Dearest Hive Friends and Sewing Enthusiasts of all kinds!
The pop-up expo of my handmade clothing is ended, as is our time in Guardia Sanframondi again, and 
– and I do not mind at all admitting - cannot wait to get away!! In my experience of moving house/ village/ city/ country at least 50 times in my life, once the decision has been made and the first steps are in place, the move builds a very particular kind of urgency to it.
Things begin to feel terribly uncomfortable in the former place, and the inspiration flows in the new location; time seems to drag in the old situation and everything jars and aggravates – where the new, though challenging, place engages and harmonises most fulfillingly…
Amongst the chaos not just of leaving the Arthouse – packing up fifteen and a half years of creative outpourings, nicknacks and accutriments, tools, plants and cats – we are presenting our Art to the crowds that have descended upon Guardia for the big (noisy! messy!) wine festival Vinalia.
Rather than sharing in Rant, Complain, Talk community, I will try to synopsise here: in the decade and a half that I’ve been in this town, this is the most inverted iteration of Vinalia that I have ever seen: I’ve podcasted and written a lot in recent years about how the collective conscious makes choices – consciously or not – about its future (i.e. how it literally co-creates its reality) through the accumulated small choices it makes.
Over the years, in regards to the small choices around how the festival is organised, there has been less focus on care and attention to detail, flow and ease of the spaces used, and more emphasis on hooking people (especially young drinkers) into loud, intensely stimulating spaces, and selling them as much food-drink-entertaintment as possible in as short a period as possible. Suffice to say; it gets truly nasty in places. And it is a very different thing to be awoken by a wild boar snuffling, versus a large group of rowdy angry young men roaring.
And despite the dribs and drabs of beautiful old friends, guests in city just for the festival, and the diaspora of Guardia returned for the summer, the whole effect is one of discord. Which is entirely the opposite of what drew me here back in 2009, and quite contrary to what Vincent and I are consciously seeking to create for our own future.
We’re reminded to allow our senses to guide us; even if it seemed like a good idea to show our work in the context of many thousands of folks passing by our doors (when usually it might be one or two people per day!), exposure simply does not equate success.
In this chaos and confusion, we have tried to sleep, to create and to pace ourselves – with varying degrees of success! Feeling into the madness around us, even when anchored by half a day in bed, or by a really lovely chat with an acquaintance from 10 years ago; the shouting, pissing and high-volume doof-doof-doof-doof until 4am at the earliest, has gotten in the way of the usual smooth running of everything. Including my sewing. I can almost feel my stitches jump off their groove like a vinyl record having the needle slip as folks bounce too hard on the dancefloor - as I attempt to calm myself by hand-sewing. It is hard to keep a clear conversation, or thought in one’s mind, when sudden, extreme noises (or rude people) can leap into our senses at any moment. Fortunately we have a back room under the ground where little noise can penetrate...
resolving a small mark on the new dress, by adding a tiny wee patch of cotton, handstitched on
This leads me to reflect on right context for one’s work: for my sewing, and our art. The Hive #needleworkmonday community is literally the only place where I know I can show fully around what I’m making, and it will be seen - and something (often a lot of good vibes!) will be noted to me, to help me keep going. It is time that I think more thoroughly around where I show and how I give my clothing away: somewhere more like Hive, and less like Vinalia!
In the meantime; this is another piece that I completed this week for this event – though I do not like it as much as during their creation when I was back on our glorious swathe of hillside in Molise! Nevertheless someone is currently messaging their sister to see if she'd like to buy it! 😇💖🌷
It comes from old cushion covers, and again was intuitively crafted in the moment: in the quiet ambience of our contryside haven. They grow out of this, just like my paintings used to, when I was a painting artist. It does feel like I have a lot to learn about the weight of fabrics, and how to let them sit just right on a body… But this is a good attempt, in which I learned to let the fabric speak to the shape of the dress, rather than trying to force the shape from a particular textile.
This flowing dress with a wide belt at the waist is the kind of piece I want to flow about in on my land – once the waters are swaled and the nature house is built up from trees, rocks and clay! - an easy, cool, calming kind of dress that will allow me to elegantly perambulate our landscape!!
Yum!
Aaaaand: I sold the dress that I made last week - plus another dress and a jacket 💝🎨🥳 And a pair of disco trousers! So at least we were rewarded financially for all this work we put in 🎨🌟Now we get to return to natural rhythms and hours!
it just needed the bias-binding around the neck and arms, which i did this morning:
