Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Thursday 1 May 2008

May Day

Instead of working through the puzzles (crossword, codewords and two sudoku grids) on the back page of The Times each evening, I decided to put my evening relaxing time to more productive use – stitching. The new sashiko throw has been completed in next to no time - I'm really pleased with it. The roundels are family crests of famous Kabuki actors (don't ask me which, I just like the motifs), the designs are geometric representations of plants and flowers and they were used on costumes and accessories. But it was much more complex than that – the names of the plants in Japanese are puns describing the actor, and these phrases were shouted by the audience as a way of applauding.


I let the studio assistants sit on the new sashiko – this was a bribe to get them to pose for a portrait for their second birthday. May Day is their approximate birthday, as they were found abandoned in a cardboard box in May 2006 nobody knows exactly where or when they were born. Thank you to the kind volunteers at Haverhill and Stour Valley Cats Protection who took them in and allowed us to adopt them.

Cue the cute video . . .

8 comments:

  1. That's very fine needlework for those assistants to lie on. I hope they feel suitably honoured. (And they were very cute kittens.)

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  2. Wow beautiful work. I have yet to stitch anything useful.

    Funny about the cat's birthdays - I also alloted May 1st as my Lilla and Mindu's birthday. They were found in September 2002 at the entrance to Wood Green Animal Shelter in Godmanchester at 4 months old shut in a box with their mother, who was pregnant again.

    She'd already been rehomed (unfortunately she miscarried) by the time we happened upon the two little scallywags that would become our beautiful girls. They are 6 this year :)

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  3. Happy Birthday to the studio assistants! What a cute video.

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  4. Yes, beautiful sashiko. And those two certainly don't need telling how beautiful they are!
    Happy birthdays,Chester & Chloe.(Do all your Cs ever confuse your postman?)

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  5. I love the way the tiny studio assistant looks up at you at the end, wondering whether there is going to be a ticking off for being naughty! What a treat for the two, to be sitting on your new throw, they have settled in very well! x

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  6. What cute kitties! I don't know how you find time to do any work with them around.

    And that Sashiko is beautiful too.

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  7. What beautiful studio assistants and what a beautiful throw too .... maybe your assistants could give me the kick up the backside I need to finish the (very old) WIP sitting in my room!

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  8. What a fun video. One of ours loves leather shoes--only leather mind you, non of the cheap stuff for her. Likewise, the felines always seem to know when a special quilt or throw comes into the house. --Curmudgeon

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