Craft - a way of life?

An interview with Rima Staines

I having been mulling over the idea that craft / DIY is more than a job or a hobby and can be a way of life. It's a subject that fascinates me. I caught up with Rima Staines who is an artist, maker and traveller, to find out how her work and lifestyle impact on each other. She had some interesting insights.

One of the principles of UK DIY Craft is that craft is a way of life. It struck me that this is particularly true for you. You mention in your blog that you’re a traveller and live in a ‘house on wheels’. Could you tell me a little bit about that?

Yes indeed, I have always loved houses on wheels, perhaps because my parents travelled when I was small and that memory has stayed with me. My partner Tui and I bought an old Bedford TK Horsebox when we were living up in Scotland and we took a year to convert it into the beautiful wonky wooden home that it is now. We travel the UK selling artwork at fairs and festivals and in towns along the way. We find fields and woods to park in through the kindness of other people, and when stopped we get on with painting, and music making in Tui's case, and telling the tales of it all on the blog.

It is certainly a more handcrafted way of life :)

Your lifestyle sounds incredibly romantic. Have you found this to be the case?

Hm, its an interesting question this, because I think the romance comes in viewing the life from the outside. Many folk live interesting lives that would seem romantic to others, just because they are different. But when you are living it, it is real. That does not mean though that our life isn't romantic! It is very wonderful to be living so close to trees, to live an "older" style of life where we must collect water and chop wood for the fire. Our bath is a small tin thing that we sit in in front of the fire, and hot water comes from the kettle. There is of course a 'wonder' in living this life, which is why I chose it, but it's raw too. I think the romance comes from the "story" of a life, and that is why I love stories!

You practise many crafts – painting, illustration, printing, clock making – could you tell me a little bit about that? How do they fit in with each other? Do you have a favourite craft?

I have always drawn and painted . . . it is just the the thing that I do, and could not not do! The clock making is for me just painting, but with clock movements included! I always think it is interesting that I grew up in an artistic family - my parents are both sculptors - and yet my work is definitely two dimensional rather than three. I do have a love for puppetry though, and automata, which is where the clock making interest comes in. As for printmaking, I studied at the London College of Printing and loved making etchings and collographs, but these days I do not have a printing press. One day when I live in a non-rolling house I would love to own one.

Your work and your blog seem to be steeped in stories and fairy tales. Is this where you get your inspiration from?

Oh yes, tales are very important things for me. I seem to view the word through a sort of internal story filter and find such inspiration in the old dark and strange tales of many cultures. My characters are not often direct representations of tale characters though, rather they dwell in the same world.

Humans have always told stories, they are are fundamental part of living. They view the way of things and reflect it back again, they are part of our turning wheel.

How does your work fit in with your way of life? Do you find that one is a natural graduation of the other?

My immediate environment must be beautiful to me, packed with inspiring imagery and a ramshackle collection of things. It has always been this way and I am lucky to have met a man who could build such a wonderful wheeled home for us where my imagination can roam.
Living in a tiny space makes things harder of course, but I have always worked very small! We work when we are stopped and not when we are moving. I find that being closer to nature provides a great wealth of rich inspiration. Our house rocks in the wind and birds scuttle across the roof. And things are kept fresh by the constant change. There is no chance of stagnating, and work and life moves in cycles. Wheels feature in my work a lot too as they always have done, and our roaming brings us in contact with many interesting people.

Where does your work begin? By that I mean, what comes first – your characters, words, or an object such as a clock etc.?

Faces come first almost always. The people in my work are the most important thing, and their faces convey the feeling of the piece. I don't plan my work a great deal before I begin. Often the shape of a piece of wood dictates the visual content, and I like the exciting stage of a drawing emerging to take place within the final work. But words too are very important to me. An idea for a story might come to me slowly over months, but drawing the characters is always the first step. They usually posses a melancholic dark flavour, which is a representation of me I suppose.

For more information on Rima and her work visit www.the-hermitage.org.uk. You can also read her blog at www.intothehermitage.blogspot.com and visit her Etsy store at www.thehermitage.etsy.com.