Moving on

The times they are a-changin'

There’s been a big change in my life this month, but first an update on print progress:

Oh ye of little faith, I told you it would come out OK.

After a longer than expected hiatus* when the house was turned upside down by new central heating being installed and I couldn’t get into the studio to work (I mean I physically couldn’t get in), I have now finished the eighth and final layer of ‘Boardwalk’.

Here is one of those little video things of the layers building up - there are eight layers incorporating twelve colours. I’d got up to layer four in my last newsletter and it was looking pretty grim at that stage, but you can see below how quickly these things turn around.

The finished edition is now drying and should be listed on my website next week. Dapple Scrumping readers will get a day’s advance access, so if you’re reading this without subscribing you might fancy changing that using the box below so you get it straight to your inbox. (It’s free).

In a few days all hell will break loose again when the kitchen is ripped out and a new one is installed. I am feeling fairly blasé about this as it is only one room while the central heating was the whole house, all at once. (At one point there were five gas fitters here all in different rooms). Mind you, I still won’t be able to get much work done as the studio will be crammed with the kitchen table (large), sideboard, chairs, bin and a small emergency fridge. But, as I keep telling myself, it will ALL BE WORTH IT.

*does this sort of thing ever take LESS time than expected? Yes I know, ridiculous question. It was just a thought.

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And that’s a wrap

A month or so after the annual York Open Studios, once the dust has settled and the results are in, we hold a Wrap celebration for our artists. This year’s was last week and it marked my public retirement from the committee (not my actual retirement, as I have one last meeting to attend this weekend. I should probably turn up as it’s at my house…). I’ve been one of the organisers of this huge event for ten years, handling most of the admin and cat herding, and rewarding though it has been, I am well overdue for a rest.

Flaars and cards presented to me at the Wrap.

The thing I was asked most frequently** that evening was ‘But what will you DO?’. Oh I will find plenty to do, thank you. There’s a whole house to be redecorated after the recent havoc of hole drilling and floor lifting, there’s a badly neglected garden to be sorted out, there will be a new grandchild to be visited (currently three days overdue NOT THAT I’M COUNTING), I have booked a place on a week long archaeology training dig and I have long list of places to go and things to see. Most importantly, I will have the time, energy and headspace to produce more of my own work rather than facilitating everyone else’s practice. And breathe.

** the second most frequently asked question was ‘you’re not really going, are you?’. To which my reply was ‘Yes I am’ at the start of the evening, becoming ‘Yes I b***dy am!’ towards the end. For context, I gave more than a year’s notice.

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Right, I’m off to unpack some boxes now we can put bookcases and shelving units back in place, and then start packing the same boxes up again with the contents of the kitchen cupboards.

I’ll drop you a line next week when ‘Boardwalk’ is available. As I mentioned earlier, newsletter subscribers will get a day’s priority access before it moves to the public bit of my shop.

See you soon

Jane