A walk in the woods at Holt Hall, as part of a lovely day at the Fairy Fair http://fairylandtrust.org/fairyfair13.html with my daughter and her family. My grandaughter, who is just two and parrots words if you give them to her, can say "ferns unfurling". We also made mud pies for trolls, watched maypole dancing, bashed barrels with pirates, were spied upon by elves and met a dragon. Lots of fun.

I've been very focused on art over the past few months, what with it being the last little bit of my degree. This hasn't left me much time for any bodywork so it was with joy that I went to a full moon yoga workshop yesterday. My wonderful yoga teacher Lou http://www.yogahappy.co.uk/, is about to go on maternity leave so this was my last chance to work with her for a while and it co-incided nicely with my hand in the previous week. The workshop aim was to offer us a chance to connect with our hearts. Lou began with about an hour of dynamic standing poses and sun salutations to get the blood flowing and  enable movement in our energetic system. She then dropped down the pace with slow poses and chanting and meditation. I've been very tired and a little tearful since hand in, burnt out and letting go of the past few years of intense study and great change. Being given a space to absorb and assimilate those years was just what I needed. This morning I feel fuller and happier than I have done for quite some weeks. Thank you Lou. 

The other thing I was working on for the bishops's prize didn't quite work out, tho' I have a few ideas for taking it along a way. For the time being my waxed paper holes that I cast in aluminium are a pile of silvery slices and a ragged core. I have plans but I want to give them space to evolve so they are on the back burner for now.

 

All third year students at NUA are invited to submit an entry to the Bishop's prize. Not everyone does, but the brief was inspiring so I decided I would. I'm excited at the thought of exhibiting at the cathedral. but it isn't guarantee-d that all the entries will be shown so I am really hoping that mine makes the grade. If not I will find it another space because I like it.

   









The theme was light and dark. I thought about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, life cycles - in both man and creature, birth, death, a butterfly cracking out of it's pupa, jungian psychology, the shadow and the light, the seemingly endless rhythms of the moon, the sun, the sea and the journey of the soul, from dark to light to dark to light, in aeternum.

I was happy with my folded paper aluminium samples that I've blogged about earlier. I wanted to take the folding on a step, to create a more resolved form. Also to see how the folded paper took the metal if it was doubled over. My ideas tend to feed into each other so the 1000 boats idea naturally led to me making origami boats. They are really more aluminium sampling but the final pieces are sweet, and complete little objects in themselves. I cut them off the pouring cups and removed the sprews though I thought they had something good about them when they were unfinished and upright too.

  

So, what will happen now ? My portfolio is handed in, my show stuff mounted, but, I have two projects that I am hoping to pull together for the end of year show. The first relates to the little metal boats that I've been making. And to stories from Japan about making a thousand paper cranes. I hope, between now and the end of June, to fold the best part of a thousand paper boats. I hope that people seeing the paper boats at the show will take one or two and set them to sail in the river that floats by the art school or anywhere they like. And maybe, just maybe to make a wish while they are doing it. The boats represent me, and my fellow students, and anyone who has helped me along the way in my life, or smiled because of something that I or someone I love has done. I hope that in setting them to sail a little bit of joy will be released into the world. 
I did road test this a week or so back with my little grandchildren, and we really did have a lovely time floating our prototype boats.

I guess that as we disperse http://nua-textiles-surfacedesign.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/what-our-students-have-to-say.html into the world outside of NUA they could be new vessels for our dreams.

So nearly, nearly there. Tomorrow is final hand in for my degree, and today we've all been setting up the show. We'll get graded, and then advised on how we can improve and given a little time to do it. And then, that's it. Final show, graduation hopefully, goodbye and farewell. It's going to be sweet working for myself and letting go of learning outcomes. And really sad to leave what has been the most fantastic educational experience of my life. 
Here's a sneaky preview of my work now it is in it's mock up show form

  

A few photos of my weave samples that I made way back in January/February this year. I am very conscious of knowing only a little about weaving at the moment. My time spent on the loom at university has allowed me to experiment with different design ideas, but I have not yet made a beautiful piece of cloth that I would exhibit or use as a finished piece. 
In these samples, I was looking first at how the colours changed as they crossed over each other. I also wanted to mimic the crumpled wings of a butterfly as it emerges from it's chrysalis, so I used two warps set at different tensions to create a seersucker effect. On top of this I hoped to create light fabric samples to suggest the notion of flight and air. 
The stripes evolved as I neared the end of the warp, I just loved the wavy lines and I was interested in how the weft yarn altered the quality of the fabric.   

I made a facebook page last week, and this is the link  https://www.facebook.com/BeccaJICliffordTextilesAndMixedMedia. 

More politics. 



http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

A friend put this up on his facebook page

The smocking is looking pretty, but there's a long way to go. I like the back too, nice lines that echo the stripes in my weaving samples and drawings from way back in January/February.