The day started with tidying and doing housework, feeding childs and the like, then Al put me on the insurance for the car as my provisional license came through last Saturday. Then he took me to an art class at Centre Arts - it was about drawing with your right hemisphere, whilst he went off to buy cuttle fish and other casting supplies and got Jean's hair cut.
We then went off in search of a crucible for silver casting - failed at that but found a really excellent art and craft supplies shop in Thrupp!
Then we went on to Tescos carpark for me to attempt driving - hmmm yes well - I can start the car and make it move but panic too much and stamp on brakes and the peddle motion ment that due to the pelvis I then had difficulty walking as it really acted things up but we are hoping seat adjustment might solve that!
Then we got some dinner - Alaric gave me a present for being brave about driving - a how to draw gothic book (he picked it up at the art supplies place!).
Then we went on to find the new Stroud B&Q to get the fret saw and bits needed for the casting and on home.
There are some really cool things there for you to touch and feel and an interactive braille table to boot!
Here are a few sneak peaks but you can not know the majesty of these pieces without actually going and feeling them!
The exhibition has been put together with the blind and visually impaired in mind and as such bright vibrant and therefore easier to see colours have been used in some of the pieces and there is also a bueatiful light sculpture.
Then we come to my piece - the giant coral I have been working on for what seems like forever!
Which I set up last night Complete with beads for the molecular sand! There are also MP3s of some of my poems that I felt where a good counter point to the visual/textural piece there to listen too
So it is a year since I decided to actually learn the guitar properlly and to practice each day rather than having a guitar sitting there gathering dust with like three strings on it - on which I could pluck (when it had all the strings obviously) the intro to Nothing Else Matters and play one Tori Amos song very slowly and very badly.
I was going to upload several videos but then Alaric pointed out that I might as well just up load the only one of my songs I have guitar stuff worked out for - it is the one I played at the open mike earlier this year.
I'm afraid the singing (and indeed in many places the guitar playing) is a little iffy, and no doubt the song will have song writers rolling their eyes. But I'm proud of having written this song and having guitar music for it
I also happen to have a small seven month old person trying to rip my boot off whilst I am playing!
September has snuck up on me and sees me papier mache-ing like a mad thing - my aim? To create a piece of textural science art for the visually impaired and the blind.
This piece of art work does not just involve papier mache though - it involves knitting, sewing, clay sculpting, sugru, polymer clay, wire work, metal casting, wood carving, stone carving, geology and acrylic paints not too mention lots of recycled pots and tubs and our mountain of graze boxes.
This all needs to be ready for the 24th of September for the Centre Arts Exhibition in Braille. And yes I am panicking - it is a play on the tree of life but I have gone for a more coral/byozoan feel and hope to have life in various forms sitting in the polyp tubes (what I have instead of branches). A relief of the scientific creation of life will hopefully be feelable along the base along with an audio poem/story of life.
Apart from that I am researching stuff for my Punk in Pink series and generally trying to take the musical me forward.
Saturday ie tomorrow I will be doing a quick poetry reading in the Waterstones in Cheltenham with some fantastic other poets (it's a quick one as I'm running away to a family wedding!). This event is organised by the Cheltenham Poetry Festival who have been putting on some fantastic events through out the year. The readings in the Waterstones are going to be the first Saturday of each month 11-2pm.
Another event that they are running is Poetree in the Park - the last one got in the news paper along with a cute picture of Jean holding up a poetry dragon
I'm going to be running an number of workshops and courses mainly for kids for the Festival and the new Center Arts in Cheltenham on top of the craft workshops I do for festivals anyway They are also holding an Exhibition in Braille in September which I hope to have a textural art piece in (made of papier mache of course!).
On top of that I hope to have the poetry book sorted soon and also take the Monster Writing Game to the next level. I do however need more outlets for my art work - I may get an exhibition soon but I need to be in shops and stuff more than doing craft fairs each Sunday. The trouble with that I've been finding is that you have to spend money out in the first place to buy shelf space very few places do it on commission. I would also love as I think I mentioned about three years ago now :/ to become a member of the Gloucester Guild of Craftsmen but again it takes money and I am still only braking even as I am still building up my equipement and stocks at the moment.
I will confess to having gotten carried away with making educational games and designing crafts to help the kids engage in writing workshops but I finially feel I am heading in the right direction here
Oh and also some of my local kids poetry is going to be on display at the village Flower Festival this weekend which is well just lovely
(he picked it up at the art supplies place!).
Art and Craft, Domestic, Events and Outings, Sarah | sarah | 
Sat 8th Oct 2011 9:20 am | 
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