MADELEINE'S HEP HERD

Sunset over Athens Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . Well, the holiday has been and gone and it seems like I've never been away - but I had a great time visiting harbours and beaches as well as ancient monuments and Attika Parko zoo and mooching around Athens. Lots of fodder for new projects as well. At Porto Rafti, I collected some beautiful flat pebbles to incorporate in nuno felt work. Around Napflion and Athens, I took masses of photographs that should work up to a portfolio of cyanotypes. They'll have to wait till the sun comes out again next spring though. Will post some more specific stuff over the next week or so.

Well it's been a while. I've been rattling around doing far too much - as usual! Alien Surfaces has been and gone, although some prints are still on display at Transreal . The images are still online at madeleineshepherd.co.uk - and and the digital ones are still for sale at ImageKind (see panel on the right). Lots of positive feedback gained and interesting contacts made. There were even a couple of blogs with posts about it. Fantasy author Brian Ruckley came to see it and liked it enough to mention it on his blog . What was slightly odd was that his post also covers another exhibition, on the history of printing in Scotland, and my uncle has been involved in some of the work in that show. Brian thought it was spooky but I reckon it's just another manifestation of the fact that Edinburgh's the optimum size for networks to interconnect. It probably also shows why he writes fantasy and I read hard science fiction (when I make the time). The knitted sculpture (a...

felt pots for rm art gallery Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . Just delivered a further set of pots and bowls and Mobius baskets to rm art at 51 St Stephen's Street, including some that have a felted hyperbolic crochet frill around the neck. Rosie is getting ready to show a new set of paintings during the Edinburgh Festival 2008 and it's well worth a visit. Also in stock are some very sleek steel bowls, Catherine Aitken's handbags and lots of jewellery including my felt brooches and four cyberjewel brooches .

Alien Surfaces 1 Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . Hurrah! the show is open daily for the month of August! I'm completely puggled as my grandmother used to say - i.e. worn out. As well as setting up the exhibition, I've now up dated my website with the images and have created a print on demand account at Imagekind where you can buy copies of the purely digital work. You can read more about the background to the exhibition on both sites but nothing beats a visit to the show in real life. Come along to Transreal Fiction, 7 Cowgatehead, by the Grassmarket, Edinburgh and see the knitted model of the planet in Christopher Priest's Inverted World. I'm really grateful to Mike at Transreal for accommodating this piece as it's much bigger than orignially planned and has had to go in the window. Many thanks also to Hugh Griffiths of Geeks with Pointy Sticks for his help in writing the pattern at the beginning of this project and to Fawns Reid at Fabhatrix for s...

London_20080613_063 Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . Well I've been back nearly a week and almost recovered now. I did far to much and ended up wearing out my arthritic knee plodding round London - but it was well worth it! The original US reef exhibits in the Hayward Gallery are tremendously gorgeous - especially the little beaded ones. (I feel my beading needles may have to come out again soon.) The UK reef overflows into the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall where it's on display for much longer hours and there are lots of crochet events for you to participate in if you around there. Next to it is the US Toxic Reef which is largely constructed from scrap found washed up on beaches. The Hayward wouldn't allow photos but the RFH didn't mind so if you click photo in this post you go to my images of the Toxic Reef, the UK Reef and the symposium on Flickr. The symposium was lots of fun with a couple of hands-on sessions. Marcus du Sautoy was one of two hosts and p...

Ceremonial Pinning! Originally uploaded by MadeleineS . (l-r) Dr Joerg Sixt, Prof. Andrew Ranicki , me. This was at the opening of rm art (yes, it's upper case free) on Friday 6 June and was taken by Ida Thompson. Being topologists, Andrew and Joerg had come along to see my Mobius baskets. Andrew bought one of my Matisse-inspired brooches for Joerg and insisted I pin it on his lapel. It does look really good with the red t-shirt. It was a really nice opening with lots of good fizz to drink and interesting and unexpected people to chat with - including Simon Gage, director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival . I'm not sure why, but it always amazes me how the networks of people in Edinburgh fold back on themselves. Apparently gallery owner Rosie's children go to the same school as Simon's. Six degrees of separation is really quite a lot sometimes. I discovered that one of the staff in Fabhatrix is friendly with the the landlord of my studio space. I s...

Art Gallery 2 Originally uploaded by miketransreal . Yay! Rosie McKenzie's new gallery is open and selling my work right from the start! It's a classic white cube that doesn't distract from the vibrant mixture of work on show. Being is St Stephen's Street, it's in the heart of an upsurge in interesting and accessible gallery spaces in Stockbridge. The preview was on Friday night and the gallery formally opens on Tuesday 10 June. Drop in and see it some time. http://www.rosiemckenzieart.com/