MERRY CHRISTMAS

Advent by Helen Birmingham

Hark!

The herald angels are announcing

twenty four days to what?

A crescendo of anticipation with jingle bells 

tolling the final anticlimax.

Santas watching their 'flock-covered' plastic reindeer.

Festive velvety bloom with curled tinsel tails.

The cattle are lowing 

but the baby awakes to the

drip, drip, drip of the unreasonable expectation behind 

soggy cardboard windows.

Oh come all ye faithful clowns 

in your stupid clown hats.

Electronic trumpets and drums for the little drummer boy.

Toy trains and teddy bears.

Bouncing balls 

and candy canes.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The Winter Hibernation of a Mixed Media Artist

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Yesterday was the last open day of the Studio Gallery for 2013. The Gallery will now become my sitting room for the winter, and will slowly undergo a transformation into "The Movement and Action of Worms" exhibition, which will be part of Coastival in February 2014. Lots of work to do, but 3 years preparation has gone into the planning of the exhibition, and I'm really excited to see the outcome.

I'm going into hibernation so that i can work on the exhibition, a commission and preparation for BCTF in Harrogate in April. All well defined projects, fixed end dates, and predictable outcomes. Just how I like to work. I will be around and about for my birthday weekend 6th December, and there is a musical evening at the gallery in january - details to follow - but essentially i am now out of circulation - not that anyone will notice probably!!!

And then, in the spring/early summer I hope to start working on the totally unpredictable result of one of the hardest personal  journeys I've been on.  The long saga of our property in Lockton, on the Moors near Pickering, came to a head a couple of weeks ago, with news that the sale had fallen through (again) and we knew we needed, at least, to "winterproof" the buildings. While organising that, my enthusiasm for the place, and its potential, just bubbled over again, so The Pantry at Lockton is about to undergo Plan 74:z stage (<iiii) part 109!

Hopefully working with a group of Ryedale artists, and with backing from the Parks Authority and the Parish Council, my husband, Rob, and I, are going to set up a Charitable Trust which will play host to a gallery and seasonal tearooms, run a weekend residential workshop programme, including Poetry, Art, Photography, nature studies, walking groups, and, and, and - with accommodation and activities for up to 6 guests. 

More work needs to be done on the building, and obviously there is a huge mountain of administration and planning to undertake, but Rob and I have re-gained our enthusiasm for Lockton - and each other - with 300 miles distance between us, and the next year will hopefully bear fruit in many aspects of our lives which we have struggled with. Watch this space.

So, until the Spring, you can keep in touch with me on my exhibition blog www.movementofworms.blogspot.com  x x. Have a great Christmas if i dont see you over my birthday weekend. X x. 

Commissions and Open Studios Application

 

This is a wallhanging which I made as a commission earlier this month. It seems to have been very well received, and i really enjoyed making it. I have now also been commissioned to make a screen and a window blind for another customer, as part of the decor in a newly refurbished cottage in Snainton.  I hadn't realised how exciting it would be to visit the client and measure, and design the product to suit the situation - but again, very happy with brief, and the quotation and specification sheets have been signed off this weekend by the client -  so full steam ahead. Delivery w/c 9th December. I'll post photographs as i go along.

Thanks to an impromtu chip butty in Lockton on Friday, I was made aware that the final deadline for North Yorkshire Open Studio 2014 applications is tomorrow!! (very grateful - thank you Sue!) Spent today putting my application together. I hope I am successful in being selected again. This year it will feel really good to be part of the scheme, with my screens and wallhangings. I will have BCFT Harrogate under my belt by then, and will therefore have a good product range to display and hopefully sell.

Work on my Darwin exhibition for Coastival goes on - but mostly in my head at the moment. I am anticipating getting a good long run at it over Christmas. The preparation has been 3 years in the making, so I am hopeful that the work itself will fall into place quite easily.  Once the current exhibition in the gallery is taken down next weekend I should be able to see some physical and mental space.

And then there is the Lockton situation.. . .  after a nightmare year with bad tenants, unsuccessful auctions and sadness at finally deciding to virtually give it away, our buyer has pulled out! Lots of soul searching and decision making has had to take place - but we have come up with another cunning plan, Firstly though, we need to weather-proof it against the winter. 

 

  . .  Watch this space for updates! 

 

Wallhangings at The Studio Gallery

Some of my wallhangings will be making their public debut at the Scarborough Poetry Workshop open mic night, tomorrow, 18th October 2013, from 7.30pm to 9.00pm. Please come -  EVERYONE WELCOME. If you like,  just be part of the audience. There's no pressure to perform. If you fancy giving it a go though, bring along your favourite poem to read aloud. It can be a published poem, or even better, one of your own!!!  

The Studio Gallery, 5 Belle Vue Parade, YO11 1SU

And while you listen or recite you can have a look at the wallhangings, which I am photographing for my website - soon to appear on www.helenbirmingham.com and BCTF Harrogate - April 2014.

Obsession

The end is always suprising.

Totally unforeseen

however often it comes.

Take the thread.

Sew with it.

Go with it.

There is no absolute.

Working towards BCTF at Harrogate 2014

Well I feel like I've taken on a huge commitment - But it's the incentive I needed to actually get a business up and running. 

Helen Birmingham - Contemporary Quilting. 

I'm busy making samples and setting up an online shop for TRADE customers.

The product which I'll be launching at British Craft Trade Fair in April 2014 is a versatile quilted panel design, broadly based on my studies into evolution and heredity. I am using natural fibres for the outside 'look' of the panels, but as a child of the 1960's I have a reminiscent sentimental love for Terylene wadding in eiderdowns and quilts. I am using 4oz wadding, which gives that wonderfully puffy, over-stuffed comforter feel.

Each panel begins life as a piece of linen measuring 18" wide by about 6ft long. I work the surface with the addition of appliqued and quilted fabrics, such as linen, hemp, wool, silk and cotton. I am particularly fond of hessian, jute and muslin with very open weave, the structure of which i can physically manipulate before stitching to the suface of the panel.

 I also really like the look of couched thread, string and wool. My favourite hand embroidery stitches are a plain running stitch, bullion stitch and a simple fly stitch. 

Once i am satisfied with the look or feel of the panel, and before using wadding or batting, or binding the edges, I make a decision as to the end product i wish to make. This either involves cutting the panel into smaller sections, for example for a cushion or a bag, or stitching panels together to form larger wallhangings or throws.

I think this will provide a versatile method of working. I have a very creative mind, and have acknowledged my constant need to keep moving forwards with ideas and projects. I believe that this method of working will mean that i can adapt ideas and design within a fairly stable framework. I will be able to make a 'stock pile' of panels, and then adapt them according to the orders i receive.  I am very happy with the progress of this project so far. I have my logo. I nearly have my on-line shop. I am making good samples, thinking about the 'look' of my trade stand, and have an information leaflet ready to send to printers.

Onwards . . . . . .  

The Shroud of Motherhood

Poetry and the written word has opened a rich seam of inspiration for me. I find i can express things in words which i can't in images. I have now begun to look at the interaction between the two art forms.

One fascinating example of this "cross-fertilisation" or to give it its proper title, ecphrasis, is the work of sculptor and poet, Pascale Petit. In 'What the Water gave Me' Pascale Petit speaks in the voice of Mexican Painter, Freda Kahlo. Each poem is an interpretation, or the voice of a specific Kahlo painting and shares its title with that painting. 

Taking this as a starting point, i have tried to use poetry to describe the feeling i had when looking at a piece of art. Janet White recently had an exhibition at The Studio Gallery called 'Transition'. Unbeknown to me, when she was taking the work down earlier in the week, she wrapped the wire sculptures in white plastic, to protect them during transit.  When i came back in the afternoon one of the figures appeared to be hanging in a shroud. This poem is my response.

Transition by Janet White

The Shroud of Motherhood

By Helen Birmingham

Blood red still flowing in a luminescent sac.

Old body catching stains 

Running in rivulets through folds of silk.

Perfumed whiteness hanging by a noose of thread.