Inspiration

This continues Monday’s blip where I referred to my time at college. Our tutor was a textile artist in her own right, as well as a skilled quilter, and her approach opened a whole new world up to me, and the others on the course, as she immersed us in all kinds of media and techniques. But most of all she encouraged us to be creative for ourselves, to experiment, to try things out – to play. Having learnt some skills, we then had to see what we could do with them. The very best kind of teaching then. She could be a bit scary – she never praised for the sake of it. But if she liked something, then you knew it was good. 

You notice all this is in the past tense. That is not because the course finished, as we had contact with her for various workshops and meetings afterwards. It is in the past tense because she died suddenly earlier this year.
 
It was a shock to us all, as she was younger than most of us and, although she was never really very well and did drive herself all the time, we just never thought of this happening. And I think we are all still in shock. I was recently talking to the lady who owns the sewing shop in Penrith, and who was also one of her students for a while, and we just couldn’t think of a world without Avril. The number of people she inspired is massive; her influence touched many, many lives and always will do.
 
So the cup and saucer. This was her doing. Whilst she was later completing a Masters at Carlisle and doing some work in ceramics, I went to see her. She was trying out the media and created many what she called test pieces. She said they were being thrown away and I asked for this one. It is obviously not finished or glazed properly, but I liked it as it was so ‘Avril’ – the imagination, the detail, the joy of creation, the sheer energy of it. And I look at it now in my room and think how privileged I was to have that time with such an amazing teacher.