Blog posts – Page 12 – sue orton

late June

I love the month of June in England, full of soft fruit, tennis and bare feet; I enjoy the warmth and abundance. Adlestrop by Edward Thomas evokes the gentle pace and stillness of June for me too. This year on the 100th anniversary of the start of the 1st world war in which both my grandfathers served it seems particularly poignant. Geoffrey Palmer reads it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDUEwGR_gH8

Yes. I remember Adlestrop –
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop – only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

For more about Adlestrop

Project 3 finished :)

I presented my work at Handweavers this week-end completing the third project. My fictional client: George Indiana Jones is a geologist. She has a collection of rock specimens and prints from her field trips. She is a Fellow at The University of Cross-Bedding and has requested fabrics for soft furnishing and window treatments for refurbishing her study. Her particular interest is in the geology of metamorphic and sandstone rocks, including formations found in the Canyon Lands of western USA.   Here’s are a few swatches!

gathering swatches for project 3

It’s a while since I posted and I’ve been working hard to get ready for project 3 presentation at the end of the month. My workings have been around trying to design fabrics for upholstery using linen mix blends. I’m designing for a geologist’s study and taking inspiration from rock formations. I have spent the week assembling my swatches for presentation this week-end including all the technical details.

excitment in new garden pond

There is much excitement in our new garden pond. Dug and built in the winter, Hackney frogspawn in during March, and now newts and this local frog, with resident tadpole looking on nervously 🙂 [frogs eat tadpoles!] On a positive note, it will be excellent to mix the frog genes!
We are taking delivery of native pond plants this week; hoping to entice dragon flies and other life.

Mixed results on window blinds

I’ve had mixed results with the window blinds. I’m not becoming a fan of linen and linen blends although the double weave concept seems one I want to explore further. Learning the importance of thread counts and float length have been interesting. The sleying and cram and space experiments too have revealed how sticky linen can be. Patience tested on this warp. I think I much prefer my mercerised cotton test piece!

South Down’s Way | day 1

At the start of the year I resolved to begin explorations of the long distance paths of UK. First my local trail, the South Downs Way. On Tuesday 29th April I started; walking from Eastbourne to Seven Sisters Visitor Centre.

It was a glorious windless day with Skylarks serenading me all the way. Long rolling cliffs, not a cloud in the sky and pure joy developing my own pace and rhythm walking alone; a meditation. A man overtook me walking barefoot.

Just before the gate onto the gravel path through Cuckmere Haven I came across this adult male Adder sunbathing. I managed a picture as he slid away. Next leg of the journey to Southease.