'A Stitch In Time'

I have just completed a sculptural ballet of ‘Yoga and Dance’. 20 small one-off figures measure 8” either upwards or along in dance and yoga positions emphasizing stretch, energy and balance. (Glazed in a semi-matt white glaze with a slight lustre to catch the light.)

I have produced a series of nine cornucopias (in wrought-iron tripods) to illustrate the harm that we are inflicting on our planet.
The first shows invisible polluted air represented by ridges inside, and visible damage by its outer brown and black swirling pattern
The second shows magnified microscopic diatoms to represent the land. The interior is empty of substance.
The third Cornucopia, standing for fresh water, consists of a turgid, polluted interior, with algal bloom on the exterior.
The remaining cornucopias represent the animals, plants, birds, amphibians and reptiles, fish and forests with which we share our planet, while the tenth piece is simply called ‘Population Explosion’.  (It did, actually, explode in the kiln during firing, which seemed appropriate!).
While individual pieces have been shown, I haven’t yet found a venue wishing to display the complete series.  For each of the areas I have collected information and statistics from the New Scientist magazine, which can be mounted on boards or projected to make the environmental message clearer and more precise.

Jane has a number of drawings, as well as ceramics, in the Off the Wall exhibition at Aylesbury Museum from 7-21 November 2009, where she is sharing the space with such internationally known artists as Paula Rego and Victor Pasmore.

The drawings are part of her 'Ballet dancers in movement' series, all done at dress rehearsals of the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  The series has aroused a lot of interest, and three of the framed drawings were sold at the Private View.

"Just before the curtain rises the auditorium lights go out", she explains. "So the drawings are made in almost complete darkness. I might draw 10-15- 20 minutes - or a whole act of a ballet. It's quite hard work, so I get exhausted afterwards. I don't think anyone else has done the same sort of movement drawing before."

1. Following my previous books on knitting (‘A Stitch in Time’, 'The Thirties Family Knitting Book’ and 'The Man's Knitting Book’) I have written a definitive book on knitting during and just after World War 2, ‘Knitting Fashions Of The 1940’s’.  It is  published by Crowood Press in late 2006.
2. In ‘Saving the Dinosaurs’ the main character, Peter, went back to the Cretaceous Period. The sequel, ‘Pyramidion’, sees Peter making three trips to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, during one of which he accidentally brings a royal princess back to London (which is so gloomy she thinks that she must have entered the after-life). I’m looking for a publisher for ‘Pyramidion’. (Ideally, in fact, it should be published together with ‘Saving the Dinosaurs’ which, despite excellent reviews and being much loved by those children who have read it, has gone out of print.)
3. I am currently busy re-writing another book for children based on the idea that the weather over Britain results from a struggle between ‘fair weather’ and ‘foul weather’ forces.  The main character, Celeste Midwinter, finds herself in the middle, dealing with such strange characters as Fair Isle, Fisher and Fastnet (on the fair side) and Lundy, Hebrides and German Bight (who are conspiring to bring back a new Ice Age).  Things are not so straightforward, though.  If Celeste sides with the Fair Forces, will she just help to increase global warming?