Rain and deep breaths

The honeysuckle next door is so orange & yellow (no scent though)

I woke up this morning and took a nice deep breath.
Doesn't sound like anything very spectacular, but it's 2 months since I was last able to take a full breath into my lungs, they've only been letting me take in about 1/3 of a normal breath. So I'm pretty excited about this, it means I can talk a bit longer and a bit louder without getting so wiped out. It also means I can start controlling pain again, I'm pretty reliant on good breathing for that, and without it I've been having to take a lot more painkillers. I hate taking painkillers.

The rain continues to fall here in Scotland, will it ever stop? Today, as yesterday, it is bourne on the back of a cold North wind. Mr P said my cheap plastic greenhouse was semi tipped over in the night. What happened to June? This is clearly April. I feel so sorry for my parents, they are opening their garden for charity tomorrow and all the flowers have been drenched in heavy rain all week. I suppose it's a blessing that it is only the plants that are suffering, in England they are having a lot of severe floods and have to keep rescuing people. Poor souls. I think it's partly this sort of thing that is finally making this country take global warming seriously, the previous attitude was that it was great if it meant hot summers.

I won't be posting tomorrow, I'll probably be deadheading flowers in the rain. Hope you have a dry Sunday to enjoy your gardens or local parks, or even just having some sun shine in through your window making nice shadows across the room, that's the bit I always like.

I collect pale things, rusty things, sea things...

Other people's hands

The mystery hand held the peony while I took a photo. Not really a mystery,it belongs to Mr P.


My friend rescued this little fellow from the jaws of death, her cat was serious unimpressed. Don't know how he will fare now that he's been handled by a human,

Pictures not words- teapot & flower

Pale & interesting

Necklace by Jorge Manilla at Klimt02


Ceramic lungs ashtray by Finding Cheska

As I was focussing on white things I thought I'd check Justine Smith's site to see what she was making these days. You'll probably all remember her lovely cut paper butterfly work from a few years ago. I hadn't realised she'd switched to using money to make paper sculptures dealing with issues like power and corruption.and these include intricate and beautiful flowers like this one...


Specimen 2 (Poppy) detail Chinese bank notes, 2005

Spotted, via Poppytalk, the gorgeous new ceramics of Jasna Sokolovic...


Jasna Sokolovic "It is time for a change" 2007

She also has ceramic jewellery on her new ETSY shop, She makes so many things I'd like to own like this wall tile duo, and this and this I really want one of the tiles in her online shop...


Jasna Sokolovic "Leave it all behind" 14x14cm

Given that my title is pale and interesting it's ironic that my skin, which is usually very pale, is now a too brown. Oops, perhaps I went a little heavy on my first application of the year of fake tan. That said, it's the skin friendly one that the lovely Miss P gave me and it looks great on my arms and legs. I should have diluted it with moisuriser for my face. On the positive side it makes my teeth look incredibly white!

I've been getting really down about not being able to walk Lucy properly. Poor dog, she has to go so slowly beside me, though she perks up when I find her good sticks. But things are looking up for her. MrP bought a new bike last week and I was getting all miz cause I haven't been well enough to ride mine for 2 years.

Then it dawned on me, for where I need to take her I actually wouldn't need to do much pedalling at all, it's pretty flat. So out came the quite squashed and rusty bike. MrP did some tyre fixing and I took the pliers to the squished bits and voila, working bike. It's akward while she is on the lead, but once she's off it I can cycle, gently, far further and faster than I could ever hope to walk (and makes it way easier to avoid the chatty folk that drain my energy).

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Pictures not words - green outside

My work - seed pods

For Julie ,one of my seed pods
(sorry about poor photo quality, it's scaled up from a tiny jpeg)


A3- pastel, paint, tea & coffee drawing, 1992

I drew 1000's of seed pods during my time studying at the herbarium in Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. It was only when working as a volunteer in the gardens years later that I found out how lucky I was to be allowed in there, apparently they just don't let people in to do that sort of thing. I can only image that the woman who gave me permission was bowled over by my obsessive enthusiasm for seeds and pods. Let's face it, most 21yr olds wouldn't choose to spend a month of their summer holidays in what is effectively a library of dead plants. But to me it was like finding a treasure chest, there were things in there that took my breath away (literally, some were a bit poisonous!) and I would have stayed longer but that was also the summer I headed to Canada on the college exchange.


Fused and heat coloured copper 1992

These are some copper pieces I made that were influenced by my summer drawings. It was also a point where I took my environmental concerns further and did all my Canadian work without using solder to join pieces or chemicals to colour them. I wanted to emulate the way that in nature heat joins metals together and colours them...

Tagged 7 things- Jade & Milla

I've been tagged by Milla of Made by Milla and Jade of Spectrescope (click their names to see their response to the 7 Things tag). I planned to blog about Jade in April and about Milla in May so this seems like the ideal opportunity to say a bit about them before listing my 7 things.

Jade Pegler of Spectrescope lives in Wollongong, Australia (coincidence - I nearly went there to do a residency after my degree). I strayed upon her blog by accident a few months ago and immediately fell in love with her work. She uses the kinds of papers that I love working with; creamy colours, clothing patterns, book pages, all intricately layered, folded, illustrated, made into books or sculpted. Paper heaven.


Jade Pegler, Crumpling & Small sculpture

Do you remember me getting excited about Origami Crumpling last year? Well she crumples in an organic, scultpural way that I far prefer to the very geometric perfection that most of the 'technical' crumplers were doing, and she photographs her pieces well. She's another person who's studio space I could spend hours on end exploring and never get bored.


Jade Pegler, work on paper


Jade Pegler, detail from 'The Mechanical Equitant'
See full piece and read more here

Camilla of Made by Milla is a seriously busy person, I've said a little about her before but I don't know if I had pics? The following three are my favourites...


Made by Milla, Self Portrait, Calico, paper, stitching


Made by Milla, St Werb's poster.


Made by Milla, Bluetit screenprint

Milla has her finger in so many pies I don't know how she keeps up with it all. Milla, you probably would say you don't keep up, but I reckon you're doing a pretty well (planning to send you some of my images to order badges in summer). She paints, sews, prints, curates, has an allotment AND she's studying. I'm tired just typing it all. Oh, and she's the only person I know who also likes Kimya Dawson, 'Hold My Hand' is one of the saddest but most powerful and beautifully sung songs ever.

Ok, it's getting late and I have to get this posted before I conk out so here goes. I have to reveal 7 things about myself and then tag 7 of you. The last tag I responded to was 6 odd things where I think I maybe did seem quite odd, so this time I've gone with some simpler things:

1. I'm 5ft 7inches tall and have UKsize 8 feet (Euro42)
2. If I feel sick I watch science fiction to distract my mind
3. I hate wool next to my skin, but tolerate merino for the warmth.
4. I like to lie in long grass in the sun and watch tiny insects going about their business.
5. I'm very shy, but once I feel at ease you can't shut me up.
6. I can't eat first thing in the morning, unless it's chocolate
7. I hate seeing food dribble on people's necks.

That Oasis add where the juice goes all over his face, eurgh, hate it. I freak out if anything sticky, like juice or jam gets on my neck. When I was about 14 I mentioned my dislike to my mum and she confessed that when I was a baby, and she was a first time mum, she didn't know that babies have folds in their skin and it was a few weeks (or more? I must ask again) before she realised I'd had food gathering in my neck crease and it had gone foosty and made my skin all horrible.

Now, since I was tagged twice, I thought I'd give you another 7, this time I'm theming it, 'things I never cease to be amazed or excited by, no matter how old I get'...
1. Seeing big blue dragonflies at a pond
2. Meeting foxes in the middle of the night
3. Watching November meteor showers
4. Playing on tree swings
5. Eating nutty chocolate
6. Finding a major bargain in thrift shops
7. Being listened to and believed

I forgot about tagging 7 of you. I'm so tired, I can't face double checking who's been tagged and who's not, can you tag yourselves and let me know in the comments? I do hope so. Got to get some sleep now. Have a great weekend.

Thinking Blogger + Vanessa Valencia

Oops, I accidentally pressed post TWICE while this was unfinished and dated last month (I'm so behind with my posts), sorry readers, my brain is like mush, can you hear it sloshing about? Here it is properly with the pictures and more up-to-date links added...


Vanessa Valencia - 'Super Cupcake, Bake Girl'
Acrylic on wood 8.5"x6"x1.75"

I was immensely surprised to discover last month that Vanessa Valencia of A Fanciful Twist (whose 'V' doesn't work on her keyboard!) nominated me for a 'Thinking Blogger Award'. I've not been doing much blog reading (but a little picture perusing) so I hadn't realised - sorry so late in my response Vanessa, and thank you, I feel really priveledged to be on your list. And don't think that I've put you on mine out of courtesy, you would have always have been on it.


Vanessa Valencia - 'Leaves will fall, fruit will ripen, time will tell'
Acrylic on wood 8.5"x6"x1.75"

I love how Vanessa's work is so distinctly her, I've seen people with a similar style, but Vanessa's are just so clearly by Vanessa. They remind of Pippi Longstocking. I VERY much wanted to be Pippi Longstocking when I was a kid. I totally identified with the mismatched clothing, long pigtails, affinity with animals and, of course, the fact that she wasn't like the other kids.

I just love the way Vanessa's images are so full of life and colour, and stories (and cakes!). It means her pictures can make you think just as much as her words can, which is great when I'm too tired to read blogs, I can skim though her images and get a burst of colour and an idea of what's happening in her life.


Vanessa Valencia - 'On a Certain day'
Acrylic on canvas 12"x12"x1.5"

The works above are all from Vanessa's most recent Thinking Blogger post (she gets lots of us thinking) where she is also announcing updates to her shop. Definitely worth a visit, though what I'd really like to to is visit her real gallery space in real life. It's one of those places that just oozes the personality of the person who makes it. I'd even more like to visit her house, she has the most fantastic collection of religious icons and the like. I bet I could spend hours, weeks, months in her house ooh-ing and ah-ing and taking photo's. I hope you are enjoying your trip Vanessa, and eating some green beans while you are away :0). Ok here's the Thinking Blogger response...

If you are nominated and decide to join in you should reveal the origininal source, say who nominated you (Vanessa), nominate 5 blogs which you read that really make you think and finally display the thinking blogger logo/button.

My 5 nominations are, in the order that I discovered them:
1. Anna Torborg - Twelve22
2. Alicia Paulson - Posie Gets Cozy
3. Lisa Solomon - Lisa's Musings
4. Vanessa Valencia - A Fanciful Twist
5a. Julie Avisar - Handmaid
5b. Anna Peach - The Golden Egret Studio (cheeky, but she makes me think most of all)

There are more, of course, of course, but these are the ones that post regularly and make me think so much they enter my dreams. And they have all positively influenced the way I live my daily life. They all have passion for what they do. They immerse themselves in things whether it be food, art, crafts, discovery, experimentation, friends, travel or just life. You ladies really have enriched my life in ways that you will probably never know, thank you.

Tomorrow I'll respond to the people who tagged me for the 7 things meme. (although bloglines readers will have already seen it, but without the pictures).

Pictures not words - green garden