R.I.P Small Leaf Lime Tree

All this year I have been mourning, but for nothing or nobody.

Every day I'd wake up with the same feeling. That deep sadness that you feel when someone you love has died. Then I would walk down to the builders yard where I work, look up at the trees over hanging the space and feel much better.

Breathing in the moist damp air from beneath a beautiful small leaf lime, over 20 meters high. Home to a pair of jays, numerous wood pidgeons, squirrels and the lime hawk moths who came to lay their eggs once a year. The tree would give me a wonderful feeling and make me glad to be alive. 

 The end of the line for the small leaf lime tree

 and our lime hawk moths enjoying life to the full last year

Then out of the blue, we were informed by the owners of the garden that the lime tree grew in, that they were having the tree cut down.

They hated the lack of light in their flat and couldn't be bothered with having it cut back regularly to resolve the problem. Nothing we could say would change their mind, even offering to pay for it to be trimmed was no good, they just wanted to get rid of the tree. It was their right and they could.

Why are people so obsessed with light and hate trees so much. Ironic when I sometimes feel the world is descending into darkness, maybe that is why?

Two weeks later our other neighbours on the other side of our yard cut down all their trees too. Now we just have to stare at all their dull houses.

The saddest thing of all was the wood pidgeon. After they chopped the last of the trees down, he was flying around searching wildly for his nest and chicks, then he picked up a single twig in his beak, all that was left of the last tree and sat on our fence bewildered. 

From Emma Calder's note book 2011

Then I thought I knew what all my grief had been leading up to.

But, I was wrong!

London Riots 2011

I feel really bad walking round my area today and so sad that things have come to this.

Sticker Workshop Lambeth County Fair

Just a few snaps from my sticker event at Lambeth County Fair last Saturday. The weather was horrendous but it didn't stop the constant flow of keen sticker makers. 

In 5 hours we produced over 3000 individual stickers. 

The kids and adults were brilliant, some producing whole books. 

To be honest I did very little, except tidy up and make a few very small suggestions.

It was great to see how inspiring my stickers were to others and I am feeling back in the mood to do some more myself.

Actually, I did just do a new set but, I haven't quite finished them. When they are ready I'll be selling them through my new on line shop http://emmacalder.bigcartel.com.

Stickers at Brockwell Park Today

 

If you fancy it, head down to Lambeth County Fair at Brockwell Park today.

I will be doing a sticker stand and workshops, showing work from my sticker books, including Emma Calder's Moody Days. The illustration above, was done a few years ago by my kids and me. Hope to see you down there it's quite a good fair with lots to do.

Mud Larking

The year is slipping by without doing the blog for Emma Calder's Moody Days. As I have been focusing on new work and cannot be distracted.

Except the other day my friend Gill asked me if I would accompany her on a Mud Larking adventure on the banks of the River Thames. We were quickly hooked.

As I lover of Car Boots on a Sunday, this felt like the next best thing but free. Although you do need a licence and if you find anything of value, you must report your find to the Museum of London.

The first time we went, I spotted a shark swimming and the next time.. we saw a massive bird's footprints in the mud. Each footprint spanned ten inches, with a four foot apart gait. Wild times down on the mud!

It was Gill's birthday this weekend, so I thought I would take some of my finds and turn them into her present. 

 

Think Big Act Small

Think Big

Act Small

Think Small

Act Big

This morning I could not get these two sentences out of my head. The more I thought about which one was best the more confused I got. Then they seemed to merge in my brain. Which one had I said first, which one was I on now. In the end I was saying to myself. Think Big, Think Small, Act Small, Act Big.

Emma Calder's Bent Fork Stickers

It's a year since the publication of Emma Calder's Moody days Sticker Book. And I still have tons of related work, that I have not yet put on this blog.

Here is Sticker Sheet Number Three.

This sticker was purely practical and was inspired by the famous seventies conjurer Uri Geller who used psychokinesis and telepathy to bend forks live on television. Apparantly!