I'm well aware that the chickens have many adoring fans and it's been far too long since I made a video of them - so here they are attacking some pasta. I don't want to give away the ending, but it's safe to say that the pasta loses.
Tag Archives: chickens
Things And Stuff
What's Been Happening Lately?
So, I sort of opened a shop for my drawings. There's not much up there yet but if you've ever wanted me to send you a hand-drawn envelope containing a secret, you're in luck! There's also a couple of my more expensive archival drawings and more will going up next week.
You may remember that back in February I did a 30 minute talk about blogging for the University Of Arts in London - the audio is now online.
On Friday, I visited the American Museum in Bath with the lovely people from Textile Forum South West. We had a guided tour around their current quilting exhibition. Now quilting isn't my thing but it was a fascinating talk and the level of sewing skill was quite staggering, especially when you consider that most of it was done by hand. I also ate my first ever Snickerdoodle, which is quite possibly the best cookie name ever. It was very tasty. The museum have their own kitchen where they bake deliciously exotic American goodies and frankly it's worth a trip just for the baked goods but they also have an eclectic collection set in beautiful grounds.
I sewed lots more sequins and listened lots more podcasts. It doesn't make for very exciting blogging, does it. But I've definitely passed the half way point now. Unfortunately, I've - gasp - nearly run out of sequins. I'm praying that they've got more of the right kind in Fabric Land. I'm going into town to find out tomorrow, if they've run out you'll probably be able to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from wherever you are in the world.
I finally made another video. If you fancy a four & half minute tour around my studio, hit play:
Chickens
Last night I was fretting that Colette was ill, she had disappeared into the chicken house for hours and seemed strangely docile. This morning it dawned on me that the silly hen is actually broody. We don't have a cockerel, so she has no fertile eggs - in fact, she isn't sitting on any eggs at all but she's making a fairly determined attempt to hatch out a pile of shredded paper. She's not the brightest chicken, that one! Still, at least it's keeping her quiet.
Books
I finished Among The Bohemians by Virginia Nicholson. It's not flawless, she does rather gloss over Eric Gill's unforgivable practice of committing incest with his female relatives but I found it a very readable account of this interesting period in art history. If you've ever wondered where a lot of our contemporary ideas about artists come from, this book provides many of the answers. Highly recommended.
Other Artists
Two artists inspired by animals this week:
Matt Cummings makes amazing sculptures of animals that manage to capture the essence of the animal without being slavishly realistic.
I'm loving these rabbit prints by Kyoko Imazu, especially the more sinister ones. If I had any money at all, I'd buy one.
Cool Things
Sister Diane's video 7 Crafting Supplies I'm No Longer Allowed To Buy to buy made me laugh hysterically. Total comedy of recognition.
I'm currently enjoying Marisa's blog, New Dress A Day, which features daily remaking of thrifted clothing. I don’t always like her finished items but I’m amazed that she looks at some of those hideous dresses and thinks, ‘hell yeah, I can make something with this 1980’s shiny polyester peach number!’ It’s a lesson in creativity, for sure.
If you like things in jars, you'll like this, if you don't like dead things, you won't.
If you've not been listening to John T. Unger's podcast, Art Heroes Radio, you need to remedy that asap. All the ones I've listened to have been interesting but the one on pricing is especially valuable.
Goodbye Pepper, Hello Colette
I'm very sad to report that while I was away in Scotland, the lovely Pepper was nabbed by a fox and she is no more.
It was upsetting but we always knew it was a possibility because our chickens room around the garden most afternoons. Even though we keep an eye on them when they're out of their run, the urban foxes around here are quite bold & unfortunately they only need to get lucky once.
When I got back, Ginger was clearly very unsettled and lonely. It's a bad idea to keep chickens singly because they are flock birds and need at least one other hen around. So on Saturday we headed over to our local supplier and scored a new chicken.
Meet Colette.
Kirsty Hall: Colette, February 2010
She's a beautiful Cou Cou or Cuckoo Maran - the 'cuckoo/cou cou' part refers to the speckled silver and black colouring. Marans are originally a French breed, so naturally we had to go with an appropriately French name. She's a 'point of lay', which means that she's not laying yet but should start in a week or two once her comb grows in.
Kirsty Hall: Colette, February 2010
Because Ginger & Pepper had always been such good friends, I didn't anticipate any problems introducing Colette. Boy, was that a rookie mistake! Ginger took huge exception to this interloper in her run & was absolutely rotten to poor Colette. She wouldn't let Colette anywhere near the food & water and defended her territory with quite shocking levels of violence.
After a day of a traumatised Colette refusing to come out of the coop, I admitted defeat & asked on Freecycle for a spare run. Fortunately someone had a small rabbit run that they were planning to take to the dump, so I collected that on Monday evening and ever since Ginger has been spending her days in solitary confinement with a dish of food and water. She is less than happy!
Fortunately this is just a temporary measure - I've ordered another set of feeders from ebay & when those arrive, I shall divide the run with bamboo canes during the day. They'll be near each other but they'll both be safe and Ginger will have more room. I'm going to carry on separating them during the day until they can get along, which apparently can sometimes take months. I am making progress though, they managed to room around the garden together today without fighting and they're sleeping together quite happily: the problems just seem to be over food.
Thankfully Colette has been slowly regaining her confidence over the last few days. She's still jittery though - I let her out of the run today so I could clean out the coop and then she wouldn't let me anywhere near her and wouldn't be persuaded back in again. I couldn't even tempt her back in with food. Fortunately she went back in on her own accord eventually & I was able to shut her in. Ginger is easy to get into the run - she'll go anywhere for a handful of grain, the wee strumpet!
Snow Days
Kirsty Hall: Winter Fog, Jan 2010
As you may have heard, Britain is in the grip of some cold weather and things have ground to a halt because alas, alack, white stuff has fallen from the sky - hey, who knew that could happen in the winter?
Kirsty Hall: Snowy Branch, Jan 2010
The snow has come as quite a relief to me. I'm still recovering from The Virus Of Doom. I'm having a couple of weeks where I deliberately don't make art but I've still not been resting enough, so a couple of enforced snow days are just what I needed.
Of course, my idea of what constitutes resting is somewhat suspect. I didn't get as much contemplative time as I planned in the last week of 2009, so I've spent the couple of days mindmapping, writing lists and drawing colourful diagrams of the coming year.
Oh, and I've moved my bedroom around to make room for a dedicated 'thinking space' where I can update my sketchbook and work on my visual journal. I've been horribly neglecting the former and I've been doing the later in bed but it's bad for my back and there's always the worry that I'll get gesso and paint on the sheets.
Although experts say that the bedroom should just be for sleeping, I find that it's my best thinking space and I also do quite a lot of drawing in there. One of my aims for this year is to 'meet myself where I am'. In other words, to deal with my actual truth rather than what I think should be true. So instead of denying that I use my bedroom this way and feeling guilty that I don't go upstairs to my studio instead, I've decided to honour what actually is and next week I'm going shopping for a desk, preferably an old rolltop one so that everything can be hidden away when not in use.
Having some introspective time is even easier when the streets are so quiet. There are very few cars about, instead there are giggly people making snow beings, including this rather fabulous creation - in my 42 years on this planet, this is the first time I've seen a snow duck!
Kirsty Hall: Snow Duck, Jan 2010
However, not everyone is enjoying the snow - the chickens are distinctly unimpressed...