Day Four - Consolidation

 First pages with more detail added

I only had a few hours to work on the sketch book as I had meetings and paperwork to do today. The meeting this morning gave me the chance to explore possible ways forward with the wonderful  Morag Ballantyne mentor and coach in the cultural and creative industries, who made me feel inspired and energised! I was so worried about being late that I left the component parts of my sketch book at Corby Community Arts, thankfully I was able to collect them on my way home. I also stopped off to look at box frames and envelopes at The Range - no frames but some useful envelopes to customise for the sketch book.

 The tear in the petticoat - iron hoop exposed

Laminated Shift pattern pieces - front with photographs from Snibston Mining Museum and Fashion Collection, back with map of the world. Plain machine stitching and loose threads.

The pollen is very heavy going at the moment, so when I got home I decamped to my bed with all parts of the sketch book, trying to resolve a few final problems and thinking more about how to use the envelopes. It's a terrible year for Hay Fever sufferers and at times it's hard to breathe, think or move so it's good to have something to take my mind off this for awhile.

 The Signal Man

Ancient miners tunic - blood lines and rail links

Still dreaming of the straight shape

Walking adventure in the rain - Edward Thomas Birthday Walk 2012

Day Three - Scoping & Waiting

Today was a scoping walk with Jo for our Light Walks project, before the walk we took the rest of INTENZ away from the Old Library, then decided where the next walk should be. We made a detour to Earls Barton for lunch before arriving at our chosen route, round the reservoir at Sywell Country Park 

and had a beautiful walk which was full of birdsong, blossom and pollen! The rain held off long enough for us to get back to the car. There will be more about the walk soon on Undiscovered Networks. Back in my parents' garden I managed to catch a glimpse of a pair of Thrushes nesting in a apple tree in the garden next door.

The sketch book was partially on hold as I was waiting for some more stamps to arrive but I did do some work on the Shift labels that will become part of the book. These also fit with the theme of walks and journeys, the compass points to finding some direction and the postmark relates to thoughts in motion. I am using generic, commercially available stamps, almost in the spirit utilising found objects to embed in the images being created. When I make digital images I like to build up layers and bury text inside the image, using the stamps enables me to make layers in a hand to paper fashion.