Category Archives: Art

Missing Mojo – Found!

You might remember me bemoaning the loss of my Mojo in this post, the debilitating feeling when inspiration disappears out of the window.

Well, I’m happy to relate that it’s back and I’m beavering away being creative and even the wind and rain whipping past the window and howling down the chimney hasn’t dampened my spirits today!

I realise that I’ve become bogged down, especially with Social Media. When I started writing this blog I had no idea about SEO, I didn’t have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a featured board on Pinterest, an Instagram account, Flickr. I wasn’t helping other people with their Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, websites….

Add that to the Etsy shop, packing yarn, writing patterns, answering queries as well as family commitments and actually having a life… the part of me which I discovered and which grew when I was at Art School only a few years ago was in danger of withering away altogether.

Being part of Open Studios over the past few years has kept me hanging on by my fingernails though, and I’ve loved making the exhibition pieces…

Wool Gathering 2012

How to Knit a Sheep 2013

That time of year is coming round again (so quickly!) and I’ve been rummaging around in my mind for the perfect inspiration. For ages after making the sheep’s head, I toyed with the idea of a stag’s head complete with antlers. The perfect place to hang crochet garlands and pompoms! But then I realised that every time I opened a catalogue or magazine, or watched a design programme on television there seemed to be some sort of variation of a stag’s head, a rhino, a zebra or similar and I knew the moment had passed.

There are also restrictions for the exhibition too. I work in three dimensions but making something which needs a plinth, and finding the plinth too is an added complication, so the hanging format I’ve used so far works best.

Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago because of our local pantomime. The Am-Dram group in the village is full of creative people and we’re lucky to have someone to devise something beyond the usual Sleeping Beauty/Aladdin/Puss in Boots offerings. This year it was The Green Man.

Aha! the Green Man! And with some research I find this quote…

His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist.

He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood.

The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one’s normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures,… one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of inspiration.”

Perfect!

I’ve sorted through my stash of fleece and yarns, filled a bag with natural colours and ordered some more from Wingham Wool Work. I also bought a sample pack of dyes and that’s what I’ve been doing most of today, dying natural fleece and yarn, and over-dyeing some bright shades to bring them into the right colour spectrum.

I’ve had such FUN! I’ve looked back in the archives and it was January 2011 when I last dyed yarn and I loved the results then. This is a very different palette, but I’m so enjoying throwing caution to the winds, and mixing up different dyes, and different strengths and dribbling them over the wool to get soft natural effects.

My Green Man has been inspired by the cherry trees in the garden with their grey trunks. His face is bark coloured using natural Cheviot fleece, rougher and hairier than my usual Merino, and lovely to needlefelt. This is the story so far…

Just waiting for the greenery to grow!

The greenery is too damp to use tonight so I will put my crochet ‘Hat’ on as I want to finally finish the bunting pattern which I’ve been editing. It’s looking very pretty…

I’m off to clean up the dye splatters in the utility room, but I’ll be back soon!

Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios 2013

It’s hard to believe this is the third year we have taken part in Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios, but then it’s always hard to get one’s head round how quickly time flies. This weekend will be the last for this year so we’re really hoping the weather stays kind and encourages lots of people to drive out into our beautiful Norfolk countryside to visit us.

If you are a regular visitor to Planet Penny you will know I share my studio with my good friend Kit, a printer, for the purposes of Open Studios. It makes it more fun and more manageable when several people arrive at once and we both know enough about each others work to be able to talk about it. (Although I wouldn’t recommend anyone goes away and attempts etching after an explanation from me!)

I know only a handful of people reading this will be able to visit so this is virtual invitation to our studio so you can see what’s been going on over the past couple of weeks.

This is the studio, through the archway.

It looks so much better when the sun shines!
Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios - garden

The Japanese Maple which last year formed part of the wedding decorations (which you can see in this post) is now a great place to display the felted ‘River Rocks’ which were first exhibited as part of the Bergh Apton Sculpture Trail several years ago…

Inside, it’s so tidy! It’s lovely, I wish it would last!

Can you see the tell tale streak across the mat? Well, for once it wasn’t Higgins. The very first day, dead on 10 o’clock when we were officially open, the little oil filled radiator which we had been huddling round because it was so ridiculously cold went POP and leaked hot oil all over the floor! Several teatowels were sacrificed in the frantic mopping up and that trail was created as we dragged the darn thing outside where it dribbled over the gravel.

Not a good start and I’ve had to dispose of the mat which I rather liked. Never mind, next week I’m having vinyl laid which will withstand tidal waves of hot oil as well as muddy little paws!

Oh gosh, have you noticed Higgins has crept in yet again? Not what I intended but since he’s here I’ll just say he’s well rested now and is all geared up to greet his public should they feel inclined to visit him over the coming weekend. You’ll find general details of Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios on the website, and our Art Trail in particular on the Two Rivers Trail website.

After this weekend I hope to get back to a more normal blogging routine. Coming up next time is another book review. A gorgeous new publication and the chance to win your very own copy. If you haven’t signed up to follow Planet Penny yet now might be a good time so you don’t miss out on a prize!

I’ll be back very soon…x

Bexhill, Hastings…and a little bit of knitting!

After last week’s London adventure you’d think I’d retire for a rest, but no… the very next day we were packing the car to set off to the South Coast for a couple of days in the Bexhill/Hastings area staying with elder son and family. It was an eventful start. While I was away Higgins had tried out his ‘Super-Dog’ impression, leaping off the arm of the chair shouting at a passing jogger and landing painfully hard on his little stumpy legs and pulling a muscle. This involved a trip to the vet before we set out, a rigorous examination to check nothing desperate had been done, and instructions to make sure Higgins took things easy, and No Running About…

What? We were on our way to stay with his favourite little boys, who live in a house with a garden full of squirrels….

After a long day driving, Friday is not a good day to travel, Higgins had had the equivalent of 24 hours bed rest and was even less likely to do what the doctor ordered when he arrived, but a lot of effort was put into nursing care…

We had a peaceful morning on Saturday, with a spot of craftiness…

and a trip to the park in the afternoon…

but the next day it was pouring…

Not a day for the beach for anyone.

We spent the morning with a little bit of knitting…

you just see how helpful Higgins was being!

In the afternoon however, we donned waterproofs and headed to Hastings…

I love the area around Rock a Nore in Hastings with it’s strange black fishing huts, and despite the rain found Claire Fletcher‘s great little studio opened for the afternoon full of beautiful bits and pieces, and one I had only that morning been reading about in a copy of Coast magazine…

When the big black doors in the photo are opened, you see this!

After a little wander around in the teeth of the wind and rain…

….we reached the Jerwood Gallery which I’ve wanted to visit since it opened.

It’s an amazing exhibition space, and although it is controversially built next to the fishing area of Hastings on The Stade , the sympathetic design means it sits comfortably alongside the black sheds. Inside, the large plain windows frame the surrounding views, making the town part of the exhibition…

I now wear the badge I bought in Claire’s Studio with pride!

And I did manage a little bit of creativity of my own…You don’t think I went away without my knitting did you? Unable to find the pattern I made my fingerless mitts from a couple of years ago (if you remember, Higgins ate them!) I devised a new pattern of my own. Very simple, (and I could knit in the car too, obviously not while driving!)

but with lots of scope for embellishment…

…and so good I made them twice!

I’ve written the pattern, and it’s available for free here, if you’d like to make some too.

So I’ll leave you for now with the link to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour, and I’ll be back soon…x

Silent Sunday

A Reason to be Cheerful? It’s February!

I don’t want to wish the year away, but I’m never sorry to wave goodbye to January. There’s an optimistic feeling to February, an anticipation of Spring, even when it bitterly cold and wintery.

I have to work a little harder at being cheerful this week because Tim went back to work yesterday, so Higgins, Henry and I are keeping the home fires burning while he’s away. It’s good for me that, in Tim’s absence, I have to do more Higgins walking, even when the weather isn’t very nice, like yesterday…

Back at home, exciting things were happening in the garden. My gardening gurus were giving the whole thing a once over, clearing out ‘ground cover’ plants which have been threatening to smother us in our beds (and have certainly smothered quite a lot of pretty plants in theirs…) creating fixings for over enthusiastic climbers and generally getting things into shape for Spring. They also mostly finished off what I had started in the veg patch, which has always been my responsibility, so I’m still on target there for when the weather starts to warm up.

The excitement for Higgins was the appearance of long lost toys which have lurked in the undergrowth for months. He didn’t know where to turn!

Another cheerful thing has been the arrival of a wonderful piece of equipment. I’ve been wanting for ages to dye some more yarn, (you’ll remember the adventures I have with dyeing here and here) but I’ve struggled to prepare the undyed yarn. The yarn arrives in 100gm hanks and I dye it in 25gm mini hanks, in the microwave. A while ago I bought a winder, not the beautiful antique one I would have preferred at a vast sum, but a cheap and ~~cheerful~~ annoying one, which has never, ever worked properly. There was no where I could easily attach it, every time the yarn got tangled it fell off etc. etc… And the whole winding thing just became such a time consuming back breaking faff I just haven’t bothered.

Until it was mentioned to my friend Bill. Kit (my buddy and partner in craft) is married to Bill, and Bill, apart from being an amazing artist, a builder of cars, and all round good egg, does like a challenge, even a little one like making a wool winder.

So I now have a be-yoo-tilful wool winder or ‘Swift’, made of mahogany, which will sit on the table and twirl merrily as I get the wool ready for the dye…

And today, as you can see from the photos of Higgins above, has been glorious…

if very cold.

I had hoped to have finished a new project to show you, but I may have to squeeze in another post instead! Instead I shall add the Linky on the end, and hope that you have some Reasons to be Cheerful to share. And if you haven’t got a blog, you can still join in via the comments.

Looking forward to hearing from you…

see you soon ! x

Banksy, and the World’s Most Chocolatey Chocolate Cake

I’ve suddenly realised I promised a chocolate cake recipe, and I haven’t quite finished my holiday photos!

Without going on and on any longer, I just wanted to share this photo, taken in St Leonards….

that Banksy gets everywhere doesn’t he?

Although where he found the sand to make those sandcastles from in St Leonards I don’t know…

Now, this chocolate cake…

….and why is it called Clovis cake?

Well, we have to go back a few years, when my son was getting married. For those of you that don’t know, my son is the children’s writer and illustrator Thomas Taylor… you can find out more on his blog, That Elusive Line.

When the children were small I’d done the usual thing of birthday cakes in the shape of dinosaurs and spaceships, which gave Thomas and Celia the idea that a cake in the shape of the little tiger which Tom was spending most of his waking moment drawing might be a jolly idea. Meet Clovis.

Cue, completely panic from me. Making a butter icing and smartie creation for 10 eight year olds was one thing, but a tiger shaped wedding cake for 100 people? Oh, and it mustn’t be a fruit cake…

However, I do like a challenge, so I set about trying to find a cake recipe for something which would be a solid and forgiving as a fruit cake without being heavy and dry. I have no name to credit with the eventual choice, it’s provenance is lost in the mists of time, it appeared in a Saturday Telegraph supplement, I’m sure no one will mind if I share it with you.

It’s eventual chocolatey-ness is up to you. Vast quantities are required, and if you go down the 70% cocoa solids all the way it will be a very grown up cake indeed. I tend to go half milk, half plain, which seems to agree with most palates.

Clovis Cake
Grease and line an 8”/20cm cake tin
6oz/170g butter
6 oz/170g caster sugar
8 oz/225g melted plain or milk chocolate
8 oz/225g roughly chopped milk or plain chocolate
6 oz/170g ground almonds
6 eggs, separated
3 oz/85g fresh breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
Pinch of salt

Beat the butter and sugar together, then stir in the melted chocolate with the ground almonds, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, cocoa powder and the rind and juice of the orange. Whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt and fold into the cake mixture with the chopped chocolate.
Pour into the tin and bake at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for about 1hr 40mins.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out.

Melt 5 oz/140g plain or milk chocolate with a 5 fl oz/125ml carton of double cream in a bowl over warm water. Cool, then chill for 30 mins until lightly thickened then pour over the cake to cover.
Cool and store in an airtight tin.

And that’s it. A great deal of chocolate, with more chocolate on top. It’s very definitely a celebration cake, not to be entered into lightly!