Style Imitating Art Katzensymphonie

I haven't taken part in Style Imitating Art for ages! I kept forgetting about it and then not having the time to think of an outfit. However, when I saw last week's inspiration piece, I knew what I could wear:

The piece was chosen by Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey

“Katzensymphonie” by Austrian artist Moritz von Schwind,

Such a gorgeous piece!!! Right up my street.

Naturally, I began with my Miss Patina Cats playing instruments blouse!

I love this blouse! It's so me.

I then added the Kew Broderie Anglaise skirt.  The eyelets made me think of musical notes. I would have worn my cat culottes but they are still away in a suitcase of winter clothes (not done my swap yet!) 

I added my Clarks Artisan black Nubuck wedges (worn yesterday) and I was good to go! 

 I wore this for school on Monday! I remember a girl, who plays cello, walking behind me saying, "That cat is playing the cello on your shirt!" in utter wonderment!

The school trip today was challenging. Mainly due to the Elizabeth line being utterly vile! There were trespassers on the line when I attempted to get to school so I arrived an hour and a quarter later than I should have done.  We then had delays and really overcrowded trains on the way in, got separated on the train and then had the same issues on the way back! The train journey was very stressful but I had a great team of adults to help and the kids were super!

 

Beach Art

 As you may have seen, I always enjoy playing with the stones and shells on a beach to leave a message or a picture for others to see.

Here's a message I left in Southend the day we  rode the pier train with a friend from Taiwan

I selected only brown stones of a round shape and left the message on the wall for passers by.  

I really enjoyed the message with the blue and white rowing boat in the background!

The weather was hazy and beautiful that day.  We rode the pier train, ate ice-creams and then headed home to make vegetable pasta.

x

Beach Art: Shell message

Back in mid-August, we headed to Southend-on-Sea to meet our friend N for his birthday and we went to a hotel called The Rosslyn for dinner.  After all meal, we decided to head to the beach for a quick walk.  I immediately decided to collect oyster shells to leave an arty message for passers by on the esplanade!

I collected many of the plentiful oyster shells in my hat and left this message.  I wonder how long it lasted for?

Alas, it was so windy, it was none-too-pleasant to be on the beach so C and N sheltered in one of the covered benches until I'd finished and we headed back through the blustery streets to the car!

What would your message say?

xx
 

Beach art

I love making some sort of 2D art when I go to the beach.  Here are some of my previous attempts:

August 2023, June 2023, August 2020, February 2019, July 2018, May 2017, August 2016, September 2016, August 2016

CBC and I ended up on the beach, late afternoon. It was threatening to rain and did spit for a while when we were there and then end up raining with a breeze.

I originally had the idea to make a sort of Mandala, circular design although it ended up being more of a cross between a Target and a jellyfish!

CBC was a bit cold and not enjoying the rain!

xx

 

Written in the stars

I always enjoy a trip to Hexham Abbey when I visit Hexham. This time, there was a beautiful display of origami stars made by schools and communities.

The exhibition is entitled:

Stars for Eternity

We are raising thousands of origami stars to the Abbey ceiling, all of them made by local people and dedicated to the shining souls who have brightened others’ lives.

Suspended 45ft high in the Chancel of the Abbey, the stars stretch from the old choir stalls to the high altar and are lit from each side. The stars are high enough that dedications can't be read from the floor, keeping memories and thoughts private but still present, much like a prayer. 

Similar to the Angel exhibition from a couple of years ago, I really enjoyed the effect of these being displayed.

 Such a wonderful display

Beach art

For the days surrounding the August Bank Holiday weekend, CBC and I joined his Mum, sister and husband to stay in a cottage in a place called Stradbroke in Suffolk.  On the Sunday, we went to Southwold for the day.

It was a beautifully sunny day and we headed to the beach.

We seated J, MiL on our fold up seat and the others all went to meet CBC's OTHER sister who, coincidentally, was on holiday in Southwold!

Whilst they went, I decided to try and make some beach art. I love trying to make pictures on the beach out of things I find and have made a few little efforts before (look at my Beach label if you want to see any others!

A while back, I saw a beautiful piece of art where someone had used smooth (and wet) grey stones as well as white shells to create a lovely piece of art with rotational symmetry and I decided to try and recreate it

When I looked back at the inspiration piece, it had double the amount of arms as this so looked more dense (and the stones were more even and consistently sized) but still, I was happy to have given it a go.  Several people walking past admired it (and I gave anyone who came to close to stepping on it menacing looks!) 

I returned from taking our nephew (well, CBC's, but mine by marriage!) to the toilet block and my art had been messed up. So I decided to try something else!

Here's my little beach house with added twigs, seaweed and feathers!

I hope you like them!

Important question:

What shall I make next time!?!?

 

A day at the beach

 On Friday, my sister dropped round as my niece has trampolining lessons at my local leisure centre.  She'd been for a 20km run so she came in and we had a cup of tea, then she had a shower. 

After this, she suggested that I join her and my niece at the beach to spend some time with their friend at their beach hut. I demurred at first because I had school work to do.  Not having been well meant I'd had that brain fog and then we went to the Suffolk coast on Thursday.

However, in the time we went to collect K from her trampoline class, I decided that I should go with them. I don't see them all that often and perhaps some WARM sea air (it was freezing in Aldeburgh on Thursday!) might do me some good.

K was delighted I would come along with them too which made it worth it!

We parked at the beach and found that my sister's running friend's beach hut was just one groyne along from mine and K's favourite place to swim.

It was quite breezy and the tide was going out, however, all three of us decided that we had to have a swim, no matter how cold it was.

It definitely wasn't hot but all three of us managed to stay in the water for about 30minutes. We waded and had a little attempt at swimming out, despite it being quite shallow. It was quite refreshing though I didn't want to get too cold because of my cough.

After a while, we came back to the beach and started to dry off with towels. We ate some lunch (I had crackers, cheese, tomatoes, carrots) and then K and I got a little bored.  We went for a wander and then I suggested we have a 5 minute timer to write each other's name on the beach.

K did mine with a brown stone heart and a shell K.

I made hers with oyster shells.

I then suggested that we work on something together.

We began with a heart but then K suggested doing a butterfly instead.

It took us about an hour!  O, the daughter of H, the beach hut owner, came and joined us a quarter of the way in (she's the O in the initials)

More of the running friends turned up and we managed to enlist some minions to collect oyster shells for us.

Oyster shells for the wings, brown stones for the body, black stones for the antennae and pink shells for the bits at the top of the antennae.

We were very proud of our efforts.

After this, K and I went for a wander further down the beach where we had a really fun music improvisation session using stones, shells, the wooden groynes, our feet- alla Stomp.  K seemed to really enjoy it as she kept going with me, making some funky rhythms and apparently, the rest of the beach enjoyed it too!

Eventually, it was time to leave.  We helped pack up the beach hut and then we walked back to the car.

They dropped me home and then drove themselves.

I made myself a much-needed cup of tea and CBC came home around 8.50pm, after a 120mile cycle ride!  I made us dinner of Pie Minster Filo pies with new potatoes and veg and then it was time for bed.

It was a really enjoyable day and I am glad I joined my sister and niece at the beach!

xx

Style Imitating Art- Anne M Bray's Scrappy squares

 I got out the habit of joining in with Style Imitating Art over the last few months which is sad as there have been some superb inspiration art pieces.

A wonderful new host has joined the SIA team- Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge.  I have long admired Shelbee's Style Imitating Art posts where she shared detailed outfits and the inspiration behind them so I am super happy she's now going to be choosing the inspirations every 3rd turn.

She chose art by a fellow blogger and artist, Anne M Bray who decided to turn scrap fabrics into art rather than wasting them. They are called Scrappy squares and Shelbee has one named after her!

We were invited to choose one to inspire our outfit.

I chose Karo:

Shelbee's round up post was fab as she paired all 10 ladies with their chosen piece. So here's mine,

I chose Caro as I wanted to wear my beautiful, comfortable linen jumpsuit from Seasalt which CBC bought me for my 40th birthday.  I added my charity-shopped black pointelle cardigan as the pattern is sort of created on my arms by the 'holes' in my cardigan.  I added my black velvet Kangol beret (charity shopped) and to finish off, my black/white patterned Toms shoes match up with the black and white pattern rather nicely. Alas, I have no closeup picture of them!

My little sister took this picture of me in the Bluebell woods near her house. She also took photos on her SLR but I'm going to have to wait for those!

I urge you to go and look at Shelbee's round up post as it's fabulous how all 10 ladies interpreted their chosen squares!

Hope you had a successful day! I rather like my Wednesdays as it's 3 lessons of Year 5, plus one Year 6, Year 5-6 singing assembly and then choir.  In Singing Assembly, we've been learning Sakura, a Japanese folk song and I'd shown them videos of the Shakuhachi and Koto playing a version of it last week, so I took in my Sulangsong, a bamboo flute specially made for me by a flute maker from Bandung, Java, called Efendi who created his own flute which is a mixture of the Japanese Shakuhachi, the Sundanese Suling and the Sumatran Saluang.

Here is a duet version with the koto and the Shakuhachi

My Year 5's were working on their river buildups for Vltava (Smetana) and my 6's were improving their Beethoven 5th Symphony Developments. 

Do you remember I was a little sad about having low numbers in choir compared to last term?  Well, it all worked out in the end due to some individual targetting and some surprises and I have 31 in choir now including some real sweeties! Choir sounds pretty good!

How far would you go for the environment?  Am I that crazy that I carried home 8 smelly crab shells from my Dad's? I was clearing up the table after a lovely seafood platter and I asked if they had food waste for me to put the shells in. My stepmum replied that they don't have it (and obvs putting fishy stuff in the home compost is a no no as it encourages rats).My Dad commented that it was such a shame to have to put the shells in the bin because there are lots of valuable minerals that could be returned to the soil.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and cunningly wrapped all 8 shells in some waste plastic and hid them in my bag.  I fessed up to my Dad later on and he chuckled and told me, "Good on you!" but agreed the rest of the family would think me insane for doing this.

When I got back, I washed the shells up to clean them and I crushed them with a garden trowel tonight to add to my compost. Yes, it was grim but I made a promise that I would try my best to ensure things aren't wasted!

Anyway, hope you have a lovely day! Don't forget to go and see Shelbee's round up!

xx

Style Imitating Art - decoupage flowers

 This week, our Style Imitating Art inspirations are the many flower collages and decoupages of 18th century Mary Delany.  In her  70's, she started making paper cut outs of flowers and they are exquisite!

Here are two examples I picked out:

I decided to take inspiration from these in my outfit, worn on Saturday, for my day out with my family to the brewery.

I decided to combine the colours and flowers for my look rather than an exact recreation.

I started with this Cath Kidston rose teadress which I bought in the charity shop, the day of my flute trio recital.  I then added this pointelle cardigan which was also a charity shop purchase.  Jewellery consists of a silver acorn necklace given to me for our first anniversary by CBC and a pair of charity shopped red earrings. My tights are an old pair of school tights- they are so comfy but very old now. The final item was my new Clarks boots I bought after getting soaking wet feet. I've been wearing them all week for school and they are fleece lined and very comfortable.

Head over to Salazar tomorrow to see how everyone else interpreted it.

Colourscape- Clapham Common 2021

My first proper gig of 2021 (AKA performing to the paying public) took place last Saturday on Clapham Common at the Colourscape festival.

If you're not sure of what Colourscape is, I have taken the liberty of  borrowing some information from their website:

Cwmni Colourscape is the partnership of Peter Jones and Lynne Dickens, who create Colourscapes. Peter Jones developed the first Colourscape structures in 1974. Colourscapes were preceded by 'Spaceplaces' from 1963, which were installations of coloured surfaces made inside buildings. In 1970 they became open-air structures. Experiments with air-inflated sculpture gave new possibilities of working directly with colour. Early structures used large primary colour chambers interconnected by tubes. Subsequently, many different Colourscapes, have been made, growing more complex in colour relationships. Cwmni Colourscape have several Colourscape structures, which they show at festivals and other events in the UK and abroad.
Cwmni Colourscape also creates and makes other structures - tensile canopies, wind sculptures and giant bubbles, all of which have generated and been part of many events. Many people have been trained with Cwmni Colourscape to make structures, to develop colour workshops and to run Colourscape shows

Eye Music:

Eye Music Trust (formerly Nettlefold Festival Trust) was founded by composers Lawrence Casserley and Simon Desorgher. In 1984 they founded a contemporary music festival in south London, the Nettlefold Festival, which was particularly dedicated to live electroacoustic music and music theatre. In 1988, seeking to expand the scope of the festival and to reach new audiences, they formed a charitable trust to oversee their work.
One of the most significant moments in the development of their work was the start of their collaboration with Cwmni Colourscape, which lead to the first Colourscape Music Festival, which took place on Clapham Common, London, UK in 1989. Since then the Trust have presented many Colourscape Music Festivals, numerous other events involving structures created by Cwmni Colourscape, and hundreds of educational workshops for people of all ages throughout the UK and abroad.

In 2005 the Trust was restructured as a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee (Reg No. 05466017) - and the name changed to Eye Music to reflect the connections between music and visual art. In 2008 Eye Music Trust became an Arts Council Regularly Funded Organisation.

Info from the Eye Music website 

I was performing with my Balinese Gamelan group- Lila Cita, on a beautiful Balinese Gamelan Angklung called Kembang Kirang which is owned by SOAS. Angklung is actually ceremonial music for Cremation but it is the most cheerful, bouncy-sounding music.

It's about the 4th Colourscape festival I have performed at, but it's been a good 10, possibly more years, since I did one, I suspect.  I forgot HOW amazing it is to walk and play in those brightly-coloured structures.  The colours are so mesmerising and you go on journeys throughout the chambers and see different shapes. As you can imagine, it is a joy to photograph.  We had a really appreciative audience who sat and listened to us for their allotted times as well as dancing through the chambers and delighting in the colour and light interplay.  A couple of times, I turned round from my suling (small Bamboo flute) to see a group of people in a far off chamber...or not so far off.... making up their own dances to music, I saw a small child leaning comfortably against an inflated wall looking content as he listened to us and when I smiled at him with my eyes, whilst playing, he smiled back in a way that suggested all was well with the world.

We played about 4 sets of music and paraded through the structure twice with our Baleganjur (street parade) music.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I strongly recommend it. It's wonderful.  I had a break where I leaned against a wall and read my book and it was so relaxing. I feel so lucky to have been able to take part in this performance.

And now, I will leave you to have a look at my photos of different views from Colourscape.  You might even find a video in there! Enjoy!