3rd maker of Christmas

My 3rd maker is the exquisite work of Cathy Cullis. I am lucky enough to own a little piece, which I treasure very much. She makes beautiful delights and writes touching words.
To find out more about her work
http://cathycullis.bigcartel.com/

2nd maker of Christmas

My 2nd maker of Christmas is the work of Sue Mundy of which I absolutely love, from her wonderful hand built vessels, hand sculpted exquisite little spoons and wonderful birds.
To see more of her work http://www.suemundy.com
Her website is full of lovely treasures.

My 1st maker of Christmas .......................

My 1st maker of Christmas is the truly wonderful and inspiring Suzanne Stallard of Knit Happens.
Queen of the needles!!

Everything is made by hand by Suzanne, freestyle using hand dyed yarn by indie dyers.

If you want to find out more about her work, her knits and patterns
http://www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php?featured_user_id=6274
blog http://alabamawhirly.com

Suzanne not only makes beautiful things but also is a warm hearted lovely person who makes the world a better place to be living in.

Go on, have a wander.

12 makers of Christmas

Robin secret keeper Find more in my shop www.patchworkbutterfly.folksy.com

One of life's very simple pleasures is un-ravelling wrapping paper to reveal something beautiful, unique and hand-made with absolute love. So now the season is upon us to seek out presents for those we love. Why would you go to the high st when you know there is a wealth of people making wonderful things some of them, right under your nose.

So I thought I would put a list together of makers/ artists some I know very well, some just a little but what I am really sure of is that they make work with devotion and care.
So over the next week I will share with you my 12 makers of Christmas. Hopefully they might just tempt you!

old bag's cookbook

It has been such a busy last 2 months with lots of exhibitions, making, with many late nights and early mornings to get things finished. But without doubt one of my favourite days in the last month has been the launch of The Old Bag's cookbook. I have worked at this project for a long time bringing the arts to older people who live in care with varying needs from physical disability to people with the onset of dementia and some in the latter stages. They are like my second family.
I can honestly say it is a place that makes me laugh more than anywhere else.
We have been talking along time about writing our own cook book and after lots of trial and error with our Old Bags pickle range the brand was born. One sherry fuelled afternoon the idea was inspired and we set to work, reminiscing, sharing stories, drawing, painting and cooking.
We worked out between us with 13 people around the table that there were almost 1200 years culinary experience, so that gives you some idea of the ages of our gang.
We pondered long and hard about the recipes to be included, some of our recipes are treasured hand me downs, some that hold special meaning and others too good not to share.
We split the book into four sections More tea vicar.......... This was all about Sunday afternoons, eating cakes with family and friends, whether it's warm summer or cold wintry afternoons waiting patiently for mouth watering cakes. But before the eating was the making and fighting to lick out the bowl. The next section was Wash day the meaning of this has changed beyond belief. This is when Wash day usually done on a Monday and done in a copper which took up the whole day. Food needed to be quick with little preparation and was often made from the leftovers from Sunday lunch. Then we added Good for the Soul just food that is simply good for the soul and gives you that warm contented feeling. Last but not least Getting Pickled the section all dedicated to pickling and getting pickled.
The book has over 20 recipes like Canary Pudding, Stovies, Clootie dumpling, Rose petal ice cream and Carrot jam. The illustrations were made using lots of different materials, mono printing, collage and little pencil drawings. They really are so beautiful and delicate.
We really laughed lots making this book, we always laugh lots and hard. The perception of care environments for older people are still not great. I can assure you that this gang here are all about living the next project is a dating agency for the more mature and discerning client.
Watch out Gordon, Jamie and Delia the Old Bags are ready to take on the big boys!

friday night / saturday morning

2 pieces from my new collection of work Johnny the smoker cushion and Keeping your socks on monoprint

My favourite time of the week is always Friday night/Saturday morning. It's often a strange time. I write This feeling a little jaded after a wonderful night out at Nuit Blanche. It was magical, full of wonderful artists really interesting people who worked together to give us a magical forest, light and sound installation at St Mary's church, meeting up with those sassy knitters The Outcasts http://theoutcasts.co.uk/2010/10/a-cautionary-tale/ knitting bed caps, parcel fever, people taking pieces of art work wrapped up so the exhibition could be unwrapped throughout the night and morning all rounded off by a dawn chorus and breakfast. I did not make the breakfast and by the time I woke up it was more Friday night Saturday late afternoon. I have long been fascinated by the whole Friday night/ Saturday morning thing and have for the last few months been working on a body of work to explore this idea. Why is it like no other night of the week? A group of psychologists have just announced that it is the day where we feel at our most positive and Tuesday the least. It seems Tuesday is the new Monday morning. I have been conducting my own research purely in the name of art you understand, as to what it is that makes this time so fascinating. There is always an expectant feel in the air, an evening of possibilities lies ahead meeting up with friends, gossiping, spying who's out and about, laughing, drinking, fighting, falling in lust, love???? I love looking at the bus stops, full of people all dressed up with somewhere to go. So I have been out and about taking photos, drawing my poor unsuspecting friends, strangers and even the cat. And then after the Friday night comes the Saturday morning, where the mood has changed the music stopped playing, people have found love and lost it, the aftermath of the night before strewn across the floor last nights jewellery, clothes, bag, lipstick, telephone numbers written on bits of paper as I can never know how to get them on my phone. And every now and again a random item. In my student days very random items. When you have woken up with a life size cardboard cut out of Johnny Depp standing in your room a guitar and still wearing your big fake fur coat and Vivienne Westwood shoes and you can't remember where Mr Depp came from, that then was deemed a good night. I love my sister's story of her and some friends who went out drinking with the captain of a ship, they woke up on a mango boat that was off to the Netherlands, lucky for her she was woken by the ships engines revving to set sail. These are the stories that become the legends of your life. Then the Saturday morning comes piecing the rest of the night sharing the stories and dissecting the past evening's events. Now my Friday nights are not quite so wild as they once were but every now and again they are heady wonderful nights. And I just love them.

bittersweet

The Sunday Times Style 5th Sep 2010 top photo by Rankin bottom photo by Chris Moore.

For more years than I care to mention I have had a fascination with Isabella Blow style icon, muse to milliner Philip Treacy and the wonder who was responsible for seeking out the wonder that was, and still is in the legacy he has left Alexander Mc Queen.
I liked her for many reasons but one in particular she was a keen advocate for wearing red lipstick which at times was rather haphazardly put on like myself. Which is why I love the photo of her above, if the only way to put it on is a bit hit and miss go for a whole block of lipstick right across your mush.
She was like this wonderful eccentric character who was ever an inspiration when I was doing my fashion degree in the early 90s she was always pinned up on my inspiration board as a constant source of wonderment. She was friends with some of the people you could only just have dreamt of meeting like Warhol and another constant source of inspiration for me John-Michael Basquait. It was only on Sunday morning that I got a small insight into the life of the image behind the photos. Hers is a bittersweet story of a mythical creature of the fashion world, editor of the times style magazine & American Vogue and her immense suffering living with bipolar disorder. That in the end was to lead her to try and take her life many times and eventually succeed.
I have first hand experience of living with my brother who lives and manages his bi-polar and many of the artists that I work with at a project I set up that supports artists living and surviving with mental health issues. I have experience of those highs that make individuals think they can take on the world with energy levels so high , so focused working for days and nights with no sleep on paintings, designs, sculpture with little regard to anything else that is happening in the world. Everybody is unique and individual and manages their illness in different ways, but inevitably after the highs their comes the low, the crash where you sometimes hold on by a finger tip because the now and the future is to painful to consider being part of. Then when the crash arrives there is the decision as to whether you want to manage your illness with medication and therapy or not. Everybody makes different choices, some decide on medication which they feels stabilizes them and they want that balance, others decide not to because it numbs their creativity and stops them thinking clearly. What can we define as clearly? One person's clear can be another persons mud. What I think I am trying to say is that everybody has choices about how they live their lives. It's just always so desperately sad when we loose a character of the world like Isabella Blow as the world will be a little less richer for them no longer being part of it.
The new book about Isabella Blow
Blow by Blow: the story of Isabella Blow by Detmar Blow & Tom Sykes.

Close the book on mental health discrimination www.time-to-change.org.uk/