Home and away

Well I’ve finished nest number one, the winter hills of home in Yorkshire, hoorah!! I know so much more about constructing now that I’m hoping nest number two will be less labour-intensive in terms of getting the ugly innards done. It has taken hours and hours, but I have also hugely enjoyed it. It was just in me to do it and when that happens there is a huge well of persistence that most makers recognise: ‘flow’ perhaps?

Here are some photos of it completed – there are silver birch twigs with the ends dipped in paint and hand-typed phrases of poetry on waxed teabag paper winding its way around the colours. Inside are the colours of the fields and browns of the paths at my feet.

There are SO many yarns in this, all fluffed up and blending into each other. I adore using colour to create drifts whether in textiles or paint so finally reaching the point where I could use them all on the last layer was hugely satisfying.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the nests are about representing the landscapes of home and other places I have an association with. They are physical forms which speak to homing that which delights, visually and in terms of wellbeing. Now I’ve just got to make it some friends!

Home is also the subject of another project I’m in the middle of. I’m very aware that this one is filling the hole my stitchpots left as I consciously stopped making them (at least for the time being). The houses are fairly small ( about 10-20 cm) and will form a large collection. There needs to be some companion stitching at the side of my sofa and I’m really pleased to have found something to scratch that itch. 😁

They are also born out of the turmoil of trying to move house and the ups and downs of the last two years. One minute thinking we are going, the next readjusting to staying, and all the utterly frustrating paperwork and legal processes. On the backs, I’m scribbling a whole tirade of thoughts and emotions in aesemic writing which will be trapped when the piece comes together – it’s cathartic and of the moment.

I’m happily busy with some favourite colour combinations and visual elements making groups of the little houses. This joy of colour also speaks to all the aspects of home I find pleasure in. I have to lay them all out occasionally to see if the balance looks right between them all and check that the sizes don’t sneakily grow or shrink as there are about 50 in progress so far…🤭 . Here are a few, most are waiting for some hand-stitch and they will all be machined onto a translucent backing in time.

We have just been away in north Cornwall, to a place we are familiar with, so I’ve been taking photos for a potential coastline nest.

We had the most amazing waves due to the unseasonably cold and windy weather in the UK at the moment. The amount of bright white from the surf and breakers was simply stunning. The sea is also such lovely colours down here compared to the north of England where we live. And the clifftops are still covered in an abundance of flora along the stonewalled paths and in the fields. It fills the soul.

When I’m on the beach I feel drawn to the cliff walks and skylarks, and when I’m up there, the beach is just as tempting. This is a place where fields meet the sea – my pleasure is in the ‘both and’ of the landscape.

I bought a vintage trug on holiday, well it could be a shoe cleaning box maybe? Not too sure, but it’s a lot bigger than the cutlery one that I currently use to keep stitching in on the coffee table at home.

Bigger project requires bigger wooden box. That’s all the excuse I needed anyway. It’s getting a wax and polish it to make it smell delicious, too 😁. Do you keep your sewing in anything unusual or treasured?

So it’s back to it for now, with a couple of summer workshops to break things up.

Until next time…

This is the art of the soul: to harvest your deeper life from all the seasons of your experience.

John O’Donohue