THANKS so much, everyone, for your good wishes. Seriously, it really does make a difference to know you are thinking of us. Tom felt a veritable wave of good karma when he sat down and read through your comments. We were both very cheered by them. Thanks!
I want to say thanks for something else too. I’ve been an admirer of Suzanne’s work for a while, particularly her wonderful creature series. She had some fabric made up recently of her designs via spoonflower. The fabric looks amazing! So when she proposed a swap — a creature-cushion for a bucketload of good British tea — I immediately jumped at the chance.
A parcel containing this arrived yesterday and made me very excited. Isn’t it fab? I’m really blown away by it. I feel I definitely got the better side of the deal. But then again, you really can’t argue with a good cup of tea.
Suzanne’s cushion now has pride of place on our sofa, and, perhaps appropriately, is doing a great job propping up the specimen that is Tom’s poor hand. I love Suzanne’s creatures even more now I can sit and stare at them. Never has an item of soft furnishings provoked so much thought for me! I’ve been sat there thinking about Suzanne’s design process, about the materials she uses and effects that she creates, as well as about the feel of her work, which says so much about natural processes, decay and preservation. It is spooky, it is poignant, and it is witty too. (Her new cross-section series also illustrate this perfectly). But some of the other cushion-thoughts have been personal, and rather banal, as illustrated by the following anecdote.
Tom has several supermarket rituals. These are generally designed to wind me up, and involve him behaving like Benny Hill in the fruit and veg section (eg, asking “could you do with one of these?” while holding a large butternut squash in a suggestive manner at crotch height). Another ritual focuses on the jars of seafood in the ‘speciality foods’ section. He well knows that the sight of pickled creatures can reduce me to foolish levels of sentimentality and exploits this by waggling the jars of little octopi in my face and shrieking “SAVE US!” in a plaintive squid-like voice.
(yes, I actually took my camera to the store today to photograph these poor beggars)
The ritual concludes with one of those stereotypical exchanges of couples in supermarkets: viz, woman rolls eyes and whapps man with handbag, or whatever else comes to hand. A few weeks ago, though, I noticed a different sort of exchange going on in front of the SAVE US! jars. A young lad had picked one up, and was staring at the pickled creatures with wide-eyed fascination.
“Look!” he said to his mum, “they’ve got their heads on and everything!”
Suzanne’s creatures perhaps don’t provoke either of these reactions, but they do manage to be fascinating, while being rather melancholy too.
thanks Suzanne, I love the cushion!
I had to order 2 fat quarters. Thanks for the exposure.
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Ah yes, the crotch squash joke. It just never gets old.
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hmmm. the html did not translate, so sorry. here’s the link to what stumpy can do.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2776164706_97e790e631.jpg?v=0
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your mentioning the dryad handicraft books a while back has led me on a wild, and also woolly, trip. i found a bound collection of about half of them, and have been delighted to read so many of them. tell Mr. T that this, from pamphlet #128, is what stumpy will be able to do, very very soon. in the meantime, enjoy.
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My goodness, I haven’t been online for a day or two and I didn’t see your previous post. What a horrific accident – I’m very, very glad that Tom’s on the mend, albeit slowly.
And that cushion is AMAZING.
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I’m afraid my first thought on seeing the pickled beasties was “Where can I get that?”
Your photos of the fabric are lovely.
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Crikey – they don’t sell octopi in Lidl!
Sorry to hear about Tom’s accident – pies and tea sound like the feel-better fare right enough!
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I love the supermarket ancedotes, has given me a chortle early this morning and I too become sentimental at the sight of octopi in jars… The cushion is fab.
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Oh WOW that fabric is amazing and so up your alley, right??
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Sorry to hear of Mr. B’s misfortune- but at least he has pie and a pretty pillow to cheer him up.
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So glad Tom was feeling cheered!
The pillow is beyond lovely….I wish I had designs that were Spoonflower worthy.
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