do you mind if i knit

Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich.

Hello, something a little different for you today.

Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich are artists (see their website here), I thought I'd introduce you to them, partly because I also want to show you a piece I made for Zoe, commissioned by Neil as a gift for Zoe's Birthday.

A boat on a tea cosy.

But not just any old boat, a magic boat, a boat that shimmers and sparkles and is also a radio station, almost as if it had flown in from another planet.

The piece I made for Zoe is based on their work of art, 'Celestial Radio'.

Celestial Radio was a piece they created, which involved gathering stories and sounds from the Isle of Skye, off Scotland, to broadcast from their boat, covered in 60,000 tiny mirrored squares.

There is a wonderful photograph and more information about this work here. It's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and magical, I urge you to have a look at the link.

My brief was to create a tea cosy, with a beaded boat on the top, that resembled something between Zoe's drawing of the boat (for a map that was produced), which you see in the first photograph, and the actual boat.

Celestial Radio was to be embroidered on one side, and the equivalent Gaelic words on the other.

It sounds quite simple doesn't it?

There were a few considerations, like the tea cosy being able to support a beaded object which could be too heavy for a knitted tea cosy. After discussions with Neil, I came up with what you see above. A week of long hours working on it produced the finished piece. It would have been less than a week if the radio mast on the boat hadn't presented me with problems, my fifth attempt at it produced what you see above.

Perhaps I should have placed this beaded boat I made against a black backdrop, and lit it so it sparkled, like in the beautiful photograph you see in this link.

Neil had suggested putting a couple of patchwork squares on the tea cosy, and that led to me doing quite a detailed patchwork tea cosy.

I became very involved in creating the patchwork. As I hand sewed each piece of fabric together, it started to represent the stories that Neil and Zoe gathered, to broadcast from the boat. I imagined little old ladies and men, relating their histories over mugs of tea, warming their toes by an open fire.

I debated a while as to whether I should sign this piece. In the end I did, and Neil was pleased, he loved that detail. Zoe loves the tea cosy too.

Neil said that the tea cosy makes having a cup of tea a real joy, that's a wonderful compliment, don't you think?

(You might wonder where my beading has suddenly sprung from............ I've been doing it for many years, though very little over the last year or so, it's very time consuming. You can see some of the beading I showed on my blog a few years ago, in my beading section here, just to show it's something I've been obsessed with in the past. I taught myself how to bead from books, just in case you're wondering where I learnt).

Vanessa xxx

My beading path.

This is a detail of a necklace I beaded, after finishing the fluorescent piece. Again, I just went 'with the flow'............. Enjoying myself............. ...... and seeing where an open mind took me. The only thing I have in mind when I'm beading them, is that I want to create abstract shapes. It's quite difficult to reference these pieces to anything. The closest analogy would be sea creatures, but that is not what I have in mind when I'm doing them......... when I really force myself to think about what I am trying to achieve, all I can come up with is that I am playing with shape and colour, like you might in an abstract painting....... except I want to wear my abstractions. It's all the antithesis of my work as an illustrator, maybe that is the key...........

Beading Beginnings.

I don't know why I got the urge to make beaded beads, I was just drawn to the idea. I know that I started beading, to prevent myself from learning to knit! I really wanted to learn to knit, but at the time my local yarn shop was owned by someone who was wanting to be rid of her business, and was completely uninterested in setting me on the knitting path...........That's all changed now, because she sold the shop to Eileen, who has transformed it from a forlorn place, into a wonderful shop with an ever-increasing stock of lovely yarns, and the place people go on a Wednesday evening to knit, crochet, and have a good natter, accompanied by tea and biscuits. I don't think I realised just how addicted I would become to the beading......... it was those colours! Just looking at a selection of beads was enough to make me drool and throw financial considerations to the wind. If I'm learning a new craft, my first port of call will be a bookshop. Gathering, gathering, gathering......... information. I slowly taught myself through instructions I found in those books. I just wish The Art of Beaded Beads had been published when I first started beading, because if there was one book I would recommend, it would be this one, there is some extraordinary sharing of information in this book. I have to admit, my technique was never 'perfected', that wasn't through lack of enthusiasm, it's just that I wanted to experiment, and do my own thing........... as in the necklace I showed you last Friday. While I admire those perfectionists, whose beading is a triumph of technique, enormously, (infact, I'm in awe of them), I'm too preoccupied with doing things that aren't really in the rule book. Ideally, I would combine my approach, with perfect technique, so there's a challenge for me! Some other books I'd recommend are The best Little Beading Book, this has good basic instructions. Creative beading is a charming, inspiring book, with instructions for some lovely things to make.

Dayglo.

This a close-up of the 'fluorescent' necklace I beaded. There are no rules or pattern I follow when I'm doing this beading. I have a basic idea of colour combinations, but the form the necklace will take is a mystery. That's the fun of doing my 'freeform' beading. It isn't a quick process though. This piece represents hours of work. Enjoyable hours....... For me, it was worth it..........

Playing the field.

While I normally prefer to make more abstract beaded shapes, on this occasion I decided I was going to bead a unicorn....... I think he was going to become a pendant, but it hasn't progressed to that stage yet. So before he gets tied up to a necklace, I'm going to allow him a bit of freedom........ and see how he likes it............... He would obviously prefer to be tied up to a chain, hanging round my neck.