A sketchbook with words
& long rambling voice notes
I have a handful of friends, mostly the ones that live in different cities to me, that I predominantly communicate with through voice notes. Long and ramblings ones. Usually recorded while walking somewhere. Or doing mundane house hold tasks. Or in my favourite place - lying on my kitchen floor - either in the morning sunshine or when i’ve got back from work. I lie down with my back and the soles of my feet touching the floor. Like being in savasana. Or just like lying in the park. And I tell stories from my day or a 5 minute debrief of life since we last spoke. It’s easy to do I guess because my kitchen floor looks like this - the sunshine yellow floor brings me SO much joy. But I also do it on less desirable floors so maybe it’s not the yellow.
I’m strangely drawn to being low down. All my furniture in my house is really small. And my bath is sunken into the ground so it feels like you’re in a natural body of water. Maybe it makes me feel grounded to be on the floor. Or like a child? Kind of free and calm.
I actually love receiving a long voice note. Although - I do live and work alone so it probably just stops me feeling the crush of loneliness (i’m joking I’m very happy pottering around in my little world). The voice notes make me feel close to the ones that are far away. They send me their own stories on their own journeys - on their way to work, sitting in their caravans, or sitting on the beach because they are so clever and moved off this horrid island - doing their every day things. I’m now just thinking about it properly and smiling haha - it’s quite amazing that you can feel that close to people who you once spent every day with, like living together through university - having those formative years together - who you now only see once every couple months. Listening to them decide which choccy bar to get or shampoo to buy make it feel like i’m there in the shops with them. Intimacy through voice notes.
Oscar said it fills him with dread when people send voice notes but has since backtracked and said mine are ok hehe. Most boys that I’m friends with hate a voice note. But that’s ok because I’ve found my ultimate voice note soul sister in Miss Molly Martin! Creator of my new logo - which I spoke about in my last newsletter.
Molly and I have studios very close by to each other. Both based in Woolwich. But we never hang out by the river side. I think it’s probably to do with how we treat our studio time. I know for me, when I get to the studio, it becomes a kind of bubble of creativity and I can’t get out of it until I either feel fulfilled or I snap. This being said - I’ve begun to feel connected to Molly in our studio lives as, recently, we’ve been voice noting each other about ideas we have to do with our work - or just the creative practise in general. I realised yesterday that it also makes me feel witnessed in my creativity - as I said, I work and live alone so having people to bounce ideas off feels quite nourishing. Lol below is another example of me trying to feel witnessed in the studio. Here I am either testing patterns or just documenting outfits because they’re nice and no ones going to see them. I did just notice that in most photos i’m wearing something I’ve made or i’ve adjusted which makes me feel proud in my quest to make my whole wardrobe.
I’ve just finished Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave & Sean O’Hagan which you all must read if you have any interest in creativity and music and how it interacts with grief and faith. I met a woman at the lido the other day who came and sat with me for a moment to discuss it. It had obviously touched her like it had me. Anyway, I read a passage that linked to what me and Mol had been discussing about the process of making (also relating back to last weeks substack) and had to voice note her straight away.
Apologies to anyone not freelance / self-employed who couldn’t take themselves to the lido in the middle of the day during this stunning heatwave you can hear the splish splashing in the background.
Story time »»
(Even though I hate listening to my voice notes back I wouldn’t mind someone commissioning us to do a podcast - Molly’s responses are way more articulate and formed than mine I promise.)
These were coming out of an exploration of what we could put out to the world as a collaborative thing as we are synchronised in our substack-ing. But then we realised that maybe it doesn’t have to be a polished final thing. These substacks are like a sketchbook with words. A place to document the journey of how we got to where we are. A place to explore ideas in a freeform way. This is how I’ve got to this newsletter layout. ‘A sketchbook with words’ was completely inspired by Molly and her process - she is the queen of the sketchbook.
WORKSHOPS
&&& ok! I’m going to plug Molly’s sketchbook workshop - which I have taken my ma to and can guarantee that you will leave feeling inspired. It’s an afternoon at the National Gallery with Molly’s guidance and artistic hype-woman energy. I honestly came away with a whole new appreciation of how to be in a gallery space - which can sometimes feel a bit oppressive - but when you realise you can take up space to draw and see and feel the paintings it’s liberating. You then go back to the Eye To Pencil studio- which is STUNNING and in Exmouth Market - to transform your sketches into something more considered taking inspiration from how Molly works. Really really recommend - beautiful afternoon, money well spent.
I’m also going to plug my own workshops because I have a few spots left on the 10th, 24th, and 25th of September, 10.30-4.30 in my studio in Woolwich. Come and learn how to make lingerie from scratch - either from an up-cycled t-shirt or my large stash of meshes and laces and jerseys. A basic knowledge of using a sewing machine is necessary but if you don't have that I have a couple of beginner 1 2 1 sessions I can offer. I saw this review from someone who’s come to my workshop and I got a bit emosh - when business feels tough its really reassuring to hear stuff like this <3
OK ENUFF PROMO !
Listening to these lots this week - for vulnerable beauty and witchy strength
Ok, love 2 you all
& kisses
El xxxxxxxxxx