Hexagons in the Brain

The spatiotemperal patterns in the brain are not circular but hexagonal.

Calvin 1996 talks about the ephemeral hexagonal mosaic, which suggests a way that subconscious thoughts could meander and occasionally ‘pop’ some relevant fact from the past into your stream of consciousness.

Like a patchwork quilt, creatively, it can be made from humble beginnings into something of quality.

Carla Mines

Lock down visitors

We get visitors every day and they are very demanding!

Linda Babb

Flowers

Beautiful flowers from my son cheering my lockdown.

Carolyn Sibbald

but it will pass

My "lockdown" hanging is finished for the moment and hanging in the garden where it will stay to brighten a dark corner and see what is happening to the cloth. I may add to it or perhaps line it and make it more "finished", who knows. Its been a bit of a trip down memory lane using bits of old embroideries and scraps of dyed and painted cloth.. It is called "but it will pass" a phrase taken from an article about lockdown by  Marcel Theroux in the Guardian newspaper.

Liz Harding

Keep drawing and stitching

When a piece of work, a theme or an idea is completed or a new direction is needed  I draw.
For the last week I have been drawing some of my small collection of succulents. The drawings may provide ideas for new work or simply be for practice and enjoyment.

                

  

               

I also like to have some small scale  hand stitching to do so that I can observe and think about the relationship of colours and their effect.So I look back through my sketchbooks 

for ideas. So will these small investigations of blue and gold lead to anything? Does it matter?

          Liz Harding 

               

Silhouettes

Researching my mother’s side of the family I have found this portrait of my great great grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth, showing them with their 13 children.

Dated to around the 1850’s.

The figures were created as silhouettes with what I think must be drawn white details. Thomas and Elizabeth are at either end and children in age from centre out. I just loved the detail and the costume.

Carolyn Sibbald

Room to play

I am reading a book called ‘How Brains Think’ by William H Calvin and I came across a German word that I didn’t understand ‘Spielraum’. This word means ‘room to play’. Which gave me a good excuse to play; so I tried to eco-dye some petals and leaves from the garden.

There is a trace of colour on the paper and the silk, but the metal I used gave a wonderful impression of bundles of wire. This in turn made me think of the porcelain white matter of the brain. Which are bundles of insulated wires going in all directions.

( Myelin is the proper word for the fatty insulation)

Carla Mines