Wednesday 5 December 2012

mixed herbs

We had a small Christmas party at the U3A herb group and I also gave a short introductory presentation on the basics of garden design. We ate a selection of herbal foods including some fabulous scones cooked by the owner of the Pavillion restaurant in Laxey where we meet. Two sets of scones were made using herbs from our member's gardens; they were Lemon Verbena with almond topping and Oregano, Thyme with red onion-they tasted great on their own or with butter or jam. Other members cooked-small herb omelettes-lavender biscuits-rosemary and currant biscuits and I brought along a mixed herb salad.
Myself and Sheena Quayle who had an joint exhibition this year at the Hodgson Loom Gallery in Laxey have an article in Be Inspired which is the first annual brought out by the national stitching magazine, Workbox. It is a very fine publication, the Workbox team who took over a failing magazine have turned it into one relevant to present day textile artists. I especially love the fact that it often features articles on fibre art. One of the pieces of my work featured in the magazine is called Byzantine Cross which is based on a cross that held a relic in its central portion. I made some paint with soil dug from the bottom of a post hole that my husband was working on. This was subsoil so it had a beautiful ochre colour which I then mixed with gum arabic to make the paint which was then applied to paper and distressed by rubbing to give an aged appearance. Beads and plant dyed silk thread were sewn on to a cross shaped area cut from this paper and the whole lot was stitched on to black velvet.