The year has been a quiet one with a shaky start when I was suffering from severe anxiety but with a little help from friends and a 6-week well-being workshop I learnt new skills to help me deal with it. I'm not saying it will be gone forever but this year my approach to Christmas was altogether different from last year's.
I took up yoga (very lovely group of people) and I joined a book group, (ditto).
We had a few nice breaks away and I'm lucky to have been to three of my favourite places and I've had two very successful selling events and two not so successful.
December was mostly taken up with selling all the things I didn't sell at the last craft fair. I had a bumper year for on-line sales so a big thank you to everyone who has bought or just shared my work.
I heard from my son yesterday that the wife of a friend of his had bought one of my brooches for her Grandma. (If you're reading, hello, you know who you are!) That was so lovely and very close to my ambition to see someone wearing one of my brooches when I'm out and away from Textile events.
This is getting a bit like a 'round robin' Christmas letter and I don't always enjoy getting those so I'll stop reviewing and do a bit of a preview.
I've decided, next year. to stop bemoaning the fact that I am overlooked by a certain Textile blog which makes me feel as if I am not an 'Artist'. I'm not going to change my work and the way I present it just to fit in. I can't think what else an Artist is except one who works tirelessly at creativity because they have to, and need to produce something they find beautiful and fulfilling, and I think I do that.
My pieces are what they are 'wysiwyg' ..'What you see is what you get' and not 'wyriwyg' (the 'r' being 'read' instead of 'see'.)
Maybe it isn't Art but it's my form of expression.
That's it then..thats my New Years resolution.
I may also have another one up my sleeve...I'm going to have a clear-out of my existing wall pieces sooner or later, and will be selling some at a reduced rate to clear the decks for making new work. So watch this space. Or you could visit my website and look at the pieces I have there and imagine them with a quarter off!
This year I've only made three wall pieces as I've been very busy with my bread-and-butter brooches. I send the brooches to Galleries all over the country, not many, as I can only do so much, but they are spread out. Sadly two of the lovely Galleries I supply and who have been incredibly supportive are closing. Lazyhill Gallery in Abbotsbury, Dorset, has already closed, but the lovely Rachel and Gordon can still be found there at the weekends until the end of January and will continue to run the Village shop next door.
Jam Eton, a Gallery in, yes, Eton is closing as the owners are retiring at the end of January. They too have been selling lots of my brooches for a couple of years and are having a sale now, so if you want a bargain pop along there before the end of next month (and don't forget to say hello from me.)
I'm losing two of my stockists but along have come two more to fill the gap. Details later.
I'll leave you with a picture of a wall piece I made this year, and with my best wishes for a happy, peaceful and healthy 2016, and thanks for all the support and comments I had from you during 2015.
