Norbert the Troll

Boy, am I going to relax tonight. I am done. All up to speed and have even completed my sketchbooks.

Meet Norbert, the Troll. I quite like him. I like his wire wool hair, his too much alcohol red nose, and the lines under his eyes.

He's quite a sad troll. When I was glueing the hair, a superglue tear rolled down his cheek. Sadly I wiped it away before I realised how appropriate it would have been.

Maybe in another time, another life, I'll make him a girl troll to cheer him up. Although with his eyes going in completely different directions, he might find it hard to see her...

I even put him on a little plinth I scavenged from the cupboard. Cheers Norbert.

One Million Stitches Later

I am so tired, I can't be bothered to write! At the end of all my stitching, I then had to do two more embroideries for my textile workshop.

So here they are.

And then, below, are all my finished faces.

Phew...

 I love the tag on this. It's amazing what a difference a colour accent makes.

Lots of experimentation here. Not sure how successfully, but it's done!!

Evidence of Experimentation

I've just been thinking that, as one of the criteria, it will be hours to prove my experimentation during the hours I've spent stitching.

However, I am indeed experimenting as I go, with different stitch approaches.

For instance, I'm really pleased with the beard and the boy's hair I've just done. By varying the type of stitch, I think the contrasts work really well.

Pleased.

Even though my hand is aching, aching, aching...

It's a Small World

Last week, Jai and I went to meet our local Support Palestine Group. (Not that there's one of these in every Dorset village, I must add).

Set up by a lady married to a Palestinian (who grew up in Syria), they hold talks and events throughout the year.

We listened to a talk by Anne Lineen, a freelance curator who organised an exhibition on Palestine, which was eventually shown at SOAS last year.

http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/palestine/

What was interesting about the talk for me was that, as very much a newcomer to this debate, much of what she talked about was what I've read over the last six months. Which made me hopeful that the representation of what happened is becoming generally more accurate these days.

I was delighted that Jai listened, entranced, for an hour. Not bad for a ten year old! He thought the photos were really interesting, especially the police ones. And afterwards said, 'it's a bit like Apartheid, isn't it mummy'.

 Not a photo he particularly liked, but a great shot.

 Palestinian ladies.

Then, on Saturday morning, Pete and I went off to see the Sebastian Salgado exhibition. It was truly epic, in the epic sense of the word. Amazing.

And, on our way into the Natural History Museum, who should we bump into but our new friends from Thursday night! So we had a lovely cup of tea with them afterwards and I have now arranged to go and do an interview. Which will be fantastic. As long as I can work the equipment!

The images below are terrible quality and do nothing to convey the brilliance of the show. I particularly loved how the photos were printed: I'm guessing on silver gelatin.

I was humbled by the wonder of the world looking at the photos - and at a man's persistence in capturing so much of it. (Although, looking at a book of his previous show, I'm glad I didn't go to that as it would have been extremely traumatic I think - although that's not a reason not to go, of course).