A Slate Mosaic

It was through the Light of the North Art Trail that I discovered Dunblane-based mosaic artist Rachel Davies.  Postponed 'til this coming spring, over forty decorated lighthouses located throughout Aberdeen city, Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Northern Isles will shine a light on local cancer support for CLAN.  I'd seen one of these lighthouse sculptures as a work in progress at the studio of my friend and art mentor, Fiona of Create With Us. They are huge, and the finished designs are still under wraps until the trail begins.  

Unless, that is, you follow the artists' social media accounts where you might get a sneaky peek.  That's how I found Rachel's online mosaic workshops offering the chance to make my own slate creation.  I immediately sent for a kit.

Arriving in good time for yesterday's Zoom class, the kit contained everything needed for the explosion design which first drew me to Rachel's work.

I received a prepared base, a bag of slate pieces, adhesive cement powder ready to mix, and tiles in the colour of my choice.  A timely email also suggested some materials from around the house I should assemble before the class.

After introductions, the two hour workshop began with Rachel explaining how the base is prepared.  Lightweight compressed foam, used by plumbers to line walls for tiling, is edged then painted by Rachel, ready for our mosaics.  She suggested we started to lay out the main elements of the design whilst she described the slate and how it's cut by a special saw or bashed with a hammer, depending on the desired effect.

I transferred my fledgling design away from the computer to my nearby wipeable work surface and mixed up my adhesive.  Rachel checked that we'd all achieved the correct gluey consistency and advocated wearing a mask whilst mixing due to the cement dust, something we all have to hand nowadays!  Though nearly everyone in the twelve-strong class had made mosaics previously, there was nothing to daunt the beginner.  With pre-cut pieces, no special tools were required either.

We were encouraged to incorporate any found or foraged natural materials we wanted into our mosaics.  I toyed with the idea of including shells but preferred the raw jaggedness of the slate for my explosion.  Material is bedded into the soft adhesive spread thickly over the base.  There's no grouting afterwards - once the assembly is complete, the mosaic is finished and there's something very satisfying about this one-step method.

Rachel carefully positions each mosaic piece with tweezers but I enjoyed pressing the slate and tile fragments into the squidgy base by hand, allowing my design to appear organically.  I'm usually a careful planner so I enjoyed the freedom encouraged by this form of mosaic art.

Rachel chatted away while we worked, checking in with everyone individually to make sure we were on the right track.  There was plenty of opportunity to ask questions and learn more about this technique and Rachel's artworks.  A comprehensive handout detailing the facts we might easily have forgotten, being so immersed in mosaic making, was also emailed out after the class.

In the two hour window, everyone's slate mosaic was complete, including mine.  We were encouraged to showed them to the camera to see each other's work.  I'm always awed by the unique designs created even though we all start with the same materials.  Now there are slate explosions in Norway, Cyprus, Belgium and the US as well as around the UK thanks to Rachel's workshop yesterday.  For that is the up-side of an on-line class, you can join from just about anywhere in the world.

My explosion is most likely to reside in my Aberdeenshire garden near the blue plant pots.

Or maybe near the front door to welcome you in - when you can come to visit, that is.

Details of all Rachel Davies Mosaic Art workshops can be found here: 

https://www.racheldaviesmosaics.com/workshops

A Year In The Making

In January 2020, the world's attention was focussed on the devastating wildfires in Australia.  Our TV screens were filled with newsreel featuring widespread destruction of people's property and precious wildlife habitat.  It made my heart sad.

For eight months in 1991, Geoff and I had travelled extensively through Western Australia, Northern Territories, Queensland and New South Wales, driving, camping and bushwalking through Australia's vast interior.  I've more chance of pointing to the Hamersley Range on a map than distinguishing Gairloch from Garelochhead.  I'm a little shamefaced to admit there are parts of Australia I know better than the West Coast of Scotland.  

The craft community was quick to step up with fundraising initiatives to help the firefighting effort.  Australian knitwear designer Ambah O'Brien donated 100% of the sales of her Sunshower Shawl for 10 days last January and raised a whopping AUS$33,970.22 (£19,412.45) for three bush fire relief charities.  Red Cross Australia, Wildlife Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation benefitted equally from this incredible fundraiser.  

I was one of the very many knitters who purchased Ambah's Sunshower Shawl Pattern this time last year.  Here's Ambah's description:  Sunshower shawl was created with the 4 seasons in mind; moving though Winter, Spring, Summer and finally Autumn with the original colour scheme. Worked from the top down, with short row shaping, gorgeous lace edging and neatly finished off with i-cord and the lovely eyelet pattern evoking the gentle drops of a Sunshower.

Looking through my stash of woolly leftovers, I realised I could create my own version of the four season effect described in the pattern blurb as I'd plenty of part-used skeins stored up from previous knitting projects. There are twelve sections in the pattern and  I chose to knit one section each month in 2020.  

As I was choosing my yarn, I felt nostalgic for these past knits.  There are so many memories imbued into crafts which pass through our hands over the course of many hours. 

The gorgeous grey Ripples Crafts yarn for the start of the Sunshower Shawl last January, for example,  had been part of two other shawls I'd made previously.  Firstly, the Therapy Shawl I knit in 2017 from this pattern by Laura Aylor.

Paired with equally soft yarn from The Fabulous Mr G (who no longer dyes yarn but makes beautiful project bags) and a glorious pink from The Border Tart, it's still a wardrobe staple of mine.  

February's yarn was hand dyed Rusty Ferret left over after I knit my Nurmilintu Shawl from Heidi Alander's free pattern, another much-worn make.

I loved the pops of neon colour so much I determined to use every last scrap so, as well as creating February's stripe in the Sunshower Shawl, the remainder was crocheted into my spring lockdown cushion cover!

In March and May, I used yarn remaining after I knitted another Therapy Shawl.  I gave this one to my friend Carol as a birthday gift in 2019. I've happy memories of knitting it in the sunshine in Caroline's Perthshire garden that summer.

April, May, July and January's input to the Sunshower Shawl were leftover after I took part in my first mystery crochet along to create the Skimming Stones Shawl by The Crochet Project in 2018.  All the yarns I used were dyed by my friend Helen of Ripples Crafts so I gave it to her as a stall sample to take to yarn events and show off her beautiful colours.

The sunny section I knitted in June from Henny Penny Makes hand dyed yarn had formed the moons and stars in the Ixchel sweater I knitted for my daughter Eilidh.  She was wowed by the design on the cover of Pompom Magazine.

It's a wonderful pattern by Catherine Clark but I gave myself a headache by combining Erin's sparkly gold  merino wool with skin-soft but non-stretchy cotton.  The neck was a challenge to say the least which I re-knitted three times.  Time one and time two didn't go so well... 

but three, they say, is a charm and my daughter wears her jumper, despite the slightly wonky neck  (which is all that really matters, right?)

July's turquoise addition to the Sunshower Shawl was left over after I knit these socks for myself in 2016.  Geoff gave me a three month subscription of sock wool from Helen at Ripples Crafts as a Christmas present.  The colours are all inspired by Assynt where Helen lives and dyes.

The same yarn gift subscription provided August's start to the lacey border of the Sunshower Shawl.  I used more beautiful Ripples Crafts yarn to knit these socks earlier this year and had some left.  The socks became a Christmas present for sister-in-law, Carol.  I remember knitting them whilst waiting for Mum at the eye clinic during lockdown and noted how they matched the hospital decor!

In September I added Shilasdair leftovers I've had for the longest time.  I made these fingerless mitts for my sister-in-law, Fiona, in 2015, but forgot to photograph the finished hummel doddies, as we call them hereabouts.  Here they are as a work in progress.

October's addition to the Sunshower Shawl is the only skein which had not been made into something else previously.  It was a prize from independent yarn store Lucylocketland a few years ago and I've yet to find the perfect project for it.  I still have plenty left and it's too beautiful to languish.  The pattern search continues...

November's lacey edging yarn has the joyous colour name 'Tomato Hibiscus Pumpkin' dyed by Coastal Colours.  I crocheted Fortunes Shawlette by Tamara Kelly as a gift for a treasured work colleague in 2016.  This yarn was chosen by me but was a gift from another friend in 2014 - high time it was used and loved.

Finally, the Sunshower Shawl has an edge which goes all the way round.  Like piping round a cushion, the sumptuous alpaca blend from Cookston Crafts surrounds all the other colours.  I'd used this very beautiful yarn originaly to make the Winter Wander Shawl  by Helen Stewart which I sent to a dear friend last year for her 60th birthday.

So many memories of knitting for myself, and creating handmade gifts for others, throughout the months of 2020.  

So much time spent at home, with time to knit, resulted in a completed shawl by the turn of the year.

I started knitting on January 14th 2020 and finished casting off the i-cord edge on January 1st 2021. 

Blocking is the finishing touch.  Pinning out the lace whilst damp enables the design to be fully appreciated at last.

Here's a list of all the beautiful hand dyed yarns I used (with yarn mix in brackets) and colours in italics:

January: Ripples Crafts Suilven (Merino Silk Yak) Lewisian Gneiss

February: Rusty Ferret Doll (Merino Nylon) Tits Out

March: Twisted Fintch (Merino Nylon) Curiouser

April : Ripples Crafts (Reliable Sock) Assynt Storms RS808

May : Ripples Crafts (100% BFL) Summer Skies

June : Henny Penny Makes (Merino/ Nylon/Stellina) Golden Glow

July : Ripples Crafts (BFL Sock) Winter on the road to Assynt

August : Ripples Crafts (BFL Sock) Loch Boralan

September : Shilasdair (Sock) Spring Forest

October : The leaves are turning by Lucy Locketland

November : Coastal Colours (BFL Donegal) Hibiscus Tomato Pumpkin

December : Cookston Crafts (Merino Alpaca Nylon) colourway with no name!

In the garden today - during a sunshower!

Polar (Bear) Express

I mentioned the handmade shelf in my last post about the Christmas wreathe I made and alluded to my pompom decoration.  

It is not universally loved in this house and received widespread derision from three quarters of the family during its construction a few years ago.  Still, it pops up most Christmases and I hang its woolly loveliness in defiance.  To date, no one has yet removed it from view.

This year, the wreathe was propped up on the bureau with an array of knitted characters which I've accumulated since our daughters were wee girls.  

At the end of a Christmas fair in aid of our local toddler group some 20 years ago, one handknitted piece, which had caught my eye, remained unsold.  Mother Christmas came home with me for a tiny sum, considering the amount of work which had gone into making her.  I am still a little in awe of her clever construction and the adept, unknown knitter who tackled this pattern, possibly by Jean Greenhowe.

Turn Mother Christmas upside down and inside out...

and she becomes a beautiful angel!

Equally intricate are the mittens and sequin adorned tree, beautifully knitted by Lisa in Marblehead, Massachusetts and gifted to me in a Christmas decoration swap.  I know Lisa through her podcast Knitting By The Sea and our shared love of knitting (and chocolate!).

Three endearing Gnicholas Gnomes by Imagined Landscapes were also knitted by me at the end of 2017 in time for the decoration swap.  One winged its way abroad to my swap partner in Denmark, one hangs on our Christmas tree and the third one hung out this year with the other pals on the knitted shelf.

Close to my heart is this slightly goofy looking polar bear.  I knitted the toy, from Zoe Mellor's book Head to Toe Knits, for the girls probably in the early 2000's and he joined the Christmas decoration crew as their love for handknit soft toys eventually waned.  My affection for him remained however.

I think it's largely because he's knit in one piece.  This may not seem remarkable but toy making is notoriously fiddly.  Tiny parts are made separately then have to be sewn together, the success and character of the toy depending on expert completion and deft embroidery.  Cast your mind back to the pigeon I made in 2019.  

When fellow knitters started sharing their progress of a pattern for a wee bear called Tsutsu by Cinthia Vallet, I knew I had to make him.  Her toys are ridiculously cute!

How lucky am I to live in a village with a craft shop to which I could despatch my husband to obtain suitable toy safety eyes knowing he wouldn't come home empty handed.  The clever construction means you knit the whole bear as one, creating the head first and completing the facial features before continuing with the body and limbs.  Indeed the pattern states: Tsutsu is made all in one piece from his little nose to his little feet. All the finishing is tackled as you go and you won’t have to worry about assembling pieces at the end.  Not having to sew up is very appealing.

It also advises, you must have a taste for fiddly knitting, which is undeniably true!  

My decision to knit a polar bear Tsutsu coincided with my contracting shingles, caused by the chickenpox virus.  As all our lives, and especially our Christmas plans, were being thrown into disarray again by Coronavirus, I'd managed to contract a much less serious illness.  Fiddly knitting seemed the ideal distraction from its discomfort.  Staying home and not socialising were recommended for everyone this festive season and certainly helped me to a speedy recovery, along with enforced rest, the loving care of my family, and my busy needles.

I wouldn't normally wash and block my toy knitting but this wee chap was knitted in pure wool from Kingcraig and the pattern encourages a soak and dry prior to stuffing.  

My polar bear's woolly stitches benefitted from a bath in some Eucalan wool wash and he fluffed up nicely once he was dry.  Then there was his wardrobe to consider.  The pattern includes designs for three jumpers and a bobble hat.

Less than ten days since I'd begun this knitting project, my polar bear was done - complete with his festive jumper.  Express knitting indeed!

Just in time to take his place on the shelf with my other knitted favourites for the last few days of the Christmas holidays.