a question of crafting...

Janet Clare ~ part one

are you ready for this one dear readers, after talking about it weeks ago i am at last getting around to starting my new monthly blogging series 'a question of crafting'.

now if you are sitting quietly and have finished rustling your choccy bar wrappers then i shall begin...

a few weeks back (okay, a couple of months but let's not mention it) i had the greatest of pleasures in meeting the lovely Janet Clare.

i have been a buddy of Janet's for several years now, we both launched ourselves upon the cyber world at about the same time and fast became 'friends' and i will always treasure a picture of used dog and myself she so kindly gave me...

Janet is a mother, wife, crafter, and designer. she is fast becoming in demand for her tutorials and often has work featured in publications, you just need to take a look at an issue of Sew Hip to realize what a talent she has.

and so it was, on my wee visit back to old blighty, i told her of my whereabouts and she so wonderfully responded with a "please do come and have elevenses" rather than ignoring me, which a sanier person may have wisely done.

we arrived on Janet's doorstep, i believe wednesday morning (it's been a while remember)... she so very sweetly had baked a ginger cake, in return i had to confess i did not eat ginger cake (i can hear you all gasping at my bad manners, i can't help it, turning 40 has made me say things out loud without thinking).

but this little detail did not worry Janet, for she had stocked up on choccy bars (how well she knows me)... and so it came to be that one very lovely morning was spent in the company of my friend Debbie, (bought along for documenting purposes and 'cause i like her) and my friend Janet.

now may i just digress a little here and perhaps go back to the beginning, so we really understand just how fortunate i was... to be invited to some one's home is always a kind gesture but to be invited by someone whom you know in the cyber world but have never heard their voice or seen them is quite an extraordinary event.

i felt most honored and interestingly not at all nervous, it was like we had always known each other and perhaps only lived two doors away and not seperated by a gigantic pond...

moving on back to the lovely Janet, who i knew to be gifted in the ways of 'crafting' but until you really feel and see textile work in front of you it can be hard to have a complete appreciation of the work involved.

Janet kindly took me and Debbie on a tour of her beautiful home that she and her family have worked so hard on renovating.

the best moment for me was seeing her new studio space, a dream of Janet's for a wee while that had come true at last. we stepped from the kitchen, over the threshold onto hallowed ground, it is bright, light and just stinks of 'crafting'. (that's a good thing in case anyone thinks 'stinks' is a bad thing)...the defining moment was seeing Janet's lovely shelf of her animal figurines and there standing, pride of place is her Hugo... my very first stitched delight i saw of Janet's and a huge inspiration to her work.

and this is where i shall leave it for today, ("oooh, Tif, why would you do that? i hear you ask)

i wish to give you time to visit all of Janet's lovely places and then tomorrow i shall return with my interview, which Janet so graciously allowed me to perform.

it went most swimmingly, with me asking the questions, Janet replying, me then exclaiming "me too!" and then Debbie sitting recording our conversation in shorthand and using her 'corporate skills' that i can only sit and marvel at...

she will see you tomorrow with the 'telling and most revealing' part two of Janet Clare ~ Tif

footy note: please note that all pics in this 'gripping' prologue and interview were taken with Tif's spiffy camera but are of Janet's lovely abode and creations... please do not use unless you have asked permission from the lovely Janet herself as i don't want to get into any trouble however small... thanking you kindly