So this photo is of the newly bound quilt with the mauve binding.
The hot pink with black pin dots has been pinned to the front to give an idea of what it used
to look like – in such haste to get the old binding off I didn’t think of taking a snap for the record
before I removed it.

Views of part of the processing and display areas of the plant, an Aladdin’s Cave if ever there was. Masses of colours, masses of samples, various hides used, from really fine small animals to large cattle and, clearly, horse hides (Uruguay exports horsemeat to France) The place is not at all modern BUT what is coming out of there in terms of innovation and experimentation is wonderful. Refer back to my recent post on ‘Studios’. This works.

I could not walk away without any of these pieces from this leather place ! it was hard to choose, and perhaps not a bad thing I wasn’t carrying a larger amount of cash that day!

UL- A fine leather with metallicised finish in a very muted geometric crazy paving look.
UR – A very rough suede ‘rustico’, looks rather battered but in addition to a few holes (love them) there are subtle smudges of dark gold/bronze paint randomly here and there.
LL -a really fine piece of suede, like a car washing chamois, drapes beautifully, one side dusted with old gold.
LR – another rustic looking piece, very rough in finish, shreds hanging off in some areas, holes of course, in a deep charcoal or very dull faded blackish colour.

Will I use these? I certainly plan to, including thinking about some ways to use the holey parts whey they occur. Working small… Textured stitchery? Mounted on small artist mount/frame thingies? … I’m thinking, and with this in mind plan to acquire a serious stapler today.

Returning home through a part of the city unfamiliar to me, but which apparently DH passes through regularly on the way to and from a government office where he gets maps and mining information, we came across this wonderful little delivery vehicle parked outside its supermarket on the corner. As luck would have it my camera was in my bag.

There are lots of these in Montevideo, very popular for supermarket deliveries especially, although a well known pool servicing firm uses them and these are a sight I do mean to capture on er, pixel, one day, with the long handled mesh strainer scooop thing plus other equipment tied to the luggage rack on the top.

Anyway I think this one is perhaps the most beautiful and certainly the wittiest I have seen. The contents of the grocery cart are all actual brand names that the supermarket would carry – I wonder is this an adversiters’ sponsored paint job? the quirky appearance of the UR corner of this photo is due not to fancy photoshop editing but a white trim on the building on that side of the street – I decided not to change anything, quite liking the quirky appearance of this photo.

Eat your heart out, Mr Bean !

I always enjoy going to other artists’ work areas – and there is no way to generalise about them. Some are orderly, clean, dust free with everything in its place, others are totally chaotic, some generously sized, possibly purpose-built work areas, others nothing much more than a hole in the wall, scavenged space within a family home – either convenient or apparently hopelessly inconvenient by my standards; and yet, from every kind of environment come people who produce wonderfully creative, innovative works in a variety of media.

Recently I have seen references to classes quilters can enrol in for help with design or renovation of workspace or studio. These courses are aimed specifically at quiltmakers, but I recently read of a US magazine publisher who is launching a new publication on the topic of studios, presumably not solely aimed at quilters but other artists in all media. What strikes me as very sad is that in affluent societies people will pay good money to ?learn? how to do what they could do themselves with a bit of thought and planning, where they want what in their work area, storage of raw materials, new or second hand furniture needed, lighting, power outlets etc.

There is no ‘correct’ or ‘perfect’ approach to a workspace – it is up to the individual to do a bit of thinking around the subject from their own point of view. If someone can’t think and organise their way through their own work space, can they be relied on to produce original, well designed creative work? I think there is a very strong link here.