South London Mosaic Workshops & Exhibition...its all happening!

Apart from my dear family, ALL else except my mosaic world is being very neglected in the last few weeks (including writing and reading in blog land, I know I know).

As soon as I get back from dropping the kids off at school, I close the front door, put my head down and walk straight to the studio without looking at all the housework piling up. This is what cheerios look like after a day....!

 

I have taken part in lots of exhibition over the last few years, but never a solo show. I am told that this intensity of working on a solo exhibition is very normal... Here is my grouting production line, ready for me (I love grouting, saving it all up!).

And my work for the next couple of weeks:

 

In the midst of this intense making, its wonderful to have started the next lot of mosaic workshops - they take place every Tuesday evenings in blocks of 7 weeks, in addition to my mosaic-maker drop-ins twice a week.

 

New students, new ideas, possibilities unfolding. Love it! I have also taken part in a whole day of demonstrating mosaics at the wonderful Artyard, encouraging adults to re-discover their creative selves.  A truly great place.

This Thursday also sees the culmination of several weeks of working alongside the volunteers, young people and parents of the Klevis Kola Foundation (which supports refugees). 25 mosaics have been completed and we are going to get messy on Thursday, grouting them all before I mount it into a giant patchwork mosaic which will feature at my forthcoming exhibition.

I will post full details of the exhibition in the next couple of days...hope to meet some of you lovely blog readers. Promise to be back in the middle of the week...and here's a question for you to ponder between now and then. What smell evokes in you happy childhood memories of making stuff with your hands?

PS. Talking of childhood memories... I have been searching for a childhood game for years. Today, my dear husband packed me off for 2 hours away from the house in order to 'switch of' (ha ha!) and I was mooching in the local shops and I FOUND IT! I almost cried and kissed the shop assistant! I have such happy memories of playing this game with my mum and brothers when we lived in Italy... Anyone else used to play Jack Straws? And as Christmas is coming, any ideas of really good family games?