Back in May 2018 I wrote this: I have joined an online group called Near & Far. This is a Facebook-based group run by Chris Gray.
She hopes that we will have a gallery exhibition at some point. The
theme for this group is Maps & Journeys. And guess what I'm doing!
That's right! Venice!
We each have to make a minimum of 3 pieces - one wearable, one useful
and one decorative. I am going to make a Venice-inspired dress, a
sketchbook with a Venice-inspired cover and a scroll book as the
decorative piece that will be some sort of imagined journey along the
Grand Canal. I have bought several books about secret Venice so watch
this space!
So over 12 months later I started making the first piece. The decorative piece which isn't going to be a scroll at all. At the end of August I wrote about a workshop I did with Clare Bullock that resulted in me making 9 pieces of nuno felt that I stencilled on.
In the last few weeks I have been stitching each piece.
All the pieces have been stitched together - in a different arrangement from the first photo!
It's finished apart from working out how to fix the piece to the batten so it hangs on the wall.
In our Living Your Word of the Year group we are using a fortnightly
(bi-weekly) A-Z challenge throughout the year to help us focus on our
word and live it out.
Because of the way I have made my journal it's a case of going with the flow of what background the pages have when I turn to them.
Sadly, I was feeling totally devoid of any creative inspiration for these pages. The quotes I had found were rather long so I decided against cutting them up into strips.
Join Mary Brack, Valerie Sjodin and I in our Facebook group where we
are giving participants the opportunity to live out an A-Z of their
own word throughout 2019. Mary explains what we are doing in her blog post.
We don't like a lot of rules, so we will have suggestions and
options to spark creativity, and to help in recording and exploring
our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We will each blog about
our experiences and our art.
This week has been Mental Health Awareness week with World Mental Health Day on Thursday. The week started with a video: Every Mind Matters.
I have written about mental health and in particular my struggles with depression before - in a post Time to Talk Day and a follow up post More Talk.
This week I have felt better than I have felt for months. The previous week in particular was a really down time. I am reluctant to share with people if I am in need because the ladies I trust to ‘have my back’ either have really busy lives or have problems they are dealing with. But by the Friday I was in the deepest hole ever and felt I was not only going to hit rock bottom but disappear into the sludge beneath the rock. Not that I told anyone that. I did however message four friends to ask for prayer. They sent me lovely messages of support.
On the way to church I was thinking about life in general and the verse ‘without vision the people perish’. I was wondering why I do art and textiles, why I bother to run the Jubilee Studio, what was the point of getting up in the morning etc. During the preach, our guest speaker talked about living with a greater sense of our value, dignity and purpose.
During the meeting I was able to talk to people about the depression and lack of refreshing sleep - often getting up more tired than the night before. People prayed with me. During the coffee time afterwards a friend gave me a card and a present.
What timing! She hadn't known anything about my struggles.
If you are a Believer, don't doubt how important your prayers, chats and encouragement is.
If you are not a Believer, don't doubt how important your chats and encouragement are.
Either way, send cards, give gifts, smile, listen.
World Mental Health Day saw the release of this video.
