Breaking the Hiatus

Hello there. I am finding I am able to write again. I have been gone for quite a long time in the blogosphere due to a lot of reasons. I think, like most people, COVID had a lot to do with it. Like so many others, I caught it last year in my line of work and had a protracted recovery. I am, however, able to create again, back at work and feeling I am regaining some agency around my creativity.

During my recovery, card-making was the thing I knew that was accessible to me as a creative person. It literally allowed me to overcome the inertia I was dealing with psychologically and physically.

I am sharing some cards that I have made last year. I’ve been trying out so many techniques, but my favourite by far is die-cutting. I just find these dies (and there are so many of them now, one is spoilt for choice) so versatile – especially those shape dies. I like making patterns from them. The word dies also afford a way of making dimension to my cards without overloading it or making it to heavy. But I must say, just simple origami folds and cuts and snips on the paper like post-its and left-over printer-grade paper, are pretty much effective at creating simple pattern ‘repeats’.

So, right through to Christmas last year, card-making became my craft therapy (I have more on Instagram). I’ve also started vlogging my card-making on YouTube (I know, right? Feeling confident or just naive?). Either way, it seems cathartic just sharing some card-making tips, so I will be doing that every now and again (when I have time).

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However, my quilling roots still made me want to use quilled motifs in simple, classically configured cards. This way of card-making is a mainstay ‘Jeff’s way’. I have made a few of these flower motif cards when I thanked the so many people who looked after me in hospital. The identical cards on easels were birthday cards, where I made use of turnabout stamps that make the curlicues and trailing florals.

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The long hiatus meant I tailed off in this blog from when I had my last exhibit – the Wild Wonder Exhibit (link here) which I did with my friend Wendy (Winter 2019). I will be reposting images from the whole exhibit, since I feel I need to catalogue that show here – yes, OCD always gets the better of me. I’d like to do a more complete post discussing the works of that exhibit. I have stopped literally (abruptly) at ‘Heartbeats’ (link here). Below was the show poster that I designed.

My hope is I can pick up speed and break the hiatus, especially given that Coventry is this year’s City of Culture here in the UK. So, some artistic prowess and creativity will be (I am sure) showcased throughout this summer by many local creatives till the end of 2021.

As a start, I am planning my next contribution to Warwickshire Open Studios (WOS) 2021 where a group of us will either be showing our creations physically or virtually depending on the rules of social engagement. So, watch this space for updates once it starts this summer, as I fully intend to blog about it here in my little nook. For now, my busy fingers are making again.