nettle pesto

No really, don't let it freak you out. Firstly, I bought some from a local market last spring and it was utterly delicious but horribly expensive, so I kind of worked out how to do it for myself. Secondly, if you are like me and desperately trying to get on top of the vicious stinging nettles rampaging over the garden at this time of year, this makes you feel pretty vengeful yet victorious. Not to mention it tastes veganly and heavenly scrumptious and is packed with nutritious goodies. ✓✓

To make a small jar's worth, snap on your rubber gloves and pick enough nettles to fill a colander. Go for the freshest, youngest and most vindictive nettles. It will taste better and make you feel like a champ. Back in the kitchen, you need to rinse them thoroughly, sling out the toughest stalk parts and then blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes. I checked this out on the internet, it's true that it's the only way to deaden the toxic sting. Plunge them into cold water and ring out. I use my salad spinner, but I suppose you could just squeeze them in a teatowel if you haven't got one.

In my little blender, I chop them up with about 4 to 5 big glugs of olive oil and a garlic clove. Then add about 3 teaspoons of ground almonds and salt to taste. Voilà.

You can fiddle around with the olive oil to get a consistency you like, perhaps a little thinner for pasta, but I like it thick and slapped over some chunky, rustic bread.

le vertige

felt good

The other day I spent some time being taught feltmaking by my lovely friend Natalie Magnin. Do you remember her? I did a studio visit with her back in the summer……
She showed me both dry needle-felting and wet felting techniques and gave me lots of helpful information about dyeing with vegetable and plant dyes. I left her with a headful of inspiration for combining felt with my plaster forms. Oh yes, I do so love the contradiction of the hard and soft, the smooth and the textured and I have a good feeling about this. I also left with tons of eggs from her husband (not that he laid them personally, he just has very productive hens) that Joe, the omelette addict, has scoffed already and with my arms full of sheep's wool, some of which is beautifully soft merino, mordant, a needle and no excuses not to get on with it have a good old experiment. By the way, I've decided Luna must have some collie blood in her; she went completely nuts when she smelt the bags of unwashed wool, I half expected her to start herding them up.

{This is one of Natalie's beautiful creations. She has a shop, Zamirte Textiles on etsy and you can also follow her work via facebook}

lost and found

I've lost my pinterest joy.
I am not going to say too much about the furore, there is so much floating around out there to read. But for me personally this was the final nail in the coffin of yet another over-hyped social network that I found addictive, keeping me from getting on with more important things.
I'm back to old school style; I've (re-)found my pen and paper next to my computer, my bookmarks and my trusty evernote. It makes me curate better anyway, and only hang on to what's really worth keeping.

***

I also lost myself to plaster, spending days and days with it under my nails, then burning my fingers with matches and skinning them with sandpaper. Soon I will be finding feltmaking with my friend Natalie.

I am still lost in ideas about my locality and geography. I am to make a series of work for the boutique B&B in my village (more about that soon!)
but I have not yet found the lightbulb moment.

pentax spotmatic/solaris 200

I have lost my old system, methods and sheep-like tendencies and my ubiquitous and symbolic moo cards, and have found a new way of thinking.
(Nowadays they call it unconventional, vagabonding or living freely. Well I'm old and in my day we called it punk)

Indeed. My stamp will go everywhere with me, so I can stamp with wanton abandon. And if you haven't got a scrap of paper, bus ticket or receipt on you, I'll stamp the back of your hand for you.

Kristen over at Li+Belle has gone from just a fellow blogger to an email buddy; I'm especially grateful for the helpful advice with Luna (she too has a young and very silly dog)
She has asked me to answer some questions and given me a sunshine award: “awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world”.
Too kind, too kind.

favorite color: olive green
favorite animal: dogs/horses
favorite non-alcoholic drink: rooibos tea
facebook or twitter: ?
getting or giving presents: giving and getting
favorite flower: rose, especially Pierre de Ronsard. Or lavender
favorite pattern: I prefer randoms to patterns
passion: art, Radiohead
favorite number: three

Thank you Kristin!
I'd love to see other peoples' answers too, feel free to comment them here on on your own blog……...

what I'm working on

these are 2 of the 'in progress' things I posted on my facebook page earlier this week. Both of these are sculptures I've never been happy with and keep returning to over and over, the one of the left has especially been driving me mad. This is how it was on Monday morning☝. I originally started it about 18 months ago but since then I've tried re-working it over and over. Now it looks like this:

The original ideas relating to birds eggs sort of got hijacked as it became more and more like a skull, and the text reminds me of the sutures on a cranium. I'm still not sure it will stay this way.

The other one hasn't really changed too much, and I'm happy with it….

and I also {finally} completed this too.

So free from the distractions of having a car, hot water and coffee (my water heater and coffee maker have both blown-up this week) I've been super productive. Fingers of fire, oh yeah!

a new week {and lots of links}

Kiki Smith

I told you I was doing a lot of reading. As well as Women who Run With The Wolves, Alice Through The Visual Arts and Her Fearful Symmetry, I am also working my way through e-books from The Mindful Artist and Roadmap to Action.
There's a good reason for these two. Today is a fresh start. Sad as I am (in that just-lost-my-right-arm kind of way) that my gorgeous girls have gone back to school after two weeks, Joe will be home later today for another two weeks. It will be the first time I've seen him since christmas and there will be much noise, music, mess, fridge-raiding, films to be watched and the kind of banter/heated debates that only 19 year old art students (who know everything) can instigate. Of course, he has to have his room back so for now I've got to work on the dining table.
I will be working pretty full on for a while too. Three, possibly four (different) exhibitions need to be prepared for. It's a mixed blessing that my car broke down big time on Friday as I'm going to have no choice but to stay home and get on with it. I'm also allowing my etsy artshop to wait up. Most of my listings expire today and the rest over the next couple of weeks and I will not be renewing any till the autumn.
Elsewhere I've also had a bit of a spring pruning and deleted three quarters of my flickr in preparation for losing my pro account but I revived my tumblr just for my photography and art.

I have also found so much inspiration:
snow pictures by Sonja Hinrichsen
cyanotypes for the Sigur Rós ljóspappír competition (my friend Jonathan is on page 19)
printmaking by Kouki Tsuritani
Omm writer - I love it to free-form ideas {and used to write this post too}
…..and above all, enjoying the return of the warmth of the sun

P.S. - Does anyone else find the new blogger word verification really annoying and a little discouraging to leave comments? I get round it on here by only asking for it on posts older than two weeks; spammers only bother with my old posts.
And another P.S. - My rather lovely free guide to developing your black and white film at home is available again. Sign up on the left for my newsletter and it will be delivered to you as a pdf to save and print off.

birth and death

In the same day. The deep sadness and slight bewilderment at the sight of the dead mistle thrush and the huge beaming smile across my face seeing these new lives, squirming, blind and totally helpless; an appropriate and poetic reflection of how I feel right now. I am ready to let go of so much, to be thankful for all I learnt along the way and to continue to bloom, to flourish and to feel loved. I'm sorry if that all sounds a bit cryptic, maybe even a bit touchy-feely but I've been doing a lot of reading lately and it's perhaps gone to my head? I'll explain later…….
Olympus OM10/Fujifilm 200

spots and stripes

Spotty horses and stripey big tops. I was in heaven.
{Pentax Spotmatic/Rollei Retro 400s}

A Sense Of Time

How neglectful of me. I remembered to mention this on my facebook page and completely forgot to say anything over here. Sea Of Tranquility and Time That You Love where selected for A Sense Of Time, a juried exhibition currently showing at Artspace in Lincolnshire, UK. If you just happen to be in the area, it's on until 3rd March and please go for me as I won't be able to make it.

{and much thanks to my besta Melanie who made me enter with her} 

P.S. I've added an *occasional* newsletter sign up over there on the left.