Of ashes, the harvest and magic wands

Everything at the moment is lush and fruiting.Everything here is green and damp and deep summer fragrant. A few days ago there was a blue moon. I walked in the meadow, looking thru the pine trees at the giant orange blue moon just rising, a doe and two fawns silently grazing, the barn owl swooping overhead, all in that ethereal glow of that orange moon. It's it amazing how the moon seemingly glides several thousand miles closer to us at times? A few days ago it was Lammas, the first harvest.In that moment, in that meadow, I wanted to celebrate the magic of the evening. Wanted to make something tangible, a keepsake, something I could turn to and remember.I walked down the lane, past the new, noisy neighbours, to the first field, which has been planted with clover...Started tripping over four leaf clovers and had to pick some. (I stopped at 10.)Walked past a hedgerow of thistle, just ready to release all the thistle down...To this little out of the way copse.I came here because there are ash trees.Do you like mythology and lore? I do. I like the lore of the ash tree. The favourite wood for besom broom handles, for straight and true arrows, for Druid wands, the female Mother Earth to the male All Father oak.The tree grows to 150 ft with a very broad and deep root system, linking the earth with the heavens. In the Book of the Druids the ash is said to be the World Tree, having a root in the Heavens, a root in the Earth and a root in Hell.Silently I asked the tree for a branch, and I didn't feel any guilt cutting the branch, so the tree seemed to be OK with it. It is customary to give something to the tree in return, and so I promised to paint a painting featuring the ash branch.Back home, I searched thru my stack of papers, maps, music sheets, and nothing seemed just right, till I came to this page from a 1900 boy's magazine called Chums. On this page are directions for sleeping outside on a summer evening. The passage reads:The boy who has never slept out under a wide and starry sky has missed one of the greatest experiences of life. To lie snugly tucked up in a comfy bed with the earth smell in your nostrils, listening to the night-wind playing a rustle chorus on the harp strings of the tree-tops and gazing at the glittering stars - well, it just about beats description.I thought about how lovely it would feel to sleep under the World Tree, and then I knew I found the right page.I took the branch outside and studied it. I wondered how best to celebrate the magic of the ash and decided I'd like to carve runes into the branch, making a magic wand of sorts.So I wrote down the Elder Furthark runic alphabet, briefly wrote the associated meanings, and, with intuition, numbered the runes from 1 to 24 according to their importance in my life right now.Then I began to carve them into the branch turning the branch a 1/4 turn with each rune, spiralling them down from tip to handle.After a couple hours I put the branch aside and went into the studio, and sketched an ash leaf on a branch and crowned it with a little goldcrest.Then for the next couple of days it was carving, painting, carving, painting, in the short available moments in my day, till they were both finished.I like this wand. It has a slight bend at the handle end, making it fit beautifully and comfortably.I like being able to run my hands along the runes. I like holding a piece of the world tree.I like the little painting on the summery page.I'm happy to celebrate the season, the first harvest, the mythical magical ancestry of Britain.I like saving a beautiful, happy page from a boy's magazine whose destiny was to rot in an abandoned shed before I found it, giving it new worth and a new life with a bit of pencil, ink and paint.Lovely, harmless fun.(Robert did say he'd laugh his head off if the wand were to start glowing at night.) :D

Practical class: Glass engraving

Finally! I know!I do take my time, don't I?Well I'll tell you something. My father bought an engraver years and years ago with the idea of engraving his name, contact details etc, on his electronics at about the time he bought a very expensive Bang and Olufson stereo, (you know, in case they were all stolen and miraculously recovered), but he never actually ever used it. When he passed away and mom and I were sorting out the basement work room, she gave the engraver to me. I wasn't sure how to use it, or even how it works, and I did try it once on a silver piece I made, but always wanted to learn how to do some quality engraving art.So when a practical class in glass engraving came up I thought I'd really love to learn.I signed up for the class and walked round the tents at Art in Action, till I came to a table with some beautiful glass work.And met this lovely lady: Freddie QuartleyWe had a little chat, and she showed me a little of her methods and some of her tools. It seems that there are about as many burrs for glass engraving as there might be coloured pencils, or paintbrushes for painting! Whew, I never imagined there was such a range. But there you go with the amazing thing about Art in Action. You get to see, touch, learn, explore, riffle thru sketchbooks...it's an artist's paradise.So I looked at the tools, got some tips, and watched her work on an engraving, and then.......headed off to the best of the best tent to look at some more.Isn't this amazing? It's called "Introvert" by glass artist Nancy Sutcliffe.And so, energised and inspired to the max, I walked over to the practical classes and took my seat in front of a black felt pad an engraving tool, two burrs and a glass (the first glass, a practice glass).The two burrs were a long pointed burr called a rat's tail, and a round ball burr.The several instructors from the Glass Engraver's guild of London, basically said, "right, off you go!"So I tried to visualise a little robin and picked up the pointy rat's tail burr and went to it. So much fun!Oh ARG! No such thing as a straight line in glass engraving...lol...and to top it off, I was absolutely hopeless with the rat's tail burr. As soon as I switched to the ball burr though, I started to get some better results.I turned the glass 1/4 turn, and my next design, a pheasant...er...of sorts...lol, ended up a bit better. Then another quarter turn and an owl, another quarter turn and then butterfly. I tried to practice straight lines, shading, circles, etc as was directed. I began to get the hang of it and it didn't seem so hard in the end once I got my hold of the glass and tool comfortable enough, and once I learned how to use my little finger for purchase on the glass to steady the vibrating tool while I tried to make it engrave the lines and stop it from skipping.You know what? It's really hard to photograph a glass with designs on it! :D But here's the test glass.This turned out a little better, my four little designs with my camera lens cap behind them.You might see that from the first, the robin, and then clockwise, it seems to look a bit better.And then, the lovely guild instructors handed us our final glass. Our masterpiece...now that we were all accomplished glass engravers. :DI chose to do two larger designs.The first was this wild rose. I was getting on so well that one of the instructors let me use a larger, diamond ball burr, and I'll tell you what, that made such a difference. If you go to try this, get yourself a set of diamond burrs. Such a much nicer tip to engrave with. I took maybe 35 minutes over this design and learned how to shade a bit better and also how to not be scared to press a bit harder for deeper marks. Apparently, the glass won't shatter in your hand under the pressure of the engraver.And, with maybe 20 minutes of class left, I engraved this little blackbird standing on a twig.By the time I finished this design, I found the process to be quite easy, very satisfying and actually was sorry that the class was over.I brought the glasses home at the end of the day and R said, "shut up! You did not make these." and then he smiled.I know it's a bit of an investment in tools, but the process is rather lovely and I really loved my resulting glasses. I'm definitely going to give this art form more attention.Oh, by the way, I found this on line from glass engraver Leslie Pyke:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkF6gvwkmv4Love this lady, her sense of humour and her generous spirit of sharing her process, and I can clearly see there's so much for me to learn.

Jump in the line!

So I know I promised everyone a couple more practical classes, and I really mean to get on with them today or tomorrow, (the etched glass is proving difficult to photograph), but this week's been taken up mostly with getting on with the garage extension.We did take a couple field walks and one down to the village......and our good friend John came for a day to give a hand with the cement walls.Chloe kept our spirits up with he brilliant videos, plus hilarity ensued here with Robert's Euro-dance music blasting out.I made this ridiculous little compilation video for you. (R says, "Oh God, don't spread it around!) :Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bf2DZ-cM5YAnd nothing more to report really.No palaces visited, no grand parks, no rivers walked past, not much art...except for a couple stepping stones (have to photograph the second one still).But I did make a delicious quiche.This one with leek, onion, red pepper, some bacon and some chorizo, garlic, herbs and salt.Simple, done in a half hour, out of the world delicious.And, as I usually do, made a few pastries from the left-over pie crust dough. Rolled flat, brushed with butter, sprinkled with brown sugar, stuffed with apricots. Oh, such lovely sweet little treats, and made even more special since there are always only about 6 or 8 available, but so worth it.And! Our garage extension is almost done! Almost time for the roof.

And now for something completely different: The Medusa

I just have to tell you about something.Monday was the most exciting day! Robert started the Medusa!For those of you who don't know what the Medusa is, I have to explain a little.To me, Robert is part genius, part mad scientist, part inventor and all engineer, with a huge helping of that bull-headed, fiery Scottish test pilot, and a small soupcon of British eccentricity. (Better not let him read this before I publish because he'll make me edit...lol)He's built so many beautiful vehicles, from his one-of-a-kind Project 17 to his powerful mini, but over the better part of the last two years, he's been building a car like no other...that is to say, no one has ever tried to do something like this. It involves two straight six jaguar engines mounted on a London taxi chassis, with completely bespoke everything.And Monday was the day he chose to fire the engines up for a test run.Not knowing how the engines were going to preform, and not knowing if bits of engine would break free and fly off at high speed, this was a bit of a risky business, but this summer we're doubling the garage, so the concrete pad, with partially built cement block walls, was the best place for containing possible explosions.So we rolled the Medusa out, set up cameras at various angles......collected ear protections and emergency tools......and, after I told him my concern for his safety since he was directly in the possible line of fire, R put on his biking leathers and helmet, and I grabbed his grinding mask for protection. We also had the hosepipe and the fire extinguisher handy.Last few checks......last few adjustments......and off we go!!!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euFDZmGUUCQAnd, as you can probably tell, we survived :DI love our life! Such wonderfully exciting things happen. :DTuesday, in contrast, was much tamer. We built some more wall on the garage.You know what? I love cement...lol.And after we had a full afternoon of building, and after we cleaned up, there was a little cement left over.I had a thought: Hmm, how hard can it be to make myself a little stepping stone for my garden?So I ran upstairs and got some flint pebbles, some bits of china I found around here, and even a piece of prehistoric sea shell, dug out a little hollow, moved a few daffodil bulbs I uprooted, poured in the left over cement, and built myself a little stepping stone.Whew, after two days of laddish stuff, a little art was very welcome. :D

Hello from Sunday night

Oh my goodness life is flying by here in OXON.Robert and I were just saying that we really haven't had a day off since I got here late June, so we took all Sunday off and did very little apart from sleeping in, watching a very exciting F1 race and roasting a chicken for supper.But last week, we drove down to Somerset to visit Catherine, and I wanted to show you some lovely photos from the few days down there before I post the remaining practical classes. Are enjoying the practical classes? I hope you are and I hope there's some inspiration for you to try some new art there. I'll get Chloe to post then into the tutorials page in a day or two, so you can have them for quick reference in case you wanted to try something new (or at least find out how something is done.)So our visit South-West:Catherine has moved to a lovely village here called Shepton Mallet, (Doomsday book 1086: scoep tun, meaning sheep farm, and Mallet, after a family from 1100), into a beautiful Georgian house built in 1740.We had a beautiful four day visit, and helped Catherine "move" in. You know what I mean? Those pesky and unexpected things that need doing when one moves house, but are so much easier when family and friends come to help. But we had a lovely time catching up and watching Jet, Sable and little Lynx running around claiming the neighbourhood as their own.One of the most amazing things about England is that history is built up on history, and Catherine's beautiful home is built over incredible vaults.The entrance to the vaults is via this double set of iron bars. One has a long iron pin to keep it open, but the other doesn't, so we used our creativity. Catherine managed to drop a key down into the vaults and I really wanted to go explore so we happily got a ladder, a torch, and went exploring, (oh, we retrieved the key as well :D ).I know! Amazing, right?We think that the vaults used to serve as a wine cellar, or cold store, because there are some Roman numerals above some of the arches.The space goes on and on under the footprint of the whole house and under the front courtyard.There's no cell phone reception in there and plenty of frogs and silt and puddles.Also a lot of modern day builder's rubble as the house has been propped up and reinforced, and also loads of old bottles and gardening pots...I even found a blue enamelled tea kettle.Oh to have a month to sift thru the rubble for possible Edwardian or Victorian finds. I'm positive there's a treasure in there somewhere...like a little gold hair pin or something.We went to the pub for supper one night and met this beautiful boy. He's a young Akita cross with something, and all bark and then total mush-face. I forgot his name but it was something like Tyson, so let's just call him that.We sat there chatting and waiting for our food, tired from the long drive, but happy to be with Catherine in the warm atmosphere of that traditional British institution......and in trots Tyson the small bear, nudges the bar door with his nose and heads straight for the kitchen.This was met with general shouts of "Oi...out!" and out he trots with the waitress hot on his heals.This happened over and over, providing us with lovely entertainment.Catherine and I went for a couple of walks. One thru the little town and down the main street, and we poked out noses into the parish church; whose bells ring out on the quarter hour all day and night.We also went on a longer walk around and thru the town and I got a wonderful idea of the area.We climbed above the town, past a cider factory, and circumnavigated a large estate and found ourselves in a beautiful meadow looking down into the town. I got the impression that I wasn't in Britain any more. The town and the buildings took on a distinctive Bohemian look and I felt like I could have been home in any of the familiar villages of my childhood in the Czech Republic.I was emailing Chloe some photos here and there from Catherine's but I couldn't get a photo of Lynxie at all. She was too busy being the neighbourhood terror of all small squeaky things that go crunch, and only really showed up for meals. I wrote to Chloe telling her that I was sorry not to see Lynx very much, and then Catherine sent along a bunch of photos including this lovely one of the party girl. :D Thank you so much Catherine.Back home in Oxfordshire now and back to work this week.XO

Practical class: Realistic botanical illustration in watercolour

I think that I can just about draw myself anything, (this statement is open to debate...lol), so when I decided to take this practical class on realistic botanical illustration, I hoped it wouldn't be a waste of my time, (I'm such a cynic!) What I meant is that possibly I could have taken a different practical class which would have been a bigger benefit because there was only so much time in the day.But Roger Reynolds is such a master botanical illustrator that I absolutely fell in love with his work and wanted to see if I could pick up a trick or two.And I'm so glad I made this decision because I found this class very rewarding.The object of the game was to draw and then paint one of these exquisite marigolds. (I managed to snag all of them to take home after the course because I couldn't bear to see them thrown out)About ten students gathered around Roger as he examined the flower and pointed out his method of seeing it.He compared the actual flower to the painting he did earlier that day, and we each had a chance to examine the two.He then talked about the way he handles watercolours and the sorts of tricks he's evolved in his methods, and that's what I'll tell you.Here is Roger's flower:Here is my station and my little limited palette. That yellow liquid in the little glass is yellow ink, and using that's a lovely trick you'll see in a minute.But first, Roger uses the same technique I use when drawing realism and especially fiddly little botanicals. I call it "as the cell divides", but I think that's a Veronicaism. What I mean, what we both mean, is start in the centre and draw the approximation of the central area, then the next petal, then the one beside it, the one beside that...etc. That way, (as the cell divides), you have the best chance of reproducing the flower as life like as possible. It's much harder to draw the outside and then try to fit everything within the confines of your outside borders. Do you get that? Sometimes my explaining things isn't as clear to people as it is to me. :DSo here we go. If you scroll a couple photos above at Roger's marigold, I was intrigued with how he preserved, or even painted in, those vivid yellow borders, and here's the best trick in the world! And incidentally, the greatest result I got from taking this course: IT'S THE YELLOW INK :DSeriously cool!Seriously cool because the ink sits on the paper, just like watercolour, makes a lovely warm base for the orange tones to sit on top of, (what I mean is that it shows thru a little, toning and warming and acting like a unifying force making the whole flower one cohesive bloom) Ack! Wish I could explain it better. Wait, I'll ask Robbie.He's put it in better English for us: The yellow acts like a third dimension for the oranges and reds to go on top of giving it depth. YES! Thank you. :DSo there you go, and all you do is use a fine brush, keep your eye on the petals you are drawing so you can describe the lighter and darker tones.I found that the watercolour lifted off the ink beautifully without disturbing the ink; which was a nice thing for me since I'm not so sure of myself with strange brushes and did blob on the paint a little too wet and too much in some places.The other wonderful bit of instruction was to not try to paint the central ares, but rather, paint the shadows around the central area. Brilliant advice.And here's is my marigold.It's not "finished" to the degree I would like, but then, instruction plus demonstrations to finished product time was only 1.5 hours. And actual painting time only maybe 45 minutes. I could have used more time. But overall I'm happy with my marigold and think it might deserve a little frame.See if you can adapt some of this info. It seemed to me to be a much less complicated method of drawing and now I want to rush out and buy a few coloured inks! Happy painting. :D

Practical class: Egg Tempera painting

Ah, the richness of raw pigments.Are you like me, an alchemist at heart? I'm not talking about turning lead into gold...well, not exactly...although one could argue that that's exactly what we can do here. Do you see all these beautiful golden yellow pigments? They are all lead based.Yes!Flake white is basic carbonite of lead and is made by exposing lead to ascetic acid. This is historically one of the most important pigments of art, used as the ground for many paints. Yellows are made by heating lead white. Duller yellows, such as Naples yellow is lead mixed with antimony oxides, and reds are often made by heating lead white to a high heat.Great news for art, not so great for artists. Lead is in every way poisonous and must be respectfully handled.Gold is the only substance which remains itself...gold. It is hammered into ultra thin sheets and applied with gum Arabic.Other important pigments are:Mercury: Vermilion, cinnabar, and other brownish pigments (something tells me alchemists didn't live long)Silver: greys and, obviously, silverCopper: a natural blue, incorporated with malachite, makes azure blues, verdigris, greens, and even blacks when oxidised.Iron: Perhaps the most versatile, it makes every shade from flesh tones to natural earths like: yellow ochre, red ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, terra verte, Indian red, Venetian red and Mars black.As a matter of fact, the ancient alchemists assigned planets to the elements in this way:Gold = SaturnMercury = MercurySilver = MoonCopper = VenusIron = MarsTin = JupiterLead = Saturnexplaining some pigment names, like Mars Black and Mercury RedOh fascinating, but we're slightly off topic.Come, let's try our hand at egg tempera painting under the expert coaching of Lily Corbett, master painter from The Prince's School of Traditional Arts (yes The Prince of Wales.)So egg tempera might be a little bit of an investment in raw pigments. I'm not sure how much raw pigments cost, but one only needs a limited amount of them because they blend and mix beautifully to make a rainbow of colours. Just for reference, here is a stockist in the UK.The other thing one needs is a fresh egg yolk and water, plus a drop or two of lavender oil and vinegar.To get the egg yolk, separate it from the white (incidentally, can you see a lot of meringues in your painting future?), and then carefully run the yolk in its sack between the palms of your hand trying to mop up as much of the white as you can, because any egg white will cause the resulting mix to dry too quickly and drag rather than smooth over the paper/canvas. Then, hold the yolk by its membrane over a small bowl and pinch or prick a hole at the bottom allowing the contents to drain into the bowl. Discard the membrane. Now, mix in about a tablespoon of water to the egg yolk, a drop of lavender oil and a couple drops of vinegar. The vinegar is essential, but the lavender oil can be left out. It just gives the egg base a bit of a silky smoothness.Now you can sprinkle some powdered pigment onto your palette and pour some egg mixture on another part of your palette and blend one into the other.The other option, and the one we had, is to sprinkle some powdered pigments into small cups on a watercolour palette and add the egg mixture. The longer this mixture stays undisturbed in the cups, the more the powders will settle to the bottom, and you will have to stir with your paint brush each time you want to use that pigment.The way we began this journey was with a square of plain paper, a square of transparent velum, a cloth covered in a red ochre powder pigment and a square of gessoed paper as a painting board. This is the way egg tempera has traditionally been started.Now we draw something on the plain paper. In the end, I went with a fanciful thistle/carnation flower.Now we layer. Four layers like so: transparent velum at the top, plain paper with design underneath, followed by red ochre square, red ochre facing the gessoed side of our painting board. (PS. washed off the willow weaving (previous post) about three times with harsh soap and still have tannins under my nails!)Next just trace the design onto the transparent velum, thereby pressing it onto the gessoed paper in red ochre.Then, remove the velum, plain paper and the red ochre piece, take some of your mixed pigment and paint the design by following your red ochre lines. I used a blue here.Traditionally, the next step is to paint in the entire design with a neutral iron based pigment. I went with the green one which Lily supplied us with. This makes a good base for the other pigments to adhere to, and, the pigments are built up in layers, each layer making the painting more and more vibrant.Layer the paints in a cohesive manner because each layer must be dried before another layer is applied, otherwise the wet layer will lift the one underneath. I went clockwise.Now here's the trick...and it might just be a bit of a big one! Egg tempera doesn't behave like any other medium. The pigments, once dried, do not reconstitute like watercolours with water, and this includes the mixes on your palette. They do not stay wet to be worked with very long like oils, and here's the dilemma: You have to work fast enough not to have the paint dry on your palette, but slow enough to make sure each layer of paint on your painting is dry enough to go over with a second layer.I KNOW!But I bet that by the 100th painting, we'll have got the hang of it. :DThe next deal breaker might be that the colours must be mixed in small amounts, and therefore, as you can see, I couldn't get a consistent purple by mixing the red and blue pigments. But again, that's probably just lack of experience.So I kept working on my little painting. Painted purple layers over purple layers, yellow and orange layers, green on green on yellow on green, highlighted, lowlighted, mixed in a little blue, a little red, outlined, filled in and generally mucked about with this for an hour, and in the end I'm quite impressed with myself and with this medium.It's extremely forgiving. It's extremely vibrant. It's extremely ancient and traditional and lovely and satisfying, and overall, I think I'll repeat the process. I can't promise 100 more paintings, but we'll see. :D

Practical class: Willow basket weaving 101

Hello everybody, I'm just back from a few days in Somerset and ready to begin our practical classes. I will give you all the information I have so you can try a few new art forms, and I will link you to teachers and all the helpful sites I have.The first practical class will be willow basket weaving. :DHave you ever wanted to weave a basket? I have, and tried, (with various degrees of success), but here we have information so our technique can only improve into an absolute art form.Come on, let's have a go.First: some willow talk.It seems that there are many different species of willow that we can chose from. Here in the UK you can order bundles of willow ready for weaving from Musgrove Willows, but I'm really interested in using the willow that is coppiced in a local park in Vancouver. The willow is freshly cut and left on the ground for people to pick up, and so that what I plan to do.If you have fresh willow, you must stand it up against a wall and let it dry for a month. Then, whether you've harvested your own, or bought a bundle, you must soak it before you can weave with it. Obviously, a long, galvanised tank is the best way to soak the willow branches, but if you're not that lucky, a plastic kiddie pool, or making a "tank" with four bits of wood and a plastic pond liner will do. This soaking can take up to four weeks. Check to see if the willow is pliable enough by twisting it into a tight wreath. It should be pliable and not snap, and it should definitely not have a slimy and peeling bark. That's too soaked and spoiled for weaving.Once the willow is soaked, you must use it. Apparently you can re-soak it a second time as long as it thoroughly dries out first. After soaking, willow needs a little time to "mellow" before use, so over night wrapped up in a damp blanket is ideal.Willow leaches out tannins staining skin and clothing and possibly killing fish, so no soaking in the koi pond. Keep the willow moist for the day or two you are using it by keeping it covered with the damp blanket and misting it with water.Rachel Poole, our wonderful instructor, made the bottom wreaths for the class, but explained that it is just two long, twisted willow branches, so with a bit of trial it might be as easy as the rest of this weave.As a matter of fact, weaving should be very easy, and if you are struggling, you are doing something very wrong.According to Rachel, there are only four steps in weaving, and they are:shovejumpflicksqueezeSo let's tryTake the bottom circle, and take four straight and sturdy lengths. Keep the thick end of one, and clip it to be about four inches longer than the widest part of the circle.Now do the same thing with the other three, and place the clipped ends under the table for later use.So now, you have something like this below:You have a central bottom circle and four pieces (lets call them sticks) about two inches longer on each side than the circumference of the circle.Notice that the dark, fat ends of the sticks are all pointing in the same direction. Separate them into two and two, and place them across the circle separating the circle into thirds. Now flip one stick of each pair to have fat end, skinny end, and fat end skinny end.You can see the beginnings here in Rachel's demonstration.Here we go with the first step. SHOVEPick up a long, straight, nice looking length of willow, (you can be choosy), and shove the thick end under the edge of the circle somewhere in the middle of one side, (as you see Rachel doing), leaving a nice, generous inch end.Second step. JUMPNow jump the length over the first pair of sticks.This first length requires a little support with your hand, but the second and third and so on lengths will hold themselves in.Third step. FLICKNow flick the length under the second pair of sticks, again supporting it with your hand.Omitting the fourth step here, we will go one to the second row.Grab a second length of willow. (be choosy)Now start on the opposite side to the first length andSHOVE the fat end under the edge of the ring,JUMP the first pair of sticks,FLICK the length under the second pair of sticksSQUEEZE the two lengths together.See? How easy is that?Now for a third length.For my first basket, I chose to alternate the fat ends along the bottom, but Rachel explained that interesting patterns can happen if you end up putting two fat ends beside each other, so the choice is yours.But here's my beginning basket with three lengths:And here with 17. Four steps. Just like magic :DBefore you know it, you've shoved, jumped, flicked and squeezed your way right across the whole bottom and now you have a small space left on either side.Here's how to fill it. Pick up two of the left-over clipped ends from making the four sticks. Take one and shove it under the circle, jump, flick, squeeze, and, at the end, bend it over the second pair of sticks you've just flicked, jump, flick (or in this case more like thread), and try to repeat it until the small space is closed with woven willow.I hope you can see this clearly on my basket. I tried to use a slightly different colour to show you.There you are, the whole bottom is finished.Now you can use secateurs and clip the scraggly, black bottom ends and prepare to bend your basket handle.To bend willow successfully, you have to take your time. Put your hand flat on the basket bottom and gently "wave" the bundle of willow lengths up and back and up and back. This may take a few minutes. If you hurry this process you might kink some fo the lengths and that would be a shame.In just a few minutes of coaxing the willow to bend up, you can drop the first bundle and spend time bending the second.Pretty soon the willow will get the idea and both sides will meet in the middle.Now tie one to the other with a simple knot. They should stay knotted. You decide how tightly you want to pull the knot. Might be you want a long handle, might be you want to pull the knot tightly for a smaller handle.I wanted to do one last step:I chose the longest piece on one side and wrapped it around my handle and tucked it in on itself to make a sturdy, decorative feature.Then I did the same thing on the other side.And there you go! Now the basket has to dry for about two weeks, but what fun! Now I want to experiment with more weaving. :DBut I really couldn't wait for two weeks of drying, could you?

More from Art in Action 2015: Demonstrations, Nathan Ford, and the Best of the Best

I first met my friend Nathan Ford last year in the painting tent.I stood back in awe of his collaborative canvas, a brilliant idea, (one I've gently borrowed more than once; for which I hope he'll forgive me), and drew the tiniest ladybug on the edge of someone's heart.This year though, I stepped up to his canvas with a little more bravery and painted a large flower.And stood back.Being one of the first people on the grounds that morning, I could see the wonderful background on which I was drawing. Nathan has a brilliant way with shadow and light and imagery don't you think?By the middle of the day, when I checked back, that canvas was beginning to take on the Nathan Ford magic.Speaking of magic, here is Nathan's painting, "Road to the Arena", oil on linen, in the Best of the Best tent. Isn't it wonderful?Also in the Painting tent is David Curtis and his sun-filled works of art.And here is David's "Menorcan Evening" from the Best of the Best tent. He painted this in his studio from watercolour studies done en plein air in Menorca.Stepping out of the painting tent and into the illustrations and calligraphy tent, we find Mark L'Argent and his very steady hand. He illustrates the most beautiful traditional and original script.Here is a wonderful example of his scripted piece on old ephemera.Next we'll have a stroll thru the printmakers tent and find the lovely Helen Murgatroyd.Look here! Helen let me photograph some of her process from sketchbook idea to finished print.Tell you what. Pop over to her site and have a look at the little video she has posted about the making of her print. Go ahead, I'll wait. It'll make you smile.And here, from the Best of the Best clockwise from left: "Rain", original archival print made in pencil, iPad and Photoshop, by Jan Bowman, "Dancing Damsels and Brooding Bitterns" Mixed media illustration, by Shelly Perkins, and "Druidstone Haven" linocut by Susan Wheeler.One thing I'd really love to try to have a go with is mouth-blown glass. I loved this glass by Eliot Walker. The texture reminds me of an ancient Pompeii vase I have, a present from my mom. Some parts of that old glass vase are charred like this.The whole piece, including this beautiful glass camera, is called "I know how it all ends", and is described as "hot worked, sculpted and blown glass, cut and polished."There were so many beautiful glass pieces in the Best of the Best tent.And beautiful wooden pieces, like this exquisite folding box. I'm so sorry, I neglected to take note of the artist for this piece.And this lyre by Tobias Kaye. It is "Sounding Board in Sycamore (number 472, lyre style)." The artists describes his piece: "Tuned, so that a sweep of the (dry) hand releases a rich harmony. Every day, every night, music sets the heart alight. Turned from a single piece of Sycamore. Pegs are Laburnum and Boxwood. Strings are Phosphor bronze running through copper tubes in the bowl wall. If your hands are dry please feel free to swirl across the strings."On to ceramics.I loved this piece of two little wrens. It looked like taxidermy to me.Here is "In the Garden" by Anja Penger-OnyettAnd loved this beautiful piece, "Giselle", by Cliff Wright. Couldn't stop walking around it.It is a maquette in wax for a bronze sculpture for a commissioned piece. Wow!And this! This is felted! A needle felted study of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, by Eve Kelly.Here is a close-up of Spring. Isn't the attention to detail amazing? Look at her beautiful face, and the description of the flowers and whispy fabric in her dress.More fabric art. This is a woven ribbon. For some reason, the artist wasn't listed but the information on the card says, "'A book for a library of books' This weave takes the form of 7 'A4 pages', with red font and end boards." The pages of the book reference music, visual art, poetry and prose.This amazing piece is called "London on the Map" by Wendy Dolan. It's a freehand machine stitched piece combining transfer printing and textures.And I really loved this quilt. It's called "I am Home" by Ekta Kaul. It's embroidered silk, and the remarkable thing about this is that the back mirrors the front except black with white stitching.The last piece I'd like to show you is this fanciful beaded mask by Claire Crouchley. It has a fantastic name: "Snegurochka" which is Russian for Snow Maiden and a story I remember from my childhood, so relate. I keep thinking how wonderful it would look next to my leather batgirl mask...lol.That's my round up of the most fabulous from Art in Action 2015.I hope you liked my small, exquisite collection. There's so much more I wish I had time to photograph and talk about! With some 400 artists, craftsmen and performers, it's impossible to show you everything, but I hope you have a good idea and a few lovely links to wonderful new artists whose work you can explore.Stay tuned for some practical classes that anybody can try. :D

It's Art in Action 2015 time! Come join me. I'll show you all.

Hello everybody.I'm just back from two days at Art in Action 2015 and trying to formulate words in my mind, which is too full of incredible art, ideas and new disciplines all vying for attention, all wanting a share of the lime light RIGHT NOW!It was good and great, and exhausting and wonderful, and too much and never enough.I could have easily stayed the other two days while watching my head explode from all the amazing art.So much to learn, so much to take in, so many bargains to buy at the marketplace, so many demonstrations to see in the various tents, so much...too much...never enough.So come with me to beautiful Waterperry House while I bring you this year's finds and practical classes.I was practically the first in line in the morning so I would not miss a thing.I'll show you all sorts of different art......take you to practical classes,this year:Egg tempera paintingBasket weavingGlass etchingWatercolour botanical illustrationWooden spoon carvingPole lathe turningYou can join me in the big draw down......and we'll visit the Best of the Best tent to see the most brilliant pieces.Are you interested in looking thru artist's private journals? Peeking into pallets? Looking over shoulders?Are you ready? Then follow me. :D