A bit of a to-do in Suffolk – FolkEast 2015

"A fresh approach to a timeless tradition . . .on the ancient parkland at Glemham Hall, where, for three days of the year, the folk of the East and their families gather for a bit of a to-do" 

Today I'm tired (understatement!) late last night Cliff and I got home after 3 days at FolkEast where I had a stall in the Art Arcade – we were in the long marquee you can see in the background of this photo . . .

As you can see, this year the dance floor for the Morris Dancers is located right in the centre of the Art Arcade, which meant we were almost constantly entertained with very energetic dancing (video by paper cut artist Claire Knight), music, clashing sticks and thudding drums. It made us feel even more part of the festival.

That huge domes tent is the home of The Social Knitworks, oh how I wish I'd had time to spend inside! Early on Saturday before the Art Arcade opened for business, I ran across to take a peep inside . . . LOOK! a beautiful cool shady world - an allotment, guinea pigs in a hutch, a shed! all created in yarn AND they were serving proper pots of tea at lovely little tables.

Most of the time I was demonstrating linocutting and chatting to lots of lovely interested and interesting people – that's what is so fabulous about FolkEast, the people! Musicians, dancers, techies, crew, stallholders and visitors were all such a great bunch.

This was my view for most of the weekend while Cliff restocked the stall with cards and served customers.

If there was a quieter moment one of us looked after my stand while the other dashed round to grab some food and have a quick look around. On one such circuit I met some delightful Suffolk residents . . . 

. . . donkeys revelling in the sunshine, taking time out to snack on the grass

. . . and this gorgeous lady, Olive the Suffolk Punch mare, isn't she so beautiful?! She was wonderfully placid and her air of calm as she muched her hay in the sunshine, seemed to sum up the mood of the weekend.

After closing up our stall at around 6.30pm we were free to wander round and enjoy the music. There were 5 stages this year, above you can see the aptly named Sunset Stage with the Suffolk sky on Friday evening almost upstaging the performances.

For most of the weekend we basked (almost melted) in the hottest temperatures of this summer. But on Sunday afternoon the heavens spectacularly opened with a deluge! The dancers took cover, some in our marquee, but the performances continued in the rain. There were a lot of very soggy costumes!

Over the weekend, inspired by the array of head wear that paraded past my stall, I cut a set of small blocks featuring folk dancers' hats. I think they turned out well, so I'll make some prints and maybe cards from these.

It was difficult to choose what to buy as a souvenir of the weekend, there were beautiful ceramic cups and saucers, baskets, hats, sea-glass jewellery . . . in the end I bought a snowdrop card from my neighbouring stall holder Sue Sullivan; a pen fashioned from a Golden Syrup tin and a Ribboned Ash wood spoon by Ed Mitchell-Finch; and a hand woven purse made from plant-dyed yarns and waste fibres by Zoe Wood.

The rain stopped before the final evening performances so we could sit outside to eat our supper and enjoy the music in the misty darkness. I particularly enjoyed the energetic music of the French-Canadian trio Ten Strings and a Goat Skin - you can find a taster of their music here.

Thank you to Mandy Walden for organising the Art Arcade, to John and Becky for marvellously inventing FolkEast and making it better and better each year and the thousands of folk who gathered together to make it happen.

Celia

xx

August already! another Gardens Illustrated linocut and a feature in the Suffolk Magazine

Welcome! yes I'm still here but there's lots been going on, so make a cuppa and find somewhere cosy to settle down for a read. . .

Because I work on the Gardens Illustrated magazine linocuts about 2 months ahead of publication date, the year speeds by even faster than normal – I've almost completed the October illustration . . . but I can't tell you about that!

However, just published is the August issueand Frank Ronan's column is the one he put aside when his much loved cat passed away – and it's about Pelargoniums.

I love Pelargoniums, but the ones I like best are the scented leaved ones, Smelly Pellies :-) I didn't have any life-models to hand, so I actually went out and bought three loud and flouncy 'Geraniums' from the local DIY store to sketch from life.

The editor had suggested two possible quotes to inspire the illustration; the one I chose was about Frank's memories of Pelargoniums overflowing from window boxes in the Normandy town where he used to live. (I'm not sure why they printed the alternative phrase under the picture in the magazine. Not that it matters.)

I haven't been to Normandy, I needed reference but didn't brave a trip through the tunnel to sketch from life! I relied on the internet and put together a scene very loosely based on the streets of Honfleur.

This month I've sneaked a little Dachshund into the design, he's not mentioned in Frank's column but there was a space that needed something to lead the eye back into the composition and I love the way Dachshunds' ears flutter out behind them as they scurry along, so why not?! And he's a tribute to the adorable Dachshund's owned by many of my Twitter friends (you know who you are! I owe your furry friends a dog biscuit as thanks).

You can see me pretending to work on the sketches for this design in an article published in the August edition of the Suffolk Magazine. As you can see, I had no time to neatly arrange my studio, it is what it is! When the photographer turned up I was working on the design of  new The Daily Telegraph crest, it was top secret so had to be hidden! So I posed pretending to work on the Pelargonium sketches and then inked and took another proof of this linocut.

I will be printing a limited edition of this design which will be available next Spring. All my Gardens Illustrated illustration will also be produced as cards, I will introduce the first of these late this year/early 2016.

In the Suffolk Magazine article Tessa mentions a woodcut for a book cover, I can now reveal it is the cover of 'Woodland Craft' by Ben Law, some of you may recall Ben Law was featured on Grand Designs building his cruck house in a wood. I'll tell you more about working on the woodcut when the book is published in October.

And finally . . . FolkEast
yes it is only a couple of weeks away! I will once again be in the Art Arcade which this year is bigger than ever. There's an Art Arcade Facebook page where you can find out about the artists/makers/craftsfolk who will be there this year and the activities you can take part in . . . there will be so much to do as well as listening to the fabulous line-up of musicians. I hope some of you can come along and say hello.

Celia
xx

FolkEast 2014 . . . much more than music

Driving to FolkEast early last Friday morning I listened to BBC Radio Suffolk and heard an interview with John Marshall-Potter, the brains and energy behind the three day festival. He emphasised that FolkEast isn't only a festival of folk music but also a celebration of the people who live in the East and their arts, food, culture and traditions.

The festival site is on the estate of Glemham Hall and apart from a couple of hefty downpours on the first day we had glorious weather. The vast Suffolk skies with ever-changing parades of clouds would had made John Constable's heart skip!

Of course there was music . . . on the three stages and in the various workshops and accompanying the dancers, so there was always a background soundtrack drifting into the Art Arcade marquee.

I should have taken more photos of the dozen or more artists in the Art Arcade . . . but of course I was caught up in arranging my stall and talking to customers.

I was lovely to meet new people, next to me were Jane and Ed, here's Jane busy painting alphabet pebbles with intricate patterns and in the background Ed is working on another wooden spoon.

Here's me holding onto my hat! In a photo taken by Claire Knight who was selling her beautiful paper cut pictures at the other end of the tent. The cheery bunting was a last minute purchase from one of my card stockists, Blue Dog, a great investment . . . thank you Sarah!

I took along my latest prints, the four linocuts of a cockerel with his hens and the large print 'Winter Evening in Bull's Wood' . . . Suffolk Wildlife Trust will be selling cards of this for Christmas.

This year there were loads of art activities for festival goers of all ages to get involved in . . . everyone seemed o be having lots of fun and getting totally engrossed.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust were promoting their new campaign to find out more about and to help Hedgehogs. Isn't that wicker hedgehog fantastic?! 

As I'm a keen supporter of the Wildlife Trust, I handed out Hedgehog Survey leaflet to my customers and worked on a new small lino block featuring a hedgehog making its winter nest. I hope to complete this print in time for my exhibition next month.

I didn't take my oil based inks and rollers, so printing the new lino block wasn't possible. However I had some rubber stamp inks with me, so I cut a stamp and made some Festival Hedgehog cards.

Here's another photo of my stall, this one was taken by Mandy Walden who had organised the Art Arcade for the festival and had a stall opposite mine with her prints and cards of Suffolk coastal scenes. Mandy took lots of photos but seemed to avoid having her own photo taken!

Here's another rubber stamp I carved while at my stall to demonstrate how lettering has to be done backwards so it prints forwards . . .

At the end of each day after packing up the stall so it was safe for the night, Cliff (my assistant stall keeper) and I had a lovely time listening to the bands and savouring the food. There were so much to enjoy, so many great musicians, but after a long day on the stall I think we liked the quirky 'Soapbox Stage' best hidden among the trees and laughing along to the ever-so-slightly-bonkers local duo, The Pancakes.

A huge thank you to the organisers Becky and John and their vast team of helpers. They did Suffolk proud!

If you came along and said hello to me on my stall, thank you, it made the weekend worthwhile and was it lovely to meet the people who buy my cards and prints at various galleries and shops.

It's all going to happen again next August, so if you want to spent a weekend with the East Folk in glorious Suffolk then follow FolkEast on Facebook and keep an eye out for ticket offers early next year ;-)

Celia

xx

FOLK is a four lettered word

"folk" what's in a word? . . .

folk = people 

For instance Norfolk and Suffolk, the North People and the South People of East Anglia . . . simple enough, but folk seems a little archaic and twee.

Folk Art

Yesterday Su and I went to Tate Britain to see the British Folk Art exhibition. 

Even the curators have opted out of defining 'Folk Art':

"This exhibition does not set out a single narrative or definition for folk art. As curators we decided from the beginning not to attempt this, but instead offer a series of encounters with different sorts of objects that already have a history as folk art" 

What was exhibited was a collection of objects crafted by people - decorative, useful, graphic, all created with skill, design and care. Art that exists under the radar of the art establishment.

The exhibits are displayed against brightly painted walls and carefully labelled in 'museum style'. All the exhibits were interesting, many were for me very inspiring; but I also thought there was a coldness about the exhibition, divorced from their context in a home or shop the quilts, samplers, carvings and shop signage seemed a bit sad and lonely . . . they needed the warmth of homes, bustling streets and folk. 

For instance here is one of my favourite exhibits, this is an appliqué quilt which was made by a husband and wife just after their marriage, they lived in Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. I couldn't take photos in the exhibition, this is a page in the exhibition leaflet. 

The background is embroidered with orange silk thread, the stitches follow the shapes of the appliqué patch animals and objects . . . just imagine how this would brighten up a their cottage in candlelight on a dark cold winter's night!
There is a short video about the exhibition here.

After a nice lunch in the gallery cafe, we took the tube to the Bethnal Green, we walked along streets bustling with market stalls and shops glittering with saris and bangles before heading off down some side streets past blocks of flats and along rows of terraced houses until we reached a corner shop . . .

just a normal corner shop . . .

it was warm . . .
maybe we should buy an ice cream?

it's a shop . . . but not a real shop . . . everything in the shop is made from felt - stitched and stuffed!

even the newspapers!

This is the creation of Lucy Sparrow. Is it art? Is it social commentary? Is it politics? Is this Folk Art?

Making all the items in the shop must have been a huge task, but one I can imagine how I might tackle. But having the tenacity to find an empty shop and make the concept reality was, I think, the far bigger challenge. And what an amazingly cheery experience it is . . . do go along if you can, it's open until the end of August.

Folk Festival

Now there's something loaded with preconceived prejudice! 

I'm off to FolkEast at the weekend, last year was so much fun that this year I'm going to be in the ArtArcade for all 3 days. Forget all ideas about people in homespun sandals with a finger in their ear, this is a festival about music, song, dance, art, crafts, food  and fun - all in a beautiful country parkland near the Suffolk coast - what's not to like?!

Day tickets for Saturday and Sunday are still available so if you fancy a day of superb and diverse music, local food and friendly fun, do come along . . . it's like the best village fete with amazingly talented musicians providing the sound track.

And if you can't be there in person you will be able to watch a film about FolkEast - The Road to Glemham Hall which is being filmed over the weekend featuring lots of folk with a passion for what they do.

What a complexity of meaning in such a small word.

That's all folks!
Celia
xx

I'll be back after I've recovered from FolkEast!

Lovely Folk at FolkEast

At the eleventh hour I decided to pull a new print out of the hat, this is my special 'Folk East 2013' linocut hanging up to dry. It features the impressive facade of the folk festival venue Glemham Hall with the FolkEast sun and swallows in the sky and Suffolk hare and seagull landing on the roof. In the garden the topiary bushes are fiddling and whistling a toe-tapping tune to make even the flowers dance.

I'd opted to have a stand for just one day, Saturday; I'd also agreed to do 'demonstrations' so was allowed a second table and an extra free day-pass for an assistant (Cliff). To drive across Suffolk from our corner of the county to almost the coast and set up our stand by 9am, meant getting up at 5am – the sunshine and heat of Friday had deteriorated into persistent rain, we tried not to get downcast.

Ta-dah! here's my stall all set up and ready to roll! From the 10am start there was a steady flow of people through the Art Arcade tents, they were all friendly and polite, lots were very interested in the blocks I was carving – each of a flying swallow  - from different materials: eraser rubber, Japanese vinyl and lino. 

But, for most of the day very few bought anything. The showers came and went and came back. Across the field form the main stage we could here Gypsy Fire's most enjoyable set. I had time to run across to the food area to buy tea and flapjacks but I was mostly busy all the time. Cliff reported that takings still had barely covered the modest stall fee. The rain turned into a torrential downpour of biblical proportions, the ArtArcade roof drummed with the deluge drowning out the music, people sheltered inside and so there were even more to talk to.

Then it brightened up! The field of tough Suffolk grass didn't turn into a quagmire and more people arrived at the festival arena for the headline acts in the evening.

There was a general move to start to pack up the art stalls, but Cliff sensed sales were up! We decided to stay put for another hour and thanks to being able to take credit card payments (via PayPal on my website using my iPad) our takings were respectable.

With the stall dismantled and everything packed into the car, it was time to enjoy the festival. Sadly I'd missed the Vintage Market and Social Knitworks yarn-bombing teepee as they had closed for the day, but we had been tipped off that Sam Lee and Friends were worth seeing on the Broadroots Stage . . . and so they were! 

After that we realised we were starving! So we bought a tub of chow mein pork noodles and wandered over to the main stage in time to see the end of the very last ever gig of Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray's Wayward Tour . . . Eliza was a frenzy of fiddling and powerful voice as she bounded back and forth!

We were now in the mood to stay to the end, so Cliff fetched our waterproof picnic blanket from the car and we found a good vantage point at the top of the slope from which to see The Dhol Foundation – a fusion of Punjabi drumming and dancers and just about any and every music genre you can think of – great fun! And it got even more fun when Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray joined them for a folk mash-up extraordinaire.

So, all in all we had a great day – we met lots of lovely people and heard some great music. And after being awake for 19 hours we  arrived home absolutely shattered!

I might even be prepared to do it all again next year . . . and maybe for more than one day.

Celia
xx

btw let me know if you'd like to buy a special Folk East 2013 linocuts . . . I have some left.
The Folk East 2013 linocut is now available to buy here for £35.00 inc. p&p to UK addresses (for shipping overseas please add the £7 overseas shipping surcharge)

August is show time!

The past few weeks have been so busy! I'm gradually synching with the timetable of the retailer's year . . . the Christmas cards are printed and already I have orders coming in from my increasing list of stockists, it's all very exciting!

Summer is the month for holidays and festivals, I'm taking part in two . . .

The first is this weekend, Saffron Walden Maze Festival; Helen at the Church Street Gallery asked for prints on the theme of "A State of Bewilderment" for the special maze-related exhibition.

My linocut 'When I find you' will be available at the exhibition, framed and unframed (in the smart new packaging). Cards are also for sale, if you are unable to get to the exhibition you can buy the cards here.

So, with my prints and cards safely delivered to the gallery for the opening of the exhibition tomorrow, I could turn my attention to FOLKEAST. This major festival has moving to a stunning new venue - Glemham Hall in Suffolk. A huge amount of work has gone into making this year's festival fatastic in everyway (I know, beacuse my best friend Kathy has been working her socks off making the web site and facebook page look great, as well as designing the printed programme while her other half is gearing up to run the sound). So when fellow Suffolk printmaker Mandy Walden got involved to organise 'something arty' on the festival site, I could hardly say no to taking part.

On Saturday 24th August I'll be at my stall in the Art Arcade on the FolkEast festival site, selling my prints and cards and also demonstrating cutting lino and wood blocks and maybe doing some printing too. So, if you're at the festival please drop by and say hello.

With just over a week to go there's still a lot to do! Framing, packing, etc. But why not add more pressure? So yesterday I started work on a new linocut specially for FolkEast . . . I'd better do some carving!

Celia
xx