On the last couple of days now of working on the Mirabilia Domestica exhibition. It will be sad to take it down, its provided an inspiring space to work within, to create new textile ideas and Solveigh has been full advice and stories! Today I had a closer look at fellow assistant and Textile Artist Alex’s shrunken felted cardy, which is so cool! I have been trying to follow it stitch by stitch, to draw out the sheep pattern on graph paper, to knit up at a later date sometime...

“Everybody, everybody in the (Art) House of Love”. I’ve got this song stuck in my head by East 17. Its probably because I’ve recently been asked to take part in a group exhibition “We Are Your Friends” at the E17 Art House as part of the Walthamstow Art Trail over the first weeks of September. I will be showing a selection of screen prints of friendly characters along side other interesting print makers...

I’ve orchestrated a fight between a sewing machine and a typewriter...
My response to working within the space of Solveigh’s installation of Mirabilia Domestica, using the instruments in the workstation.

Looking forward to the summer ahead, I will be assisting textile artist and researcher Solveigh Goett on the final stint of her PhD, to install her exhibition of Mirabilia Domestica. I’m excited to be apart of this project, to get more hands on and get my teeth into textiles with a narrative, and inspiration for my own textile art exploration. Below is a press release about the project.

Since the beginnings of humanity textiles have accompanied us on our journey through life: not only our bodies and environments, but also our memories, feelings and thoughts are clothed. From socks and lucky underpants, sheets and blankets, curtains and jumpers, to uniforms and flags, beer tents and parachutes, telephone wires and fibre-optic cables, we live in a world heavily layered with textiles, a truly world wide web: without textiles human life is unimaginable.
Intrigued by the extraordinary power the most ordinary fabrics hold to evoke memories and capture emotions, textile artist and researcher Solveigh Goett has collected materials and stories, made assemblages, memory boxes, books and many other hybrid, quirky and whimsical things to create a cabinet of textile wonders that aims to entice the narrative imagination, to move, surprise and enchant its visitors.
Mirabilia Domestica celebrates the small things in life, so often overlooked by force of habit, yet so deeply embedded in the stories of our life. Like the cabinets of curiosities of early modernity, the predecessors to museums and galleries, Mirabilia Domestica is a densely packed space that doesn’t reveal all its treasures at a glance. There are boxes and drawers to be opened and their content to be explored by the curious eyes, minds and hands of the visitors, who rather than being kept at a distance are invited not only to look, but also to touch, smell and listen.
Breaking the touch taboo that dominates art exhibitions and museum displays, Mirabilia Domestica not only permits visitors to give in to their desire to feel what they see, but positively encourages them to engage through their senses with the textures of the work, to touch and to be touched. Such sensory exploration beyond the visual will enrich the visitors’ experience in unexpected ways, and also provide points of attachment for those who through loss of sight are often excluded from enjoying the visual arts.
Mirabilia Domestica: the textile self re/collected is part of a practice-based research project that links threads of experience and lines of thoughts to investigate the role of everyday textiles in the stories of our lives.
The project website serves as an on-line catalogue of the installation as well as leading the visitor into a wider network of textile matters, memories and metaphors.

For more information, please contact the artist solveigh_goett@hotmail.com

Mirabilia Domestica: the textile self re/collected
www.mirabilia-domestica.co.uk
7 August - 29 August 2010
Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture
Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts, EN4 8HT
www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/
Tuesday to Saturday, 10am - 5pm. Sunday, 2pm - 5pm. Closed on Monday.

One of my main obsessions and inspirations is japanese textiles. I’m very excited for tomorrow I’m going to see a Kabuki play with my mum, I’ve not been since I was about 5 or 6 when she took me then. Apparently she was completely amazed by the whole spectacle and started collecting books of Edo period woodblock prints, and photography of the costumes. I remember growing up with these stunned by the colour, pattern and style of these exotic forms. Recently I’ve been spending my sundays down Brick Lane, not shopping so much, and not so into people watching as I used to be, as everyone seems to look the same these days, but just wondering, taking in the vibrant atmosphere and being open to looking at all the colours, patterns and textures found on all the market stalls, still nothing pulls me more than a kimono or two.

Last week I ran a workshop of Colourful Collage for TreeHouse’s Parent Participation Project. On a beaming hot day, we set up camp in the middle of Markfield Park, surrounded by flower beds with a backdrop of some stunning graffiti, a skate park and an adventure playground designed by the children who use the day centre at Markfield. Some awesome colours to inspire me too!

So as a continuation of my previous post, it was such a lovely weekend, I wanted to show more of it. With the sun really out, proper, there was nowhere better to be than in the garden in Iffley, finishing off the final joins in my crochet comfort blanket. The last image shown here is my blanket modeled in Candy Pop’s dinning room (see my previous post).

I went to Candy Pop’s house the other day, and as ever I was stunned by her gorgeous sense of interior design and collections of toys, dolls and other memorabilia. She is also becoming an amazing photographer, which has inspired me again. These are some of my shots of just a very few of her collections. More can be seen on Candy Pop’s Flickr.

I’ve recently moved, and looking at my room, what’s missing is a nice cosy blanket for my bed. So I have started to crochet lots of squares which will be then joined together as a blanket to comfort me in my new home.

I run an adult knitting session in Tottenham. I have one very anxious regular, who comes along each week with no interest for knitting or crochet just as yet, but who wants my creative help to gain the confidence to make collages and 2d work. Having recently found out she’s really into gardens, this is what we are working on at the moment...

Jennifer is one of the girls who comes along to my after school knitting group. I think she’s about 8/9 years old ( I’ll have to check when I see her next week). Anyway today she told me that she is going to start up a business were she knits things and then people buy them. I said that this was a sweet idea, then she quickly pointed out to me that this wasn’t just an idea, that she had already made £5 selling the scarf she had only just learnt to knit a few weeks back!!

(This is the one Jennifer was working on today).

Last week I was invited to go down to Brighton for the day to help out on the UK Hand Knit Association’s stand at the Creative Stitches show at the Brighton Centre. Most of it was not so much to my taste, mainly hobbyist card making and tacky lower end commercial craft, which is a good thing as I wasn’t tempted to buy anything! However it was massively busy, and I was rushed off my feet with a que of mainly elder ladies wanting me to teach them how to crochet! So after a day full of slipknots, hooks and chains, and yarning over, I went for a quiet walk along the seafront to take in the waves before heading back to London. Getting on the train I spotted a musician, who I only recognized from some gigs I had been to in the last few months, where he was featuring with his band Drum Eyes. Dj Scotch Egg joined me for the journey home. We had a lovely chat about noisy music, before I left him on his way onward to Leicester...

DJ Scotch Egg - Scotch Chicken

Nothing To See Here | MySpace Music Videos

I am moving house. Although it is very sad and stressful, its time for a change. So things may be a bit quiet on here until I get settled again.

A treat to myself this Christmas, to keep my head warm and pretty!

I few months ago I bought this Jitterbug yarn at the iknit weekender. I’ve been wanting some hand warmers so I picked up my 5 needles and made up these as I went along! I hope you like them. Here’s the pattern if you fancy making your own pair, mine are rather small and snug, so you may wish to add a few extra stitches, but I’m sure they will stretch with a bit of wear. This is the first pattern I have written up for others so it may not read well or seem a bit awkward. Don’t feel obliged to follow it note for note just as long as the second hand matches the first!

5x 5.5mm double ended knitting needles
I used Jitterbug yarn but doubled up more like a DK weight.

Cast on 40 stitches, then split between 4 needles and join in the round.
1-6: knit in the round
7-29: rib stitch (knit 2, purl 2)
30: knit 2, purl 2tog
31-43: rib stitch (knit 2, purl 1)
44: knit 2, purl 1, make1
45-54: rib: knit 2, purl 2
55: cast off 10 stitches at start of round to make thumb hole, continue to rib(k2, p2) rest of round
56-64: at start of round now purl 4 above thumb hole opening, then continue to rib knit 2, purl 2
66: knit 1, make 1, knit 1, purl 2tog
67: knit 1, purl 1
68: purl 1, knit 1
69: knit 1, purl 1
70: last row cast off.

Susie is one of my ladies who attends my crochet class at Hornsey Library. She has been involved with putting on an event with a bunch of food bloggers called Blaggers Banquet, and even blagged me into screen printing up a whole bunch of tote bags to give away as their guest’s goodie bags! I wonder what’s in the bag for me!

After knowing Mr Boyce for over 3 years with a beard, he has decided to go clean shaven. This has been some what of a shock to me and others, so I have made him a woolly replacement in crochet to keep his face warm.

As some of you know I have a crochet group on Saturday mornings, this week we thought we'd meet up at the Knitting and Stitching show. If you are already going it would be great to see you there! Tickets are available on the door for £12.00, so I believe.

Before going into the show we are going to have our usual Saturday morning crochet and knit meet up.
If you want to join us we will be meeting up on:

Saturday 10th October, at 11am. Outside The Phoenix pub, next to the main entrance of the Palm Court of Ally Pally.

This meet up is free to attend and anyone can come! - you don't even have to go into the show!

I will also be going to the show on Friday 9th if anyone wants to meet up! Hope to see you all there!

I have recently discovered a friend’s blog: Milk Glow, full of stunning and inspirational photography, it also looks at some beautiful crafts, so I thought I would share it with you.

The beginning of September, means back to school for most people. For me it’s my birthday! This year, last week, I skipped off to the seaside to celebrate!

Tags: Seaside

I am knitting a letter ‘S’ for the Poetry Society. They want lots of knitted letters which will be sewn together to make up a secret poem, to be revealed in October. I wonder what its gonna be?

Tags: The Poetry Society

Over the summer I have a few extra sessions at Coombes Croft Library.
Here’s what we created today...

Yesterday I took my felt Cats on a trip to St Aloysius social club, in Euston for a bit of craftwerk, they made lots of new friends and admirers, and some of them even went off to new homes.

Tags: Craftwerk, Tatty Devine

On Sundays, get yourself down to the Back Yard Market, off Brick Lane, where you will find the Print Monger, the stall for Print Club. You may also occasionally see me down there running the stall with some of my own prints!

Tags: Print Club

I have recently entered the world of Olive Loves Alfie, a lovely boutique on Church Street, in Stoke Newington. It has everything I could wish for, bright vibrant colours, patterns, stunning design and japanese influences and a sense of magic in the clothing, accessories, toys, prints and products. Only thing is, its meant to be for little children, and I keep forgetting that at age 30, I am now supposed to be a grown up, and can’t fit into those cute tiny t-shirts! To my fortune, owner ( and former Red Or Dead shoe designer), Ashlyn Gibson spotted me wearing one of my felt cats in her boutique and thought they would be perfect to sell in her shop! My felt printed cats now hang in the window, waiting for small (and big) children to take them home...

I discovered this amazing little shop today on Blackstock Road, in Finsbury Park. Some of the ladies in my crochet group had mentioned it in passing, but I had no idea just how much stock they have! It was really hard to leave empty handed. I managed to only buy two items, some matching purple cotton to finish off my treble crochet granny square!

Well, I have run out of time on my UFO, so I guess for now it is finished. I had intended to do something totally obscure and weird to transform an ordinary piece of knitting into some sculptural multi-coloured form. But when I received the unfinished cardigan, I couldn’t bare to make it odd, in saying that I think my colour choice has made it end up equally as an oddment! Anyway here’s the story behind it, then what I did...
Great Granny’s Oddment Cardigan. “This back of a cardigan was constructed from great granny’s sock oddments basket. From a mixture of 4ply blues and greens. Have you any oddments lying around?”…

The back instantly looked like it would make a rather lovely top. I found an odd ball of sock yarn and started crocheting around the edge, gave it a few ruffles, then it was transformed from an cast-off cardigan to a hyperbolic halter-neck!

Rachael and Louise at Prick Your Finger are, for the next couple of months, becoming the administration service for a UFO project, which will result in an exhibition at the Jerwood Space. UFO being - Un Finished Object! This is aimed at all those knitting and crochet items that were once started then forgotten, another chance for these to have a lease of life. It sounded like a great project for me to get stuck into, so for the next couple of weeks I have put on hold my crochet and knits to finish off someone else’s UFO, and at the same time handing over a piece I had given up on.

This is a hat I started a while back, then used it as sample to practice my cable stitch on. It then got too tight for my head, and I got fed up of it. I wonder how it will turn out?

An old friend from my art school days, got married at the weekend. It was a lovely barn wedding full of bunting, dancing, casks of ale, and plenty of food for us campers on the farm! Emma and Terry asked on the invite for presents, if any, to be handmade, so I screen printed them a pair of budgies.

This is probably as close as I will get to being at the Royal College of Art! I went along for a day put on by the Crafts Council and ReachOutRCA, for Teachers / Craft Makers working with children,“Revival: Exploring Contemporary Ceramics, Jewellery and Textiles” It was so very inspiring to see the students work, and encouraged me again that this really is my area, and through looking around the studios, their standard of work is attainable for me , and yet at the same time, i don’t necessarily have to do an MA there and spend huge amounts of money to achieve my creativity, then again wouldn’t it be great...

Last night I took my hand screen printed felt cats on their first outing, down to The Albany, in Deptford for A Little Bazaar. I shared a stall with two lovely and creative ladies Parusha & Anita, and together we had a wealth of vintage, design and hand made craft on our table! We had lots of fun dancing about to a great DJ set, ate glitter cupcakes from the next stall, and tested punters on their bartering skills! My cats had a fair amount of interest, so I thought it was time to share them with you! If you would like to buy one, please email me!




Thank you Parusha & Anita and A Little Bazaar for a fun evening. x

The last month or so has been a hard slog. For some mad reason I decided to hand screen print a book. A selected collection of my bus drawings. With it being themed around my journeys on the 43 bus, I thought I should make 50 copies, just to round things up.
The first few pages printed off in their multiple copies was quite enjoyable - I can really say that I have the hang of screen printing now! Currently with my two small screens, I have had to re-coat for each different page, hence this process has seemed like forever.
But finally I can see light at the end of the tunnel, I have two more inside pages to print and the cover is half done! I don’t yet know exactly how many copies I will have, as there have been a few slip ups here and there. The next fun part will come with the folding of 300 pieces of A4 into A5, and then the binding...
Please email me if you want to reserve a copy, once they are gone, thats it! I won’t be printing this again!!

The Viral Project is a hands-on participatory project that can engage large numbers and a wide range of participants in exciting craft-making. Critical to the project is an exciting, fun, craft and inspired “viral casade” learning approach. The Viral Project will initially be a three year programme, focusing on different craft elements each year that act as a key theme and inspiration to investigate topical themes. The first year will focus on the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, encompassing crochet, geometry and ecology.

If you would like to be involved with this project, please contact Katy Bevan at the Crafts Council:

participate@craftscouncil.org.uk

Sorry, not been on here for ages to post anything up, which, I guess is a good thing ‘cos it sort of means I’ve been busy doing other stuff. Here, is what I came up with after a few days working at the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia...Yet more hyperbolic crochet forms, working with stripped up plastic bags. This one is made with a bag from Marks & Sparks, and a few Accardo bags on the edge.

Today I had to go to the Southbank Centre for a meeting, and had a sudden idea before leaving my flat this morning, grabbed an old sample of knit that I did about a year ago - finally! I think I have found a use for it!!

After leaving the Royal Festival Hall, I headed over to the Skater Park to find the new home for my square of green knitting...

I was a bit nervy at first and thought someone was gonna come over and tell me off for doing stuff there, but no one did, I wish my whole bag full of yarn to string up there, with those pillars, I could do some installations like my previous work.
Anyway here’s what i got up to...


This piece is far too small for this amazing pillar.


Knitting resting on wall whilst i look for a better location.


I found a railing - perfect!


Tied on with a bit of pink yarn.



Looking out to the Thames.

Tags: Green Graffitti

SNOW!!!

and my zebra crochet cosy is still there


The tree is still warped up in the park - i still don’t know who did this.


And this was our snowslug...

I’ve been a bit naughty and have started a bout of graffitti...

ha ha! watch out for more to come!
If you like this, check out www.yarnbombing.com

I have been making a knitted balaclava - watch this space for further news why! Anyway, I got a bit inspired and went off on a colorful one to make this crocheted piece too! I was thinking that the whole idea for having a balaclava is to blend into the background, and to create a disguise - well I would love to find the place where this blends into...

thank you. xxxxxxxxxxx

I have been working for the Southbank Centre over the last week to help create a pair of Sound Snow Sleighs. I did most of the upholstering by hand, and now my fingers are really sore ( next time i will take my sewing machine with me!) But now its done it looks lovely, gleaming and snowlike!

OK, don’t laugh - I didn’t design the flyer OR come up with the name,
but i will be running two of these groups for the next six weeks!!
If you want to join in please contact to book a place.

After spending all day traveling up the country wating for delayed and cancelled trains trying to get back home, I had about half an hour to dump my bags, rest, make a cuppa, and get ready for the ATP’s Release the Bats, with Lightning Bolt playing first at 6.30 - we couldn’t be late. But I couldn’t go to a Halloween party without a costume so this was my super fast cardboard cut out and tin foil attempt. Of course it got completely crushed as I made it to the front of the mosh for Lightning Bolt!

I have begun to string up a new textile site specific installation, this is it so far...

I have submitted two designs for threadless.com, once up there will be 7 days for you lovely people to vote for them! (you don’t need to choose between them just gimme 5 for both!!) I think these would make great t-shirts, don’t you!



Click on the links below, sign up / login in and get voting!!!

I was just heading into town on the tube today and discovered my poster is still up! Now try this!! Get yourself a pair of Tatty Devine 3D glasses- like the ones I'm modeling here, and look at my drawing, this was totally by accident but really works! Get your own from www.tattydevine.com

come down to the port mahon in Oxford, see Euhedral (Lee Reily) make noise, and check out my poster!

This entry is just a test. more details to follow later...