1 Jun 2017

The merry month concludes

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The best week of my year is the one which has this in it.

It began with rain, after a long dry six weeks. The buds were patiently waiting and then boom: all the flowers at once in a glorious madness. And it ended with more rain; a very heavy shower which has left us strewn with pink and white. There will be rosehips in a while.

I finished my braid!

It is the longest single piece I have made, so it was kind of a shame to chop it up into samples, but that was its destiny. Magnus Wildhair supervised the printing of the information sheet for the study group exchange.

He was very careful and sensible about where he put his paws, which was a miracle.

I did not permit any feline help with the next task.

I had decided to try a new tactic and send 16 metres of lambswool fabric to Schofield in Galashiels for finishing. They are very good about handling short lengths of work from handweavers, but this is my first attempt and I must admit to being nervous. I had to prepare it for their processes by trimming all the ends of weft – something I normally do after washing – which took several podcasts.

You can probably see why. Then I rolled it all up, forgot to take a picture, and packaged it for the courier, also not pictured. Fingers crossed all goes well.

The weather is still fine, but we are getting enough rain to keep the garden lush and green. Pippi knows how to get the best view.

Secret weaving continues! I have submitted my project for the Complex Weavers Anniversary Book, but am still tinkering around with other ideas that are not share-ready. It is an unfortunate characteristic in a blogger, but I get more done when I share less.

“The merry month concludes” was posted by Cally on 1 June 2017 at https://callybooker.co.uk

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15 May 2017

Screen time

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My apologies for the lack of posting in the last few weeks. I have been beavering away behind the scenes on the Complex Weavers website, working through a load of electronic marking, and doing much online teaching – as both tutor and tutee, since we are being prepared for a change to a new online platform. So, adding it all together, it comes to a heck of a lot of screen time and I’m afraid I reach my limit long before I can get to the blog. On top of that, the things I have recently started weaving are things I can’t share with you right now anyway…

But I can show you what’s on the marudai.

It’s a mix of cotton and silk in tones inspired by our train journey through the Rockies last summer. There’s quite a bit of dark green in there, although apparently it doesn’t show when photographed at night in a room full of dud lightbulbs. That’s a surprise.

This is a simple enough braid, but it is one I find hard to correct if I go wrong. All the more reason to practice – and to take copious photos at different stages, even in atrocious light.

And I am sure you will enjoy this plateful of cakes, if not quite as much as S and I did. We took a day off over the May Day weekend to go and visit North Fife Open Studios, and lo! The people of Collessie were serving wondrous teas in the village hall.

As well as the tea we bought two prints, which was quite an extravagance. It’s lucky that someone had a significant birthday.

“Screen time” was posted by Cally on 15 May 2017 at https://callybooker.co.uk

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5 Apr 2017

Art binge

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Last week I travelled down to stay with my mother and Pat, as I was giving a talk to Pat’s Guild – the weavers, spinners and dyers of Kennet Valley – about Complex Weavers and the things we get up to. (This one lasted more than six-and-a-half minutes, so it wasn’t quite such a breathless ride… Thanks for all your kind comments on my rabbit-in-the-headlights performance, though.) The Kennet Valley crew are numerous and enthusiastic! Having heard so much about them, and seen some of the amazing group projects they produce, it was great to meet them in person and share a whole bunch of weave-chat. And when I wasn’t wearing my working hat, we went to exhibitions. LOTS of exhibitions.

The exhibit du jour is the Hockney retrospective at Tate Britain, so that was first on the list. It is ages since I’ve been to ‘that bit of Tate’ and I have never been to one of their blockbuster shows before. It was great to see some classic works up close for the first time, but very challenging to do so given the vast numbers of people in every room. Living in a less populous part of the country, crowds always take me by surprise and not in a good way. However, I discovered that by hanging around near the beginning until it was almost time for the next ticketed entry, the crowd did ease a bit and I was able to get closer to the edges of the gallery so that I could see things. I love that at 79 he is still trying new media (and it made me wonder what Matisse would have done if he had had an iPad).

We then moved on to Tate Modern for another retrospective, this time of Robert Rauschenberg. Apparently he isn’t such a draw for a UK audience, so we had a bit more space! I have only seen glimpses of his work before – the screenprints, mainly – and I discovered that I really liked some of his earlier experiments. They were presented in a way that allowed you to appreciate how thoroughly experimental he had been, which is not always easy from here and now.

I also had time to look around Switch House, as this was my first visit since it opened, so I started at the top (peering into the neighbours’ flats and taking in the general view) and worked my way down.

The exhibits from the collections were also very interesting, and I especially liked the Pavilion Suspended in a Room I by Cristina Iglesias (in the Between Object and Architecture room). The suspended panels are constructed from lengths of flat braids made of wire, and as you can walk through the piece you can examine it from just about every angle. However, after two more galleries I was about arted out, so there is still much I haven’t seen.

All of this was interesting and enjoyable, but then we went to Oxford to see Degas to Picasso at the Ashmolean. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. There was a bit of a crowd, but not too much, and thus I was able to be The Annoying Visitor. The one who spends ages in front of every picture, with their nose as close as possible, so that nobody else can see until they have moved on. Well, the lighting was low, and I can’t see as well as I used to…. Anyway, the wonderful thing about this exhibit was that there was very little painting. It was mainly drawings, and they were fascinating. In fact it started well before Degas with work from the 1780s and 90s, and charted the changes in and challenges to French artistic practice and to French taste in art right up to post-WWII. It was very well selected and I could have happily stayed there all day. Oh, and whoever wrote the captions has a lovely dry sense of humour. They were extremely informative and made me laugh out loud. It is only open for another month: go and see it.

And then the long train journey home. We crossed the Tay with the sun low in the west.

“Art binge” was posted by Cally on 5 April 2017 at https://callybooker.co.uk

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24 Mar 2017

PKN on video

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OK, so I promised (threatened?) I would let you know when the videos from the Pecha Kucha Night were online, and here they are.

I said I wasn’t feeling nervous by the time I did it, but listening to the terror in my own voice I am no longer sure… I guess that’s the sound of adrenaline! Thanks again to Alice, Barbara, Janice, Sally, Stacey, Susie and Vibeke, for letting me abuse use their work in this presentation 🙂

PKN17 Cally Booker from CreativeDundee on Vimeo.

22 Mar 2017

Diversions

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So, we had Open Studios…

…when was that again?

Yes, it was well over a week ago, and I have spent the majority of the intervening time tunnelling through the marking mountain. That is not a particularly photogenic activity, except when my assistants get involved…

…and the more active their involvement…

…the less attractive the photos AND the longer it takes to get through that mountain. FYI – that’s Pippi in the box, Magnus in my face. Polly isn’t interested in marking until she thinks I should stop doing it and feed her instead.

When I can see past the fur, I do have a lovely view from my desk.

But it troubles me that this tree is regularly flowering so much earlier than it did when we first moved here, so my spirits are not as lifted by the sight of it as they used to be.

I have been thinking through my commitment to the Green Crafts Initiative and looking up some advice online. It makes interesting reading. When I think about ‘sustainable craft’ my tendency is to focus on materials and the processes of making, which are clearly important. However, the ‘big sister’ programme, the Green Arts Initiative, is focused more on organisations than on individuals, and one of the major things they are concerned about is how people travel to venues. That made me stop and think.

I live 5 mins walk from my studio, so driving there is not remotely efficient – and the thought of it doesn’t even enter my head, unless I have to pick up a carload of textiles or of looms to take them somewhere else. However, I am well aware that parking in the area is extremely limited – it is a topic of endless discussion among WASPS tenants! – and so my ‘travel advice’ (such as it is) to people visiting has always been focused around this issue. What I hadn’t done is point out the bus routes which have stops close by, or highlight the quickest walking routes from the bus and railway stations. So I have been updating my information sheets and maps to do exactly that, and I am very glad of this prompt which has made me consider the topic. It may only affect a handful of people, but it is an important step in reframing how we (I) think about our place in the world.

“Diversions” was posted by Cally on 22 March 2017 at https://callybooker.co.uk

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