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beige, originally uploaded by Maditi.

Maditi takes absolutely exquisite polaroids and medium format photos.

She also has a great blog over at Maditi Likes - she describes it as "a collection of things I like, no words - only visuals" and it's full of inspiring images by lots of different artists and makers. Well worth a look.

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I never tire of living in Clifton. It's a particularly beautiful part of Bristol and I love walking around the local streets. Even after ten years there are still lots of details that I've never noticed before, like this glorious garden gate.

Kirsty Hall - red gate, Clifton photograph

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Jill Rumoshosky Werner writes an interesting blog over at Redefined.

I discovered her blog when Alyson Stanfield of Art Biz Blog linked to her very funny post, Top Ten Reasons For Becoming An Artist. Too true!

I particularly agree with her latest post about knowing when to get outside help as an artist.

"When I started, I never thought I'd need to know web design, digital imaging, search engine optimization and mass marketing techniques to become successful, but unlike most artists, I have a heavy marketing, computer and writing background...Even with all that experience, there are things I can't do by myself and for those, I look for outside help."

This is such a key realisation for any artist. I had a conversation with another artist last year when she told me that she always budgets for someone else to do the documentation of her work because she hates to do it. That moment was very instrumental in me deciding to pay someone else to design my website. I'd been trying to do it myself for years but just didn't have enough design or technical skills. I'd been coming to the realisation that I needed to pay someone else for quite a while but like most artists, I was used to doing everything myself on a shoestring budget so I was quite resistant to the idea of paying for something that I thought I ought to be able to do myself. However, while it's useful for artists to learn stuff like marketing and publicity, there comes a point when you have to say 'I can't do this as well as another professional and it's false economy for me to try'.

Do this today: Make a list of the art things you know you suck at or really hate to do and work out ways in which you can delegate that responsibility.

Can you pay someone else to do it for you?
Can you share or swap hated tasks with another artist?
Can you find creative ways to make it more interesting?
If you think you could do it but just lack confidence or knowledge, can you take a workshop or learn from someone who does know how to do it?

Remember to do the maths - if something is going to take you ages to learn and you'll never need to do it again, then it might be a false economy. Unless you actively enjoy it and it feeds into your art, it might also be an excuse for not working on your art. Remember that while you may be a 'starving artist', your time and energy are also important and worth valuing.

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I first came across Solveigh Gott's excellent textile work when I showed one of her knitted pieces in the Knit1, Build 1 exhibition at the Here Gallery two years ago.

I'm a big fan of her project, The Textile Files. It's a simple but very evocative project: she collects bits of fabric, attaches them to a file card and then blogs the picture with a piece of related text. I was just checking her blog and saw this picture of pins, which immediately got me excited.

Solveigh Gott - The Textile Files
Solveigh Gott: Pins from The Textile Files

I started reading the text and thought "hey great, someone else is working with pins!" - and then promptly realised that the reason the text sounded so familiar was because it was written by me! Yep, she was quoting text from this very website - thanks, for the mention, Solveigh, I'm very flattered to have been included in The Textile Files.

But really, fancy not recognising my own writing - I am such a doofus sometimes! Still, it's not quite as bad as the time I started reading a list of livejournal interests and thought "wow, this sounds like someone I would get on with, I should friend them" before realising that I'd accidentally backpaged and was reading my own interest list. Still, I suppose it's positive that I instantly liked myself...

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I got a box of Moo cards made about a month ago to help promote The Diary Project and they're the cutest things ever. They're smaller than ordinary business cards, about half as deep but they're really high quality - they've got a nice heavy feel and a good glossiness to them. But the best thing is that you can get up to 100 different designs per box of 100 cards, which lends itself to all sorts of creative ideas. I got 25 different Diary Project drawings printed up, with the Diary Project info on the back and they look completely stunning. I've been carrying them around in my handbag and handing them out to people and they've been pretty popular - artists, in particular, are usually instantly enamoured with the idea.

All fired up with Moo enthusiasm, I signed up for Where In The World Is Moo?

I was third in the list of 100 people for the second journey. Basically it's a sort of mail art project, you add your Moo card to the box and then mail it on to the next person on the list. The box arrived last week from the States with two very cute cards in it and I finally sent it on its way this afternoon. It's heading over to Northern Ireland next and after that, who knows? Well, the organiser obviously, but the rest of us don't.

I put this Diary Project Moo card in the box:

Kirsty Hall - The Diary Project

I believe there's still time to take part in Where In The World Is Moo?: all you need is your own Moo card and the ability to get to the post office, the rest of it is just doing a little bit of documentation and even that is pretty simple. It's a fun, easy project and I recommend it.