I think I’ve got my artistic mojo back! Time will tell if anybody else agrees but right now I am feeling in a good place. I have spent the last week or so trying to cut out all the distractions, trying to quiet all those negative, anxious thoughts and instead focus on creating. Of course the outside world has continued to be a source of anxiety and fear so I decided to be kind to myself and set aside pushing any boundaries until a happier time.

Instead I took two decisions upfront. Firstly I decided to work with a colour family I developed several years ago and used in my Dunure series of works. At the time our oldest son was in a very dark place and life was the hardest we have ever known. The colour palette was inspired by the scrubby beach at Dunure, Scotland on a grey, stormy November day and the series was a reflection of the effect of place on my mental well being. I had hoped that I would never return to this series and this colour palette but here we are.

Secondly I decided to work with circles and specifically broken or fragmented circles. I tend to call my work ‘abstract’ but the reality is that I like to make marks that relate to my inspiration. Inspiration seems like the wrong word in this case but of course this new work is a response to the virus. Small envelopes of protein that invade our bodies, multiple and corrupt our cells. That separate us from our loved ones.

Of course I have been using breakdown printing to create my fabrics - my studio equivalent of comfort eating. And I have been using bondaweb to fuse fabrics together as my patience levels are not high enough to be piecing curved edges right now. But I think I am getting somewhere. And I’m going to stick at it for a while.

Which means no new fabric packs on the website for another week - sorry.

Stay safe, stay well, Leah

Just a quick post to let you know that I have loaded some more Wonky Print Inspiration Packs onto my online shop. Seven new colour combinations this time. I have already made a bunch of breakdown screens in lots of different colours and will be printing these soon. However I have decided to pause for a moment, and to ‘go quiet’ on social media for a few days whilst I try and get my artistic mojo back. I have been really struggling and honestly don’t want to work on my most recent series but I have some thoughts about how I might respond to this strange and frightening world we find ourselves in. These thoughts may just produce a lot of rubbish fabric and go nowhere but I won’t know until I try.

So I will be back in a bit … either with news of exciting new work … or with some more inspiration packs! Until then, stay well and stay creative, Leah

I like structure in my life. I like to timetable my days based around multiple projects with multiple deadlines. I organise, I prioritise, I like writing lists and I love ticking boxes. If there is a problem I like finding a solution. And yes, I am a control freak.

Well life couldn't feel more out of control than it does right now. Teaching schedule in the bin. Trips, events and appointments cancelled. Running out of pasta. Isolating to keep my husband safe. No football. Constant level of anxiety. Haven't had a good night sleep in weeks. And a sadness that creeps up on me in the quiet moments.

Sound familiar? I wallowed in self pity for a while but got bored. I've watched more TV, tried to relax and read a book, lost myself in a jigsaw for a bit, spent more time cooking (and eating) etc. But I am just not very good at 'taking time off'. I need to be busy. I need to find some boxes to tick.

Of course I could clean the oven. Thankfully things haven't got that desperate yet. Luckily I have my studio at the end of the garden, serious amounts of fabric, dyes etc and now I have lots of time to work on stuff. But what type of stuff? Before this awful crisis hit I was totally fired up about my new series of quilts. I was longing to free up some days to finish the second piece in the series and to start printing fabric for the subsequent two pieces. But now the work, expressing my concern about the changing nature of our democracy seems rather irrelevant. Even my usually steely determination cannot get me past this unexpected and unwanted creative block.

But I have to be doing something. So I have done one thing that I  had been wanting to do for a while. I have, at long last, added thermofax screens, dyes, textile inks etc to my webshop. Ticked a big box there! And I have started to do something that I had told myself I wouldn't do. I have started printing fabric to sell. Not that there is anything wrong with that but when I decided to pay my bills by teaching and making art I made myself a promise that I would focus on those two things and on writing books. And that I would only sell the fabrics that I generated as part of teaching and demonstrating.

But times change. I have temporarily lost my artistic mojo; lost my main source of income (teaching) and my brain is too distracted (yet) to work on my next book. So printing fabric and making up packs to sell is ticking boxes. It is keeping me busy, giving me some income, giving my life structure and helping me cope.

It is also quietly satisfying. There are no big light bulb creative breakthroughs that I might get if I was working on my art but I find joy in the process. And we all need some joy right now.

However you are doing it I hope that you have all found ways to make this strange and frightening world more bearable. Stay well, Leah

I create a lot of hand printed and hand dyed fabrics during my workshops and when I am demonstrating at shows. The colours and designs are somewhat random as I like to use lots of different colours in order to, hopefully, inspire my students or audience. But the majority of these fabrics are never going to make it into one of my quilts so last autumn I started to ‘curate’ the fabrics into inspiration packs to sell at shows. I pick between 3 and 5 printed fabrics and match them up with 2 or more dyed fabrics. Sometimes I stick within quite a narrow colour palette. Other times I add a piece in a complimentary colour. I really rather enjoy the process!

But times have changed and so I have now added Wonky Print Inspiration Packs to my online shop. Each pack contains approximately 1 square metre of fabric and costs £20.

As I have already blogged I am only posting out to UK addresses right now. Partly because I suspect that international post is going to be disrupted but also because I know that the Royal Mail are doing their bit to keep some of our economy going whilst looking after it’s employees. (The presence of a strong union protecting its workers is a big factor in this but that is a bit political for this post!)

I do know that people are worried about the spread of virus on surfaces. Rest assured I am taking every precaution - my husband falls into one of the high risk categories so we have isolated ourselves. Our son Joe is our contact with the outside world and takes the parcels to the post office for me (having stood over 2 metres from me when I put the bag out for him). Obviously we worry that post people and delivery drivers might inadvertently spread the virus …. I wash my hands immediately after taking delivery of parcels and then leave them for at least a day before handling again. And as I write this I can’t quite get my head around how quickly everything has changed ….

I truly hope that you are all in good health and that those of you who are self isolating have the support you need and lots of creative activities to keep you busy!

Leah

Big box has been ticked today here at Urban Studio North! Yes, I have now added a range of thermofax screen designs to my website. I have added the designs that have proved most successful with my students over the last 18 months. There are 12 designs available as a large ‘A4’ screen. Eight of these designs are also available as small ‘A5’ screens as well. And I’ve added thermofax squeegees.

For those of you who don’t know thermofax screens use a fine polyester mesh that has a very thin polyester film on one side. The design is burnt onto that thin film using thermal imaging technology that was originally developed for use in the earliest photocopiers in the 1950’s. The thermal process only affects the film - the mesh is left intact but is now ‘open’ so that you can now print your design onto fabric or paper. To make life easier the mesh is mounted onto a sturdy perspex frame. Whilst not as robust as traditional silk screens, thermofax screens will last through many, many prints if used correctly. They need to be used with a special squeegee as the regular screen printing squeegees drag on the fine mesh and can stretch it. They also need to be cleaned very gently to protect the remaining polyester film on the back of the mesh.

I use thermofax a lot. The designs on my website are great for putting a layer of marks onto fabric before adding colour and shape on top using a regular screen. I use them with both thickened dye and with textile inks although you do need to wash your screen immediately after using them with textile inks (or fabric paints) as these will ruin a screen if left to dry.

Next on my ‘keep busy and try not to worry’ list is printing fabric to make up some of my Wonky Print Inspiration Packs.

Stay safe, stay well,

Leah

Who would have thought that our lives could change so quickly? Having already postponed or cancelled my March and April classes it looks increasingly likely that I’ll have to do the same for May … and who knows how much further out. Like many self-employed people it is impossible not to worry about the financial implications of this. Worry is a bit of an understatement. But having wallowed in self pity (and gin) for a few days I have pulled myself together and got busy!

And so I am very pleased to announce that I have now expanded the shop on my website to include dyes, textile inks, acrylic shapes and other stuff that I use all the time in my studio. In the next few days I will also be adding a small range of thermofax screens designed by yours truly. And, as the days / weeks go by I will be adding packs of hand dyed and printed fabrics. Developing an online shop has been on my to-do list for a while. It is horrid that it has taken this crisis to make me sit down and do it but there you go.

It may be that online trading becomes impossible if things get really but for now I am shipping using Royal Mail. The one bit of bad news though is that I am only shipping within the UK from today. Whilst stuff is still moving internationally I suspect that this will become increasingly unreliable as the weeks go buy. Those of you in the US who want to buy my book can do so from Dharma Trading Co whilst they have stock.

(This has all been done in a bit of a hurry by a seriously distracted Leah so please help me out and let me know if bits of the website don’t work!)

Stay safe, stay well,

Leah x

Everything seems to have got a whole lot more serious and more threatening over the last few days. Trying to work out what to do for the best has filled my head but yesterdays UK governments advice to avoid all non-essential travel and to limit social interaction made one decision for me. It is with a sense of great sadness that I’m postponing, and in some cases cancelling, my workshops and talks through to the end of April. Of course I may have to do the same for May and beyond but, for now, I am hoping that the governments measures help stem the transmission of corona virus.

We have to hope for the best. It is what will keep us going. But we also need to plan for the worst. My income will suffer a bit but we have savings so we will not be faced with the financial crisis that so many families will be facing. We have food (and toilet roll!) to keep us going and will be able to pay the silly prices that I’m sure we will soon see in supermarkets. And we have a big enough house with enough bathrooms that we can take extra care of my husband who is ‘at risk’. I worry about my son in London and my daughter in Glasgow. I wish they were nearer but know that they have the means to get through this. So I am one of the lucky ones!

My heart goes out to all those that are not so lucky. I’d like to think that our governments will come through for them but suspect it will be down to all of us to find ways to help.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I take great solace in working in my studio. I plan on finishing a quilt that I will submit to Fine Art Textile Awards and will work on that online shop I’ve been talking about for a while. Fine Art might not happen and who knows how long the post offices will stay open but I’m going to work on the assumption that we get through this quickly. I’m hoping for the best having sorted my planning for the worst.

With love and all my best wishes, stay safe, Leah x

We find ourselves in a bit of a mess and we really don’t know what is going to happen in the next few days, let alone the next few weeks or months. Coronavirus is affecting our lives in many ways and I sincerely hope that you, your family and friends remain healthy and we don’t get anywhere near the worst case scenerios we are hearing.

Last week I had a wonderful gallery space and stand at The Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I got a little stressed setting up but my son Joe sorted me out and, as per usual, was a great help throughout. I meet some old friends, made new friends and had an amazing response to my work. We sold lots of books, fabric, dyes etc ….. the stand looked very empty by the Sunday. We also managed to meet up with my daughter and her partner who live in Glasgow. So very happy Joe and Leah!

I spent the first few days this week working to get ready for the Fashion & Embroidery Show at the NEC next week. Long, satisfying days in the studio. But unfortunately I heard on Wednesday night that the show has been postponed due to coronavirus. I don’t know if this is an over reaction. Only time will tell. The organisers have postponed the show until the 25th to 28th June. I will (hopefully) be teaching that week so won’t be there. Fingers crossed that this and other shows are able to go ahead safely.

In the meantime I thought I would share some photos that the lovely Elisabeth Viguie-Culshaw took of the mini workshop I gave at last weeks show.

My stand at last years Scottish Quilting Show …. can’t believe it has been 12 months!

Tomorrow my son, Joe, and I set off for the Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow. I’ve nearly finished packing everything ….. Usually I am super organised and have absolutely everything ready days in advance but this year seems to be whizzing by. So I still need to do a couple of things and am trying to ignore that panicky feeling I get when I’m not totally in control. Ho hum!

I really enjoyed the show in Glasgow last year and hope that the show will be a success. I’m delighted to have a substantial gallery space and will be showing a selection of my big quilts from last years exhibition at Festival of Quilts. I’ll be demonstrating breakdown printing in the gallery and will be teaching a 90 minute workshop each day. Please stop by and say hello! (And please congratulate Joe who become engaged on the 29th … yes, his lovely girlfriend Sarah popped the question!)

I also have a stand at the upcoming Fashion and Embroidery Show at the NEC, Birmingham (19th to 22nd March). Just a regular stand this time where I will be demonstrating breakdown printing and will also be giving a 90 minute workshop each day. If you are going to the show you can use the discount code below to get a £3 discount on your ticket.

March is a busy month for me as it also includes a couple of days teaching. And I will be welcoming my first guest tutor, Alice Fox, into the studio at the end of the month. I would love to think that I could get some hours stitching in as well but I think that may be wishful thinking!