disappointing day

I was so pleased with this photo taken the other morning in bright, bright sunshine. It is my son's collection of pencil leads. He collects them from the waste paper basket in his classroom and brings them home to add to the bowl. Makes me wonder whether an obsession with colour (and treasure) is genetic! As I write it is no longer bright, in fact it is snowing hard.... last week we ate lunch outside in 20°. That's March for you I guess.

We ran out of paint today (being Monday the shops are closed) so I started a little 4 inch square tapestry. Spending so much time at the top of ladders recently I've had time to think about the things I want to make and the kind of surface I want to achieve. So I set off eagerly this morning and ...failed utterly. I haven't decided yet whether to bin it or plug on. Often, I lose confidence in what I'm making until I see it in a frame. They seem like such insignificant little scraps of cloth and then you frame them and they suddenly come to life. I have serious doubts about this one though.

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself by the end of the afternoon when I read this article about Andy Goldsworthy. Talking about working nearly everyday in the woods and fields around his home he says "I make an awful lot of crap but I have to be out there trying things". Not such bad company to be in I guess.