Chelsea day 1

Yippee day 1 complete and things are looking very good.

It has been a very successful day today we all worked hard and achieved such a lot in a shirt time. 

Arrived on site at 9am wondering what lay ahead and and was amazed to see amongst the weird and wonderful shapes and sizes of stands that I had a flat site with a lovely back drop of mature trees.

Courier arrived within good time and had plenty of time to unload, everything arrived in good shape with no breakages and no squashed plants.

The plan for today was just to get the shed up and water tight so we could store everything away over night, but what we actually achieved was shed complete and decorated, raised beds in place and also the sculptures are in.

So tomorrow can be a real relaxing slow day where we can paint linseed oil on the beds and sculptures at our leisure, perhaps have a look around the show ground and soak up the atmosphere.

It’s early evening now, my belly is full of dinner, my body aches and I am so tired, so going to have a nice cold pint down the local and meet up with more family to wind down until tomorrow.

Arrived in London ready for Chelsea

That’s it the wait is finally over I’m in London.

Well what a day, it started of nice and easy, got to the studio and did a little last minute boxing up, had lunch and waited for the courier to arrive to collect my work.

After an easy layed back morning what followed was a frantic couple of hours trying to squeeze everything for the show into the back of a transit van, muttering to my self and any one else in ear shot ‘it’s not going to fit, should have got a bigger van’. Well it did eventually fit, but I had to dash off to catch the train and leave the courier with  the carpenter from next door, desperately trying to fit in one last tray of flowers.  

The train journey was smooth and I enjoyed chatting with my Dad, who has accompanied me to London and is kindly helping me out with set up. Met up with family this evening for dinner and chats, comparing broken bones with my Aunt who is recovering from an operation on her ankle. Seems everyone is bandaged and bruised just lately, the resident Jeweller at Shed 2 who is helping me out on press day is also on crutches after severing ligaments. What a pair we will be on press day with her crutches and my finger ha ha!

So that was todays ups and downs, just arrived at the hotel having a cuppa tea writting my blog and it’s midnight, got a long day ahead of me tomorrow, feeling tired and unsure what the day will bring.

Dad saying 'cereal! what no fry up for breakfast?’  so good night all and thanks for the many good luck texts today everyone.

1 day to go

Big day tomorrow, I go to London to set up for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Can’t believe it’s come round so fast, it seemed such a long time ago when I was organising designs and plans and budgets, and now it’s going to happen. The final leg of the journey is almost here, everything at the studio is boxed up and wrapped ready for the couriers. Had a last minute update from gardener Oli and the plants are looking great and all ready to flower.

Finger up date - now the stitches have been out for 2 weeks I have to massage cream into the scar to prevent it becoming stiff over the finger joint and causing problems with movement. After I had creamed it, I had a go at bending my finger and it moved about 2mm, not great but it’s a start. Still got to wear the splint until the bone has healed. Can’t wait to get full use of my finger back.

So that’s it, the big journey starts tomorrow, I’m so excited I don’t think I will sleep at all tonight. 

I will blog all week to keep you all up to date with progress, keep your fingers crossed and hope for sun shine.

2 days left to Chelsea!

With only two days left until I leave for Chelsea things are looking better.

After the end of Friday with a feeling of exhaustion, this week has begun much better. Over the weekend I tried to relax as much as possible and slept a lot, Saturday night I clocked up 11 hours in bed sleeping I was so tired.

Monday has brought a feeling of refreshment, of excitement and things are slotting into place now, I started the day with finishing the last piece of practical work, then a trip to Southwell to visit Reg Taylors garden centre. They have kindly donated a number of plants for the Chelsea stand and have housed the first of the new sculptures and raised beds at the entrance to the garden centre. The raised beds look lovely all planted up and with a sculpture in each bed.

This evening after dropping one daughter at Rainbows and helping the eldest daughter to bake cakes for school, I delivered the last of the Chelsea tickets and then decided to take a look at the photos I took whilst at Reg Taylors. I think they look great, well see for your self and let me know what you think.

5 days to go!

With only 4 days left until my work and I travel to the Chelsea Flower show I am exhausted!

This week has been a long week indeed. With the deadline ever creeping closer and work load never seeming to reduce much, I have pushed my self to the the limit this week. With a full week in the studio, I was hoping that I would get everything done but even with the best plans some things just take longer.

There has been some good points this week, the brochure arrived from the printers that had been designed by local firm Graphiq, and it looks great. I’m really pleased with it’s professional look and the story of the project and my work comes across well. Didn’t quite think how I was going to fit 5000 brochures in my Chelsea shed though, whoops!

The project participants were invited to the studio to see the sculptures they had helped create along side the other items going to Chelsea and they were all really pleased with the overall look of the stand. Excitement at the prospect of visiting Chelsea Flower Show for the winners of the free tickets was amazing to see, they were bursting at the seems.

After having breakfast with the local Rotary club and speaking to them all about my project, they have agreed to help support the exhibition that follows Chelsea with the design and printing of a postcard to accompany the exhibition.

The film crew of The University of Derby came to the studio to film me working and preparing for Chelsea for their alumni section of the web site. They have also lent me a camera to film the build up of the Chelsea stand to add to the story. So watch this space!

So I suppose that with all things considered things aren’t too bad, but as many artistic people would agree you are rarely happy with your work and never know when to stop. I guess I should listen to my aching body and my poor broken finger and say that’s it, you have accomplished a lot this week, you have some great work to show, it’s time to rest over the week end ready for the busy week ahead.

With that in mind I will leave you with some sneak peeks of the work whilst I put my feet up with a cuppa and try and stay awake long enough to watch something and relax.

Helping Hands to the rescue!

A shed load of volunteers descend on Shed 2 Studios to help out the injured weaver.

As you all may know, I had an accident last week which crushed my finger and left it very difficult to weave and work in general, and I was rewarded this week with many volunteers who have rallied to my plight to finish my work in time for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Derby Uni student Lorraine did a great job finishing off my metal work by bending all the rods that house my woven willow spheres. Gardener Oliver gave a hand with some painting to finish off the shed. My Dad arrived to fit shelving in the shed and hang my new signs. But the biggest thanks goes to Ryan the carpenters apprentice, who is kindly on loan from the wood work studio next door. He has been so helpful with loads of things, linseed oiling the finished sculptures, filling the willow soak and preparing willow, weaving some of the new raised beds and a whole host of things that I am struggling to do.

It’s great to know that when disater strikes there are people that drop everything to help, with all this help I am sure everything will be ready for Chelsea.

Thanks also to Iain for coming to my rescue, getting me to the hospital and looking after me, your care is very much appreciated.