I’ve just remembered I intended to blog about creativity, not puppies! I haven’t had a lot of time for that recently, but it’s now the first of October, and at the end of the month I am teaching at Broadland Art Centre. We are very lucky to have such a unique venue so close to home. BAC is housed in an old school in a pretty little village on the river and the classroom is the perfect place for a small gathering of students. I feel very privileged to be numbered among those teaching there, as the calibre of past and present tutors is so high. Among them the textile artists Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn, the main features of last year’s Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace, the internationally renowned marine artist, William Calladine, and, AND… ( I speak his name in reverential tones), the one, the only Kaffe Fassett! Oh yes, I did go on his courses.
Passionate Patchwork – Kaffe Fassett
Attending a few courses at the Broadland Art Centre was one of the contributing factors to my eventual decision to become a mature Student at Norwich University College of Art in 2000 so it’s nice to have the association with it now.
This year I, and my partner in crime, Kit, am running a course called ‘All Booked Up!’ (yes it was my idea to call it that, and yes, it has caused no end of confusion to people reading the brochure, and yes, I’m really, really sorry!) and we are making books. Not formal bookbinding books, because that’s an amazing and exacting craft requiring great skill, accuracy and training. We’re making pretty books, jolly books, books for people who have a vast collection of lovely little bits of fabrics and papers, buttons and beads, and piles of gorgeous bits of textile art left over from experimenting…that they don’t know what to do with and can’t possibly throw away. Well, we’re going to make them into little books.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be flexing my making muscles to get them in trim for two days of demonstrating and teaching, and posting the results so you can see if I’m slacking.
I will regain my focus on artistry and creativity, I will aspire to a state of Zen like concentration, I will reach the end of each day uplifted by what I have achieved, I will… excuse me, I just have to go and mop up that puddle…
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Looks like you (and your little studio assistant) are going to have lots of fun!
Celia
Hey, I hope you’re not stopping the puppy pics on my account! It was only an offhand remark:-(
It sounds like you have lots on. Is Kaffe Fassett really going to teach at the Broadland Arts Centre? That should bring a lot of interest.
Perhaps he can design a stylish cover for an e-book reader. Or perhaps not…
Kaffe Fassett used to come a few years ago but he’s now so expensive that BAC can’t fit enough students in to make the course affordable for people.
I’m not stopping the puppy pics but as cute as he is, Higgins can’t completely take over!
Such a beautiful book !! That is so pretty .
I have breathed the same air as Kaffe Fasset too ….once ….in a wide open space ….with a couple of hundred other people . He was opening Leeuwarden’s Quilt Exhibition . He seemed very nice and his designs are fabulous .
The whole course sounds lovely …Enjoy ! We’re all slightly jealous . ( But I’m really jealous of your embroidery skills ) .
Brilliant! Where will Higgins secrete himself next?!
The button books are a wonderful idea – I have a thing for buttons…I sew them onto knitted bags for friends and then take them off again and keep them! I just cannot part with them!
oh my that heart! loving that little embroidered heart! t.x
There is so much lovely eye candy around here – and that puppy in the basket is enough to make any heart melt!
Oh Higgins! You should have heard my “ohhhhhhhhh!” on seeing Higgins. I’m totally in love with Higgins, my two doggies would be terribly jealous if they knew!
Love Vanessa xxx