar; a vintage plough share, washed and waxed with furniture wax, and some rusty old sheep wire formed into a spiral.

I was walking along a farm track with my daughter and her three children a couple of weeks ago and spied a piece of rust embedded in the chalk and rubble of the track. (Not this track but one very similar – this photo was taken on Friday)

Oooh Rust! I cried! and bent down to try to pick it up. I couldn’t get the piece out, so said I would come back another day to retrieve it and bring a tool to work it free. The children were determined to get it out for me, and with some sticks and stones they only took about 5 minutes to free it. I always have my rucksack with me, which was just as well as it was heavy to carry home.

A precious (well to me anyway) piece of farming history. My son-in-law recognised it as a single furrow plough share, from the horsedrawn era and spent a bit of time looking online to see if he could identify it more precisely. It might have come from something like this one.

Just the sort of plough that my Grandfather would have walked behind on his farm in West Dorset.

When I sent this photo to my son-in-law later, he said it looked like an alien snail

So the working title for this little sculpture is ‘Snailien’.

What does it look like to you?     What would you call it?

It’s catching – Little Miss M, 8, has now started her own rust collection!

and this is Miss E (13) having her first welding lesson from her Dad, what a cool Dad he is!

It turns out she was making a flower/plant for me! and when I got home that night she had planted it in my garden!

Oh my! Better than diamonds – this makes me so happy.

This is a great fat rainbow I saw on my walk on Friday – it looked so much closer and bigger in reality. Maybe there is a pot of rust at the end of it! 😉

Joining Cathy who is Rambling in her Garden this morning and giving us a Little Love to help us grow.

❤ 🙂 ❤

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Textile Tuesday: September

Good Morning! A brand new month and moving into Autumn. I am looking forward to more stitching time, but for now the garden still occupies much of my creative time.

However, the Wild Twinchies are returning home! Which is very exciting.

These are the two little gems arrived from Dawn, so beautifully wrapped in a tiny box, it felt like opening a lovely present

and when I put them with the others ideas started to form about how I might work with them

Thank you so much Dawn,  Cathy, Amanda and Rainbow J for your beautiful pieces of textile art – all gorgeous, all fabulous little gifts arriving in the post.

Just over half are here, I’m excited to see what comes next.

~

There was a piece on Woman’s Hour last week about a collaborative Quilt project organised by Sue Brown and Louise Asher called Same Sea, Different Boat.

It seems that many of us had a similar idea at the same time  – Hundredth Monkey Effect and/or Zeitgeist!

There is also the Quarantine Quilt on Instagram

~

If you have any textile news or views to share – pop a link in the Comments.

 

❤  Happy Stitching!  ❤

Silent Sunday Sand Spiral

Made by Miss E.

Little Altars at Home

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know how much I loathe housework, but these are strange times! Today found me actually wanting to give the bathroom a thorough going over!

As I was putting things back on the windowsill, I realised that every item has a special memory or significance to me.

Left to right:

There is an Umbrella plant, that I grew from a root cutting given to me by a dear friend who I see only rarely nowadays. She is currently staying somewhere in deepest India, unable to return home due to the transport system in that country being under lockdown. The glass bowl it sits in, has been with me since I got married in 1972, nothing special, not beautiful, but it has become an old familiar friend.

In a little pot next to it are some honeysuckle cuttings, waiting to see if they grow roots, so that I can give some little plants to my daughter as requested.

The fish shaped little dish holds a bumble bee that sadly died in my bathroom, I know Little Miss M (7) would love to see it, so I am keeping it for when she is able to come into my house again.

The clay dolphin was made by Miss E when she was about 8. I took her to some wonderful sculpture and stone-carving worshops when she was being homeschooled.

I bought the brass incense burner with the Ohm symbol when I was travelling in 1994 and visiting Buddhist communities all round the world – such powerful memories. It reminds me of chanting in the echoing valleys of the Himalaya Mountains.

The scallop shell was given to me by my neighbour, who is a diver, and brings me yummy scallops in the summer. The shells it holds all come from the beaches of my beloved Pembrokeshire, collected on my month in a treehouse by the sea.

Sea glass, collected on my local beaches, in times gone by.

A collection of tiny white pebbles – there is something so beautiful about them.

The twisted piece of wire with beads: this was a spiral Christmas decoration I had been making with my grandchildren

One of them sat in the bathroom, and after the twins came to stay – I found this one had been just too tempting to resist – I rather like the resulting tiny wire sculpture.

The jam jar has more honeysuckle cuttings,

and the shell on the right was given to me by my Mum when I was a teenager.

A whole lot of family, friends and memories on that tiny windowsill.

Do you have similar little collections about the house?

Somerset House 3: Latvia

 

 

I loved this exhibit and sat on the bench for some time as if sitting in a forest after rain. The green was soothing. Watching people quietly drawing in the condensation, watching their drawings fade …. time takes on a different quality in the presence of transient art.

We like to make our mark, carve initials in trees, create spray-can graffiti, but we are transient. Non – attachment is a concept in Buddhism and other philosophies eg Hinduism, Taoism. Practising non-attachment to things, people, events and non-attachment to outcome has guided me through some difficult times. It has helped me to stay centred and whole, true to myself and maintain a loving detachment from the actions of others.

Creating transient art like flower mandalas and labyrinths on the beach has a profound effect, bringing me into the Now at the same time as connecting me with time and space outside the everyday.

The spiral with a 5 pointed star, a heart and an exclamation mark is the symbol I sign next to my name or intial on cards, letters, paintings, being able to place my handprint next to this symbol was fun.

Sitting and watching it fade felt good, merging into all the drawings that had been made before.

As I sat there (do you see my fading symbol to the left of my handprint) others came and drew around and over other drawings…. and then this happened – I don’t read music – can anyone tell what tune it is? Just Beautiful!

Just before I left, not being able to write music, I made a tree.