words and pictures

The End of 3RW

2011-12-16T09:59:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

Just in case people haven't moved over to my new blog I thought I would put a quick note on here to let you guys know that I have now finished my Three Random Words poetry project that I started over here earlier this year.
The final four poems are here!
I went a little over my target of 100 poems but I had a great time and I have already got the next project planned out and ready to go.
I hope everyone is well and staying warm this winter (if you're in the UK, that is!)

Vick.

Treasure!

2011-10-14T19:08:00.000+01:00

I have been included in three treasuries today - this is a record for me and has made me super happy.

The first was called 'Come and open up your folding chair next to me' by LeenGreenBean and included my blue Floating Vivid Pattern Collage print.

The second was titled 'Feeling blue...' by ChiccaBijouxCreations and was decidedly more cheerful than you would imagine! It included my original Vintage Winter Woodland collage.

The third was called 'Creative a Collage' by bbrunophotography and included my Crimson Atlas original collage piece.

Happy Friday everyone - hope you are all looking forward to a great weekend.

Vick.

All Change Part #1

2011-10-13T09:27:00.000+01:00

I just turned twenty-five. That’s a lot of time.

I’m running out of creativity on Etsy at the moment – a lot of what I have been doing lately has started to seem a little stagnant to me. Now, if I am feeling that what I am doing is getting tired then I’m not going to be selling so well or doing my best work. I’m taking a bit of a break from putting new things on Etsy. I’m working on my photographs – both the ones that I am using to display my products online and also the photographs that I take purely for artistic purposes. I’ve been playing with the idea of using some of my ‘art’ photographs as Etsy cards to match the collage cards and the print cards. This is not me just dragging my feet on original ideas but I’ve had several people (no, really!) ask me if I would consider it as they like both the cards and the photographs I have on this blog.

There is a lot of change happening at the moment and I usually keep the personal away from blogging and the business but over the past few months I realised that I wanted to be able to put more of my writing, my opinion, things about food and books online without it impinging on my Etsy and crafting work.

So I am splitting the blog into two. This will remain as an Etsy, art, crafts, collage, jewellery blog and I have a NEW BLOG (can you tell I'm excited?) over on WordPress. If you'd like to take a look that would be fantastic. So far there is nothing new over there but there will be a lot going up in the next couple of weeks.

There will also be a neater way of looking through the writing I have done in the past – plays as well as poems. The 3RW poems will also be over there from now on - so if you're looking for those the archive will be both here and on WordPress but the new ones will only show up over there. There will be a new one up in the next two days... I’m not quite sure what the final product over there will end up looking like but there will be more of me and the things that I enjoy and slightly less business.

I am going to have a section on the new blog for images so that I can put my favourites online. I am in no way stopping what I am selling on Etsy just not adding lots of new things until I am re-inspired. Once that happens I will probably keep putting things up on here but this blog will be business while the other will be more personal.

I would really like it if you want to follow me over to the new site - if not, there will still be updates over here but a lot less frequently. Also, my apologies for the complete radio silence while I worked on this - my head was so full of trying to get both the sites working that I didn't have the energy to blog.

Thanks everyone!

Vick.

p.s. for future reference, part #2 of the blog is here.

Preserved

2011-10-05T17:50:00.000+01:00

I've been busy turning a tree load of bramleys into apple butter this week. If you're in the US then this probably makes a lot of sense. If you're in the UK: apple butter is a sharper, less viscous type of apple jam. There is a lot less sugar involved and it is pureed halfway through the proceedings.

Many people use a slow cooker. I don't. I'm not being snooty about it, I just don't own a slow cooker. I had to do a jar-count to see how many batches of the stuff I could make. I also decided to do a general round up of preserves while I was about it. It's coming up to Christmas and I generally give people preserves (they make nice gifts...yes I am also very poor while trying to figure out what my job is going to be!).

The final tally.
Elderflower cordial - 4
Elderberry cordial - 7
Sloe Sherry - 2
Sloe Gin - 3
Rosemary Oil - 2
Chilli Oil - 2
Damson Jelly - 2
Pickled Beans - 3
Winter Chutney - 1
Apple Chutney - 2
Green Tomato Jam - 3
Gooseberry Chutney - 6
Damson Jam - 6
Victoria Plum Chutney - 3
Apple Jelly - 15
Damson Chutney - 7
Mincemeat - 2
Chilli Pepper Jam - 3

And not nearly enough empty jars. I wouldn't come around to dinner any time soon - you might be forced to eat jam so I get another jar free for this year's goodies.

And there are currently 6 jars of apple butter with another double batch on the hob as I type.

Vick.

More Random Words

2011-10-04T21:35:00.000+01:00

It's been a little while now since I started collecting three random words from friends and strangers to turn into poetry. The posts are all tagged 3RW and are more-or-less in the order in which I received the ideas.

I am over halfway through my 100 word collection of poems. I have posted more than half of them on here and I have got almost a full set of words to work from.

So really I am in the final push to get some really amazing, weird, quirky, awkward, contentious words to work with for the last few. I've been getting loads from over on Etsy which has been fantastic. If I do happen to get a few over 100 I will keep going - the idea was always to enjoy writing the poems (which I am) and to try and make me a better poet in the process (someone else can be the judge of that one).

Have you spotted the hint? I am hoping for some incredible words. At the moment I am only taking one set of ideas from each person and then when I get to the end I might go over some of the duplicates I have been given and have a go at them. If there's someone reading this who hasn't given me words - please do. Also if you know people who you think would be good at this could you please pass it along. Especially if they have slightly weird or warped imagination (yes, my fantasy/sci-fi reading friends I am looking at all of you).

I am accepting ideas here, on Twitter, Facebook, Etsy - actually any which way that you would like to get in touch.

Thanks everyone - clearly I couldn't be doing this alone!

Vick.

5-7-5-ish

2011-10-04T18:45:00.000+01:00

Even more haiku-ish poems. Once again I stress the 'ish' part. I do know that they are not real haiku poems but they are working for me. Here we go.

RedGreenQueen gave me "coconut, horizon, ocean" from the Etsy forums

"Melt Ice"
Coconut snow falls
over a wide horizon
into the ocean.

Alex Phillips from creatingtrouble gave me "star, harmony, warmth"

"DayLight"
His star was hidden
under the warmth of sunshine
and night’s harmony.

Joanne Waring of JoArtyJo gave me "fresh, petal, lustre" to work from:

"Wallpaper"
A fresh dance of oil
no petal untouched by the
framed show of lustre.

Emily April Scard of AprilSparkles gave me "honey, toes, cherry" to write with:

"Pure Imagination"
Rooms of honey rain
land on the toes of cherry
coloured cakes and me.

Louise Oneill from jaggedrockjewels kindly donated "spices, Japanese, flower"

"Decorations"
A spiral pattern
in a Japanese hallway
scented with spices.

All done for now. Must get back to it soon - I've been trying to preserve lots of the apples that we have in our garden so I've been busy cooking instead of writing poetry!

Vick.

Blush, Soliloquy, Ladybird, Nest

2011-09-25T14:28:00.000+01:00

And for another batch of poetry now. This one is once again taken from my very lovely friends over at Etsy - Etsy has updated searching and so there is even more to look at again. Lots of changes and they seem to be doing a great job!

Becky from curiouscleo gave me "maternal, blush, bond" to work with.

"Home"
The colour of blush paints itself
across the empty room
spreading up to mirrored ceilings
before creeping back to a worn floor.
A maternal place – always growing
a new group of ungrateful children
creating the bond that everyone
can see – easy to make
and easy to cut straight across.

Kate from PatchworkMoose gave me "soliloquy, sunset, solidified".

A motion solidified into action
minutes go by unchecked as they listen
to a series of speeches – the main
soliloquy broadcast throughout the day.
Lines towed along and repeated until
the sunset creeps over walls and streets
into the down-at-heel market
where we wake up and live.

Lin from cloudhopping gave me 'contradictory, flourish, nest' in the blog comments to work with.

"Cuckoo"
A thin grey bird cries out at night
calling to her mate but taunting
those she needs but doesn't want.
Using the unsuspecting neighbour
who never learns but suffer at her hand.
Contradictory by nature, rarely seen
but forced to meet and exchange.
So much of their purpose
done amongst strangers - solitary until
in a nest. Better than their own.
Instinctive selfishness passed on
to thick skinned young who
flourish wherever they are placed.
Alone apart from captivated carers
unwilling helpers in their own torment.

Jane from janehammill gave me 'ukelele, ladybird, beads' also in the blog comments.

"Up/Out"
There is a tall lady - soft but solid
with tangled red hair standing
in the September pumpkin field.
Surrounded by globes she holds
a ukelele up towards the day-time
stars. Unseen but ever present.
The music starts but she isn't playing
and one ladybird lands on her
white dress, attracting its fellows.
As the run warms her morning skin
she dances - chains of beads
clattering to a different tune.

That's all for now. I've been writing more standard length as well as more haiku-ish ones which should hopefully both be up here soon.

Vick.

A day in the kitchen

2011-09-24T21:43:00.000+01:00

I spent today cooking and pottering around.

very lovely organic garlic

beheaded

dressed for heat

all done

ready to be added to...anything

all from the greenhouse

thyme and flavoured oil

midway through being baked to death

very roasted tomatoes

thin slices

much salt

dinner

I also read the paper. Drank coffee. Wrote some letters. Did some tidying up. Wrote some new recipes. Now I think I need to do some ironing. It's an exciting life here.

Vick.

Swans & Horses & Heroes...

2011-09-15T17:45:00.001+01:00

I've started putting my new constellation collection online. I talked about the process over here and now they are up in the shop.

I've done four so far and I am now experimenting with the more dense (artistically, not in physics terms - I didn't do very well in physics at school) groups to see how they will work.

It's also time to think about Christmas. I wish I was kidding but I've already signed up for two Christmas craft fairs. I know I said I was going to be focusing on my online sales but it would be stupid to miss the holiday crafting sales opportunities. They are huge. So, there's that but also Etsy starts really gearing up now. Christmas cards will be going up along with decorations and gift tags, presents etc.etc. Once we are over the Halloween, Thanksgiving, start of Fall (autumn) bump it will be full steam ahead for Christmas.

Exhausting, right? But more on that later. For now I am going back to my stars.

Vick.

Isthmus, Dulcet, Hemisphere.

2011-09-10T00:09:00.003+01:00

After the frenzy of my mini-haiku-ish poems last week we are back with 'normal' poems now. I don't think they are normal. Have I ever said on here how much I hate normal? I really do. Again all of the ideas behind the random words come from my friends over on Etsy. Links to their shops are through the shop names - go have a look and find something amazing for yourself or a friend.

Meanwhile some of these have been really tricky.

Artangel gave me “Ethereal, Whisper, Dulcet” to write something from:

“Sweetie”

The street, quiet of cars wound to the

left to show a bright pink door.

A pure scent of hot sugar hit the passers-by

and trickled through them like a whisper promising more.

Touch, taste. Joy to follow the promise.

Dulcet songs of daisy fields

washed across the room and rolled

back towards our strained ears.

Food delivered in high platters of

ethereal tastes and otherworldly textures

making a cornucopia with plenty to eat in

a world full of easy light and bright pastel.

A home found easily and never quite

returned to more than once, never left.

Michaela & Richard of frenchandgodbold gave me "isthmus, ash, equation" a long time ago now and I have been thinking about it ever since, it took me a long time to find a way of getting the words to do what I wanted but finally I came up with this:

“Library”

Wallpaper the colour of ash and soft silk

covered the room and

seeped into the narrow isthmus leading far away.

Beyond its secrets a world of

books waiting to be found –

no longer behind barriers and alarms

but open to the dust and skin.

Only at night when the ghosts come out

to reclaim their possessions and move

the heavy drapes can the words be set free.

Ready to read.

A home turned to a museum

trapping written ideas like flies on paper.

A human equation of money

breaking the rules and forgetting

what matters from the past.

Wendyelf herself gave me "warble, crystal, hemisphere" to work with.

"Odette"
Two men work side by side in the summer
furnace they have always known.
All at once a sphere and a hemisphere
then transformed into a new life.
A crystal swan kept by his

little girl to remind her

of his hands and their wonder.

the warble of a long extinct bird

carries into the studio and the glass

shakes and mumbles but remains strong.

The past cannot get in, every single thing

is preserved by old fires and a dying skill.

All in all these were much harder than the last couple of batches but I seem to be thinking that a lot recently - maybe now we are so far through (we are approaching 50 if anyone wanted to know) I am finding it harder to get new ideas. New sets of words are starting to remind me of old ones that I have already done so I'm trying to keep them out of the poem and still find a way of working the words in. Having said that I am still really enjoying this as a way of writing and am very grateful that I have so many good ideas coming my way.

I'm still not quite there with the ideas though - I need a few more. There are some people who I am planning on pestering but if anyone hasn't given me any words yet, I would love to hear from you. I'm not doing any duplicates unless I run out of ideas, then I'll go back and use the spare sets from people who have already helped me write one.

Vick.

5, 7, 5

2011-09-07T17:13:00.001+01:00

I was reading over the lists of word ideas that I was given and realised that a lot of them made phrases all by themselves. So sitting with a cup of iced tea and a buzzing brain I got a rather silly idea. Why not make it even harder for myself? Yes, excellent. So I started writing Haikus.

Except that they are not really haiku poems. They are poems following the 5/7/5 syllable pattern so not strictly a haiku but close enough for someone who is not an expert (I'm not).

Here we go. These are all from lovely sellers over on Etsy who have been kind enough to inspire me. Please click on their names to visit their shops - we have some great people on the site and you *never* know what amazing wonders you might find. Have fun, explore, support crafters and artists.

Julia of LoveButtons gave me "badger, kiosk, ocean".

"Sea Hut"
A kiosk striped black
and white looks like a badger
on the ocean front.

Pam of akcflowerdesigns gave me "whisper, shout, silence".

"Counsel"
The first stage-whisper,
Grief that will shout long and loud.
A minute's silence.

Jane of dovehilljewellery gave me "ambience, freedom, enjoyment"

"Night Time"
A dark ambience
the old freedom to star-gaze
for pure enjoyment.

Pam of crochetbypamela gave me "sea, baby, curiosity"

"Newborn"
A baby stares out
to sea, with unseeing eyes -
curiosity.

Magicalfrost gave me "sunshine, moment, comfort"

"You That Way"
Cold sunshine prolongs
the moment I say goodbye
to my comfort. You.

Ana of anacdesigns gave me "smile, transparent, open"

"Genes"
Transparent trees wave
from open generations
a smile from your past.

Stasya of TheStitchAndFold gave me "water, paper, fruit" in the blog comments section.

"Downtrodden"
Dripping water breaks
through the paper like rotten
fruit squashed under foot.

Sandy from angelcottagecreation gave me "spring, turquoise, coral" to work with.

"Pattern"
Spirals of turquoise
flowers form a coral reef
in Spring's lost garden.

Vicki from KarrahDesigns gave me "beauty, promise, hope"

"Acting"
Standing on a stage
his hope to promise beauty
yet no one believes.

Mandy from TheHollowbourneHoard gave me "sparkle, blue, soft"

"Crashed"
A sparkle of moon-
lit blood, tangled in soft fur
as a blue car flees.

So that is my brief fling with 5-7-5 poetry. I think there might be more, unless there are huge objections. I like working in a very specific form, it concentrates the mind wonderfully.
We shall see - I've kept the ones I have written in a less organised manner back so that they were not in with all of the Haiku-ish ones so I will pop them online soon.

Vick.

A Garden Full of Flowers

2011-09-05T12:11:00.000+01:00

Print Preview

2011-09-03T10:59:00.000+01:00

Exciting news! Well, I am excited by it and it's news.

I am selling small scale prints of my collages on Etsy. For now it is focused on my 5"x7" original collages. I am looking to sell prints of the larger art works as well but I will need to sort out the details of this, but I expect to be selling 6"x4" prints of the A4 pieces at least by the end of the month.

Obviously by selling them as prints the price has come down so it's a nice way of having a wider range of prices in my shop. All of the new prints will be 6"x4" and will be for sale at $20.00 over in the Collage section of Etsy.

So far there are fourteen of them up there and I am working on getting more on as we speak.

As ever there are lots of things going on with various art projects and other little ideas that I am working on but getting all of these ready and sorting out postage, plus new titles and descriptions has been taking a little while.

Happy weekend everyone,
Vick.

I love.

2011-08-26T10:24:00.000+01:00

I found this while sorting through Blogger (something I should probably do a little more often). I wrote it many months ago now - in fact on Dec. 31st - and forgot to put it up on here. So here it is now. Unchanged, partly because I like seeing what I thought a long time ago and partly because I still agree with it all. Apologies for the more personal post than usual. Business as usual soon!
Vick.

I love wearing skirts.

I love reading.

I love baking.

I love having a giant mug of coffee and reading food blogs.

I love living on my own.

I love libraries.

I love quizzes. Especially the TLS Christmas quiz.

I love art.

I love crafts.

I love sparkly things.

I love making art, crafts, and sparkly things.

I love Shakespeare.

I love eBay.

I love birds. All of them but especially birds of prey and ravens.

I love men. Seriously. I have so many more male friends than female.

I love family heirlooms.

I love coffee. Been hooked since I was 16, it's my vice.

I love Wrightsville Beach.

I love learning new things.

I love history.

I love the theatre.

I love creative people.

I love black and white war movies.

I love Chik-Fil-A's Polynesian sauce.

I love Boogie Shoes. Because of Sports Night.

I love Italian cakes.

I love it when people exceed all expectations.

I love inside jokes. But only when no one is left out.

I love all my books.

I love my friends who read books.

I love my friends who write books.

I love the British Museum.

I love opera.

I love cold mornings.

I love Bojangles.

I love travelling.

I love mis-matching crockery and cutlery.

I love the rain.

Stars and Stamps

2011-08-23T11:43:00.000+01:00

Maths, geometry, science, stars - all on varying levels of geekdom have been flowing through my brain as I have been working on my new collection.

Following the lovely response to my last set of new cards, made from my 5x7" collage art pieces, I have been working on a series of 6x4" collages which can then in turn be made into blank greeting cards as well.

I've been wanting to use constellations in a series for a little while now but have not been having any luck at figuring out what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to use the myths behind some of the constellations as the base and build on that, or use the physical shape that they make. I toyed around with trying to use the mythology but it became so convoluted that very few people would have seen the significance. I am still working on sourcing recycled materials that will work to do some large scale constellation pieces which have the mythology and character of the story behind them involved, but that's not for now.

The main thing that I personally enjoy about the constellations are the shapes. I have started with one of my favourite constellations. Cassiopeia. She would have been my favourite to try and use the mythology as well (much easier than Ursa Minor!) but she has a lovely shape and I like the significance of how she appears differently depending on the time of year.

I've been playing with different ways of showing the constellations and with different materials, so we'll see how it goes from here.
And now you're all up to date on what my week is going to be about! Hope everyone is healthy and happy.

Vick.

Constantinople, Pluto, Enigma, Lemon

2011-08-22T08:33:00.000+01:00

I think this selection might have my favourite title so far. Such an odd collection. I know it sounds like this is the wrong way around but I find it much easier to write poems when one of the given words is a proper noun. It gives my imagination a handle to grab onto. I tend to build up from that, whereas with three 'ordinary' words I have to find a way of tying down everything that the words evoke when I think about them.

Poem one this time is based upon the words, "Oranges, Erratic, Constantinople" which were given to me on the Etsy forums by Naomi/Shalotte, whose Etsy shop is here. Naomi has been great on the forum so a big thank you for being so supportive as well as for some excellent words!

“Golden Horn”

Right in the heart a clock ticks on,

chiming a history of people and their
daily habits an erratic movement of time
that maintains changes in the city.

An ancient construct.

Oranges roll from where they are dropped

down towards the river, or another

choosing a path backwards and away from
the tall buildings built on the foundations
of Constantinople that remain unchanged.

Two girls skip down the streets hopping over stones

and as they travel along their faces twist,

new hair colours and an older shape to their bones

but they still smile knowing that some things will always be the same

whoever they are and whenever they breathe.

Poem #2 comes from AndiaCreations also from the Etsy forums. Andrea gave me "Patience, Pebble, Pluto" to play with and this is where it all ended up:

“Daughter of Parents”

A memory of pomegranates in a lake

shakes her as she wakes up in the darkness

without a bruise and the memories creep back to her.

She has unlimited patience and too much time,

her mother taught her too little and cannot

see her again while she mourns, weeping snow.

The field was ploughed to remove anything unworthy

down to the very last pebble.

New growth ever expanding from fallow soil

while the horses chained to Pluto’s chariot rage on

and upwards towards the coming summer.

The land and everything inside it waits.

The next poem is based around the words "enigma, clear, wisp" which were again donated from the Etsy forums this time by Rachel/flyingcheesetoastie whose shop is here.

"As Time Goes By"

Liquid reflections in a glass ripple distorting

the mirrored image within,

a couple sat on a wooden piano stool.

A clear picture of a well loved melody

hummed and then whistled or sung.

The evening ritual never a routine

for either of them as the conversation

start a new life every day together.

One wisp of hair falls down -

daydreaming its way past her chin

and tangled through two visions.

Friends pictured within an enigma,

a mystery of hand held symbols

that mean something to each one.

Today's final poem comes from the words "love, beach, lemon" by Lisa/StitchedWithLove once more from the Etsy forums. I love doing the Etsy poems but it takes ages longer because each time I get a new suggestion I spend about half an hour on each person's site looking at all their lovely items!

"June 6th"
There were fourteen grains of sand left
in her shoe, weeks afterwards.
The beach had long washed away leaving
behind grains of memories.
It had rained all weekend so that they
had huddled in the corner of a
bus shelter exchanging love tokens
while old women in pink scarves
looked on sourly at their twisted joints.
The cruel memory of a long lost life
sharp as the cut of a lemon
through bitter black tea.
Then refreshed they clamber onto
the number nineteen bus to sit tall
and enjoy the superiority of age.

That's all for now, I'm hoping to find some time during this week to sit down and write the next ones. I've got a great batch to be working on.

Vick.

Round Up

2011-08-19T11:52:00.000+01:00

I'm having a good couple of weeks. There's a lot going on, which I always love and I'm being busy and useful. This is unusual but lots of fun!

Firstly I sold my flat. I think most people know this already but it is now gone, I am no longer attached to London - which means I am really looking forward to visiting it again and trying to re-learn how to love a city that became a nightmarish reminder of estate agents and household problems!

This weekend Exlineal have organised a signing in Leicester this Saturday. Author Mark Chadbourn will be signing in the Highgate Waterstones from 12.30 until 2.30. This is a rather rare signing/sighting so definitely worth heading along to. There is even going to be cake, seriously - cake! And if Exlineal's charming company, cake and being in a bookstore isn't enough incentive, I've read the books and I can certainly recommend them. If you can't make it then I am honestly sorry you'll be missing out, but you can of course still get the books from the magical internet at least!

In other book-ish news the ever so lovely Zoë Marriott's books were storming up the Amazon charts last week. Much excitement meant that I decided to dig them out of the shelves and have a re-read. If you've not checked them out have a look. Also, she has a fab blog. And a shout-out to Kaz Mahoney who's just had her first foreign cover through - completely fab news. I was introduced (over the internet, but it still counts) to Kaz and Zoë at the same time so it makes sense to me to talk about them together!

In Etsy news I have finally completed my mini-challenge to myself and my shop now has 100 items in it. The next step is to get as many items as possible up to 100 views. Then of course the next step will be getting 100 sales. I might be a litle way away from that still! My new range of cards seems to be popular and I've had some lovely comments about it so far.

Sticking with Etsy for a minute there have also been so many changes happening recently that I have been spending a lot of time catching up and making sure that I know what is going on and understand it fully. For those of you using Etsy occasionally there is a new way of organising searches on the site so that you will hopefully get more useful results. This is great news, in my opinion, for both sellers and buyers as well. I've certainly been seeing the benefits already. Well done, Etsy!

I have also opened my shop on Folksy. I'm not sure how to define it yet but I wanted to get a couple of my favourite pieces there to make sure my presence in the UK wasn't fading as I am doing fewer craft fairs now and focusing online which is largely US based still.

The other day I was very kindly featured in a blogpost over on Katy's site Far Flung Cards. She did a piece on me and my artwork and I am very flattered and deeply honoured, she's a wonderful person and I really appreciate having her in my crafting life.

I have a couple of exciting things possibly happening as well which I shall update about as and when they happen. I hope that everyone else is having a wonderful time,

Vick.

Folksy Life

2011-08-16T22:57:00.000+01:00

So, I'm trying out Folksy. I've been a member for a little while now but had struggled to find the time or space to sort out what I wanted to post over there.

Once again the wonderful British crafting community came to my rescue and proved to be the tipping point. I have only listed a few things.

Last week I decide that I would focus my efforts more online than spending so much time looking for suitable craft fairs to attend. With the weather and the economy in the bizarre states that they seem to have both settled into I think this is the way for me to go at the moment. The money that I would normally spend on a stall will go a lot further online so now all I need to do is see how well it goes.

If anyone is interested, I am over on Folksy here: http://www.folksy.com/shops/vclinde

Vick.

Today #6

2011-08-12T20:22:00.000+01:00

So today went rather well. I managed to get a couple of new pieces done and I have many plans. I am going to spend the weekend working on putting the plans into action and doing the website work I should have been doing today!

I think the project I want to try next is patchwork collages. I'm going to make some tessellating stencils and play around with them. Arrows, stars etc.
Will keep you posted. Now it's tea time...it's been a long day!

Vick.

Today #5

2011-08-12T17:30:00.000+01:00

And the reason for doing all of this - I've been trying desperately to distract myself from sitting and staring at the phone all day waiting for a very important phone call. After eighteen months my flat has been sold. And I am entirely and completely freaked out about it. I normally leave personal things off the blog but this is going to have a pretty big impact on my work and so there we go.

Now. Back to work.

I am playing with blue at the moment. To organise my collage materials I generally divide them my main colour unless they are very multicoloured. I keep them in colour coded folders so that I can usually find what I am looking for pretty quickly. Now my desk is very messy - creatively messy.

And yes, more coffee cups!I'm just finishing off some brain storms...I'm thinking about patchwork quilt patterns, constellations, math/geometric shapes and ancient greek myths.

Vick.

Today #4

2011-08-12T15:15:00.000+01:00

A slight delay as the real world fought its way back into my little studio sanctuary. And then lunch.
But back to work now with some backgrounds set up. I think it might be time to brainstorm.

In the long gap I made an A4 collage based on a photograph that I took outside the Free Library of Philadelphia a couple of years back. Starting with some text. If you can't see clearly enough these are sections of text taken from gravestones - one of my favourite materials.

And then added some vintage postage stamps onto the top.

So that eventually it looked a little bit like that.

It fits into the series that I have already started on Etsy. I'll take a picture of it in a frame when the light is better. Still no sunshine over here! Back to brainstorming.

Vick.

Today #3

2011-08-12T11:42:00.000+01:00

So I've been playing around with backgrounds. I generally use one of four types of background.

1. A photograph

Photographs can be either old ones that I look with my lovely Nikon FE (yes I still use it, and love it) but haven't made it into albums. Or they can be printed ones. The cards are usually real photos and the collages (because they are larger) and mostly printed.

2. Text from a book

Choosing the book is a long, complicated business. Probably need a whole post on that alone, so I won't go into it. Copyright, font, page size, content, cost. Many factors. I cut or tear the sections that I want and then stick them onto a plain background, which I guess is really a blank paper background. Speaking of which...

3. Blank paper

Either entirely blank or with a basic design sketched out so that I can work around it and see where I want things to end up. I also think I managed the most boring photo ever taken there but really how exciting can a blank piece of paper get? (Honestly - any ideas?)

4. Maps

This is even more complicated than the books as copyright is much harder with maps. But I do just adore atlases and so occasionally I use them, but carefully. Plus you can have great fun with them - moving things around and sticking things in certain places. The geo-politics geek in me comes out whenever I get to do that.

Now. I have to go and stick some things down for backgrounds. Spray glue not allowed in the studio - need a door to open!

Vick.

Today #2

2011-08-12T10:29:00.000+01:00

So. I seem to have chosen a dark and overcast day to do this which means my pictures are not as good as I would like them to be. Even if I don't get a finished piece, or a set of ideas out of today I have already done something useful. When I sell pieces, either cards or art, on Etsy I like to include a picture of the materials that have gone into the piece. It shows a little of the process and helps to let people know that I work with printed materials rather than digital collage.

This is something that I have been working on for a couple of weeks now but haven't posted because I wanted some feedback first. I have mentioned several times before that I started making collages when I wanted a way of combining my poetry with my scrap-books and I thought I would have another go at it now I have been working more on collage and know a bit more what I am doing.

This is the 'finished' product. I am working in very small sizes at the moment so that I can see if I like what it looks like. I've also got some new backgrounds for the words so that I'm not printing straight onto plain white paper. I would really like this to tie into my 3RW poems so I can start using the poems I have written with my random-word contributions in my artwork.

But one step at a time! And now that step is coffee...

Vick.

Today #1

2011-08-12T09:56:00.000+01:00

Today I had a plan. I was going to research four websites that I am interested in using to display artworks and cards. I woke up pretty early after a reasonably late night and started looking at said websites. I was pretty much in awe of the other artists I found there and realised that after looking at them I wanted to spend the day doing something creative instead.

One of the Etsy labs recordings was with a non-hippie version (her words!) of a life coach called Michelle Ward who said that it was important to do the business things when you wanted and the creative side when you felt that was important as well.

So today I decided to clear all the bills, receipts, taxes, research books and other rubbish from my desk and fill it with creative things to try and play again and maybe find a direction for my new collection.

I have a series of larger art pieces that have no coherence and I want to know if any of these can be starting points for larger collections or whether I should maybe do a things-I-made-without-thinking collection and see what I end up with in a year. A whole bunch of pieces of art that I make in between the organised collections.

I announced on Twitter that I was going to be playing with art today and said I might include pictures. At that point I thought it might be fun to blog as I went along.

One of the great things about selling online is that people can either see your work and like it and decide to buy it (or not!) or they can dig around deeper and find out more about you as an artist. It just doesn't work like that at craft fairs or art shops. It's a very different way of buying and selling.

So this is a nice thing to have if anyone wants to see how I start ideas for collections. I have a whole bunch of thoughts and scrabble around. Honestly I have no idea what I will end up with at the end of the day. This could very easily be a waste of time with nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

More soon!

Vick.

Cards from Collages

2011-08-11T18:00:00.000+01:00

I have started selling a new range of cards over on Etsy based on my own small art collages. This is part of me trying to make sure I am keeping my Etsy shop full and updated. It's part of a much larger (and also quite long-winded and very businessy) business plan. So here are the new chaps. Say hello!

Vick.

Atom, Aquarius, Recycle, Alienated

2011-08-08T15:41:00.000+01:00

More poems! Hurrah!

These are a combination of very in depth and very strange, probably saying rather a lot about my state of mind at the moment. And just so you know I’m still having a lot of fun with this, which at around the 30 poems mark is quite something in itself!

This first poem is inspired by the words “atom, hiking, Aberystwyth” which were very kindly donated by Mark Newton (@MarkCN). Mark is the author of the Legends of the Red Sun series of books, if you’ve not heard of them then you’ve clearly not asked me for a book recommendation. Go and check out his books, or his blog – both are fab reads.

“River Mouth”

A dull train becomes multi-coloured

by the inhabitants, glad of a rest.

Hiking boots are unlaced

as adults rest while the train crashes

into the hill and continues upwards

looking back towards Aberystwyth and

beyond it the world.

A gateway and a divergence.

Children tamed by ancient Kings dance to the pier.

The train carries on the same journey

repeating on a grand scale right down to one atom

the visitors change but don’t vary.

A place seeing people – watching them

and reading their history.

Some stay, some leave a few learn,

looking beyond.

The words for poem number two came from Louise Brownhill - brownhills over on Etsy and were “tactile, recycle, mindful”.

“Ashes and Wine”

A small dash between life and death

one date to another remembered

the just born and barely dead

connected by a tactile link

to touch for the first or last time.

Belief in a purpose – hope for a future.

Welcomed with tears and sent away

with a sea of open smiles.

To recycle a life – once more and again,

the hope that we will live on

in a form, with something to someone.

The meaning of life to find it.

Every person mindful of the next day

only considered darkly in the recesses

not held up to the light.

No one knows what will come next.

Paula McKay – Altered Eras on Etsy has given me “Aquarius, dusk, breathing” to work with. I should explain that some of these will be coming out in a different order to the forum posts because of the amount of research I need to do for some of them. They will more or less be in order though and I’ll keep putting up the posts on the Etsy page as well!

“Ptolemy’s Vase”

Time is running out to watch the sheep

dying in a cloudless drought.

In the middle of the sea but the eagle

flies far away to find water.

A boy lays back in the dusk

counting each day to the midwinter

on all his fingers and toes.

Aquarius stares down at his sons

from a distance further than they ever walked.

The strongest horses cannot survive

the danger of a dying myth and

take final steps, no longer breathing.

Instead their bones forma framework

for a new country to be built upon –

eventually a river runs through their rib cages

bringing more water to the ocean.

"Alienated, desert, cookies" was given to me by Eva - fromtheheartbyeva from the Etsy forums. I am still a little unsure of how this one turned out but it just turned up in my head fully formed. So here it is.

“Better”

Trapped in a desert but not forever

too young to drive, far from the tracks

and out of reach of the airport.

Forced into a world of milk and cookies,

screaming at the fundraisers but only silently

beneath a pasted-on grin.

Beaten into submission by history until

the subconscious convinces you that

you are wrong. Not them.

A blinkered mind in a town of bullies,

eyes averted from distant kindness.

Children being reinforced instead of taught.

Everyone is alienated so it becomes

Accepted and acceptable.

One day it ends and new people

gather around, you can leave and find

the real life – the good belong.

Waiting is harder than giving in

but the only way is up.

That's this batch done. More soon. Thanks for reading all this way down!

Vick.

Telescope, Dendritic, Grout, Dream.

2011-08-03T11:23:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since I posted my poetry adventures because I was running low on ideas. I was down to only about five to write. So I asked my lovely friends over on Etsy and got a flood of ideas in, so much so that I think I’m going to have to take a few mornings/afternoons off just to work on them. This is excellent.

So here are the latest. This first one comes from very close to home – my Dad very kindly chose three words from ‘Bento’s Sketchbook’ by John Berger for me to mess about with! The three words were “canvas, telescope, bamboo”.

“Arcetri”

This weathered man walks over

a canvas of hills framed by corked oaks

towards a tower refracted by the lake.

A still lens except for the slow twitch

of bamboo rods held in place

by the fingers of lethargic children.

Trailing along his daily route

up a gentle slope past shuttered windows.

He rests a hand on the white-washed house

gathering breath before walking back in

under the open stone arch. A halcyon prison.

Shuffling through the courtyard he

listens to the clouds passing overhead

and enters the study – pausing

to rest his mind on a dusty telescope

now abandoned to an archive.

A paradise to some but lost to his eyes.

Sometimes there really are just random words however Andrew’s (@mygoditsraining) selection of “brochan, heart, dendritic” probably tells you a little more about him than most, but mainly that I need to shout at him when I next see him. Seriously – I went through six drafts for something that made even a little bit of sense. This is another one I might work on again later but I am happy enough for the moment.

“Styx and Stones”

The night came slowly, creeping carefully

so that no one noticed until it was too late

with no chance for corrections.

The sun’s turn to sulk now that his

smooth and bright shine was unseen all over.

A huddle of people stood still looking up

seeing nothing and feeling only air beneath their feet.

Dendritic roads spin off over the moors endless choices hidden from the lost.

Marsh surrounded the path leaving an ever shifting unknown way through.

No one knows where they are going, they think about it

and then choose to ignore the inevitabilities.

Not looking down into what lies either side

a thick brochan made of old bones

and things lost in between times.

More people arrive as the old struggle to remember

where they were going, why they kept trying.

It’s too far to drive in one day so they walk instead

through the heart of rock and rubble as the underground crow flies.

Poem number three in this batch comes from a challenge of sorts by the wonderful David Moore (@abaddondave) who wanted to see whether I would take words that had been seen as unpleasant and make them beautiful or just let them swim in their ugliness. The words were “jug, grout, moist”. Oh and I almost didn’t write this at all because Mr. Moore is currently in Australia surrounded by the good light, the middle of the footy season and most importantly Farmer’s Union Iced Coffee and I am insanely jealous!

“Tesserae”

Rain water still collects in old stone

the tanks full as the foot-worn hollows.

Sunlight passing over the wall

dries the starry dew from moist grass

overgrown into the green granary.

Glass constructed to protect a broken jug

and a collection of coins.

Lost property carefully managed by volunteers.

Cars park so that all ages can see

all ages of layered objects.

Far away in an unremarkable open air room –

furthest from the protection of the long wall

a faded mosaic of a forgotten goddess.

The grout falls from her eyes

and her hair splinters in the heat

so she is only a fragmented reminder

of the faith of a family.

The army who worshipped her

replaced by legions of tourists.

She isn’t recognised. Buried and unburied.

The final post is the first of my Etsy crafters words from Dbervi who gave me the words “feeling, pebble, dream” to see if I could turn them into something. Also a special thanks for kicking things off on the Etsy forums with me!

“A Dream Vision”

A fountain sits below this glass

dome, shattered by a creative

pebble thrown below the waning

moon. Lines cross over an Eden –

his imagination.

Fighting man’s made society,

the king’s decadence in a dream

to lay at peace in his god’s land,

a cruel place split by a river

of god, faith and nature.

A fragment of feeling. Two horns –

of plenty and of Africa,

the earth a temple to nature,

lost buildings house the creative

a grand palace to art.

I am now busy working on the next batch – but as always if you’ve not given me any words yet I would love to hear from you.

Vick.

All Hail Etsy

2011-07-26T09:43:00.000+01:00

Etsy has been all change recently. The virtual labs have gone! Now, I read everything that the Etsy admins said about this and I understand, but it still makes me sad, I learnt so much in the Labs. Livestream is great but since they switched I barely ever bother going in to listen - I am going to make more of an effort from now on. There is a wealth of knowledge on that site and one of the best things about it is that almost everyone is willing to help others out.

Everything is changing. I am taking lots of advice, actually that's not new. For people who know me outside of Etsy they might be surprised at how much I seek out advice on Etsy and crafting/art in general. I love hearing other people's ideas and have a new page (called a lens for some bizarre reason) over on Squidoo after taking the advice of a lovely Etsyer.

I am also looking to bulk out my shop. I'm not sure what this will be with but this was the reason behind the 100-100 post a little while back. I'm aiming to be posting much more often, of course as soon as I determine that I am going to do this a whole host of other things happen to get in the way!

I realise that there is a lot of a mixture on the blog so if people haven't had a poke around Etsy (I'm not trying to drive you to my shop now!) there is an awful lot of amazing stuff on there and it is very well organised. There are so many different ways to find handmade and vintage products, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Vick.

p.s. The pictures I used today are the ones that I used as the background to my latest collages that I was working on over the weekend! See - not entirely random.

Serendipity, Epiphany, Redemption

2011-07-23T09:57:00.000+01:00

I have no idea where this poem came from. Well, the idea came from Kona MacPhee (@konamacphee), award winning poet, scientific genius, amazing woman and kind enough to give me "serendipity, epiphany, redemption" to work with. I went to sit and write in one of my favourite places and was thinking about these words when a mini-story shoved its way into my head.

I might have another go at these words and try to fit them in to a regular poem but this is the oddly styled long poem that came first into my mind (and I did agree to post what I wrote from my three random word groups online). This is in a post on its own, partly because of how unusual it is for me but mainly because it ended up so long!

Very, very nervous about this. One because of how different it is, and two because it's Kona's.
Oh and if you haven't read any of Kona's work then look her up. Now! I'm serious.

"Binn Fraoigh"

Hunkered down high up in the hills

a woman lived alone.

Her twelve friends, the mountains

couldn’t keep her warm

even when they talked to her about

the first night and the final stars.

In spring the lambs came and she watched

as their proportions shifted, the woman was entranced

by new life and the loose formed ties to their world.

She made three daughters in anything but her own image.

They were created from the Earth by the strength of a comet.

Girls as different as sisters and as connected as rain-clouds

they grew close and grew apart choosing their ways.

Serendipity was of the sea and sky,

all at once rough and smooth.

Hard to read, soothing and dangerous.

Her peace was internal and for no one else.

Epiphany belonged to the land - she was nature

woken for each season, all four in her face.

Her smile broke the springtime but she could

bring the frosts of winter with only a glance

Redemption looked like the people

with bright hair and green eyes.

She could unwind a knot with just one touch,

holding her hand brought a longed for peace to mind.

They slowly grew quickly, running away with water

and yet always coming home.

It couldn’t last, they were made of infinite possibilities

and even the lure of the mountains could not stay

a hand and foot for very long.

Epiphany was the first to leave – she couldn’t be held.

A need to be rescued, she reinvented herself again

And once more to reveal a new layer under her skin.

Too many thoughts in one mind.

It took no time at all.

Serendipity left to escape the others’ wild quarrels

that only she could hear, called out to take a risk

never looking back to her home

but stumbling onto ever new discoveries.

Redemption stayed the longest, she didn’t want to move on

to meet new people, was happiest alone without questions

but she needed to find new mistakes to make

and a view of the world from another set of eyes.

The wind fell down from the battered trees, quiet.

And the old woman was left alone again,

in the peace of the hills, her hills.

Vick.

Travelled Stories...

2011-07-22T19:04:00.001+01:00

A while ago I posted about the awesome group Traveling Stories. After that blog I got chatting to Emily (the big cheese) and she was lovely enough to send me my very own Traveling Stories t-shirt.

back of the t-shirt

It got a *little* bit out of hand when said t-shirt arrived. There was squealing and I must say I love it and have been wearing it a lot. People can attest to this.

front of t-shirt

As promised, here are pictures of the awesome shirt itself (with reluctant model). A huge thank-you to Emily for sending it my way - it is very much appreciated!

Once again, check out Traveling Stories, they are utterly fab and deserve your love.

Vick.

Tattoo, Lithe, Opera, Elephant.

2011-07-19T18:06:00.001+01:00

The first set of poems listed today was inspired by the word “screwdriver, tattoo, print” by my girl Adele Wearing (@Hagelrat) of Un:Bound (amongst other things, including the completely brand new and shiny Exlineal). Here goes.

“Abandoned”

A line of people walk next to each other

out of the station towards disaster.

Armed with the remnants of already looted stores,

they carry a hammer, file or screwdriver for
the few short blocks they walk,

the living and their machinery failing together.

Four tired men sit at the bar in a diner

across the street from a tattoo parlour,

of dried ink and forgotten customers

where the permanent no longer lasts.

Street signs faded and battered.

The only signs of new life are the

distressed missing-persons posters

stuck on street-lights and boarded up windows

that they had to print out, or give up.

A storm and fallout seen everywhere

except by the eyes of a vanished people.

Poem number two is based around “lithe, confidence, stone” which was given to me by my friend Stevie Horton (@TheKingofWessex) via Twitter. I’ve known Steve since Uni. and he’s a very smart cookie so I had a lot of fun playing with these words.

“Citadel”

A long living tribute to myth

built in the arrogance of empire

when a confidence in strength

mattered more than individual will.

A contrast to the great men in theory

who built this lost world, stone by crumbled stone.

Tumbled blocks of memory are

worn down – eroded with interest.

The sanctuaries are far from safe places in a noisy world.

A trade of past and present riches lectured loudly

by a legion of unadventurous holiday makers

standing where speeches were once given meaning.

A silent dusk allows the lost battles

and lithe loves to reveal themselves

And the true history we all miss.

The next on the list was suggested through Adele again but this time from @Thanna_ZK on Twitter who had some fantastically brilliant ideas. I love getting more than one set of ideas from people and I’m taking note of all of them but I’m going to work on ones from new people before I go to repeats. I’m not sure if it was the first suggestion posted but the one that jumped out at me first was “yodelling, architect, opera”.

“Dales”

The clattering attack of feet on a wide cattle grid

rings a yodelling cry into bright storms

held off with anoraks and leafy shelters.

A careful wall of rock built steadily into a range

of mountains – made to last by an internal stone architect.

A maker made from lava and layers of

Human history stacked up against each other

walked over by the living to keep it alive.

The wind calls around at all hours

creating an emotive opera with a pause

between each recitative as the land relaxes and waits for the next.

New telephone wires record a conversation

between ancient trees and April-new leaves

as the technology finds a way of linking us with nature again.

The final poem in this group is from Steph (@booktrunk) on Twitter. She gave me a bit more of a challenge (because I clearly wasn’t working hard enough…) and gave me a phrase instead of three separate words: "love your elephant". It was a very different process. Rather than trying to find something that inspired me and tied all of the words in, I created a story around the phrase.

“New Start”
One first day a reminder of another
so long ago and yet all blending now
into an amorphous past. Then and now.
Back at the tall gates she held on tight
to a dark green elephant
as they were all herded into a classroom
full of low tables and red plastic chairs.
A tall teacher, young beyond her years
crouches down to talk to my worried face
"I love your elephant" she says
and I'm not afraid. I fastforward a lifetime.
Boxes packed into the car alongside
small appliances and a clothes horse.
Out of the top of a bag a green elephant peeps.
Still there. In no time he's seen again
a new conversation in a new place
repeating the same words and once again I'm not scared.

So that was the latest four poems - I am close to catching up so will be on the look out for more ideas soon!

Vick.

One Year

2011-07-18T18:58:00.000+01:00

I hadn't realised but last week I passed my Etsy anniversary. I started my site over a year ago and for the first five/six months all that I sold was jewellery. Now there is no sign of the jewellery as I only sell it at craft-fairs and there's a whole bunch of cards and art pieces along with lots of room for more of both.

This inevitably made me think about the past year. I can't quite believe how different things are. I never wanted this to be an overly personal blog so I won't write details. All I wanted to say was that a lot of things seem to be very similar but all of the little things that matter a lot have subtly changed. I've got a whole new bunch of friends that I have managed to find, steal, borrow, etc. as well and it does no harm to say that I really appreciate them, a lot. I am doing something completely different now and have a range of interesting things coming up in the next few months from commissions to entirely new businessy ideas. I'm also playing around with some new places to sell my art pieces so hopefully there will be more on that when I know a little more. It's an exciting time.

I'm going to go and get back to work, because I have a lot more to do. I'm not as far with Etsy as I had hoped I would be but I'm still enjoying it and I'm still improving - I think!

Vick.

p.s. The Etsy anniversary was a little while ago now but this looking-back post was delayed as I realised there were other things I wanted to put up here first...

More Hundreds

2011-07-15T23:09:00.000+01:00

In an update to my 100-100 blog the other day I have been posting on Etsy and trying to decide what to make next. I'm debating a series of A3/A2 finer art pieces. Or maybe some more geometric shapes again. Hmmm. So many options! Anyways, rather than spamming Twitter and Facebook with links to the new cards I've put up I thought I'd just put pictures up on here.

So many cards - I'll probably promote a few of these in the usual places as well. Just because!

Vick.

100 - 100.

2011-07-12T10:43:00.000+01:00

I've set a new goal for myself on Etsy. I want to get 100 pieces in my shop and then get as many as possible with over 100 views. Maybe even one day I can be aiming for 100 hearts as well!
I know that the more items in a shop the better chance you have to stand out from everyone else so this is the new aim.

I'm putting lots of greetings cards on at the moment and once this section is done I'm going to spend a couple of weeks making a whole group of new collages. I've got some fun ideas to play around with so that's pretty exciting too.

I'm still writing the poetry but it felt like too long without an art blog post so here's what I've been doing with this part of my life!

Vick.

Time, Sinking, Fringe, Rose.

2011-07-10T10:02:00.001+01:00

There has been a delay in getting these up because this week kept changing on me, also the order has changed a bit because I seem to be writing an epic for one of the ideas and it’s taking me a while to see if I like where it’s going or whether to try something new with it instead.

This first set of words came from one of my favourite people: Emma-Jane Davies (@emmajanedavies) via Twitter. I love getting random ideas from my creative friends, here’s where I went with “sea, fingers, time”.

“Wrightsville”

I ran right on the edge

while he slept on a sheet of sand.

A rolling sea dawdling upwards

pushing shells into view and away.

Fingers woven in, out, together, apart

each gentle motion noticed and noted.

The light faded right on time

as skin cooled and we started

a long journey back, locked inside night.

We didn’t spend our time linked

but let the moments pass comfortably

Knowing that the oceans and clocks

were never going to be a part of our plans.

The next set of words were “hedgehog, sinking, pullulate” from Kate Laity (@katelaity). Oddly enough this was the easiest poem I’ve done so far which I did not expect from those words. I’ve not known Kate all that long but she is fantastic, wonderful, crackers and I’m stealing her.

“Ruins”

A thrush hops along the broken ceiling

rubbled brick and paint work

past cries on ears unhearing and dead.

The walls now overgrown with life

and the lodestone sinking back.

Ants, spiders, woodlice pullulate

in the cool dark corners hidden from the light.

And in the very Eastern extreme

a hedgehog sleeps on.

Waiting for everything to come back,

to wake up, to re-ignite.

For the Earth beneath to quiver

and history to start again.

I was very excited to write this poem because I had no idea where it would go. The words “cat, banana, fringe” came from Mel Blount in the comments section of the blog. Here’s what happened next.

“Auntie E.”

Five children bribed by the promise

of chocolate cake and a toffee jar

visiting their future.

Her swollen ankles dangle alongside

the twisted fringe of her chair

with dust trapped in each turn.

Porcelain cats and dogs line

every flat surface to reconcile

the domestic void.

An almost empty fridge is

only stocked for visitors now

while the china fruit bowl

holds an over-ripe banana

and a pair of abandoned glasses.

Her face lighting up does not make the trip worthwhile –

until years have passed.

Then once again the same cat

reminds you of your future

and her well-loved past.

The last of today’s batch is inspired by my favourite man, Sawyer (@ScooterMcDubs). The words were “illuminate, doorway, rose” and here’s where I went with them.

“Pray”

Simply at peace, she doesn’t move.

Her pale skin is dappled

in all Heavenly hues

from the Rose so high up.

A brittle glass – filigree decisions

fused over time to create beauty.

She stands, equidistant between

the Crossroads and the doorway

to decide where to go next

whether to renew or walk out.

The sun shifts and everything old

falls into its place

so that the way will illuminate for one and all.

To follow, to choose, to believe.

Looking over these my titles seem particularly uninspired, sorry about that folks. Might work on them a little more!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. More to follow in the future.

Vick.

Open Gardening

2011-07-07T18:20:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited by my Aunt Pat to an Open Gardens to raise money for the charity Rainbows Children's Hospice. I wasn't expecting to have quite so much space so my stall looked a little bare but it was a lovely day and I met lots of fab people, plus it's always fun being in my Aunt's garden as it is completely stunning! Over £1000 was raised so I think we can officially call this one a success.

How the display looked on the small table

Earrings and bracelets

Bracelet kits

Chunky bracelets

Bracelets and necklaces

Very impressive runner beans, beetroot and carrots

Vick.

Chainsaw, Milkshake, Ragged, Biscuit

2011-07-05T10:49:00.000+01:00

The next in my 3RW posts where I'm putting up the poems I have written based upon three random words given to me by other people.
I’ll start by thanking everyone who has so far given me ideas to work with, I am having almost indecent amounts of fun writing poetry this way. I’ve been playing around with ideas for what to do with all of these poems and I’m still unsure but will just keep writing them until I run out of ideas to work with. I've now 28 sets of words through and have written fourteen of them. This is group three of the poems so far.

The first of the poems here was written to the words “scintillating, erstwhile, chainsaw” by Vincent Holland-Keen (@fiskerton). He’s also the reason that I’ve not written as much the past couple of days because his debut novel The Office of Lost and Found came out over the weekend and I’ve not really been able to put it down. It has been published in eBook format by Anarchy Books and is completely fantastic. I can’t recommend it enough.

“Shenandoah”

A skyline of broken trees and moths.

Streams of cars not water

along the only direction through.

The erstwhile daughters of night and stars

lay forgotten in the shamed past,

only deer in the woods remember.

They stare at each other, the ants

as if scintillating enough to last

and outlast the natural installations.

The old men grow just tall enough

controlled by chainsaws and budgets,

watched by escaping crowds

protecting their destruction.

Sam Strong (@SamaelTB) gave me “pizza, milkshake, geese” which I think might have been the strangest process to try and fit those words into a poem. I also seem to have had a sort of green-theme to both his and Vince’s poems. Not intentional just sort of happened that way!

“Migration”

The world reversed its time

springing back and falling forward

turning nature on her head.

An arrow of geese flew too low – hiding

from a strawberry-milkshake sunset

pointing them away from home.

A confused heat trapped

in feathers over summer

encouraged by tourists eating pizza

in Neapolitan towns while the Alaskan ice melts.

Broad streams of defrosted tears

mourn the loss of un-caged birds

throughout the ever extending winters.

As we look on

troubled but understanding.

Charlotte Naylor (soon to be Charlotte Strong…as in Sam Strong of the poem above!) sent me “ragged, loom, surreptitious” via Twitter (@mithciriel).

“A Grave Hall”

Double doors swing inwards

by hands unseen

all eyes gazing up to the gallery.

A high ceiling framed either side

by ragged tapestries of

noble love and ignoble wars.

The box room with barely space

to stand beside the silent loom

with threads still caught in motion.

Everyone walks slowly along

taking nothing far away.

A surreptitious movement on a hidden staircase

and furtive knowledge lost to yet another generation

behind too many layers of wallpaper.

I’ve had so much trouble with the words that Tom (@ThermobaricTom) gave me. I think this had more entire re-writes than any of the others. I have been working with “educate, biscuit, indeterminable” and I think I’m okay with the poem now, there's a small chance it might change again though!

“Paper Lanterns”

The first time view walking in, nerves,

rows of labelled bottles under

multi-coloured flowers on pegs

names taken from the images.

Days divided in half

eased into the fast lane

on an extra stable wheel.

Bright colours educate

with fingers paints and chunky pens.

A kitchen full of biscuit tins

and orange squash.

As many options as there are hours,

as many as there are people.

An indeterminable future ahead

paths of choices not destinies.

That's all for now, there will be more in a few days time. Thanks for reading down this far!

Vick.

A Nation of Nations

2011-07-04T10:59:00.000+01:00

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

It's America Day and so I say congratulations to all my US friends for kicking us out, then making very subtle changes to language and chocolate...sneaky!

Here are a few super-American pictures from my trip around the USA.

Hope y'all have loads of food, fireworks, and fun.

Vick

Robot, Whisker, Scavenge, Faculty

2011-07-03T10:12:00.000+01:00

This is batch number two of the poems I’m writing for my ‘Three Random Words’ project. As a quick aside, all of them have been tagged with "3RW" if we get far enough for it to be hard to keep track. I am still aiming to write a hundred poems while taking my inspiration from three words I’ve been given by other people.

So far I’ve been sent 22 ideas out of 100 and I’ve written a total of 13 of them. Bribes are starting to happen as I am now catching up too quickly.

Catherine Mann (@ctjhill) commented on the first blog post leaving me with “robot, rainstorm, circumvent”. After a brief daydream about 'Short Circuit' (1 and 2) I managed to come up with this:

“Dedication”

A high mass of tree roots

growing down from the sky

circumvent the sunshine and

stick to sheltered shadows.

A nature impossible to avoid

in the heart of the country –

the centre of a field.

Grey light and purple cloud

herald in a rainstorm

of dancing lightning and crescendos.

The sparks flash and spit

as a mis-wired robot.

Everything belongs here –

except for the bench and it’s plaque.

The welcomed, jarring presence

of man and machine

Meanwhile over on Facebook Delaine Holland-Keen very kindly gave me “fork, whisker, flannel” which really sent my imagination spinning. I had so much I could do with these words, this is what I actually did:

“Above the Chimney Top”

The clouds creep darkly in towards

a tired landscape cottage.

Take the taken road –

the right fork. Left.

Slow boots treading footprints

over the bones of old prey.

Barbed wire marking the way,

a slight whisker breath between lives.

Cooling air outside gives way to comfort.

A flannel blanket with checked

windows to another place.

Somewhere like home.

I met Pat Kelleher at Alt.Fiction last weekend and after finding him on Twitter (@patkelleher ) he was good enough to give me “cedar, pearl, scavenge” to work with.

“One for Sorrow”

His beak breaks the mirrored water,

a knowing eye from an unknown mind.

Protected by a wide fingered cedar

with a carpet of tangled needles.

The garden an eternal market

with calls to sell and buy

ignored, preferring to scavenge from all.

Never to be left alone
always followed by superstition.

He collects silver and pearl

on the anniversary of each sunrise.

And once more, I also know Colin Barnes (@Colin_Barnes) from the Alt.Fiction gang and he also gave me ideas from Twitter. This time my words were “ramekin, faculty, omnivorous”. Now, let’s get something clear – getting ramekin into a poem was incredibly difficult. I tried an awful lot of things before settling on this approach:

“Old Curiosity”

Smoke scratched wallpaper on four walls

with a broken rocking chair centre stage.

An entrenched faculty for wonder,

for curiosity and exploration.

The remnants of lives in plastic crates

a fluted ramekin, chipped and torched

alongside a gouged hammer once loved.

Destruction of time marked by

an omnivorous grandfather clock.

Burned down to dust and powder

and the lie that memories last.

Oddly this is still fun, and I'm thinking about what I'm writing a lot more than I usually do. I know this leads to an increase in the amount of coffee drunk and I think it leads to better poems as well. Thank you so much to everyone sending me sets of words, I really appreciate it.

However. I need more ideas, I’m going to run out soon. Then the targeted threatening emails will begin. Help keep me out of prison, send ideas.

Vick.

Day to Night

2011-07-02T12:48:00.000+01:00

A break from poems. Except that these were taken when I went to sit and write the latest few.
The sunset last night was quite spectacular. And yes, I did stand in the middle of an A road to take one of the pictures.

Vick.

p.s. More poetry coming up tomorrow... please, please keep sending me your ideas. Thanks!

Hokum, Clown, Ichor, Today

2011-07-01T09:48:00.001+01:00

In the first post I blogged about writing a hundred poems from other people’s ideas I mentioned that there were four in the batch that I started with. I posted the one from Gem Fox (@Gemma_Fox ) over there. I’ll do four at a time so the first three here are the others that were written a week or two ago and then the last one is from the new groups.

So far I’ve been sent 20 ideas out of 100 and I’ve written a total of 11 of them.

Wilf Kelleher Jones (@wilfkell) gave me the words “hokum, persiflage and rabbit” to work with.

"Once upon a time"
Sickly sweet stories heard
too young to filter out the
unrelenting persiflage.
Tales full of perfect holidays
and rabbits in Armani suits.
A wealth of ingrained hokum
to be learnt and passed on.
Not the greatest but the lightest survive,
the dark filtered out
until one day a wall crashes down.
Not leaving a broken egg behind
but an illusion
That can't be put together again.

Mark Chadbourn (@chadbourn) suggested “clown, cephalopod, catalyst” and I jokingly said that I should title this “You-Tube”. I’m still unsure, so for now it will keep the one it has.

“A Canvas Sky”

The circus came to town
every Tuesday at 4pm.
A clown in small shoes holding hands
with a tiger,
Face-painted acrobats are scared of trolleys
so the human-cephalopod carried an armful
of baskets. And another.
Smiling tears; torn stripes; colours tumbling; watered ink.
A diverse society, a changing catalyst, a dying art -
to stare or to run.
Now that the freaks are everywhere,
What's left to look at?

Jyoti Mishra (@JyotiMishra) sent me the strangest of the first bunch “sideboard, axolotl, ichor”. When I looked at it I had no idea where to go and it did take a while but here we go.

“Moving Day”

She stood as a small girl in borrowed clothes

perched high on the edge of the sideboard,

to be taller - ever reaching for maturity.

Keys in the door,

announcing the new and pushing her to the street.

Everyone else has already taken their boxes

their regret far less making hers greater.

A caterpillar axolotl looking towards the

Butterfly salamander with love and confusion.

A thumping in her ears of the city drones

Her next world a fearful adventure,

Not an ichor of the gods nor a poisoned heartbeat.

She smiles at them

As they wish each other well and re-start.

Lynette Dubbels (@lynettedubbels) was the first person to reply to my plea for ideas with “smooth, bright, today” on Twitter.

“September”

A moment for the city to be new,

we only had a few weeks

before each today was yesterday.

We took the train far away

where doors opened on bright evenings

and we held onto each other’s past.

We had adventures.

went into the smooth urban sprawl,

to stare at things that we all pretend

to understand

And create our own.

I’ll keep putting these up as the ideas come in and I get them written. I do have a long way to go before I get enough ideas so please keep nagging people. Thank you!

Vick.

p.s. I don't like blog posts with no pictures at all so I'll keep adding images in here but they probably won't have very much to do with the contents, just something to break up all the text!

Three Random Words

2011-06-29T18:05:00.003+01:00

poetry in Ireland

A few weeks ago I was staying up late writing and I found a series of poems that I had written at university. Most of the ones that I wrote back then were uniformly terrible, these are different because I asked for the inspiration from my friends. I asked for a few buzz-words to get me started and then had to include those words in the poem that I wrote.

Now with the wonders of social media just a few minutes after remembering how much fun these had been to do I could ask friends around the world for their ideas. I sent out a plea for three random words. The selections that I got were certainly random: they included ‘clown’, ‘hokum’ and ‘axolotl’. So going from this I wrote four poems and had more fun writing them than I have for a long time writing poetry.

I mentioned this in an email to one of my friends who had suggested ideas for the original batch of poems and he suggested that I should try to write a hundred poems and use those to get a collection together of poems all inspired by three random words. My first thought was “well, that’s ridiculous’ followed quickly by “actually that would be a lot of fun” and then “I need help”.

Now I am fully aware that there are lots of people who think I need a lot of help anyway but I need specific help at the moment. If I am going to be able to write a hundred poems I need one hundred sets of three random words. I know an awful lot of creative people and I intend on harassing people until I get them.

My only worry is that it worked really well when people didn’t know why I was asking for three words but as soon as I say that it’s going to be for a poem I worry that one of two things will happen. One: people will try to make it too difficult just to see how ridiculous they can make them. Two: people will try and give me ‘poetry-ish’ words rather than really random words. The second is a lot less of a problem because if I wanted really random words I could use a word generator but I like the personal aspect and it’s even more fun when I know the people sending me ideas.

The plan: I am going to try to write a hundred poems based on thee random words sent to me by anyone who has the time to type the first three words that they think of, or their three favourite words – I don’t mind at all. People can certainly send more than one set of words. If you would be as kind as to mention this to people who you think would like to help me out that would be wonderful. I will put it up on twitter, facebook, around email lists etc. and even in real live conversations! The more I get the better.

I will post the poems on here and people can laugh at how I manage to get kumquat, xylophone and monkey into a poem. In case you are wondering, this is how:

"The New World"

An old man's toothless smile
as his street organ plays a
wild-xylophone lament.
The daily grind with only
a monkey to keep the company,
while he tips his hat -
hoping others will too.
As the century turns on there is
a Fortune to be made.
Tea, silkworms, kumquats and peonies
are the new Gods,
and the street falls silent.

So, there you go. Please help me!

Vick.

p.s. I'll happily accept word-ideas from the comments, in emails, over Twitter, Facebook, snail mail, morse code, really however suits you best.

Original Collage

2011-06-20T16:28:00.000+01:00

My shop on Etsy is split between cards and collages and the collages are half under the 'Original Collage' section and half under the 'Abstract Collage'. This is because there is no 'Original Abstract Collage' box. Not surprising really.

While I was talking about branding I explained that I started making collages because I wanted a way of displaying the poetry I was writing. I still do both but no longer together. The original poetry collages are still up on my walls and I thought I'd pop a couple of them on here as examples.

They are not overly neat and they don't fit to copyright legislations. They are however a reminder to me of why I started making collages and when I'm having a very un-creative day (yep, like today) it's nice to see them sitting there. And now here.

Vick.

Peaks Pottering

2011-06-18T18:13:00.000+01:00

While I was in London one of the things that I missed most was the easy access to the Peak District.
I am deep in the middle of researching copyright law - it's fascinating, enthralling and I can't wait to get back to it. Nope. All of that last bit was a lie but I need to read it. Yuck.
So instead of actually writing something here I'm putting up Peak District pictures. Okay.

Vick.

A Little Abstract

2011-06-13T11:10:00.000+01:00

I've started a new line of collages which have gone up on Etsy over the past week or so. I think of them as two-layer collages. The base is a photograph which I have taken at some point and then printed to an A4 size, either with a small border or filling the whole page.

The second layer is the collage stage where I use the materials I love working with to create a secondary picture above the original, working with it at the same time. A compliment and contrast method, if you will.

I'm having a lot of fun with them but it's really hard choosing which photographs I want to use to begin with. After that it all seems to fall into place. I have a couple of other projects going and I am still taking my information out to places for consignment.

Vick.

Small Fry

2011-06-10T17:46:00.000+01:00

from 2008

Let me take you back in time to 2008. I had just finished University and had been working on translating Spring's Awakening. I don't remember the exact timeline but at some point the idea for Big Fish: The Musical was born in either my brain or within the scarily-similar brain of my friend Sawyer (the Spring's translation was entirely his fault). While I was in NC a little later I emailed Prof. Daniel Wallace about the project and he was kind enough to reply. I got a large portion of it done but I'm not a musician and so I was only writing the libretto and general staging.

This week Playbill announced that the musical version of Big Fish was going to be showing on Broadway in 2012. They have an amazing list of creatives involved and Hugh Jackman was reading for it, so that can't be a bad thing! I am so excited about seeing it but it made me nostalgic for the version that I had been working on.

So, below is the prologue that I had written as the opening scene. I was working from the book of Big Fish, not the film of the same name. The book is darker and more involved and I think better. Saying that I do love the film. Clearly the ideas and characters for this were inspired by Daniel Wallace's novel and I own no part of that, at all. This was just an intellectual (ish!) exercise. Now all of my notes can go up in the attic and be nothing but a happy memory. I'm thrilled to bits that this musical is being made, it's perfect for the medium. It has also made me want to get back to playwriting (oh dear...). This is as good a time as any to shout out that my other bits of writing are in the pages across the top of the blog (look up!) if anyone's interested.

Big Fish: A Musical

Prologue

Lights.

Adult William walks to centre and begins to speak.

You’ve probably heard of my father. His name was Edward Bloom.

He was born during the worst drought Alabama had seen in forty years.

When he was young he walked to school in every sort of weather. He knew everyone and everyone knew him.

He met a woman with one eye, a giant, a mermaid, and one very big fish.

He made friends. He made enemies.

He met my mother. He fought for her and he won.

He did the impossible and he made it look easy.

He went to war. He came home again

He had a son. He became a hero.

He saved lives. He brought a town back from the dead.

He fell in love for the second time. And she lost him. And he lost her.

He lived. He really lived, did my father.

And he did the most extraordinary, unexpected, unbelievable thing.

He died.

As Adult William finishes speaking the curtain lifts and the ‘change’ melody begins to play.

So there it is. The it-never-happened version of Big Fish: The Musical that I loved writing and thinking about. On to the next. And if you can get to Broadway - I'd bet this is one to watch.

Vick.

Traveling Stories

2011-06-09T14:32:00.000+01:00

Traveling Stories is a non-profit organisation started by Emily Moberly.They provide books to children who have none and try to get kids enthused about reading. Fantastic - right?

The benefits of books for children and teenagers has been everywhere recently. Books shaped my personality, they define who I am and I read more than I do almost anything else. This is a wonderful charity and I wanted to do a little something to raise awareness of it.

The other day Zoë Marriott wrote about how books have impacted on her and who she is as a person, I couldn't put it better so here's what she says about it.

I remember the books that changed who I am. Many of the books that I read as a child have become a part of my consciousness; The Wind in the Willows, Tales of the Early World and Lend Me Your Wings especially (I just realised all of these are animals-that-talk books, no wonder I am so loosely attached to reality).

I was very fortunate as a child to have bibliophiles for parents and so read the classics pretty young, I can't imagine not having access to literature but so many children don't. I completely love what Traveling Stories is doing and hope they continue to grow and do well.

Most of the books that I have read as an adult have affected my ideas as well. For example, Les Miserables changed how I view religion and redemption. I realised the impact Don Foster's Author Unknown had had on me while talking to fellow book-fans at a book launch event the other day. It's something I read while I was in high-school and it changed the way that I write as well as what I read. Foster shows how everything we read and consume becomes a part of our consciousness and how this impacts on writing. He uses this to trace anonymous writings back to their authors. I'm not blindly advocating post hoc ergo propter hoc but I do think that we absorb more of literature than we are really aware. I have ordered a spare copy of his book to lend out to people because I can't bear to part with mine!

The Once and Future King by T.H. White is in my top five favourite books (the exact order moved around depending on my mood). Something that Merlin says to Arthur strikes very true with the case of Traveling Stories:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."

There's so much we can learn from reading and Traveling Stories is a fantastic way of taking this great experience to as many people as possible.

Have a look at their website, it's a pretty amazing thing.

Vick.

St. Winifred's

2011-06-03T18:37:00.002+01:00

I blame the weather. It's been almost a whole week of lovely weather so yet again I'm putting up pictures instead of actually saying anything. Probably for the best. I don't make a lot of sense anyway.

The annual flower festival was on in my next-door village so we had a nose around and I took some photographs of the churchyard for my collage stock.

Despite it being a very sunny day the light inside the church was patchy and I didn't really want to use the tripod so the pictures are a bit scratchy. There is some of the most lovely stone carving I have ever seen inside and a little bit of a mystery as to where the tomb meant to be held beneath it has gone to, which is always good.

There was a window showing St. Paul holding a book and a sword, instantly warmed to him. Seems like my sort of a chap.

And some very nice crosses outside in the yard.

Vick.

Gardening

2011-05-31T21:45:00.000+01:00

It was a lovely day today and I spent most of it in the garden. I took my netbook, a big cup of coffee, a good book and my work out to the lawn.

It turns out the ants that like our veggie beds so much also like the lawn so I moved to the chair after a couple of hours and several ant bites.

I hope everyone else is enjoying nice weather.

Vick.

“We Think Therefore We Am”

2011-05-24T18:12:00.001+01:00

Not so long ago I got into an argument about the validity of genre fiction in terms of intellectual and philosophical standings. I decided to create a list of quotations proving that SFF can deliver profound statements. Then I asked to see if anyone had any great quotations I should add to the list. This is the list so far. It will probably keep growing.

"The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head."
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

“I never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn’t see how that wasn’t cowardice”
China Miéville, Embassytown

"If it is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything."
R. Scott Bakker The Darkness That Comes Before

"Son. Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone. But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through the door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side."
Jim Butcher, Dead Beat

"Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more." Terry Pratchett, Pyramids

"There is something profoundly cynical, my friends, in the notion of paradise after death. The lure is evasion. The promise is excusative. One need not accept responsibility for the world as it is, and by extension, one need do nothing about it. To strive for change, for true goodness in this mortal world, one must acknowledge and accept, within one's own soul, that this mortal reality has purpose in itself, that its greatest value is not for us, but for our children and their children. To view life as but a quick passage alone a foul, tortured path...is to excuse all manner of misery and depravity, and to exact cruel punishment upon the innocent lives to come."
Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters

"I hope, or I could not live."
H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau

"There are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. these worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters."
Neil Gaiman, The Books of Magic

"Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time."
Walt Disney Company

"Who would you be but who you are?"

Terry Brooks, The Black Unicorn

"All things pass in time. We are far less significant than we imagine ourselves to be. All that we are, all that we have wrought, is but a shadow, no matter how durable it may seem. One day, when the last man has breathed his last breath, the sun will shine, the mountains will stand, the rain will fall, the streams will whisper—and they will not miss him."

Jim Butcher, Princeps Fury

"It could not be happening because this sort of thing did not happen. Any contradictory evidence could be safely ignored."
Terry Pratchett, Jingo

"Life has always been a matter of putting one's feet down carefully"
Isobelle Carmody, The Farseekers

"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope." Dr. Seuss

"People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it is. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped."
Iain M. Banks, Against a Dark Background

"Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all."
William Goldman, The Princess Bride

"Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some."
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

"We all can be only who we are, no more, no less."
Terry Goodkind, Stone of Tears

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

"There are no happy endings... There are no endings, happy or otherwise. We all have our own stories which are just part of the one Story that binds both this world and Faerie. Sometimes we step into each other’s stories - perhaps just for a few minutes, perhaps for years - and then we step out of them again. But all the while, the Story just goes on."
Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot

"That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones."
Gene Wolfe, Pirate Freedom

"Let others determine your worth and you're already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves."
Peter V. Brett, The Painted Man

"As for courage and will - we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead."
Andre Norton

"Nothing is done entirely for nothing. Nothing is wasted. You are older, and you have made decisions, and you are not the fox you were yesterday. Take what you have learned, and move on."
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman

"Imagine a man who stands before a mirror; a stone strikes it, and it falls to ruin all in an instant. And the man learns that he is himself, and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be."
Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun

With thanks to everyone who contributed both via email and on the comments section of the original blog post. I’m assuming that people who emailed me didn’t just leave a comment so it was anonymous so I’ll just link to the people who left comments. I'm guessing this topic isn't going anywhere seeing as people keep saying silly things about genre fiction and so others will keep standing up for its honour. If anyone has links to other good articles please drop me a line so I can pop them up here, and read them myself of course!

Vick.

p.s. the title is taken from Small Gods by Sir Terry Pratchett.

p.p.s. all photographs were taken nearby in NW Leics and South Derbys/Notts because I had no idea what to use in here!

p.p.p.s it's really confusing living on the border of three counties...

Consignment

2011-05-20T16:42:00.001+01:00

I'm still collecting great genre quotations over here but here's something a little different for today!

This week I've mainly been working on consignment and wholesale packs. This is a whole new world to me. For those not in the know wholesale is when an artist/crafter sells a large amount of work to a retailer for a reduced price. Consignment works on a sale-or-return basis where you draw up a contract and the retailer sells your work and both the shop and the artist take a percentage of the price paid.

Sounds simple, right? Nah of course not. I'm terrified that I've missed something out of the packs or have come across as too flighty and artistic or on the other hand too businessy and therefore cold.
I've read so many articles this past week on the best way to approach shops, what you must and must not do, what each pack needs to have and my head is spinning.
My consignment pack currently consists of a page of colour photographs of six examples of my cards, an artist CV, a page of information about my cards, my wholesale/consignment policies, my pricing list, environmental policies and my contact details. This is all presented in a clear folder so that it is protected if it is kept on file for later reconsideration.

It's a lot like submitting a manuscript (see examples of plays at the top of the page!) because you only get one shot to make your first impression and if you mess it up then it's unlikely that the shop will be interested in you again. No pressure then! I've spent a lot of time trying to get the balance of everything right, picking the right pictures to represent my work and enough information that people feel that they know enough about my work and my concept. At the same time I am trying to build up a bigger stock of cards both for consignment and also for the Etsy shop. So it's been a full-on week in the world of cards.

The next step is to find as many shops as possible and then research them to find the ones that are the perfect fit for what I am doing. Sometimes I forget how much I still need to learn and then I start doing something like this - it's scary but also exciting and a great way of learning by diving in head-first!

Vick.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
https://twitter.com/vclinde

Thinking Deep Thoughts

2011-05-16T10:05:00.000+01:00

Not so long ago Kate Elliot wrote this great article about women in SFF and highlighted something that I completely relate to:

"Even now, when I announce that I am an avid fantasy reader, I often find myself on the receiving end of comments from my non-genre counterparts along the lines of, ‘oh, like elves and stuff?’ and the explanation of why this is a ridiculous way of understanding the genre usually takes more time than we have ."

This is very close to a conversation/argument which I have had several times in the past few weeks. One particular comment was especially annoying and went along the lines of 'but I always thought you read really deep, important books not these fluffy entertaining genre things.' Yeah, I'm making that sound worse than the original comment but it was the gist of it.

I am currently compiling a list of quotations/sections of books that I can point at to prove my point. My point? That genre books can in fact be intellectually stimulating. Fantasy can be a wonderful lens through which we can more accuately see reality. There has been a lot of talk of genre and genre-bashing recently and I'm not getting into it. One simple reason for that, I don't know enough. If you want a genre argument, google it, there's plenty by people who know much more than I do. I read the classics of children's fantasy when I was a kid but I only really got into it four or five years ago. All I am trying to do here is undo a little of the snobbery because it shocked me that people really couldn't see how amazing all literature is.

So I have a request for all of my genre-based friends, if you have any especially good examples of philosophical, deep or just plain amazing sections of genre books please let me know - either in the comments section here or by email (vclinde@gmail.com). For my non-genre friends hopefully I'll soon have a list of things for you to pore over and decide where you're going to start reading.

I used to use quotes from literature to open my essays in University. Partly because I really was an English student trapped in the body of a Politics student and partly because I thought it would put my tutors in a good mood before reading (and more to the point, marking) my essay. They were always relevant and quite often from genre novels. My favourite was an essay on democracy in the Middle East where I used this quote from Witches Abroad by Sir Terry Pratchett:

"You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. "

And now I'm off to start making a list to prove that I am right, because some people still aren't clued in to the fact that I'm right most of the time.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

St. John's Church

2011-05-13T19:12:00.000+01:00

I recently went to Chester and was very disappointed with the way that the Roman sites there had been looked after - they had been far too altered for my taste. However I did get to see St. John's Church which was wonderful.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Manchester Visiting

2011-05-09T11:08:00.000+01:00

This was posted a little while ago but got lost in the Blogger hiccup...so, here we go again!

Over one of the stupidly long weekends we had recently I went to visit my darling Ali in Manchester. We met the first week of classes at Uni and have been joined by a love of coffee and bitching about people ever since. It's no small coincidence that the places I am looking to move to when I am finally ready to move house are all close to Manchester. I've been through the city before but never spent much time there and we had a fantastic day. I will be visiting much, much more although I think it will be driving rather than relying on Sunday train services in future.

Essentially the day went coffee - gossip - library - coffee - bitching - shopping - art gallery - gossip - shopping - hugs. Like I said, will be in Manchester a lot more from now on!

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde

Green - Emerald - Jade - Chartreuse

2011-05-06T16:50:00.000+01:00

There are many things that I like about making collages, as well as a few I don't. I can't remember the last time my nails looked even half-way to respectable or when I didn't have glue all over me. It is wonderful finding images, text, and other assorted oddments to turn into a completely new piece of art or a brand new card.

I didn't start making collages just because they are an environmentally responsible way of crafting but it was a pretty big part of it. I love the combination of recycling and upcycling that goes into what I do.
I am going to link through to this blog-post from my Etsy shop so that anyone who wants to check out my green credentials will be able to see what I do.

I'll start by saying that I am an Ecocentric greenie. I am not now, nor ever have been anthropocentric. I have no doubt that if we damage the Earth enough then she will bite back and hard enough to finish us off and then heal herself. This is fine by me. I'm all for existing but I also think that a new ice age would fix a lot of things. I also have a bit of a Cornucopian buried inside me, but that's a debate for another time. I do love debates on Environmental Politics, to the point at which I think even my lecturer at Uni got used to me playing Devil's advocate. (This is one of his works on Green Politics if anyone's interested)

All of my collage materials are recycled.
The books are pre-read at least once and a lot of thought goes into which books I choose. Obviously they need to be out of copyright, not precious enough to me that I can't bear to cut them up, have nice text that will be visually pleasing and have enough of a pull that if someone wants to read the words they will be interesting.

The stamps which I use are from when I was a little girl and collected them. I mainly collected them because they were pretty rather than because I wanted a huge stamp collection. The ones that didn't make it into an album are now being used in collages. I am running a bit low and will need to restock soon but I won't be using new stamps but old ones that I will them upcycle into art.

The images that I use are taken from so many varied places that it would be silly to try and list them but all of them are recycled and repurposed. Magazines, photographs I have taken, postcards, newspapers, pictures, comics etc. All beautiful, colourful and with a brand new purpose in my collages.

Sometimes I do have to use backing paper for the base-layer of my collages (although this is clearly not the case with cards!) and I always try to make sure that this is made from recycled materials. I know there are a lot of 'try' in this and I wish I could guarantee that everything is 100% recycled but I just can't. I do promise to do my best though.

Postage and packaging is also a hot topic for Etsy recyclers. Wherever possible I will use recycled materials. I also often reuse packages for sending things. However, my main concern when sending either art or cards is that the item gets to a buyer in one piece. If someone is buying an item for a friend and wants it to arrive looking all shiny and new then I will very happily use a brand new bubble-lined package. If not I will sometimes use one that I've had things sent to me in. I buy *a lot* of books and it would be churlish of me not to re-use the packages when I am trying to be careful about my impact on the environment. Also it is another way that I can help to keep my shipping costs down for everyone!

I'm pretty sure there are more things that I will think of that I either do which are considered 'green' and I hope that I will keep finding new ways of making my little business a little more environmentally friendly. Because I like the Earth very much - just as she is.

Vick.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde

Old Habits

2011-05-05T15:09:00.000+01:00

I've tried so hard to stay out of politics recently. It's not because I don't care, it's not even because I want to go back into Politics and need to keep my mouth shut and be impartial. It's the rage. I get politics rage. I'm 24 and I shouldn't be as cynical and rage-filled as I am but there we go.
I lasted quite well but it's election day and I can't stomach the rubbish I keep hearing any longer. So here's my take on electoral reform.

There is one major problem with changing elections - if a party/government has been elected by an existing system they are not going to want to change it because it clearly works for them. So if there is a proposal for electoral change I start pestering friends and contacts for internal polling data. Once politicians are in power most of them want to stay there. 'Overly cynical? Me? No, and of course Chicago is only called 'the Windy City' because of the weather...'
The other big issue has been that newly introduced systems lead to lower turnout because people are confused by the new system - of course this is (hopefully) short-term. A slightly more minor issue is that the first election held under a new system almost always gets messed up, again hopefully short term.

AV itself is not my cup of tea (and neither is FPTP) but it is at least a straight forward system. I am sure that everyone in the UK now understands it but according to Blogger about 85% of my readers are in the USA so in case anyone's missed it...
Alternative Vote is a single member voting system where voters rank the candidates in order of preference. To win the seat a candidate needs to have 50% +1 of the votes cast. If no single person has achieved this through the number 1 rank the lowest ranked candidate's votes are taken out and their voters second choices are given to the remaining candidates. This continues until someone has over 50% of the votes. Simple. For a better explanation please click here for a link to the Electoral Reform UK site.
It's used in Australia (for the House of Representatives) and works well enough. I should add that in Australia it is illegal not to vote. I like this a lot.

I could quite easily type up a pros vs. cons list about Alternative Vote. Really, very easily because I memorised when I was seventeen. That's not the point. What is bothering me about this election is that whichever camp people fall into they are just not listening to each other. It feels that people have decided on their point of view and are simply shouting at each other. I like debates where people change their minds and are not ashamed or embarrassed to have done so.

I disagree with a lot of people on politics. I am non-partisan and I vote for people over parties at elections. I like to talk about issues because I do think things matter. Talking to some people can be like hitting your head against a brick wall though and that is such a miserable feeling because debate should be fun and engaging. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and it would be rubbish if they did, but I do expect people to accept that I disagree and not try to force me to change my mind. It's entirely possible that I have a different outlook on the world - that doesn't mean I am wrong or need to be educated and changed. Outlining the facts is good - deciding what this means to another person is not.

This goes for politics, religion and what I'm having for lunch. Just because I disagree does not mean I don't understand and the more someone bashes me over the head with an argument the less likely I am to listen. I do apologise for sounding grumpy but today I've had one too many people trying to convince me that one view is better than two.
And I had a bacon and avocado sandwich on spelt bread for lunch, in case anyone is wondering.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

A Pale Horse

2011-05-02T11:44:00.002+01:00

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. (Revelation 6:8)

When I was much younger, still in high-school in fact, we studied war. We looked at just causes of war, pacificm, conscientious objection, fighting, capital punishment and non-just causes of war.

My problem was always that I couldn't see an end point. War begets war. Fighting begets fighting. Death begets Death; "and Hell followed with him".

I didn't sleep much over the weekend and yet for some reason I woke up at 4am this morning. I think my old-political brain wakes me up whenever there is news going on in the world. Possibly not, but it felt like it whilst listening to the announcements coming out of the White House about the death of Osama bin Laden.

Very quickly many things seemed wrong. There was a sense of jubilation which felt disturbing to me. There was a clear shift in the division of responses from the initial comments to those as people around the world woke up. Maybe it is just the old idea of the British stiff-upper-lip but the impression was one of sadness at overall loss than either joy or relief. I feel deeply uneasy about seeing anyone rejoicing in the death of any person.

This made me wonder how the politics of death colours our view of things. More specifically, whether the use of the death penalty inherently changes opinions of justice in members of the public who are exposed to that system. It feels that there is a link drawn between justice and death when capital punishment is acceptable where that connection is not made otherwise. To my mind at least death and justice are just about as far removed from one another as it's possible to be.

Having said that, this thought process was going on at 5am and I never did get back to sleep so I might not be making a lot of sense. In other news I have been reading a couple of excellent books and plan to spend the rest of the day continuing to do so in between making some more greetings cards!

And just one more quote – one that is possibly even more appropriate, from Ivanhoe, which is a favourite book of mine.

“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Ireland #2

2011-04-30T13:16:00.001+01:00

More Irishness. I've been back for less than two weeks and I already want to go back.

Happy Long Weekend everyone,

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Etsy Brief

2011-04-28T16:51:00.001+01:00

A slight update to my earlier blog - I've now changed over to completely art on the Etsy site.

I am hoping to put some of my larger art pieces up but am working on ways of bringing shipping costs down at the moment. When in the UK it can get pretty expensive posting around the world so I'm trying to figure that out before I put everything up.

With my 5x7 inch collages I have changed my listings so that they are now all sold without frames and the frames can be added as an extra. This means that people who would want the collage but not the frame can get it for less money and with much lower shipping costs.

Over the past week I've been working on some new ideas, mainly based around architecture and some mathematical ideas that intrigue me. I've also made lots of new greetings cards and am looking for new places to market them.

So lots going on, one of the nicest things about being self-employed is that you can ignore bank holidays if you like and pretend that things are all normal! This is the new-look shop and any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Ireland #1

2011-04-21T10:55:00.001+01:00

I took rather a lot of pictures while I was away, this is nothing unusual. Very sadly my little camera has developed a rather serious problem while we were away. I've had him since I was sixteen and I'm not giving up on him but he definitely needs checking out. We were staying in County Galway but very close to the Co. Mayo border and did travel to Co. Clare and Co. Kildare as well do there's a bit of a mix.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Today

2011-04-20T13:56:00.000+01:00

There's been a hiatus on here while I trotted merrily around the West coast of Ireland, specifically Counties Galway and Mayo. I had a wonderful time and soon there will be pictures.

Whilst away I put my Etsy store in Vacation Mode so that I wasn't inundated with buyers whilst away where I couldn't do anything about it (a girl can dream, right?). I also put the art in 'vacation mode' in my head, I did very little of anything to do with collages; I didn't troll for materials, or come up with new designs or colour combinations, I did take note when I saw some great displays so I've got new ideas on how to present my work but that's about it.

A while a go now I did a whole series of branding posts here and since that point it has become very obvious to me that I want to keep making art and put my jewellery on the back-burner. I am not giving up I am starting over.

I may take another silver-smithing course in September but for the next few months I am going to focus on the art side of things. I'm looking for some craft fairs to go to and I might take the jewellery there because I think it would sell better but that's only a 'might' because I would like to give my art a go on markets as well.

My point, eventually, is that even several months later the branding process is still helping me. It has changed how I've been thinking about the business for the better. I tried a whole new approach to my collages yesterday. It was truly horrendous, I did better in primary school (still the smell of poster paint reminds me of the art cupboard at my primary school and occasionally being allowed in to help teachers carry sugar paper back for the display boards) and I was terrible at art in primary school, sadly my parents still have the efforts should I ever need to prove this to you.

The reason that this became so obvious is that my shop is now all art, no jewellery. My final jewellery pieces have gone from Etsy and so I'm focusing the re-branding on my shop announcement.

Apologies for the very heavy-handed business blog today. Normal business will resume soon with pictures, probably more cakes and mountains.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde

Cake Hyperbole

2011-04-19T16:28:00.001+01:00

For the last two weeks I've been in Ireland staying in County Galway. It wasn't until almost the end of the holiday that I went into Galway itself - the point was to get away into the countryside rather than being in a city. The main thing that I wanted to do, other than see Galway was to go to Charlie Byrne's bookshop. I found three J.M. Barrie plays almost the minute that I arrived in their bargain section and then spent another hour wandering around the shop. I also found a lovely copy of Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham (one of my favourites) with no price in, upon checking it was way out of my price range very sadly. Still looking for a nice copy of it. It was gone midday when I finally left and I asked the staff working whether they could recommend anywhere nearby to eat. I got directed to Sweetie Pies. I still wish I had managed to find Flesh and Blood but the recommendation made up for the loss.

On walking into Sweetie Pies you are greeted with a massive array of cakes, cupcakes, muffins, bites, pies and pure joy. It's beautifully decorated and the staff - oh my, the staff are just so wonderful.

They do a great all day breakfast selection along with a very wide range of lunch and dinner options. Needless to say I followed by bacon, chicken and avocado ciabatta sandwich up with a cake.

Red velvet cake, which is one of my all time favourites. And it had edible glitter on the top. Heaven. And Doris Day was playing...this may have had more of an appeal to me than most but it just made my day even more complete.

I took a toffee muffin and a coffee & walnut cupcake home with me as well as the remnants of my red velvet cake (it was huge). I still can't decide which was my favourite but I think the muffin might just win.

If you are ever in Galway I would really recommend going there. Heck if you're in Ireland you should try it. No, wait, just book a plane ticket and make a holiday of it. Right now.

I've found my perfect cake shop. What to do with the rest of my life now?

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Sweetie Pies is on Middle Street, Galway (was too excited to note the number) you can call them on 0872566887 or email at galwaysweetiepies@gmail.com.

France-ness

2011-04-17T20:48:00.001+01:00

One of my friends has a house in France which she is renovating and transforming. It's pretty amazing as it is but the plans that she has for it are truly awesome.
I spent a few days there last week messing about with sweeping brushes and great food.
Here be pictures.

Isn't it lovely? Heading home was difficult, partly because I didn't want to leave. Also partly because we left at 4am on the day the clocks changed, between that and the time difference across the channel I had zero idea what time it was for the entire day!

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk

Cookie #2

2011-04-08T13:17:00.003+01:00

I am on a quest to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie.I have a list of ingredients that it must include but no real idea of timing or of quantities.

This is the first batch. It was largely made from a recipe I found on the internet and then seriously tweaked to make sure it had all of the ingredients I wanted.

The result was okay but definitely too sweet with a strange quantity of chocolate and a much too large batch-size.

Will be playing around some more with the flour: butter: bi-carb ratio and see what happens to batch #2!

Conclusion: these crumbled but didn't really 'crunch' which is what I was looking for. I also want to get some better quality chocolate chips because the ones I have are too sweet for my taste. This made far far too many so that needs to be fixed too. Work is never done I suppose!

Vick.

www.vclinde.co.uk

Walking with the Wounded

2011-04-01T20:31:00.000+01:00

A quick blog post to highlight an amazing charity called Walking With The Wounded.
This is the opening statement from their press release (all photographs are taken from the Press Kit as well, they are not mine and belong solely to the original copyright owners)

"In April 2011 an expedition will embark on a journey to the Geographical North Pole unaided. Amongst this group will be military servicemen who have been wounded in the line of duty and subsequently have lost limbs to amputation. This is a brave undertaking by people who have had their lives irreversibly changed whilst serving their country. They now seek to rebuild their lives and to inspire and help others to follow their lead as they set out to prove that injuries and amputations need not be a barrier to endeavour and achievement"

The four servicemen (Martin Hewitt, Steve Young, Guy Disney and Jaco van Gass) and their team will be making this journey in the next few weeks so I just wanted to use this blog to let y'all know what these guys are doing and do my little bit to raise awareness for them. According to the Facebook page there have been reports on the news and papers and also the cover story for GQ this month. (You can imagine the looks I got as a 24yr old girl buying GQ...)

You can find them on Facebook, and they have a Twitter feed as well as their own Website and a JustGiving page if you want to go directly to sponsor them.

Whilst in a little tea shop in Wales I heard on the news that they have been delayed...the rest of the message was lost in the noise of the coffee machine. I have a lot of friends in the forces both in the UK and the US and this charity resonates a lot with me and I hope that they have a fantastic time whilst raising lots of money for a great cause. I have so much admiration for these guys I can't even begin to say. If you have time to give them a shout-out that would be great.

Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk