'Traces' at Morvah Schoolhouse is now over. It's been wonderful to share my work and meet with many people over the two weeks. Thank you all for coming along and special thanks for those of you who went away with a little feather dish and thereby donated to  Steeple Woodlands Nature Reserve. Also, thanks to those who came to yoga and to teacher Lucy for suggesting proceeds of the class also go to the same cause. Together we raised £112, which I am told will help fund a 'bioblitz'; a wildlife and flora survey conducted over a few days involving the community.

Today, before the gallery opened to the public we held a yoga session in amongst my exhibition at Morvah Schoolhouse taught by the wonderful Lucy Aldridge. 

 My exhibition 'Traces' is in its second and final week at Morvah Schoolhouse. Last Friday I took my father's project, which was the material for Geevor Hankies to Geevor Mine, which is just 2 miles from the gallery and which now functions as a museum. I met with Mike, the Mine Manager and showed him the project with a view to it becoming part of their archive. He received it gladly and was interested in it because of it dating back to 1941 when operations were somewhat different to the last years before the mine closed in 1990. 

​It’s time to start blogging again. Recently I’ve been bringing my allotment back from overgrowth ready for Spring, which has included editing the bed sizes and replacing rabbit fencing. 
In the studio I’ve been experimenting with gel plate monoprinting, a process I was introduced to by a friend recently. Pat was using botanicals (mostly leaves) as stencils, which led to my using pressed flowers and leaves that had been my mother’s and that I rescued when she died last spring. My mother used to make cards, she made thousands of them over about 50 years and recorded every one she sent (what, who and when) in a series of notebooks. I decided to make cards too but in a different way and without the rigorously detailed documentation! I also resurrected some stencis I cut several years ago. I had taken a rubbing of a Victorian drain cover in Heligan Gardens and used some of the stencils to screenprint onto aprons I’d made. I have been using what was left for the monoprints. They are mostly made with 3 layers, leaves/flowers in one colour, Heligan stencils in another and strips of paper for a third. I’ve really enjoyed being surprised by the different colour combinations as they are revealed.
I’ve also been making pots, trying out new sgraffito decoration of trees,(or maybe tributaries) ,on mugs and vases. I wanted to channel the woodland I walk in every day and also the sea that I swim in less frequently. The glaze colours I had previously used, copper (green), cobalt (blue), manganese (brown) and iron (honey) seemed too harsh for these things so I mixed some together and now have a gentler, more natural palette of colours to work with over white slip. Also knitted a patchwork blanket for our new grandson born 2 days ago!

Having moved out of Studio 4 Whites Old Workshops last week I am considering what areas of my work to concentrate on now. I spent a few happy hours on my allotment yesterday harvesting autumn produce and weeding around parsnips, carrots and beetroot still in the ground. Now that I don't have so many hours travelling to and fro the studio I have more time to meander, which means noticing small things such as little grey mushrooms growing out of a tree trunk and a focused beetle marching across the path. I am planning a return to clay but who knows what might happen...

I've been in my new studio for three months and it's interesting how spaces lend themselves to different things. It's light and bright with two big windows and two skylights. I've been making pots more than painting so far. I am trying not to be over-cluttered so have just the necessary equipment - wheel, table for clay prep, sink and shelves for pottery. I take dry pots home to glaze and fire in my kiln in the garage as I'm not able to have a kiln in my studio. The other side of my studio I have another table,  drawing desk, shelving and a big empty wall for painting. 
The paintings are still about walks I make regularly and my observations of almost invisible things, like spider's webs revealed by a rare mist. I seem to be using a scalpel more than a paintbrush and then photographing the canvas with sunlight casting shadows through  it like dappling through leaves. I have all the cut-out pieces, which I'm yet to decide what to do with. 
I'm particularly enjoying making pots in two parts, some of which are going to be lamps. I enjoy the way the pots surprise me with the forms that emerge when joined on the wheel. I learned this technique from one of Simon Leach's Youtube tutorials, which have served as a refresher course for my return to pot making after many years. Thanks Simon!