A Leap Of Faith

Last year was the year when I made my first true leap of faith. When we realised that the future of my husband's employers was a little...well...shaky, I decided to go back into HR. For me, that was a leap of faith. I didn't know if I could cope or not with the demands of paid employment, which was the reason I got (really) ill in the first place, last time round. But needs must when the devil drives, and I spent a joyful five months working in a great place, which is now, sadly, closed. You would have noticed the quiet blog, here, which was a direct result of the Paid Job, and for that, I'm sorry. I missed talking with you all. Now, though, I'm about to take another leap of faith, which is to continue to look for paid employment (anyone looking for a proactive HR Manager?), but to combine it with a simplification of my creative life. I'm coming back to textiles in a focussed way, with a bit of mixed media on the side.

You see, I've got a new toy. She's called Big Bertha, and she's a printer. She's not any old printer, though; she's an Epson 7880 (check her out here). I'm going to be working almost exclusively with images that are derived from photographs, just like the image at the top of the blog, one of the illustrations for the new Evolon book (more of that in a minute). She's too big for my studio, so she lives in the gallery in Dereham, where we'll be offering a range of services for artists and photographers based on BB. Watch this space for more details... but first, I need to master using her on cloth. That starts next week... the gallery may not know what hit them .

And the Evolon book. Yes, I know, I promised it for last year. I failed...but for a good reason (for once). I'm adding two new chapters, one on using evolon and the printer, another on distressing with heat. It will be ready in March; I hope you'll think it's worth the wait.

Oh, it's good to be back. I spent part of this afternoon in the studio...would still be there, but himself has a migraine, and the embellisher makes a lot of noise... I'm half way through working with my first large scale image on Lutradur. It's really exciting!

Finally, I wish you all a Guid New Year... one that is joyful, exciting and creative, just like mine!