It never rains but it pours

Well they do say that, don’t they?!

I decided to make some more stitchpots whilst hunkering down over winter and the second element I chose was ‘water’. It’s been one of the wettest autumns and start of winter I’ve ever known and thoroughly dampens the spirit. I’m also sat downstairs waiting for a plumber to come as we have a leak to sort in the house that’s coming through the ceiling. Good job I’ve just finished the little pots or I think I might have felt like throwing them out of a window! Talk about irony.

I think I’m coming to the end of making these, but I still have ‘air’ and ‘earth’ to do so I will finish them (I’m a helpless completer-finisher) by which point, I hope better weather and a dry house will make me feel like returning to some bigger projects.

The first lovely thing this year was a visit to Maker Project Re-Connected to see a project I took part in a few years ago. I was part of Tom Sutton’s PHD research which is now published and the artists have been invited to submit additional work to accompany the original responses for the exhibition.

The second lovely thing is that I was interviewed by Textileartist.org and that is now live on their site. Here is the link for you https://www.textileartist.org/rachael-singleton-thoughtful-stitching

And lastly, I’m slowly putting together some thoughts for my local textile group’s yearly project and is all about walks and gathering and stitching inspiration through the year, just my sort of thing. I’m looking at very ordinary photos and starting to translate them into abstractions – it never ceases to amaze me at how many times you can look at the same thing with your noticing head on and find new and interesting aspects of the familiar. Winter seems to have me finding lines in the landscape, I think they are revealed by bare trunks and branches and the subduing of colour so that shapes are more in focus. I’m looking forward to finding a colour palette for this and trying something 2D.

My favourite quote ever is:

I hope you find some common enchantment in weeks to come whatever season of the year you are in, it helps to be mindful and grateful for the little things… and there’s a bit of sun today, hoorah!