Invitation to my Open Studio

Just a month to go, the first weekend of 'Open' is 10th, 11th, 12th June and the pace for preparations has gone into 'ludicrous drive'!  In all the 'run-up' and talking about it, I have forgotten my manners, and not yet actually invited you all.

So here we are, your   I N V I T A T I O N

I have great pleasure in inviting you to my Open Studio - 10th, 11th, 12th June and 18th, 19th June - in Lastingham, North Yorkshire - open daily 10.30 am to 5.30 pm.

A special welcome awaits my fellow bloggers, after all this chat, I would love to meet you and show you round my workshop and introduce you to a few lumps of stone!

If you would like to receive a brochure, just let me know and I will forward one to you, or visit North Yorkshire Open Studios.

This year 126 artists and makers are taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios to help them to showcase and sell their work, augmented by an interesting and diverse array of exhibitions, master classes, workshops, talks, demonstrations and other activities. 

North Yorkshire Open Studios 2011 - 10th, 11th, 12th & 18th, 19th June open daily 10.30 am - 5.30 pm - further details, what to see, hope you can make it!

New Stars and Squatters!

Great new bursts of life, wildflowers so beautiful - new heroes of the hedgerow.  Each morning is a different display, a unique performance.

These Germander Speedwell are such vivid blue, tightly closed first thing, popping with brilliance once kissed by the sunshine and bending their little heads to follow it.

This bee was frantic for nectar on the Bush Vetch, and surprisingly accurate in landing and acquiring, despite the strong wind.

I am not sure what this one is, I am guessing at Crosswort - can anyone help?

Jack-by-the-hedge (or Garlic Mustard) - I've never used this in the kitchen - must try it. Does anyone know of recipes including it? 

And Greater Stitchwort - exquisite.

What lovely names they all have too.  So in just a few feet I have members of the figwort, pea, bedstraw, cabbage and pink family.

Now it also looks like a pigeon family too.  Just a few days away from the workshop and they've moved in! 

When I built my shed, I made a hole in the apex of the roof and put in a Barn Owl box in the hope they would nest.  No luck with the owls, though I did find a dead vole in there once, and wasps used it last year.   Now a small nest and two eggs.



Workshop time?

This has been a week where too few hours have been spent in the workshop actually making and creating.  All of a sudden all the other jobs needed to keep Jennifer Tetlow Stone Sculpture going, required my time and energy.  I knew they were building up, and I kept adding to the list, fully aware this time for action was overdue.

Sometimes you just go with the things you would prefer to be doing - for me certainly that is being in the workshop - saying to myself  'I'll just get this finished and then tackle my list'.  Just finishing always, always, takes much longer than anticipated.

Of course when I get on with it, the non-workshop jobs are also quite enjoyable.  Well some!

So, I've been busy with chasing print for invites for exhibitions and my Open Studio, proofing catalogues, collecting stone, mailing, making plinths and display boards, delivering, writing press releases, invoicing, preparing presentations for commissioners, researching for and practicing talks, servicing the forklift, filing and so on and on.

Tomorrow is back to carving, less encumbered - lovely!  Good job, as I'm beginning to experience withdrawal symtoms!

Stone Carving Course

At the weekend I was surrounded by a lovely group attending one of my stone carving courses.  I do enjoy having lots of chipping, chiselling and sculpting around me.  Lots of other people's hammers and chisels tapping away, creating.  It makes for a very special atmosphere.

I try and get everyone to select their piece of stone, put it on their 'banker' (the name for a stone-carver's workbench), and start work on it as soon as possible on day one.  So often, if someone hasn't carved before, there can be a nervousness and hesitation initially, a concern about doing damage or taking off too much stone,  and the best thing is just to get underway, make a mark, and get the feel of chisel cutting through the stone.

Very quickly everyone is engrossed, and making sculptural decisions and feeling much more confident.

It is so exciting to see all the work developing, the ideas and intentions for the stone.  Everyone has their own way of approaching a sculpture, some working freely allowing a piece to evolve, others are meticulous to every detail and sharply accurate, some abstract and some figurative, it's so intriguing to see the progress.

We start by drawing the design on the stone, then begin to rough out, taking away all the surplus stone.   So the group firstly drew the front view of their image, and all the stone outside that line was removed.  They then progressed to the side view, and did the same, ditto with the top view.  This was the roughing out complete, leaving a rather square, blockish sculpture. 

Then to the really fun part, the detailing, fine-tuning, adjusting, perfecting and finishing -  and truly seeing the results of all the labour.

I'm amazed  how hard everyone works, we have a few aching muscles and some wear and tear, but a lot of smiling proud faces and some beautiful stone carving.

May through the .....

..... Arched window.

I passed this beautiful stone structure on May Day evening, and had to stop the vehicle, get out, and embrace it. 

The spring May countryside stretched wide and lush from the frame of golden stone.  I could have lingered far longer.

In a sort of May Day bringing forth and celebration, I walked through the arch, feeling it a gesture of significance, a reverent curtsey, and entered the bloom of the month.

These magnificent stone columns are just outside Helmsley.  A gateway to Duncombe Park, in the form of a triumphal arch in sandstone ashlar.  An inscription across the top reads  'To the memory of Lord Viscount Nelson and the unparalleled gallant achievements of the British Navy'.  To the rear wording about lamented hero, and the price paid.  All of which seemed a little incongruous in my May Day moment.