Gorgeous

gorgeous colours on a gorgeous day

I had an email from a Dr de Bruyn, telling me he was not in Singapore any more (before Borneo) but had absconded to Thailand. 

THAILAND? 

He is supposed to be working - instead he is sitting on a beach or beside a pool in Thailand. There is something dramatically wrong with this scenario. I am here in cool, windy Wales and he is in hot, sunny Thailand - where everything and everyone seems so impossibly beautiful and exotic and serene. 

Not to mention the outstanding food.

But wait, I am being unkind, because in fact we have been having beautiful weather since Dr de Bruyn left.

Gorgeous, sunny, champagne days - the kind that make the mountains shine in all their glory. 

When the sun sets behind them the outline of the ridges against the clear sky, echoed with a faint line of light is truly breathtaking.

So enjoy your cocktail Mark, I am off to salute the mountains and sip on a glass of champagne!

This time last year - Almost.......

Fishing boats all lined up Kota Kinabalu harbour

I was up at 4-30 this morning to drop Mark at the train station to begin his journey to Borneo for what will be the last of his research and commitments for his current project. We were both  there, almost this time last year, for nearly 3 weeks and we had a fab time. 

Of course the fact that I was enveloped in a warm, sultry heat for the entire time, helped make me feel alive and provided  me with a much needed hit for my tropical nostalgia. Kota Kinabablu was a fantastic starting point, it provided the right blend of Asian sights, smells, sincerity and succulent food. 

The famous night food market, that suddenly appears like a shimmering mirage on the port at dusk was such an exciting place to wander through, soaking up the smells of the BBQ's and grills on which  all sorts of  seafood, chicken and the most amazing vegetables are grilled, steamed and fried. 

Both Mark and I were salivating, walking around trying to decide on what to have. I settled for grilled fish - straight off the coals with an egg plant dish that tasted like no other I have ever had. Doused in plenty of soy, chilli and sweet sauce we enjoyed our meal under the tents, inhaling the food smells of the markets, listening to the unrelenting banter of the traders and looking out to the twinkling lights on the few fishing boats moored in the harbour. 

I can picture you there Mark, in a few days, sampling the chicken wings and kebabs but please remember to stay away from the Udung galah!! 

Delivered!

playing with ideas

green beach glass and st. silver

My work has been selling well at Janet's Gallery, so I spent the last part of the week with my head down, beavering away at my bench for hours on end.

I was hoping to get a few ideas, that had been brewing in my subconscious for several weeks, out and in 3D form. For months now, I have been collecting (and then more recently with Markus' help) gorgeous pieces of sea glass from the beaches here on Anglesey. 
The Menai Straits were used as a dumping ground for all sorts of unwanted glassware and ceramics - a lot from the Victorian era. As a result this 'rubbish' has spent scores of years under the water, being tossed, turned, polished and refined.  Eventually, they are washed ashore by waves or uncovered from mounds of tiny pebbles, that have been harbouring these little gems. 

Along comes Markus and I, collecting them by the handful. Some of the ceramic shards are so gorgeous with faint, ghost like images of birds, flowers, patterns and colours, left visible on their bleached surface. These ceramic pieces are scattered all over our cottage and a few are being used in my mosaics, as accents and features. 

Pieces of glass however, have been sitting on my workbench for months, beckoning me to make something with them, urging me to bring them to life again. With their frosted, etched surfaces, they are such a contrast to my shiny, glossy beads and so it has taken some time for them to perculate into my designs. But at last, these past few days I have started playing with them, and I know over time the designs will evolve to let these little pieces of history truly shine.

It felt good yesterday to replenish my work in the Gallery, with both ceramic jewellery and new glass jewellery, now let's just hope there are lots more sales!

Getting Started

Modj welcoming visitors to my gallery, Durham. 2008

jewellery display Durham 2007

Becca Pely-Fry & Chrissie Morgan setting up Bec's exhibition 2007

Opening, Steve Sproate's exhibition, Durham 2007

Hmmm why is it sometimes we find it so difficult to get started? To pick up from where we left off and just get on with it? We can spend hours and hours procrastinating, letting the lizard brain convince us this is the best way - take it slow no fast moves. 

Eventually though, we have to shake ourselves out of it and force ourselves, if necessary, to just start. I think, for me, part of the problem is deep down inside I know once I start the process of the next project it becomes an almost obsession, which then in turn takes up all my time and suddenly there is not time left for those little things I would have procrastinated over in the beginning! 

They suggest trying to get the right life balance, but I know once the  creative desire kicks in it's not so simple. I read a great interview on just this topic here if you are interested in someone else's perspective. When I look back at the photos above I remember just how much can happen when finally the floodgates open. 

For Val

Garden on the Moon

We have had a bit of a tumultuous week.
Suddenly some plans that we thought would carry us neatly and clearly through the next few years have evaporated and left us feeling a little stunned. Not so much that we cannot cope - it is just now we have to think and make decisions that will decide our near future. We are at a fork in the road and the signs are not clear - east or west?  The choice is hard.
Looking through my old photos to inspire me to remember how far I personally have come in my own work; I came across this image that I had forgotten about.
It is a photo from a production produced and performed by a group of people who are very inspirational. I worked as an arts development tutor for alot of years for The Cerebral Palsy League in Australia. The day respite centre I worked in was a wonderful, pioneering organisation and as a collective we created many awe inspiring arts projects, public art works, controversial exhibitions and this performance entitled, 'A Garden on the Moon'.
Performed at night in the open air it cleverly utilised silhouettes, music, colour and  pattern  to tell the story of one of the participants who had been born with severe cerebral palsy and who had  endured years of heartache and isolation due to the ignorance of the time in which he was born. It was a mesmerising ride to watch this tale with all it's heartache, humour and soul. It was uplifting and thinking back to it I remember walking away from that performance feeling humbled by the notion that at least I have the luxury of choice.
So east or west?
Who knows but bring it on I reckon' we can handle the ride.

Mount Snowdon is the mountain you can see in the middle, just to the left of my Dad's head. This was taken a few hours before we attempted to climb the peak that has been taunting Mark and I for the last 2 years.

Ok, so by European standards Snowdon may not be all that high but it proved enough of a challenge for these intrepid explorers! We thought we were walking one of the easier tracks up and so only allowed a few hours to make the climb. However after making it 2 thirds of the way up, I decided to call it quits as I had a cold that was causing me a little discomfort. Also seeing the peak from a closer angle I appreciated it was not quite a spring jaunt to get to the top. I also figured Modj, at the tender age of 14, may make it all the way up but may not want to come back down! So I sensibly turned around.Mark and Pa however were not perturbed and continued on their way, quickly disappearing before Modji's and my eyes like 2 little Hobbits out on an adventure into Middle Earth.

Hmmmmm it seems we should have read the guide book a little more thoroughly - for as it turns out those 2 little Hobbits took over 4 hours to return to me, 15 km's later and courtesy of a mini-cab they turned up at the car park where we had set off from.  It seems they somehow wandered up onto the wrong trail and for the final ascent were actually climbing one of the hardest sections - a stretch they recommend you have serious mountaineering experience to traverse! 

But as they were so very close they could not stop and just had to make it to the top. So, after risking serious damage to limbs, hearts and heads and with a sheer drop to one side and nothing but boulders to the other; our 2 little Hobbits huffed and puffed and finally hauled themselves over the last rocky outcrop to be met with a wondrous view, like no other they had seen in a very long while. They concurred however, that under no circumstance would they be returning the way they had come and so walked an easier track down the other side of the mountain.