Puglia day 2

Today we started playing with translating our sketches into mini art works using ironon transfer mediums, and intense and other pigment based crayons, felt pens and watercolour paints, to create backgrounds. From this we had to work out ways to stitch over them using a twisted chain stitch taught to us by jean. The premise was to get us using only 1 stitch in a no of ways and a no. of different stitching mediums.
Today was also my 50th birthday and the girls surprised me with a mini party at dinner, with balloons and Rosa baked a gluten free cake. It was sweet and a nice end to the day.

Puglia day 1

The first day in Puglia , began with jan and jean giving an outline of the course and then we plunged headlong into the course.
First order of the day was to make viewing squares made from L shaped card. We were given he task of heading out around the masseria to find interesting textures and compositions that we could translate into embroideries. Our task was 10 small sketches with various textures and line forms. After multiple cries of "we can't draw!!! " we headed out. Jan showed ideas to get us started.
After an hour of finding imagery and simple sketching, we headed in for lunch and then spent the afternoon drooling over jan and jeans samples and doing tutorials on assorted techniques. It was a full day.

P day (puglia adventure)

After a few minor disasters such as debit card being suspended, running out of credit on phone while trying to sort it out, and housekeeping barging in early in the morning as they thought I had left, waking me up in a panic, and the stress of ryanair and their horrenous excess baggage charges,but the day got better once my new felt artist friend Yulia arrived to take me to Stansted airport with a drop in to her home and studio on the way. Her friend and also felt artist Sue Pearl popped in , and we went for a pub lunch before heading to the airport. Sue kindly offered to mind my extra luggage while away, and take me to Heathrow on my return.
After I was dropped at Stansted and scraped in underweight by a smidge, I waited to meet up with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn plus the other participants. We found a couple of the ladies and flew to Bari on the northern side of Italy and then a 1/2 hour drive to puglia in the dark , arriving at the Masseria at about 10ish at night. We were greated by Rosa, the housekeeper, and found the other 4 participants for our course awaiting our arrival. There were 12 of us in total including the tutors. I shared a room with a lovely older lady called Joy. We had a supper and intro to the venue and met all the participants - which included Ann from Houston, Elizabeth from Finland, myself and a mixture of girls from all over Britain. The morning light showed how lovely the property is! And how lovely the countryside is and very different from Tuscany in colour, stone and light. It is quite an arid landscape , it can't sustain livestock but does suit fruit trees and olives well.

The solo adventure begins!

After jeff and Lauren left I had 2 days and nights alone before flying to Puglia. I had decided that I would go to London tower to see more of Kendra Hastes wire work, but after adding the costs up- as most attractions around London aren't cheap plus a daily tube fare, and the weather was again dark and densely foggy. I decided to investigate the local area. I needed a light bag for my extra kilos of luggage and the concierge recommended a small local market. So I headed back towards Hoxton , found the bag I needed, along with fabrics, could have gotten loads of scarves and clothing cheap, but found a little DIY shop that sold amazing textured wallpapers. After chatting with the staff, they have me metre long samples of about 10 different ones- score!! And it was even free! From here I walked on to the Whitechapel gallery, which had interesting installations and I thought they had Damian Hursts Shark in resin ,but apparently it's rotting and leaking and no longer on display. From here I found Petticoat lane which has the most amazing African and Indian fabrics and I ended up back at Spital field markets, where I bought my top hat that I had wanted to buy but hadn't. Then with fading light and masses of traffic, I hurriedly walked back home. I wouldn't walk these areas at night.

Our last day together

This was our big moving day out of the basement flat in Hoxton, and then by mini cab to Marlin Apartments at Limehouse again. We left our bags there and used our Oyster cards for the last few times into London. We were all tired and generally not that excited as it was foggy and rainy and I can understand why they get sad syndrome, cause we had it bad. I did find my lifesize wire elephant by kendra haste at Liverpool station- very cool. I journeyed with jeff and Lauren through the tube stations helping carry baggage as many don't have lifts or escalators. In the end it was a rush to get them on the heathrow train and goodbyes were fleeting, which was probably good as I would have been a blubbering mess. So they flew home together.

Lavender hill and then the palace

This was our second last day together and jeff had worked out a plan for finding a model and sci fi shop, and then we were off to see the palace . It was a really wet foggy day. After a tube an train ride, then short walk , we found the shop and the characters that run it, and a saving grace was that there was a nice fabric shop next door, so that made my day. If only it was as light as silk. They had beautiful liberty fabrics by the mile. But I did get a few small pieces to add to the weight limit. We had coffee t a nice cafe and then bused and tubed to the palace. We met lauren, did the look around and then walked back through st James park. We loads of geese , ducks other birds and loads of crazy squirrels. It's sad that they going to kill around 20,0000 grey ones soon. I gather they aren't native and have overtaken red squirrel areas- but still I hate to see anything killed and they are cute but I imagine to the Brits it's the same as brush tail possums overrunning other species, still sad though!!!!

Hoxton st little monsters shop

After a day at the markets I went for a wander to the end of Hoxton st , not considered the "nice "part of the area, and discovered an amazing little shop. Rather non descript at first until I read the title. "Hoxton st monster supplies" could have been a lady gaga shop for all I knew. On closer inspection I saw jars of human snot, eye balls, jars of moonlight and sunlight, as well as monster tooth floss, and the list went on. I had to go in and the gorgeous girls inside let me photograph everything- as it turned out it was a shop front for a creative writing workshop , to aid the less fortunate children of the area, and get them into creative writing. I was instantly hooked and had to go home and get my purse to buy a monster map of Hoxton and some other ghoulish items. It was wonderful! I'm hoping that you can read the writing in some of the images!i would have bought a bottle of laughter to keep spare if I wasn't worried it would break on the trip home , and cause a giggle fest.