Gathering Rainbows

Hello!

Welcome to the summer edition of the Needlesmith. I am writing sitting on the decking at the back of my studio cabin. The sun is blazing, and I will probably have to go inside soon, but just for a while longer I am going to here writing longhand and soak up the heat and the vitamin D. All too soon, I have no doubt, it will be raining again, and I would regret having been inside on a sunny day. The birds are singing somewhere behind me I can hear the cuckoo, and, although there is still a drift of bluebells down the hillside of note. If anyone else has struggled with anxieopposite, it really does feel as though we have left ty, then have a look of the tips on page 24 some spring behind and we’re galloping into the sumof which have helped me. mer months. A little bit of a breeze is keeping the dratted midge and horseflies away and is lightWhilst I haven’t planted a vegetable patch –our ly cooling. The dogs have decided that indoors is garden doesn’t really have anywhere suitable for better than out of doors. a whole patch, as much of it is a quarry face with very little soil - I am doing a little vegetable I have struggled with anxiety, guilt, and inertia growing. I ‘converted’ the old hen house into a during the lockdown. One of the things I have cold frame x green house by leaning glass and been doing when I’m too fidgety to do anything wriggly plastic sheeting against the netting. else, is bake cake, and, therefore, of course, eat I’ve plant cut and come again salad (twice as the cake, as my increased waistline testifies. I even slugs had the first lot), runner beans & sugar referred to Lockdown as ‘Bakedown’ the other snap peas. As well as some flower seeds started day. The recipes on pages 27 & 28 have been well in mini greenhouses by upcycling some plastic road tested. bottles. See page 10. I will be planting out the Ironically now that I have had more time on my runner beans into a couple of big fish boxes I’ve hands, the To Do List of things that I didn't do found over the years washed up on beaches, and when I didn't have time still exists, waiting for the sugar snap peas will be planted into lined that eponymous ‘rainy day’. Paperwork still tyres with bamboo tepees to clamber up. I will be needs filing, cupboards still need organising, delighted to cut down some of the awful bamboo and a shed still needs emptying. They still don’t that (over) grows at the back of the garden, it is a look appealing even on the rainy days. I see other constant battle to be rid of it. I wish we had a pet people in this same strange situation, who have panda… been energised by it. I have been impressed and I hope you will join in with my new creative, soam in awe, positively envious of their dedication cial history project and create some rainbows to using their time profitably. Learning to play from the items in your home more on page 18. an instrument, joining an online choir, an output of creativity formerly unknown, new podUntil next time, stay well & stay safe. casts, new business directions and developments, new vegetable patches in gardens. It is both inspiring and overwhelming, motivating and depressing, watching these activities on social media, especially when I feel haven't achieved much

This year rainbows have been everywhere. The Rainbow has been a symbol of hope and has become synonymous at this time to celebrate the NHS staff, as well as the weather generated ones. we will be gathering red things. You don’t have to go far, just around the house and or garden. I’m going to do it with things I find in my studio.

When you have gathered everything you can find, put them on a tray or tabletop. You can leave them scattered, placed any which way, or organise it so that everything is neat and tidy and placed at right angles to the edges. Then take a photograph from above, a bird’s eye view of your collection of items laid out on a flat surface.

Image by Phillipa Stanton @5ftinf

Reading ‘Conscious Creativity’ by Philippa Stanton I have been inspired by her photographs of tonal & single colour collections, and with an interest in the minutiae of social history, I thought it would be interesting to document a slice of 21 st century domestic history. My aim is to gather photographs from around the country in this style following the colours of the rainbow, using the mnemonic: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vein = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Indigo, Blue. I wondered about doing it for a month per colour but that seemed very drawn out and there aren’t enough months left in the year, so I decided it should be weekly starting on Saturday 6 th of June ending 8 weeks later with a whole rainbow.

Each week we will gather items of one colour. This activity will make us look at the belongings in our homes from a different viewpoint. It isn’t the ‘label’, or the lack of label, it isn’t what it is or does, it is simply the colour. Which of the things in your home has the most red or blue, is only green or yellow? The first week starting Saturday 6 th June This style of photography is known as a ‘flat lay’ or ‘knoll’. Flat lays have become exceedingly popular on Instagram in the last couple of years, but it has been around for far longer. The first person to knoll was Andrew Kromelow, a janitor at Frank Gehry’s furniture store. At the time, Gehry was designing for a popular furniture brand called Knoll. At the end of his workdays, Kromelow would rearrange the tools on a flat surface so they were at right angles to one another. He called this knolling because it reminded him of the angles in Florence Knoll’s furniture pieces. Tom Sachs, an artist and sculptor, who also worked with Gehry, saw the photographs that Kromelow was taking, and decided to create a piece about knolling. Inspiring artists and advertising companies alike, by 1987, knolling had officially become a trend. In 2014 Instagram became the unofficial home of knolling, and whilst the trend has waned a little it is still an extremely popular photographic style.

Photograph your collection from above, then email it to me at needlesmiths@mail.com and share it on Facebook or Instagram if you'd like to, with the hashtag #ourrainbowlives please also tag me @needlesmiths. When you email them to me please include your name and age, if under 16 or if you want to, your location, and a short de