I wish everybody a wonderful 2024, and hope 2023's problems reach a peaceful conclusion. It's been a rocky ride since 2019 when Covid first struck, and the whole world can also definitely do without the blatant acts of terrorism, greed and war which have ensued.
The January chill set in right on time this week, bringing beautiful displays of ice patterns - this one was on my car window. This was thankfully on the outside, but there was also a bit of frosting inside, too - the car has been letting in water which is pooling in the rear passenger footwell (we think it may be something to do with the sun roof drain hoses).
I wish everybody a wonderful 2024, and hope 2023's problems reach a peaceful conclusion. It's been a rocky ride since 2019 when Covid first struck, and the whole world can also definitely do without the blatant acts of terrorism, greed and war which have ensued. B and I made a 'no presents' rule this year, especially as far as the kids are concerned. We told them to hang on to their hard-earned cash, and instead we would just exchange hand-make cards - even if it was a photo sent by email with some writing on it, anything to save them spending money in these hard times. This is the card I made for Mr. T. The simple frame is from George at Asda (unbelievably costing the same to buy as an average single Christmas card). I removed the glass and used the frame as a substrate for the card. The 'sky' is made from some insulation packaging material studded with tiny resistors (Mr. T is an electrician), the droplets are from an old chandelier I stripped down a few years ago and the snow and clouds are Dacron appropriated from the waste bin at work. An umbel I had used for printmaking, some foil snowflakes left over from previous Christmas projects and some of B's natural linen he uses for his paintings make the foreground of the landscape, and the little 'books' stuck to the bottom of the frame are cut up pieces of piping from chairs we regularly strip at work.
Pop over to my Binky blog to see the 'card' I made for Molly and Ben! From birthday cards onto Christmas cards - the dining table still in workshop mode. I know I'm not going to get them posted in time for Christmas - Asda has run out of 2nd class stamps, it's too costly to send them all 1st class, I already used the ones I had posting to Europe and a birthday card. I'll have to be better organised next year!
Already it seems to me the light is changing, reflections are brighter, and a ray of sunshine is going a longer distance now than before the solstice. I don't know why, because the angle of the sun hasn't changed, if anything it's a degree lower than on the solstice; and sunrise is even a few minutes later. However, solar noon and sunset are slowly growing later by the day and we are approaching perihelion day on the 4th January - I image those factors contribute to the subtle change.
In the mean time, since Christmas B and I received lots more cards in the post, only delayed slightly by the mail strikes - further adding to my guilt-trip because I didn't send any cards out for the first time in my life this festive season. What an old Scrooge I have been, and I can only apologise and express my gratitude for the physical ones which arrived on my doorstep as well as the calls and messages from others. Anyway, I wish all of you a very happy 2023 and thank you all for your kind thoughts and Christmas greetings. I'll make sure that my cards for Christmas 2023 are bigger, better, more sparkly, and made on time to send out this year! There's a high resolution (Dad joke, I've been pulling too many Christmas crackers). A very merry and bright Christmas to all!
Instead of the usual photo of the Christmas tree, here are two cheeky bunnies called Salt and Pepper peeping out from amongst the greetings cards. For the first time ever I didn't make or send out any Christmas cards this year, mostly because of the prohibitive cost of postage stamps together with the complications of mail strikes and rumours that no-one would receive them until February. I had assumed that not many people would bother this year for the same reasons, but I am overwhelmed by the number of cards B and I have received! A very big thank you to you lovely people who were so kind and took the trouble to think of us this year and persevered in spite of all the difficulties. It's most welcome and cheering. On Tuesday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland: our windows figured with ice landscapes from a different world, all on the insides of our windows. Yes, the insides - it was very cold. Like most people we had been trying not to use our heating as we went into winter because of soaring energy bills, but when overnight forecasts for -6°c and -7.5°c arrived we set a couple of radiators to come on for an hour in the morning before getting out of bed. Even with the radiators on, this still happened - it was like living inside a Christmas card. Oh well, Christmas is coming, after all ... The cold continued for nearly the whole week (falling just one day short of our entitlement to receive cold weather payments from the government). Our windows in the house didn't start to clear of frost until the weekend. It was a dark but sparkling week of scraping ice off the car and defrosting it at 6.30every morning so I could get to work on time. I am eternally grateful for B's help in doing this good deed every day.
Yes, I do have one. This is it, my secret weapon. A Diamond sewing machine of uncertain age and industrial strength which serves as my day job, which is rather wonderful, actually. I work in upholstery, which involves 3-D sewing. At the moment I am part of a team making seat covers for a total refurbishment of a Winnebago motor home. It's a sculptural process with templates, turns, piping, curves, and lots of foam sheet. My job is sewing, and this his is a photo of my main machine which I love. Others on the team say she is temperamental and a bit of a swearword to operate, but by learning her ways and being used to her, I get along just fine and enjoy her personality. She's got grip, grit, strength and swagger. I haven't yet seen the motor home I'm sewing for at the moment, but here's a photo lifted from Winnebago's website which, judging from the old seats the team have taken out looks about like the right sort of thing. Normally at this time of year I would be blogging about making Christmas cards etc, but I'm not doing that this year. Prohibitive postal costs in conjunction with delays caused by Royal Mail strikes have made it undoable for delivery before Christmas, so it's going to be hand deliveries only this year. I have a stash of cards I made a couple of years ago which my neighbours haven't yet had, so there is no point in spending time and energy making new Christmas cards to post which likely won't be delivered until February. Instead, I'm going to make Happy New Year cards - then it won't matter when they arrive!
I posted a work in progress image on 9 October, before completing additions of red accents in the little red clouds. I only just realised I hadn't updated here with a finished image of the work which will be included in Open Eye Gallery's exhibition On a Small Scale which opens online on Saturday 26 November - this Saturday already. So here it is now.
Ooh, getting close to Christmas now, how exciting! I reckon it's safe to show this year's Christmas cards and gift tags now, as everyone should have received theirs. After two design fails which proved either too expensive (cannot believe how the price of making a rubber stamp has risen) or too time-consuming to make lino-cuts before post deadlines, I settled on simple prints from a cardboard triangle plus the usual rubber stamp culprits. Printed on imitation Japanese tissue from Lawrence Arts, mounted on card. Although not as planned, the blend of materials worked well at the last minute.
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Welcome to my work journal - a weekly update on drawings, work in progress, doodles and day-dreaming.
I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the heatherelizawalker. with weebly.com and it will work again. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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As well as the work you see here, I illustrate under the name of Binky McKee (my mother's maiden name was McKee, Binky was every single one of my great grandmother's many cats!)
If you would like to visit my Binky website, please click the picture above. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Dissolving PeopleA symbol on the footpath outside a local primary school gradually disappearing as the image breaks up and wears away until eventually it is obliterated by leaves and barely discernible. Photographed at intervals of several months between February 2021 and November 2022, oldest at the top.
(My shoes look so new in the first pic, and note the transition to new phone in the last photo). <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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April 2024
(Sorry the archives don't nest!)
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A 2013 work book, still very much in use Please note all images on this website are ©Heather Eliza Walker 2013 - 2020, and may not be used or reproduced without prior consent. |