Author: Jo Cheung

Hello everyone, hope you’re all keeping safe and taking care of yourselves. The last couple of weeks since my last post has been, well, sort of strange. Since lockdown has extended, I have been trying to stick to some sort of routine as I’m finding myself getting a bit worked up not being able to go out. We’ve got a garden and I’ve spent a lot of my time gardening and hanging outside now that the weather has been proper beaut. I do want to buy some flowers and large planters so that I can get started with making the garden looking prettier for the summer time. 🌼🌸🌳 We’ve also been talking about getting another barbecue as a our current one is looking slightly sad and rusty! You can also get mini pizza ovens that go on top of your barbecue… I know, a game changer right?!

I finished reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood the other night and I have to say that although the book itself was pretty gripping, I found the narrative to be quite repetitive at times. Not like I’m giving anything away, but in my opinion I really enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale more than The Testaments. I suppose I had pretty high hopes for it but unfortunately it doesn’t cut it for me. The next book on my reading list is In A Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donavan and Caren Zucker. The book looks at the history of the development of autism theories, with it comes other theorists who’ve studied autism so you read it from the pretext of the theorists for that time. Some of it is actually pretty challenging and controversial (for then and now), and I don’t mean it in a good way either e.g. everyone highly praises Leo Kanner but if you look into his later work its gets super weird and horrible. The book also examines our understanding and notions of autism, currently, we are getting better at diagnosing children (I will include adults) on the autism spectrum due to major advancements in technology as well as science. I started reading it a few years ago and then stopped so I’m going to start again and carry on with it.

Apart from talking about food all the time (when all this eventually blows over and we return to some sort of normality), I’ve also taken up weaving which I started a few weeks ago and I’ve not looked back since.

From left to right: my first weave and the second image is one I made two weaves later!

I’m planning on buying a bigger loom from Etsy as I would like to have a go at making a larger weave for our living room. There are lots of kits on Etsy (just have a search for it) and most of them include yarn so you can get cracking on it. I really enjoy being hands on and practical again, the act of making something with your hands is super rewarding. I also can’t stop buying yarn as well…. please stop me! I need help with my yarn obsession.

In between weaving I bought a lovely embroidery kit from Cotton Clara and I’m so happy with my little rainbow banner 🌈🌈. It brings me so much joy every time I see it! I also bought my mum a kit and she was overjoyed with it (will be being her another one…).

I also wanted to get my hands on clay and make some ornaments/presents for people. I bought some air-dry clay from Hobbycraft plus lots of other bits and bobs, I have to say, I’m really pleased with the results. I made some moon ornaments using two types of clay as I wanted a marble effect. You can YouTube tutorials for all these things (hurrah for this!), or ask folks on Twitter or Instagram. I varnished the ornaments using some Fimo gloss varnish, once they were dry I made a garland using some twine I already had.

 

I love working from our loft space. During the evenings when the sun is setting, the light is incredibly beautiful and our view overlooks other houses on our street. There’s this warm fuzzy glow just as the sun is about to set.

My desk space overlooking our street in the evenings.

I’m going to end my post here. Are there any other crafts/hobbies/books you’ve picked up since the lockdown? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

❤️❤️Thanks for reading as always! ❤️❤️

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Uncategorized

I’m looking out of my window and the sun is glistening away, the sky is super clear and the weather is just beautiful- spring is here saying hello to us all. It’s nice to watch the world go by through my attic window, or should I say, looking at how still my surroundings are. Despite the lockdown, I’m beginning to appreciate what it means to have our freedom restricted; I’m so used to going out that the thought of being cooped in for three weeks is getting me down. I’ve decided to use this time instead to channel it into my artwork and the first thing that popped into my head was Studio Ghibli. For ages, I’ve always wanted to do some fan art and now is the time to start it!

It’s my own mish-mash of our cats and Studio Ghibli- I think they work rather well together! I’m planning on doing some more next week as it’s been quite fun to do something to take my mind off things. Also, NTS Radio have three shows dedicated to the beautiful music of Studio Ghibli if you’re looking for some serene and gentle music to pass the time away. If that’s not enough you should definitely listen to Ghibliotheque which is a podcast dedicated to all things Ghibli. They had a talk a few weeks ago at The Moth Club in Hackney which was Z-A of Studio Ghibli (I can’t seem to find the podcast for it though). That said, Netflix have the whole catalogue online now so binge away everyone!

On that note, I’m going to end my post here with some music from Joe Hisaishi-  this has to be one of my favourite tracks. This is from My Neighbour Totoro ‘Path of the Wind’ (I walked down the aisle to this!!!).

Keep safe everyone xx

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Art

As I am writing this Boris Johnson has announced that all schools are to close on Friday onwards effectively until the foreseeable future, there’s panic shopping across the country, the NHS is already under increasing pressure from Covid-19- I feel like I’m living in some sort of horror film that’s happening right in front of my eyes.

I have stopped doing any kind of art as I’m completely obsessed with the coronavirus. Like everyone else, it’s been dominating the news over the past couple of months and as it starts to take over our lives here, we’re like sitting ducks. Just watching the catastrophe unfold at a speed so quick Boris and his friends have done an appalling job of it.

I feel right now we all need to rally together and look after one another. I know a lot of people are going to suffer financially because of this- many thanks to the Tory government for not reacting to it quickly enough- it will leave so many people out of a job, unable to financially support themselves and struggle to make ends meet. This is why it’s so important to support small independent businesses right now as it’s left them completely vulnerable to the unknown. Please use your resources to be able to help others in any way that you can as the next couple of months people are going to be really struggling. already on the news there’s been a major increase in people using food banks.

I’m not sure how to end this post as I normally end on a high. Right now, I’m thinking about those who are affected by this. The one thing I can say that in times of darkness there will always be light at the end of the tunnel. For me, I will spend more time creating art and channelling my energy into this. My Etsy shop will still be open although I cannot guarantee that orders will arrive on time as I’m not sure if the post office will be closed when Covid-19 peaks.

I hope you all keep safe and please watch out for each other. We will get through this.

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Art

Hello March and sunshine, where have you been? Today the sky has been a glorious shade of blue and since it hasn’t been raining (for once!), I was pottering around the garden doing loads of weeding and just generally giving the garden a bit of a tidy up as it’s been neglected for sometime now. ????I’m looking forward to planting new flowers and plants and I’ve been debating on whether to buy some more new house plants, although the cats go slightly cray cray with the plans i.e. they LOVE to eat it and then spew it out!

Moving on… I’m going to be taking part in this months March Meet the Maker organised by the super talented Joanne Hawker. It’s been running for a while now and I’ve never had the time to be involved with it. So this month I want to dedicate sometime to showcase my work and my business, as well as meeting other creatives in the process. If you’re unfamiliar with Meet the Maker everyday there’s a prompt which you can interpret however you like so as long as you are able to relate it back to your work/practice etc. Then you share it over on Instagram- see it’s pretty straightforward, right? Since it’s different everyday, it’s a nice way to promote not just on what you do but also things that inspire you for instance.

See below for this months prompt list:

You can follow the hashtag #MarchMeetTheMaker over on Instagram for the latest updates.

Which leaves me to the end of my post as I’ll be prepping up today’s prompt which is ‘story’. I hope you can follow my March Meet the Maker challenge!

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Art

Hi All,

Thought I would share this post here as I have done on my Facebook Page:

‘This is not an art-related post and I rarely post anything political as that’s not what my page is about. I love sharing with you all my artwork, processes, ideas and inspiration but recently I’m feeling a bit deflated whenever I go on social media. There’s just so much hatred and a lack of love right now, some people like to tear others down when they know so little about a situation. Since it’s Random Act of Kindness Day I just want to spread some positivity in these times of darkness.

Just been hearing about Chinese people being attacked because people are: a. dicks and b. presumptuous about the coronavirus. Can we all show a bit of kindness and compassion (and rational thinking) what with everything that’s happening in the world right now, please? It’s really not too much to ask. I treat others the way I expect to be treated: respect and dignity. I was also asked as well and frankly, well, I was bewildered to be honest. The assumption that I’m Chinese therefore by default I have the coronavirus is just racist and xenophobic. I do feel quite paranoid about it at the moment, I feel strangers eyes boring into me whenever I’m on the tube or in the shops.

Why am I made to feel like the odd one out? Why should I feel like crap when people are only out for themselves? Why am I made to feel like I’m in the wrong whilst others are able to judge me because of the way I look?

Educate yourselves and others. Yes, be up to date with information (I mean reliable sources, always fact-check things and not just share a random post on Facebook), talk about things honestly to your children if it means watching Newsround or doing some research on it.

How do I end this post on a lighter note?

Just look out for one another is all I’m saying. Please be caring, non-judgemental, show some love for one another.’

…. It takes a lot of strength and courage to stand up to small-minded people. But the more you question their views and ways of thinking, the more people open to up to having a dialogue which is a right step in itself even though it could be excruciating.

I don’t know. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And in this day and age where information is so easily accessible you’d think people would be open to different opinions, thoughts etc. Nope by the sounds of it. People become so ingrained in the way they think, once they have that mindset it spreads to other groups of people- which is all the more worrying when you think about it.

I’m sick and tired of hearing, seeing, experience racial abuse. The way things are going right now it’s a political shit show… and now this is my cue to step back and end my post here.

Thanks for reading as always and take care of yourselves.

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Miscellaneous

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