How Time Goes Faster As You Get Older.blog

This has been the inspiration behind three recent projects. Cosmetic imprisonment, Karvol imprisonment and imprisoned ceramic Israels. I started this when I was on my sabbatical in India just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is a short summary with one or two images from each of my earlier imprisonment projects.

1 Goan Sewn Postcards

There was a supermarket near where Betsy (my daughter who came to visit) and I were staying in Mandrem, North Goa. We bought a few bits and bobs there and really liked some large postcards. They were modern painted versions of Hindu gods and other Indian icons – cows and tuk tuks. Betsy kept some but I don’t think she ever sent them. They are nice just to pin up on the wall.

I cut most of mine up and sewed them onto nice thick white card. I sat in a comfy sofa looking over the river where we could kayak in Olaulim Backyards taking a break from fighting with the manual sewing machine that I was using to make my three fabric books. I liked the idea of sewing on the cards using some interesting yarns like Tencel from my stash I had stocked up from the Finsbury Park iconic Handweavers Studio and brought out with me to India. I also enjoy cutting things out and I could edge the five of these montages with tapes going in different directions.

2 Large Andeshe Plant Montages

Every morning in Andeshe after my yoga (ok very short – 10 minutes using the Yoga Studio App) I ran with Johnny the adolescent dog there. We ran up and down the road and returned in time for my breakfast of an oat, date and banana dairy smoothie. Collecting interesting seed pods on the way is important as a way of not having to run (!) and also to incarcerate/imprison within some Tencel yarn I have brought with me in a variety of purple hues. I was inspired to “catch” things on paper by sewing them on when I did my postcard series in Goa by the encouragement given to me by a fellow guest Lynne Lawton. I love the juxtaposition of a natural plant in India, encased in a criss cross of purple thread with an exquisite piece of lace at the bottom signifying all the loudness, richness and colour that is truly India.

3 Imprisoned Purple Cars with an Escape Route.

I made a series of imprisoned/encased purple cars with escape routes. I imprisoned all the cars and they each had a different escape route with different threads/yarns and thread for making candles burn. I still have four of them with me on my wall in my bedroom in Jaffa, Israel today.

4 Large Dyed Yarn Enclosed Montages

I dyed cotton threads from my yoga mat made from water hyacinth plant fibre and imprisoned them on a piece of A3 card. I did a further four more including some from dyed candle wicks, some furry fluffy yarn which was lilac and I dyed purple. This ended up being spiky and not at all soft and furry! Finally, I incarcerated some balloons from my pool project which all burst pretty early on in the process. One morning, when on a run with Johnny I found a bit of balloon on the roadside at the end of my run. I could tell you it had blown for miles but I do short runs – in fact just like I do short yoga sessions of either 10 or 15 minutes.

The bottom edge lace is from Samrat Craft Megastore which is a treasure trove of all sorts of wonderful haberdashery and other items. And with the usual huge number of staff members. Hilarious to go in there and be served by about 20 young men. So delightful.

Comments from my friend YH

This one with the balloons, gave me a peculiar thought path… it made me think of a kid’s birthday party where the over-obsessive mum has lots of “fun” things on display but doesn’t allow the kids to actually mess around, have fun and get dirty. The balloons are all limp and bent out of shape, when they “should” be blown up to fly in all directions that destiny wanted for them, mostly controlled by the wind and kids pushing them in the air. Maybe this is representative of the birthday kid, who’s bent of of shape, forced to wear an uncomfortable dress that they can’t get dirty and eat carrot sticks when they really have their eyes on the birthday cake. It could also be the mother, who feels she lost who she once was, a creative and quirky soul, but now is stuck in this new mum life where she feels pressure by fellow mums to dress and speak a certain way, attend mums book club and bake cookies for the school cake sale. This isn’t her, it isn’t the life she expected for herself, but she’s feeling like a deflated balloon tied down by expectations of others.

5 Hampi Montages Large

I had some new A3 thick white watercolour paper and I had found a formula of sewing on objects that I found satisfying to undertake whilst listening to podcasts. I was enjoying some by Stephen Fry who is witty and clear. A joy to listen to!

The seven plastic flowers are for an aquarium and were actually quite difficult to sew on as they were 3D and wouldn’t really behave all that well! I loved imprisoning the feather/s and sewing in the pretty corsage flowers I had previously dyed purple and mauve. The caterpillar was fun too! The series should fit my rules. And be a prime number but I had six ideas and six pieces of card. And what are rules if not to be broken!

I finished them off with the lovely spiral stamps using stamp ink which stains everything! But does stamp nicely. Here I used spiral trails too.

This blog is a look at all my imprisoning from my sabbatical in India. Many of these pieces I still have today.

Lucy told me about a 10 shekel (£2)workshop over Succoth (harvest festival in October) in one of the container houses in the Jaffa port area. It was held in an indoor sukkah next to my very favourite cafe (Cafe Blue). I think it was for children but never mind. You use 3 D printed plastic peel cutters, thread through smaller pieces and join larger pieces a bit like a jigsaw. I loved the recycling nature and once home made one from a lime, one from a lemon and then another 11 from oranges. To the point that I had to juice them to enable me to have enough peel to play with! I bought one 3 D printed plastic cutter and then found small ones in my fimo bead making box and bought some more larger ones at Tiger in the Dizengoff centre. You can dry them under books but now the weather is cooler that takes an age, so I put them under a load of heavy plates and dried them in the oven set at a low temperature. Talulah found this stick on which I hung alternating brass and chrome hooks.

My flight returning from Limoges landed in Leeds/Bradford international and so I used the opportunity to head up to stay with Sandra in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Actually she technically lives in Tweedmouth – but it is still England! It happened to be the 400th anniversary of Berwick Bridge and there all sorts of celebrations. Including a brass band (English) and a highland band (Scottish) as Berwick has changed hands numerous times.

I signed up first for a drawing workshop using brick dust. My efforts aren’t even valiant. They are just plain rubbish! But I went onto a paper making workshop and I loved this. I have used various buttons from a yarn shop on Bridge Street (very nearby the paper shop) to decorate the paper. I have given them to Ollie, Breenies, Harry, Toby, Betsy, Lucy, Tracy, Lev, Michael, Sarah & Lizzy, and Catherine.

Paper making in Jaffa

I had an afternoon in Jaffa paper making with Galina. I had SUCH fun.

Next I am going to explore imprinting paw prints and baby foot prints. Actually I did try and it didn’t work

The process to make handmade paper and the finished, still wet, hand made papers

Before the varnish. The green lime peel didn’t work at all for me so it was cannibalised to strengthen the large piece with bougainvillea flowers.

This time I put in lots of natural products including popcorn, orange peel, rice, sesame seeds, leaves and flowers. I think helped seal some of these papers with Modge Podge clear varnish – gloss. This has made the papers quite heavy.

I had four hours to kill in Dubai airport. And for me this is a great opportunity. I had decided I would take an small orange Ganesh I had brought from a toy shop in Pushkar and place him in as many places inside the airport as possible. Just like LHR stands for London Heathrow, DBX is Dubai’s airport acronym. I was in Dubai just before Diwali and 20% of the population is from India, and most of them are Hindu.

I bought these 2 figures who were pencil toppers. The female is much bigger than the male in this pair. I bought some more later on and this size difference was reversed. I enjoyed taking them on adventures around Pushkar and Ajmer nearby. Whilst at the Ajmer Fort, Tanya and I were in the sculpture gallery. It was pretty empty and so I decided to run down it with Tanya filming it. We had such fun on this trip.

In Pushkar, I went with Ravi and this time Tanya as well to the rose factory. They were in the middle of setting up the complicated process of rose essence extraction. It was fascinating. Whilst there I bought rose essence, rose water to clean skin, rose water for consumption and rose jam! I decided to use some of the square of hand block printed cotton from the Anokhi museum to make these rose pillows. I used waxed thread to make tassels in India and yarn from my stash in Israel. So far I have made 4 pillows. I used dried rose petals from the market in Pushkar and have doused one side in rose essence.

When I was mooching around in Pushkar I found a shop that sold bits and bobs for Hindu devotees. I bought a dress and elaborate headpiece for a small idol and brought her back to Jaffa hoping she would fit one of my Barbie dolls. And it did. The sleeves were in the wrong place so I removed them and instead covered up her top half with some lovely fuchsia braid. Pushkar is a Hindu holy city built round a lake with lots of flower fields. I took goddess Barbie to Ra’anana so I could photograph her with all the vivid colours of nature and street architecture wearing her vibrant outfit. I had such fun photographing her. Enjoy.

I knew it wouldn’t be long before I could continue my Barbie themed photography projects. I had finally returned to India after a five year gap. I wanted to mainly trip down memory lane. So I started off by staying near Amber Fort. And on my way to the Anokhi Museum, I found this doll. I did place a rather large red velvet bindi on her forehead and checked with a non-observant Hindu colleague at work who suggested that I call her “busty, bindi Barbie”. I know it is cultural appropriation to a degree. But she is what she is. And I am what I am. This is now the 7th book in the series. Obviously good as this is my low number favourite prime. The other one is 19.

She has a lovely lilac dress which keeps falling down – see the penultimate page where all is revealed, including loss of a leg. All the people I met on this short but intense busty, bindi Barbie journey were all delighted to take part and be in the photos if asked.

I followed in the footsteps of my Norwegian knitting friend Toril who went on a printing workshop in Bagru. She had made me some fabulous lilac sheepskin cuffs with a gold printed flower stamp. I wear them all the time. Bagru is between two of our destinations so it was not difficult to fit in a 2 day outing to Bagru. I elected to stay overnight with the family in one of their rooms but Tanya headed back to Jaipur overnight for some R and R.

We were able to do three types of printing over the course of the 2 days. Firstly there was a tour to see how these crafts are being kept alive in this village. It seems everyone is involved.

Dabu Printing

This is like a batik. It is a resist printing using mud and other ingredients in place of wax. We saw it being done on our initial tour. I then did a scarf and 2 placemats. Tanya made a lovely bedspread. Once the mud has been printed on the fabric using the wooden blocks, sawdust is used to help dry and fix it. It is then dyed in vats. The dark blue one I used was indigo. Most of the other colours are lovely and rich. But they aren’t natural like the indigo (and a grey/brown colour).

Dyeing the cloth with indigo

Dabu printed placemats

I thought these would make a nice gift for Christian and Maria. They were delighted and here they are in use with their dog Rui eyeing up the food – but there was none!

Dabu printed scarf

Bagru Printing

This is a highly specialised printing technique which uses only 2 colours if natural dyes are used. Red and black. The fabric is first mordanted and then dryed. The dye is applied using hand carved wooden blocks. Once dry the fabric is boiled for 20 minutes. During this process the colour becomes enriched and is colour fast.

Block printing

The final type of printing we did was regular block printing using bright synthetic colours. We made rugs and printed them on both sides. And I did a large sheet with lots of purple animals and fruits/veggies. I plan to cut them up and probably “imprison” them later on!

My double sided rug

Pink hamzas and black elephants on white cloth

All purple printing

Elephants, camels, fish, rabbits, horses, frogs, cows, dinosaurs, peacocks, tigers, dolphins, marrows, pineapples, carrots, onions, garlic, aubergine, strawberries, apples, pears, tomatoes, chilis, peppers (23 – yeah, yeah, a prime number!)

Printing blocks

I watched these being made and bought a machine made one (the hamza) and a hand made one (an elephant). They can be seen above in pink and black respectively.

Well in a word. Very. What is it that makes one person confident and another not so, muses Carly? She has such a terrible memory, and she isn’t sure if she has always been this confident. Is it being the oldest of her siblings? Having to fight all the battles against the parents? Or is it being middle-aged? Maybe it is the sort of job that she does that affords her this unstinting confidence. Being a paediatrician does mean she is pretty good at diagnosing health problems in kids. All children from zero to 18. But that doesn’t make her so knowledgeable in other areas and there is a great deal more to life than children who are sick. And actually, very rarely sick, she thinks. Phew. That is good. 

Are her parents or siblings so very confident? Probably not. Or her children? Again, probably not. So, this confidence thing probably isn’t a genetic trait. Certainly, she was pretty confident that she wasn’t going to catch Covid at all or if she did, she wouldn’t be very ill from it. She was really rather angry about Covid. Not at all like many people who were incredibly anxious. Like her ex-husband, Ades. Funny how you can live with someone for over thirty years and not have a clue how they would react in terms of their own health to a pandemic!

So, what does confidence bring you? It feels, to Carly, that she knows her own mind. But maybe that is being a woman in her mid-50s. But even if you know your own mind, you could be completely wrong about what is going on in other people’s heads. This resonated with Carly who had clearly got it wrong in her marriage which recently ended. And as her children are forever reminding her​, she certainly can’t see inside their heads! Ok then. Confidence doesn’t always equate to knowledge. And being confident may in fact hinder your ability to see what is really going on. And as Carly is always saying to her students; they will never be the most knowledgeable doctors in terms of facts. This is available to anyone who has access to the world wide web. They need to learn how to talk to patients, to be compassionate and work well within a team.

Carly wonders where confidence sits with vulnerability? Carly is a complete and unabashed follower of Bréne Brown. The vulnerability guru. Her talks and podcasts are so meaningful and helpful for Carly. Bréne would argue that you can be both confident and vulnerable and say they were probably inextricably linked. Well Carly thinks that Bréne would say that. How would she know? It isn’t like she is inside Bréne’s head. But she is sure she could find some podcast Bréne has done on this matter. And is Carly actually vulnerable? All this crying and wailing and woe-is-me. The poor, unfortunate divorcee. Maybe this can still sit with Carly being confident? For instance, does Carly only cry when her confidence is knocked? Hell no. As a matter of fact​, Carly has always cried. Like a lot. Happy times. Sad times. Just the music from the opening scenes from the film “Love Story” is enough to set her bottom lip quivering. Carly won’t go to funerals as she cries more than the main mourners, and this could be seen as a trifle overwhelming for everyone. And particularly for Carly who really isn’t sure why she is this sad.

Does confidence equate with leadership, considers Carly? Certainly, now Carly has a number of leadership positions. It is to be expected at this stage in her career. Taking various leadership roles has allowed Carly to develop and be exposed to many different people and exciting ideas. Excitingly for Carly, as it means she can go on courses to develop these skills and meet even more people and ideas! She does love to go on courses so very much.

Carly is one of the wise-old-birds in her paediatric department. A sort of exuberant leader. She reflects up this. But as it says in some religious old saying. If not now, when? Carly has found that this is the title of a book by the amazing writer and man Primo Levi. And joy of joys. The internet. Here is the whole saying.

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי

He [also] used to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when? 

Carly rather likes this phrase. Shame, as nearly always, it is about a man and not a woman…

She wonders if her confidence is to do with her high energy levels? Or is it to do with her extrovert nature? Maybe being confident is the sum of these two aspects of her personality? For sure Carly is an extreme extrovert and needs lots of people in her life to feed off their energy. Carly often conflates or rather confuses extroversion with confidence. But the two are completely separate. And being an extrovert and confident with fantastically high energy levels does mean that she experiences extremes of emotion a lot of the time. She lives life to the full and others can feel worn out and dismayed at her passion and drive. She feels she is at a crossroads. Lots of people have felt like that during the pandemic. Time to consider what is important. Particularly fundamental core values, friendships and relationships, how to conduct yourself and how this relates to the ability of others to both manage and interact with Carly. Even this last paragraph feels overwhelming. Like a written manifesto of a campaign. The homage to who Carly is. Her essence and core. ​

Carly does worry about the overbearing effect she may have on others. It can be tricky enough for Carly to be Carly without having to worry about the sensibilities of others. And for sure​, others do feed off this energy. Sometimes they actually drown in it. And sometimes it can be difficult for Carly to see what it is that crushes these others. Maybe they are just too scared to say. Because in addition​, Carly is quite scary. They don’t always say​, but just slope off. But Carly isn’t short of insight. She knows pretty well when others have had enough of her. She hunkers down and slopes off herself. If she isn’t sleeping​, Carly invests a lot of quiet time into crafting. Or doing yoga. And she goes on writing retreats where you are helpfully “forced” to be silent until lunchtime. All this helps to allow others to have a break from Carly. It isn’t that uncommon for Carly herself to have a break from all that is Carly!

Another thing. Carly is very confident​, but not all that secret. She wears her heart on her sleeves and overshares with pretty much anyone indiscriminately. TMI – too much information – her children reprimand her regularly. But of course, like others, Carly has a few secrets. And because Carly is probably overconfident with many aspects of her life, there are quite fundamental aspects where she is not at all confident. But as that is personal and private, Carly isn’t going to share what that is. At all. Well, not with Uncle Tom Cobbly and all!