we i.e. friends M & J & I were in Cologne for 2 days, on a fun-shopping-museum-wining-dining Spree! in the first photo the Dom tower, impressive against the clear blue skies, the temperature was somewhere between -3 and -7 celsius....so it was cold, yet dry and therefore bearable. We enjoyed ourselves immensely; these kinds of short breaks feel longer and as per usual I realise I should do this more often.....Back home a day later we have Snow! and Frost! and Grey Skies! our world is limited to the view across the road: black&white fields, fog makes the world seem very small and muted. Time to head to the studio, where I played around with these two wooden tree stamps, bought in Cologne; and continued with the art of small cushions
the blue fabric in the top right corner and the Naples yellow/mauve corner on the left below come from a delicate fabric Jude sent me, along with Harry the lion and these colourful bundles:
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Jude's Bundles, minus the When Worlds Collide fabric, of which 2 small snippets were used in the cushion |
this small cushion is made with two layers of thin fabric on both sides; the colourful side is made up of four squares sewn together as Jude has taught me, so the seams fold flat by themselves, the patchwork has been basted onto a white cotton square; the grey/white side consists of two oblongs scraps sewn together in the same way, basted onto two similarly sewn cotton strips, laid in the opposite direction, creating a fake 4 part square patchwork; the tree has been stamped onto an older plain white patchscrap.

I'm very aware of how dominant the need within of being the owner of all that I make is, the ego thing is big; and yet here I have used a fabric dyed by another person I know (albeit virtual) and a stamp block created by someone completely unknown to me and what I tentatively seek (here) is a collaboration of sorts, a letting go of this ownership. Of connecting with others.....My friend A. who happened to drop by today and with whom I can discuss these kinds of things, referred to it as 'inter-being'
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I took lots of photo's of the art in the Ludwig museum, I won't bore you with all of these images; I do want to share this particular lady whom I find highly amusing as she looks away from us Cheshire Cat-like to her left, is there perhaps something that amuses her I wonder; a glance that makes me smile in recognition even though we are forever seperated by all the years between us; alas I don't have her name, the photographer was Karl Schenker |