Portable shrine screen

A few years ago whilst visiting the Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Centre in Eskdailemuir in Scotland I bought myself a portable shrine in the form of a folding card screen around A4 size with images of the buddha and lotus flowers on the front and a buddhist teaching on the back . It has travelled with me to many places and at Christmas I accidentally left it behind . This prompted me to make my own shrine screen from objects and images in my own home .The result is this which I have since sent to various frinds with a variety of quotes or words on the back the simplest one being NOW.The only moment we have is the on we are experiencing at this given moment."This very moment is the perfect teacher."
I am going to develop this as an addition to my current routed and laser cut screens and a lecture last night by Sian Bonnell ( an artist who uses the landscape through photography in her work and has taken objects from her home out into the environment ) has given me ideas to take shrine objects out with me on my explorations and drawings in the landscape.

Nature Cure

Two quotes from this fascinating insight into our connection and need for the sustenance of nature that relate to the way I hope my work will be received.

Nature Cure by Richard Mabey, London Chatto and Windus 2005

P12 the wood and the water, the ancient and the opportunist are I suspect the two poles of natural rhythms. Life begins in the water and reaches its full maturity in the forest and then it all goes round again…
Fitting in sharing territory discovering a niche making with luck a contribution and trying to do it all with a modicum of grace and inventiveness looks uncannily like the challenge our species is facing as it tries to find its own settlement in nature. The difference is that ecologically and globally we are bucking the whole emotional aspect of that settlement So often we are lectured that the great environmental crises of our time are just problems of household management writ large. If we are less greedy, stop breeding, budget our energy use recycle our waste, make compost then everything will be fine. What a hope! Who could ever run a house (if we must use that bossy domestic metaphor) while ignoring the unquantifiable tastes and habits, the needs and motivations of all its occupants? The list of our disastrous failures, from forest obliteration and oceanic pollution to the raising of the extinction rate a thousand fold bears all the marks of a species which no longer believes itself to be a part of the animal world at all.

P19Despite our science and our humanism our whole culture is infused with myths and symbols of landscape and nature, emblems of the seasons, of decay and rebirth, of the boundaries between the wild and the tame, myths of migration and transmigration, of invisible monsters and lands of lost content
We constantly refer back to the natural world to try to discover who we really are. Nature is the most potent source of metaphors to describe and explain our behaviours and feelings. It is the root and branch of much of our language. We sing like birds blossom like flowers and stand like oaks .

Tea and cakes

A few images from our fundraiser for the Milan trip. We raised almost £130 with a little help from Maisie . A high class presentation with embroiderd tablecloths , beautiful teacups (thanks Sue! ) and even more delicious cakes . Well done everyone. Love the shadow of the cake stand but then I would !

Digital print and a new laser cut.

New prints of the originals. Map and hydrangea with different coloured backgrounds and interesting combinations to print over as a development from the overprints from December.

A new cut

I am developing a series of new cuts which are based on the interconnection and a celebration of the diversity of organisms supported by the oak . The idea is to have three layers , one the oak , another the bird population and the third the insect life. These could be also used for print stencils as well as laser cut or routed . A new beginning that started with the cut out pieces that came from the routed screen.The second two are work in progress but this leads me back to the idea of layering .

treehugger

In my search for eco fabrics I came upon this website aptly called treehugger.com with information on all things eco including climate change as well as interesting design solutions

including these two lighting solutions

Snow Bleach: Sustainable, Traditional, And Beautiful

by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 02. 6.09

Design & Architecture

Buzz up!

(Photo of Uchiyama paper lamps from Saluki)

How do they get that special glow? During the harsh winter, craftsmen and -women have for at least 800 years developed special techniques to improve the quality of their goods in northern Japan. There is something about the strong sunshine you get in places like Niigata prefecture in February and March. Paper made from snow-bleached twigs and branches of mulberry and mitsumata, bleached in the slow, traditional way, is still in demand, but there is concern that forestry practices are not sustainable.

Apparently mulberry is a highly invasive plant that takes moisture away from the plants around it . Ah well not mulberry paper for my lamp then !

and this one that I love for its simplicity and ingenuity

Not a Box Lighting: More Cardboard Design from David Graas

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 09.10.07

Design & Architecture

Designer David Graas (remember his awesome furniture?) has applied his cardboard-centric no-waste design philosophy to lighting with the fun "Not a Box" series. Again, using the packaging as the product, the pendant lamp "comes as a box with all parts inside (bulb, plug, cable etc. + manual). You cut top and bottom yourself and then install. The cut out of the lamp shape functions as a graphical image of the lamp that could be inside the box, but is not." Quite similar to the previous "Not a Lamp" design (pic below the fold), we love the cheeky, minimalist design; toss in the super-efficient design and recyclability, and you can't go wrong. Just don't forget to pop a compact fluorescent bulb in there. ::David Graas via ::MoCo Loco

snow , snow thick ,thick snow !!

Who said it never snows in Cornwall. Photographs taken this morning around my house after an overnight fall of snow .Also noticed some very large animal footprints leading to my dustbin last night , too big for a fox or a domestic cat or dog , was going to take a photo but this morning they had been snowed over . I shall keep a watch tonight The beast of Bodmin moved south for the winter !A real Winter wonderland with the advantage that as I am snowed in all there is to do is light a log fire and get on with some serious blogging !

The Eco Design Hand book

Another strand of research into materials is this book by Alastair Fuad Luke of Slow Lab .On the surface the answer to my dreams on sourcing materials for products but on closer examination I discovered that this book was written in 2004 . I have only just begun to look at the different manufacturers but have discovered the two paper makers using recycled paper in the UK have gone bust and the rest are in the USA . How green is it to ship paper across the ' pond' . Acordis fibres have been taken over by Lenzing etc However there is a supplier of plywood ,from sustainable sources in Finland , albeit in Preston Lancashire and there is also a glue that is sugar based called ecostyx that I am investigating .
I am also still considering the use of reycled fabrics which I will struggle with as I have an aversion to second hand stuff unless its from someone that I know . ( However saw a really nice cutwork tablecloth in a charity shop in Helston for £15 100ins diameter at the weekend and a set of napkins 6 for £4) I could use the needle puncher as in Nuno felt and machine embroidery as well as using waterbased inks for the print process to decorate .
An interesting book to read but products not as accesible as first appears.