rockpool candy

Incredible Inedibles

Picture the scene:
It's a fresh, bright autumnal day here in Northern Ireland. The neighbourhood is just waking up, and I'm out strolling with my hub, lifting my face to the sky and generally soaking up as many rays before the big fireball in the sky heads off on its winter hols 'til April.

And I am stopped dead in my tracks by a dewy lawn sparkling in front of me.

But it's not the dew, or the lawn, that are calling to me. It's the gargantuan array of fungi spreading before me.

Now, being an opportunistic sort, my raccoon-like senses started tingling. Here was a whole weekend-full of free dyeing waiting to be gathered.

It being early, I didn't want to ring the owner's doorbell, so I slipped a card through their door requesting to be let loose.
More excited than it's really reasonable to be at the prospect of them calling to say it was OK, I headed back to the house and got together a foraging pack - sealable plastic bags, gloves, camera, that sort of thing.

Generously, the owners called and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you quite how fast I legged it around to their lawn and started collecting.

My favourite (and I haven't boiled this up yet) was this tiny orange 'shroom.

This one looked evil. It gave off a thick, black ooze. NOT nice. But I got three bags of it.

Some were spectacular in their detail.

Others, just down-right rude.

"I hope you took an identification book!" I hear you cry.

Well, no.

Here's why. Recently, (when arriving home in the wee small hours, just a little tipsy) I wrenched some peculiar looking fungi from my own lawn and threw them in a pot with some fibre for a good boil.

  Wanting to know whether I'd been dicing with death with this particular fungi, I sent pictures of the blighter to a friend and fellow Guild member who's a botanist and general experty type person at Queen's University. 

After much study, her considered opinion was that it might be a safe one, or .... could be as deadly as the death cap.

So we settled on this conclusion: Treat every fungi like it's gonna kill you. That way, you've got a fighting chance (and maybe an interesting colourway).

So I set to work boiling up huge pans of stinky, slimy, gelatinous goup and huddling over them like some old witch, all the time washing everything within range with a fervent paranoia unless I poisoned myself and the one I love.

And the results? Five pieces of mid-beige/browny/creamy/peachy/yellowy coloured bits of roving.

Were the end results worth it? NOPE.

Will I do it again? You know I will, because a spend-thrift and a freebie can never be parted!

Oh, my raccoon-senses are tingling again. I think I hear a skip being unloaded a few miles off. Catch you later.......

Fibre, Fibre, More Fibre and Travelling....lots of travelling.....NI, England & Wales

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll have read my post about trolling around Northern Ireland with Pom Pom International,

Cue a bum shot of Miss Amy Lamé.

And I must admit, on that tour, I had the best time I've had since I moved over to the Province. And got to meet just the best people.

Thanks go out to Derry Pride organisers and ball goers.

Here's the yarn you helped me to spin. I'll make and extra-special pom pom with it.

But that wasn't the only bit of travelling I got up to in the UK.

After the tour, I caught the sunny Belfast ferry cross the angry body of water better known as the Irish sea.

Ah.....summer......

I picked up the fabulous Ildi and we had a brill couple of days driving down to London, eating delish kebabs and staying in dodgy hotels to drop off one of my 'Great White' reefs for the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft shows that are touring the UK.

It's for part of their Reclaim, Re-use, Recycle show and it opens for the first time today in Exeter and goes on until early next year. The reef is just one of the elements I've created especially for the show cabinet they've given me. I can't wait to see the final underwater scene.

Next stop, London and I Knit.

Me and my mucker mate, moonspinning . Hanging out, meeting other complete loons, like alabamawhirly and bringing fibre fiddlers over to the dark side of spinning. Come on, can you really resist ferreting in this and getting creative? (even if I do say so myself!)

 

Whizz bang and I'm in Ross on Wye, rumaging through beach detritus to finish my jellyfish.

  

And may I be so bold to suggest that, should you feel the desire to begin untangling neon fishing line and crocheting it... don't. It's a madness not best visited.

And so to Wrexham, Wales. Yale College to be precise. And their recycling exhibition. The poster is in both English and Welsh, in case you're wondering.

And within minutes, like ants around a just-dropped ice-cream, we fibre fiddlers are circling two spinning wheels and sharing techniques.

I even taught Marcus to make plastic-bag yarn and to spin moonlight, all against a back drop of my jellyfish and second 'Great White' reef. Now that doesn't happen very often.

And finally back home. To rest my weary spinning muscles and enjoy a bit of colour therapy.

Yarn is good........

"She turns trash into marine sculptures, Your Royal Highness."

(distant cough)

It's the Marine Conservation Society's 25th anniversary and to celebrate, they're gathering at a certain royal gentleman's house.

And what does one decorate Clarence House with for such an occasion? Why, trash that highlights the dangers lurking in our oceans, of course. Trash that, I'm incredibly honoured to announce, one has used to create jellyfish sculptures.

(second, distant, rather over-awed, cough)

Yes, my sculptures will be viewed today by none other than His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.

Here's hoping that they don't sting him, as last time I checked, the Tower of London was a drafty destination!

I'll post pics of royal interest if there are any.

Pride in my Pom Poms for Peace

Right.

Think of three things that you would never expect to hear in the same sentence.

Pom pom.

Yurt.

Place of conflict.

So if I tell you that I'm going to be taking part in Amy Lamé's Pom Pom International Peace Tour, in a yurt, travelling to places of conflict here in Northern Ireland, you might be forgiven for thinking..."huh?"

But it's really happening, Reg!

Here are the dates.

Saturday 23rd August 

10am-4pm 

Lunasa - Bash at the Bann

Portadown

Co.Armagh

Sunday 24th August

7.30pm-11pm 

The Official Pride Ball 

(part of Foyle Pride)

The Corinthian Ballroom, City Hotel

Derry

Co.L/Derry

For which I've dyed up some special 'Pride Flag Roving' for proud fibre fiddlers.

Monday 24th August

4pm-9pm 

Share Village

Smith's Strand

Lisnaskea

Co.Fermanagh

 

Wednesday 26th August 

Time to be confirmed 

Crossfire Trust/Singing Kettle

Darkley House

Darkley, Keady

Co.Armagh 

Thursday 28th August 

2pm-5pm 

UNBCEP Cross Community Sports Day

Woodvale Park

Shankhill Road

Belfast

I'll be teaching folks of all ages and abilities how to spin, make yarns from recycled materials and to dye wool with Koolaid!

And all in a beautiful yurt built by the equally beautiful Nat at neck of the woods. 

So come on, set your cynicism aside and embrace the softness, the fluffiness, the pom pomery that is Pom Pom International's Peace Tour.

Oh, and it's free!

Fibre frenzy

Long time, no post. This is due to me being head down, fingers a blur, getting ready for several up-coming shows.
I'm delighted to have been invited to show my work in a cabinet at the ICHF Creative Stitching and Hobbycraft shows as they tour around Britain. This meant a new reef had to be created. I'd been dreaming of making a white and yellow one for ages so here it is.

It's 1m 30cm wide and weighs a tonne (or feels like it).
But... in my enthusiasm back in the spring, I decided not to make one, but two of these reefs.

Lucky for me, I was also invited to show at Wrexham Yale's Recycling and Sustainability Show.
So here's the second reef in the pair.

They stand on their own, but also act as a pair, giving them a different dimension.

 

They're so huge, I had to hang out of my upstairs window to take this picture.

But two reefs wasn't enough.

I'd also promised Jimbo that I'd make him a reef with his Friedrich's Ataxia travelling hook. (It's the most beautiful hook I've ever had the pleasure to hold.) So I dyed, spun and crocheted like a mad thing to create a very unique wall hanging.

 

It'll be auctioned on the 12th September, along with many other wonderful creations to raise money for research into a cure. PLEASE go along and bid.

All this, and the Coral Collective Hospital Project is going from strength to strength. I received a beautiful coral from someone who'd picked up one of my packs in the hospital.

It made me SO happy to receive it and can't wait to add it to the artwork hanging in the waiting room. Thank you to the anonymous crocheter.

Is that all I've been up to? Nah! I don't sleep. I've got Pom Pom International and I Knit London coming up.

So I've been washing texel fleece and dyeing it;

Dyeing up merino roving;

Creating my own fibre blends that will soon sell through my site and at I Knit London's shop;

 

Carding British Breeds Batts for I Knit London's fetes and Bestival;

Spinning some of my exotic multi-fibre batts;

 

And then there was all the fun I had hanging out a Woolfest with the wonderful Moonspinning;

Here she's teaching Gerard to spin with a drop spindle.

Gnome spotting;

And getting emails from lovely slebs who've been crocheting with my yarns at their events.

I thank you, Miss Amy Lamé for making a corsage from my lemon and lime handspun.

Stay tuned for the next installment - this is only a teeny bit of what I've been up to! I haven't told you about Castlewellan show (you can read about it on Moonspinning's blog) or any of the other groovy stuff I've been up to.
Next stop LA, New York, London and touring Northern Ireland.
I'm international, me!

Making plastic bag yarn/yarn from a tube

Now, whilst I need to keep some things a secret - like the patterns to some of my corals so that I can continue to make a living. (rants: Can't believe how bare-faced some people are about ripping off other artists' designs and ideas. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) I do want to share my craft knowledge with other people and get them passionate about free materials. And by free, I mean just lying around, unwanted stuff; old clothes, worn out pillowcases, sacks, plastic bags etc.
So here's how to make them into yarn. The fabric yarn is great for kids to learn finger crochet, as it's chunky and grows quickly and the plastic bag stuff works well for outdoor pieces they might like to make.

Watch the slightly bitmappy video that I've posted on youtube and then have a go yourself.

Don't blame me if your fellas end up with Daisy Duke shorts!

Guardian G2 Arts section article

I'll be the woolly-fibre fiddler mentioned!

You can read the full article by ferreting around in last week's recycling, or by clicking here.
Mine are the wall mounds.

I'm a lax blogger!

It's wonderful to be SO busy with all the events coming up, but it does mean that I just don't get time to tell everyone about them. So apologies for being so tardy!

First! Did you know that 8th June is World Ocean Day?

There's a link here to the petition. Sign it and you'll add your voice to the many others asking the UN to recognise the day and bring about a greater awareness of the oceans' plight.

The summer is busy, busy, busy. There's the Hayward, (Darling!)  opening on the 11th June, with a private viewing on the 10th (ooer!)

Where you'll be able to see two of my reefs in my wall reef series; pink and green. And also a smack of my jellyfish.

On the 13th June,  I'll also be 'engaging people in craft' at the Southbank's symposium, 'The Art and Craft of Saving The Planet'. I really can't wait to spend a day with so many like-minded people (whom all happen to be at the pinnacle of their chosen field.) I feel priviliged to have been invited to take part. It promises to be a unique gathering of very exciting uber-boffins! Oh, and nervous wee me!

Please come along and see what we're all up to. And make sure you say hi when you're there.

Then finally, after Much, Much, Much anticipation, it's WOOLFEST!

Anyone and EVERYONE who has any fibre fiddling urges is going to be there. And as it's my birthday just a week before, I'm heading that way with NO restrictions on my purchasing.
It will be fibre gluttony in it's most beautiful form.

I can't wait.

Get me! I'm a Goddess!

I can't tell you how honoured I was this morning to be named Chophook Goddess by the lovely Jimbo.

And all I did was have a bit of fun crocheting in order to all to raise awareness of Freidreich's Ataxia. Please read about it here.

It's such a wonderful thing to get feedback from people about what I do. And the warm glow that having such nice words heaped upon me has lifted my otherwise creaky body this morning.
Thanks, Jimbo!

Time to pack!

It's trepidatious taping time again. Should I use more duct tape for the corners of my box, or is 20m of hideously-inorganic, stinky sticky stuff enough to keep my jellyfish from escaping on their trip to New York?

It's always odd letting stuff go. Even worse when you have to de-construct everything you've made so that it fits into the box, desperately trying to make yourself remember how it should be put back together once you're in a foreign gallery.

I managed to get a few snaps before things were dismantled in the hope that it will jog my memory.(Would you believe that I'm taking these with a 5mega pixel Viewty camera phone bought to replace my old camera? Top tip - don't waste your £300-. It has a cavalier approach to focusing!)

There are 16 football jellyfish flocking to the World Financial Centre.

Their silk, bubblewrap, plastic and foam tentacles hold static and wave eerily at you whenever you walk past.

Just to give you an idea of scale, some of the jellyfishes' tentacles drape up to 5ft beneath their bodies.

I've been pouring over Claire Nouvian's book The Deep for inspiration.

Just when I think I'm being a little outlandish in my embellishment, I find that Mother Nature has already been there, done that and is the mistress of frill, pomp and colour clash co-ordination.

Thus, my queen jellyfish, of which there are three, are heavily laden with crocheted mantles and tentacles beneath their glassy bells.

And I didn't hold back with my 80's wedding confection of crocheted balloon ribbon and gift ties.

Or my anemone mounds, of which there are now not just blue, but orange, green, purple and clear versions sprouting across the side of a 2m wide crocheted urchin.

And of course, with the reaction my hula-hoop-woven anemone got in Chicago, I had to try one out for the plastic New York reef. Whilst the yarn anemone was soft, velvety and strangely comforting, this plastic-bag one is cold, hard and unforgiving. Even now its foam 'lips' are finished, it still reminds me of snorkelling in freakishly-cold currents, hanging over dead coral. It's not one of my favourites.

So all the elements are packed, including 5 blue stars - the two seen here half-finished.

I'll take pictures when everything has been laid out and put in place for the show. So much of my reef's shape will be dictated by the space, its advantages and limitations.

The plastic reef will be in the World Financial Center, in a beautiful public space called the Winter Garden.

The display space is a gorgeous, curved, glass-fronted, store-front, about 38 feet long and 10 feet deep, that looks out onto the Winter garden. The whole thing will look like a giant aquarium.

All my yarn and fibre creations will join the IFF's main reef, displaying in the New York University's display windows on Broadway.

The windows will be finished for Sunday the 6th April. If you find yourself in New York, come take a look.

I've also finally finished my Gas Station Panel for the International Fibre Collaborative event on the 11th April in Syracuse.

3 feet square and pretty hefty, it is of course, covered in coral! The link it has to oil consumption being that all the yarns and the backing fabric are plastic/oil-derived. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the elements. I'm assuming that they will not degrade in the rain, but whether they keep their colour under bright New York State skies will be another matter.