Talk-Talk

It feels very strange blogging after such a long, long time. Feel like a bit of an interloper, but I’m sure I will get over that. :)
I have been so busy these last few months but I have been having such a great time and meeting some really amazing people.
I have given several workshops, all of which were very well received, more about them later. Also demonstrated again on the ArtVanGo stand at Art in Action in Oxford recently and actually sold two of my vessels to a very insistent, and ultimately very happy, customer.
And then of course, it has been the harvest season. Not sure if it was just me but as far as I am concerned this has been the busiest one ever in all my 21 years in the industry. The weather certainly didn’t help - along with several irascible customers. Although I can empathise with them, after all having a machine down costs them money, I just wish that I wasn’t their first port of call when they are all fired up. Still, it was my last one so I should have made the most of it really.
As I said, the workshops have been going really well with several more booked for next year, most of which are due to recommendations from previous students, which says it all.
What pleases me most though is the fact that lots of vessels and hangings actually get finished off once the class is over. I can’t recall ever actually getting around to finishing anything started in a class – then again, maybe that’s just me. :)
And several students are putting their own spin on the finished vessel too and these are just a couple.
This one is from a real character, Pam Oliver, a fantastic lady who has been on a couple of my workshops and she bought this along to the second one where I took a photo of it, but the lighting wasn’t right. Pam has used lace in places and painted the vessel in metallic colours. It looks splendid, the colours really glow. Pam creates some wonderful work and I have been trying to persuade her to start a blog so she can share it with us.
Sharne also created her own vessel inspired by this one.
The music score is from the Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ ………and the Mary Quant style cut outs have small aged photos of the Beatles inside.
Very nostalgic. Of course, I can’t really remember the Beatles – much – the Monkees were more my thing. :)
You can see the story of the vessel starting here and if you read the comments you will see who it was that run off with Sharnes tube at the end of the workshop. *LOL*
I have three more workshops coming up in November which I am really looking forward to.  If I remember to take my camera (see below) I will keep you posted.
I also have a workshop at ArtVanGo at the beginning of December. Its called ‘Vessels’ but on reflection I think it should really be called either ‘Choices’ or maybe even ‘Extremes’. Intrigued? Well, maybe I will see you there then. :)
I went along to the Festival of Quilts in August. There were some really wonderful pieces of work on display and I recognised the names of several bloggers which made it all the more interesting.
Also managed to spend a fortune at the trade stands although I was convinced I didn’t actually need anything!
And I still find it very surreal looking at the bookstands and seeing one with my name on the cover. I have an incredible urge to point it out to people and say ‘thats me, that is’. :)
Marion Barnett was demonstrating… …and so I popped along to meet her for the first time. I waited until the little group she was demonstrating to had dispersed then asked if she would sign a copy of her book for me. I asked her to dedicate it to ‘Lynda Monk – Purple Missus’. OK she says, all nonchalantly and then the penny dropped when she realised exactly what I had said, so there was a lot of shouting and hugging going on – I’m sure several people wondered what an earth was happening. A really lovely lady, very friendly and very free with her knowledge. The book..... is brilliant. Not least because it has work by a couple of blogging friends, Sandy and Tracy but also because it has given me plenty of ideas on how to use Evolon rather than just rust dye it, which I seem to do a lot of because it always comes out really well.
So I have a couple of practise pieces on the go at the moment and will put them on here when I get to finish them. The book is well worth having, its packed full of different ideas for using this incredible fabric. You can order it direct from Marion here.
As for the camera mentioned above, well, I bought this just before I went to FOQ.. So that I wouldn’t have to cart this around. And yes, you’ve guessed it – I forgot to take it with me!!!
I will have it with me at Ally Pally though – not long now she says excitedly. Hope to say hello to lots of you there.
As the title of the blog suggests, this one is just talk, dipping a toe in the water really, as it has been so long. Will be back soon to ‘show and tell’ about some other things I have been up to lately.
One last photo. On the way home from work I saw this in the churchyard down the end of our road and rushed down to take several photos of it before the kids decided to kick it to bits. There were two of them, fungi that is,  and they were both about 18” across. Evidently they come up every year in this place but I’ve not noticed them before.Anyway, that will teach me to make assumptions about ‘the youth of today’ – it stayed intact for a good two or three weeks before it finally died.