Sample made for my new Artefact series

My art goals for 2022 are simple. Make more. Submit more. The need to earn a living and to care for my family are what they are and mean that making art has to fit around them. One of the reasons I left industry and started teaching in my studio was to get a much better balance between these three parts of my life and it was, despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, the best decision I’ve ever made. I now have periods of time, mostly in the winter, when I can work on my art full time and without interruption. This is great for developing new ideas and starting on new series. But if I am going to make more art this year I need to figure out how to always have a piece or pieces part made that I can work on when I only have a few hours or a few days free.

I love making big art but the composition / construction stage really needs space (my big print bench and my design wall as a minimum, yes I’m spoilt) and time because I really don’t want to be unpinning hundreds of bits of fabric from my design wall each time I need it for a workshop. Whereas the quilting stage just needs room to get my sewing machine out. And a bit of clean space to fold / roll the quilt so that I can get it through the tiny throat on my machine. So, before my teaching schedule really kicks in in March I need to prepare several ‘backgrounds’ to use in Artefact and Cadence pieces. I can then spend the spring and summer quilting these backgrounds and adding the foreground details. Unfortunately I don’t completely ‘design’ my pieces early on in the process. My ideas evolve as I stitch. I don’t 100% decide on foreground details until I have finished the construction, and sometimes the quilting of the background. Inevitably some of the backgrounds that I prepare over the coming weeks will need to be cropped as I add those foreground details. Which feels wasteful but I’m hoping allows me to make more art this year.

My other goal is to submit more. I used to be good at keeping a list of upcoming calls for entry to curated shows and submitting proposals for gallery space but got out of the habit in 2020 when I lost touch with my art practise. I started submitting pieces again last year and have had some success with Cadence pieces but I need to build on this. I need a steady flow of new work to make this possible. And I need to become OK with rejection again. Because rejection is part of making art and cannot be a reason to hit the gin bottle and avoid the studio!

So my art goals are simple. Make more. Submit more.

I am very happy to confirm that I will have a stand at Festival of Quilts which opens at the NEC, Birmingham in three weeks time. I’ll be on stand QIA30 which is in the Quilt in Action area. Please stop by to say hello if you are attending!

I’ll be demonstrating breakdown printing on the stand and will be running a one hour workshop at 1pm on the Saturday called Hand Printed by Me! as part of the Quick and Easy programme. It’s a lovely little workshop in which we use textile inks and a selection of acrylic shapes to print a tote bag. Although the main purpose of my Quilt in Action stands is to promote my workshops I can also sell my own work - so I’ll have lots of my hand dyed and printed fabrics and, of course, my books with me.

In the lead up to Festival I’ll be launching my workshop program for 2022 including an exciting new guest tutor. And if I can figure out how to do it I’ll be offering a ‘collect at Festival’ service for orders placed on my website so that you can avoid postage. So watch this space!

Now I know that there has been a huge amount of debate on social media about whether running Festival is a good idea and I thought long and hard about whether to take my stand or not. But, on balance, I think it is the right decision for me and here’s why.

Health - infection numbers are inevitable going to be high by the end of the month but I’m double vaccinated so my risk of serious disease is reduced and my ability to infect my family members after the show is also reduced. I will wear a mask and will be using buckets of hand sanitiser. I’ll be wiping down things like my payment machine after each use. I will be using lateral flow testing before, during and after the event so that I can respond quickly should I be infected. I believe that the majority of the visitors are also going to be vaccinated reducing the risk of transmission within the show. And that a large percentage will be sensible and wear masks even if not legally required to. And the organisers have put a lot of effort into reducing risk - more halls, wider aisles, multiple entrances and staggered entry times. None of us can guarantee that we won’t catch this awful disease but I’m ‘comfortable’ with the level of risk that I’m taking. But I can totally understand those for whom attended the show is an unacceptable risk - we all have to make the right decisions for us and our families.

Money - having a stand at Festival is a big investment for all the exhibitors and none of us can afford to ‘loose our shirts’ but the organisers have recognised that and are supporting exhibitors financially even though they will be running the event at a loss. And they have been open with us - visitor numbers are likely to be 50% of normal but with many exhibitors withdrawing the visitor to exhibitor ratio is similar to previous years. I have seen over the last 15 months just how generous and caring our community has been in supporting us small traders and I think that will extend to the show. I don’t expect to make a fortune - I’ll be happy to break even this year.

Future - it has been a tough year and many people and small businesses in the creative industries have already lost their jobs or stopped trading. The longer this goes on the worst this will get. And although we probably all see the event organisers as being part of a big business and therefore more able to weather the storm there is a limit and there is a risk that some of the events that we love will disappear. Bordering on the political here …. we need to support each other to ensure that our corner of the creative industry survives because the government is not going to do so.

I appreciate that you might not agree with me. But then again maybe you do.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest I better get back to ironing and folding fabric. Stay well, Leah

Breakdown printed fabric from my online Breakdown Your Palette workshop

In my last post I mentioned a couple of UK organisations that I’m a member of, The Quilters Guild and the Contemporary Quilt group. I am also a member of SAQA - the Studio Art Quilt Association. This US based but international organisation does an excellent job of promoting art quilts and provides lots of opportunities for textile artists to exhibit their work in galleries and museums around the world. I joined because I want to exhibit my work in the US and was lucky enough to have work selected for one of their exhibitions, ’Layered Voices’ which toured in 2017 -2019. I’ve also had pieces in two of their European touring exhibitions.

SAQA offer a range of membership levels including one called Juried Artist for which you have to submit a portfolio of work as well as an artists statement and resume. It was on my list to apply for several years but ‘stuff’ kept getting in the way. When I had free time last year during lockdown I moved applying to the top of my to-do list. And then found that I no longer had confidence in my work and couldn’t handle the thought of rejection. I think this was all part of the disconnect I felt from my art and my art practice.

But, as you’ll know from previous posts I set aside time towards the end of last year to reconnect with my art. And with my confidence growing I decided to apply.

And this week I heard that I had been accepted! Happy dance! Happy tears! And a massive honour. I now have an artists profile on their website which you can find here. And I have applied to have a piece included in one of their Art Quilt Quarterly magazines.

I also gave my second virtual talk on Understanding Colour to the Contemporary Quilt group this week … just as nerve-wracking as the first time but I’m determined to embrace more virtual opportunities! I have agreed to give my first live workshop in mid-April. I’m still at the ‘I must be mad / panic’ stage in my preparations but will share details soon!

And finally, take up of my first online workshop Breakdown Your Palette has been brilliant. This is an on-demand workshop that you can join at any time. If you have been thinking about joining, a little reminder - for every person that enrols during March I am donating £10 to the charity YoungMinds. They do brilliant work helping children and young people with mental health issues.

Thanks, Leah x

It may still be doom and gloom in the rest of the world but my studio has been buzzing with good vibes all week!

I have had an amazing response to my first online workshop Breakdown Your Palette. A big thank you to my new students! I had a target in my head that I thought would be brilliant to reach by the end of March and I reached it yesterday …. lots of happy tears in the studio. Together we have raised over £200 for the YoungMinds charity. And it has also allowed me to start refunding deposits to those students who can’t make rescheduled studio workshop dates or who don’t want to travel until they’ve had both jabs - which is an enormous weight off my shoulders.

The only technical hitch so far has been a couple of people who couldn’t see the Sample Video - I use Vimeo to host the videos and they don’t support older versions of some web browsers. The solution is to update your browser.

This week I also received my copy of The Quilter magazine featuring an article I wrote about colour. And I gave my first ever Zoom talk to members of the Contemporary Quilt group. It was about colour. Obviously. The CQ group are a specialist group within The Quilters Guild (UK) and The Quilter is the quarterly magazine published by the Guild. I have been a member for approaching twenty years and am a big fan of all the work they do. I also appreciate the opportunities they have given me, and other tutors, to promote our work.

This week also saw me and hubby getting our first Corona virus jabs. The process was flawless with our wonderful NHS staff being support by volunteers. Another weight off my shoulders.

And finally this was the week when I should have been joining 12 very good friends for our annual five day retreat in the Lake District. The retreat has always been a form of respite … 5 days away from work and away from family. I love my family but I love them more for getting the occasional break! We couldn’t be together in person this year so instead organised a 5 day virtual retreat. Although I wasn’t able to avoid ‘work’ it was lovely sitting at my computer listening to the quiet chatter of old friends via Zoom in the background. We had our usual book review (mine were both about colour), our usual quiz (animal based, I came last) and our usual five day challenge. Janet devised five prompts that took us from a piece of white fabric to a finished vessel. We shared our progress each day, it was joyful. I started by dyeing my fabric turquoise and ended up with a vessel that is the perfect size for holding a bottle of wine! Perfect!

Being an artist is more than just making art. At least it is for me as I believe showing work to others is an important part of calling myself an artist with a capital A. In a perfect world exhibition organisers, curators and galleries would somehow know that I had just finished a piece of fantastic art and would be beating down my door to get at it …..

Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that and so a significant part of most artists life is self-promotion, filling out calls for entry, submitting exhibition proposals and, if successful, shipping pieces across the world (which is increasingly difficult and worthy of a post in itself). As you may have noticed I’m pretty active on the self promotion front but I have to admit that I’ve let some things drift whilst I have focussed on teaching and writing.

Before I got distracted I kept a file of potential ‘calls for entry’ that looked at least 18 months ahead so that I could identify ‘targets’ and work to have suitable quilts ready for specific dates. I work in series and have found trying to respond to other peoples themes rather disappointing. I discard many opportunities to exhibit because of that and only keep a list of those that don’t have specific themes or have themes, such as ‘Structures’ that might fit with my work. Or I did. Having a few scraps of paper in a random pile does not count as a proper list. I have put that right and now have a well organised file of ‘calls for entry’. Most are in the quilt world but I’ve also decided that now is the time to venture out in the bigger textile world. Having a list doesn’t mean success. The more you submit work, the more rejections you get. But, as the saying goes, you have to be in it to win it’!

The other thing I used to be very disciplined about was submitting proposals for exhibition, either on my own or with others. Curators are often working one or two years ahead. Some artists prepare a collection of work and then submit proposals but most, myself included, submit proposals when they only have ‘work in progress’ and maybe one or two finished pieces. I haven’t done that for a long time and I could kick myself as there is almost certainly a back log due to Covid. And the success rate is even lower than ‘calls for entry’. I don’t have anything in the pipeline and realistically can’t expect to having a solo exhibition for at least two or three years. Ho hum!!

The good news though is that I am now feeling very happy with the work that I’m creating. To the extent that I’ve submitted a couple of pieces to a couple of calls for entry. I can’t share images of the full quilts but have included a photo of the detail in one piece above. And, more importantly, I know that I have a new series. By that I mean that I have an inspiration / set of ideas that has enough breadth and has engaged me so deeply that I know I can produce more pieces of art exploring the same theme. I am calling this new series Cadence as its inspiration has come from the regular and repeated process of making breakdown screens, printing fabric, washing fabric, cutting fabric, arranging and piecing fabric, layering and stitching. And because I think it is a lovely word.

Feeling connected to my process again is wonderful and means that I have the confidence to write new proposals for exhibition. To look further ahead on days when the present is so dark. So watch this space!

Maybe. My trust in my process is being rewarded as I am generally feeling much more positive and engaged with my art. The news of a new national lockdown and the impact that will have on my business caused a bit of a wobble this week but I am looking forward to each day spent in the studio and can feel my focus and drive returning.

The colour palette I am working with, and the choices I make when I am printing my breakdown screens, mean that I’m producing some fabrics in which the colours are quite vibrant and the marks very crisp and some fabrics were the colours are more muted and the marks less crisp. I had been using the whole collection of fabrics in my compositions but this week I had a ‘what if’ moment. It happened on a ‘bad’ day when the news was awful. Everything that could go wrong in the studio went wrong. Everything seemed endless and everything seemed tainted. Part of me wanted to lock up the studio and reach for the gin. But part of me thought what the heck Leah, do something with this! So I pulled out the more muted fabrics, started cutting strips and started randomly pinning fabric to my design wall. I worked later into the evening than normal. I didn’t know where I was going but, having spent the last few weeks submerged in ‘making’ I felt a level of confidence in what I was doing that I thought I had lost. A sense of connection.

But I recognise that my sense of connection to my work and my confidence in me as an artist is fragile. I need relearn my art practice, my art habit.

When I was still working in industry I set myself a target of 20 hours in the studio each weeks and was very disciplined about recording only those hours spent making art and supporting my art practice. I continued to track my hours when I started working full time in the studio but tracked all my activities - the teaching hours, the admin hours, the social media hours etc. I recorded my art hours but didn’t set any targets. Looking make this was a mistake because it allowed me to pat myself on the back for working long hours in the studio whilst avoiding the fact that I was going for long periods of time without making art.

So, from 1st January I am only recording those hours spent making art. I don’t need to record those hours spent doing other things - I take my business seriously and am always going to put in the hours needed. I have set myself a target of 20 hours per week. I know that if I am teaching a 5 day workshop I am very unlikely to fit in many hours (or even minutes!) making art but that will be balanced by periods when I am not teaching and can fit in many more hours. If I am to hit my target I will need to think about what I do when. I won’t be able to print fabric or use my design wall to compose my quilts during periods when I only have a few days between classes. Instead I need to always have pieces at the quilting stage … I can always move my sewing machine into our dining room if the studio is full of students.

Those of you who know me or who have been reading for a while will know that I am a fan of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art’. The idea that I should treat my art just like I treat my day job was one that made me set that original weekly target and gave me the discipline to follow through. I need to remember that now!

Last time I wrote about my sense of disconnection from my art and I’d like to thank everyone who got in touch. Your support, and knowing that many of you share my sense of disconnection, really helps. This pandemic has turned our worlds upside down in so many ways but I cannot blame my lack of connection to my art on the pandemic alone. As I wrote before there were fissures already there, I think, from the changes in my life over recent years.

So how do I reconnect? There are lots of things I could try. I could take a workshop and learn a new technique in the hope that it sparks something. I could pick a call for entry with a set theme and a deadline and force myself to work on it just to be doing something, again in the hope it sparks something. Or I could start some form of daily practice, maybe something that is outside my ‘comfort zone’ such as sketching. These methods work really well for some people but I know myself and I know that these ideas won’t work for me. I’ve worked into sketchbooks and worked to other peoples themes often enough to recognise that they are not for me.

Instead I have spent time looking back and thinking about what has worked really well for me in the past. I don’t want to reinvent myself. I am not questioning the processes I have used in the past. I am looking for new inspiration that is a better fit with my life today. I know from experience that I do not make good art if I have a great idea and start working on it straightaway. The two quilts I made in April are a good example of this. I also know that my ideas rattle around in my head and evolve best when I’m busy printing and stitching - I really don’t do sitting around waiting for the muse!

Which is a bit of a conundrum. So I have stopped thinking about finding new inspiration. Instead I am trusting my process and trying to create abstract pieces that I can fall in love with. Some may say that this is taking the easy option but honestly now is not the right time for me to work on pieces with deep meaning. I am being kind to myself. I have picked a colour family to work with that is rather lovely. I have used breakdown printing to create a palette of fabrics. I am using simple compositions, based on different width strips and simple shapes, to create a series of full sized quilts. And I’m spending many, many hours sat at my machine stitching.

Some of the fabrics I have printed so far haven’t worked and some of the compositions I’ve played with haven’t made it off my design wall. Over the last few weeks I have finished one quilt that is boring and have stopped working on another piece part way through quilting. But I am slowly working towards pieces that are interesting. I haven’t got to the ‘wow’ moment but I will keep going. I don’t know where I will end up. I may end up with a successful series of abstract pieces. Or I may start thinking about a new source of inspiration that eventually leads to new work and end up throwing these pieces away. I feel that the process I am going through needs to be a private one so I’m not going to share images until I know which way this is going. Some of you may shudder at the idea of quilts going in the bin but I see this as an investment in me. A necessary investment. And a positive focus at the end of a very difficult year.

May I take a moment to wish each of you a peaceful Christmas in which you can find moments of happiness.

All my love, Leah

To say 2020 hasn’t gone as planned would be a bit of an understatement. At the beginning of this year my focus was on making art and on teaching. I had intentionally delayed plans to grow my online shop and to write my second book as I wanted to slow down a bit after a hectic 2019 and spend more time with my family.

But in March everything changed. With no income from teaching I quickly switched gears and spent time developing my online shop. Like many people I really struggled to focus on anything but found comfort in printing fabric to sell.

As my focus returned I decided to take a few weeks ‘off’ to make art. The pieces that I had been working on before March felt completely irrelevant. I had zero desire to work on that series so, like many other artists, I decided to use my response to the corona virus as my inspiration. I followed my usual creative process - I chose my colours first then printed fabric before thinking about composition. Whilst I enjoyed the process the two quilts I created were a bit disappointing. In fact one of them is just plain ugly. Under normal times I would have thrown those in the bin and kept going. I felt frustrated but didn’t have the emotional strength to figure out why they weren’t ‘right’.

Instead I threw myself into writing my second book. I took breaks to teach when restrictions allowed but I can honestly say that I stopped thinking about making art. I did enter a quilt I had made at the beginning of the year into several juried exhibitions but it was rejected over and over again. Normally this would really upset me but it didn’t. I like the quilt and would happily hang it on a wall in my home but just don’t feel as connected to it as I do my earlier work.

Eventually the book was finished. Having seriously over worked myself I was forced to really slow down for a few weeks. My mind turned to making art. And I realised that I have lost my way. I have lost the sense of connection with my work and I have lost the habit of making art. My life has changed completely in recent years. I no longer work in industry, based in an old cotton mill, surrounded by heavy machinery. I work in my studio. I no longer travel around the world with my job. Even before the pandemic I barely travelled anywhere and now I spend 99% of my time inside the boundaries of our property. I no longer have a clean separation between my art and my day job. My art is, or at least should be, part of my day job.

When I changed career and started teaching it was so that I could combine being an artist, cope with the increasing care responsibilities I have and still pay the bills. I was adamant that I wanted to be an artist who taught rather than a teacher who makes the odd bit of art. It was inevitable that there would be periods when my focus was 100% on growing my teaching practice and writing books but I failed to recognise that the connection I felt to my art was in part driven by the fact that previously I worked on my art everyday not in chunks of a week here and a week there.

Local restrictions currently prevent me teaching and I fear that this will continue into the new year. I could spend this time starting my next book, creating more thermofax designs for my shop, or developing online workshops but I’m not. I’m spending the time looking inwards, trying to reconnect with my art and figuring out how I sustain this once I am able to teach.

I will write about this in more detail next time but I will share something I have done that is helping me. It is a little thing but I have, temporarily, removed the big plastic ‘Covid safe’ screens from the studio and have rearranged the tables. Whilst those screens are necessary they just make me want to cry. By removing them I feel like I am reclaiming my creative space. A little step towards reconnecting.

Thank you to everyone who has been placing orders for my new book and other ‘stuff’ via my website. The response to Colour Your Palette has been rather overwhelming and very much appreciated. The books are ‘in production’ and due to be delivered to me on Tuesday (10th). I aim, with the help of son Joe, to get everything shipped within 3 days. Which has meant getting organised.

I do like getting organised so this has been a real treat! I have set up piles of ‘book only’ orders by destination and postage type. And I have been putting together the orders for those of you who have ordered fabric, dyes etc along with your book. These are also organised by destination and postage type. I’ve ordered and received the packaging that will be needed. And Joe has created storage space for the 50+ boxes of books that will arrive on Tuesday.

We have worked out a system for checking books and packing them. I’m in charge of shipping labels and order confirmations. Joe is in charge of taking parcels to the post office. Call me weird but I love stuff like this! (I suspect Joe might not love it quite as much as he is doing all the heavy lifting!).

And whilst I wait for Tuesday I’ve been taking time out to ‘recharge my batteries’. After shipping out all the books I want to get back to ‘making’. I’ve done plenty of printing, dyeing and playing for the book but it is 6 months since I worked on my art. Six months since I sat at my sewing machine. Far too long!

Stay well,

Leah x