Dreaming Spirals

A little later than promised but here’s my FOQ report!  I have just been on holiday to Normandy for a week and when we left we thought the cable modem might be acting up because the internet was completely down but it was obviously Virgin Media up to its tricks again because it is working fine now.  Phew!

I had fun at FOQ!  I met up with Myfanwy, who with her husband was manning her stand, Winifred Cottage where she sells yummy hand dyed threads and other goodies.  Here we are in a photo taken by her obliging husband:

I also met Marion, whose shop on Etsy inspired me to open mine - it was lovely to meet her at last after knowing her online for so long.  She was manning the Spunart stand, and demonstrating the uses of lutradur and evolon.  She and Dijanne have just written a book on CD about lutradur and this was one of the things I bought.  Here is the pile of loot:

I bought Committed to Cloth’s latest book on Paper and Metal Leaf Lamination and spent lots of time in their Virtual Studio at the show where they were demonstrating how to go about it. 

My favourite exhibit was the one by Dorothy Caldwell - here she is sitting next to one of her quilts which serves to demonstrate the size of it.

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There are a lot of Neolithic and other prehistoric remains in North Wales and I found quite a few to inspire me. 

This was a stone at an entrance to Bryn Celli Ddu dolmen on Anglesey.  I love the squiggles and spirals.  This was what it was like on the reverse:

This is the dolmen itself:

There was another megalith a few miles away - Bodowyr.

Getting a bit more modern, I love this engraved image which appears on a lot of gravestones in this area:

And I couldn’t end this post without the most iconic railway station sign in the UK!

And just in case you wonder what it means, here it is translated underneath the nearby shopping outlet:

I’m helping with crafts at the holiday club at church next week so I’ll probably be exhausted the rest of the time, so if I’m quiet you will know why.  Had a great time at the Festival of Quilts yesterday - I will blog about that next…

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Sorry for any confusion regarding my posts at the present! I’m not actually on holiday still, but I wrote them when I was so I’m posting them just as I wrote them ….

A few months ago I wrote an article for the Computer Textile Design Group magazine, Design It and it has recently been published. The CTDG is a UK based organisation which was started by the embroiderer Valerie Campbell Harding for people who use the computer in textile design. My article is about using the Print Gocco to create unframed thermofax screens to print on fabric with a squeegee. From manipulating the original image on the computer to making the screen, to printing it. So if you’re a member, look out for it! I haven’t seen it yet but it’s my first ever magazine article so I’m pretty excited about it!

I have a second article coming out in the next magazine too!

Finally, I’m going to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham tomorrow and am hoping to meet a couple of online friends who are exhibiting there. Woo hoo!

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This afternoon (as I am typing in the cottage in Porthmadog) we went to the island of Anglesey and one of the things we did was to go for a walk along a pebbly beach.  I was struck by the colours and shapes of the pebbles and rocks - they were really varied and colourful.

There were some amazing textures and patterns on the rocks.  I don’t know what made this pattern but it looks almost like a symbol.

I love the holes in this rock:

And the ridges in this one:

We also saw this poor jellyfish stranded on the beach:

Just to put this into context, this was the view across the water - Caernarfon Castle and the Menai Straits:

And up the beach there were these wonderfully weathered wooden posts:

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I’ve been taking LOADS of photographs over the holiday, which I can see myself using as inspiration for work over the next few months. 

We went to the Swallow Falls at Betws y Coed - the waterfalls were awesome but I also looked at the overhanging trees and the moss on the stones….

I love this tree and the moss on its trunk.

Just so you don’t think I ignored the waterfall completely, here is one shot of it!

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Before I went on holiday I wrote about myself for the Ecoetsy Team blog and it is posted there today! Featured sellers also write eco tips or tutorials so I also wrote a photo tutorial on printing with waste materials, which is also published there. If you want to see my playtime with bubblewrap, pizza bases and paint on used envelopes, go and check it out! I think they turned out quite well and I’m going to use them as wrapping paper for art bought in my Etsy shop.

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