Quiet Weekend

Saturday met up with friends in London for a bit of bead shopping and a LONG lunch with lots of laughter. Wonderful day out =) The weather was nice , fingers cross we have lost the rain for a bit. I did not buy that much.

Today been working in the garden getting it looking better before DH's open shed evening next weekend. The sun came out so it was OK even though the ground was soggy after over night rain.

Not much time for any art. Perpared another double page layout with gesso in the altered book. During the week I have been finishing off a couple of small projects which will be going into the Liss Village show ... Again no photos.

I have finished reading the last Harry Potter book. But I'll say no more in case you have not finished. LOL On Friday attended the dentist who said she was also reading it. On Tuesday off to see the latest HP film with AR.

More Altered Art
~Second post of the weekend~

As DH was watching the F1 in the living room today I thought I would spending some time making a few more of the one inch framed altered art pieces. This time I started working with a greenman image. The first version on the left the image was added over green ribbon as I had done with the ladies,but I felt I could do better. As the image had been printed out I used some gel medium to transfer the image. As this gives you a softer image with softer edges I was the able to blend him into the work better using solid oil paints(shiva sticks) and coloured glazes (paint a gel medium mixed) ... The second from the right had a base of brown paint on the square first before the image and oilpaint added.
The second from the left and first on the right both started with a base on white gesso , the image was transfered and a green glaze added.
I also have started to experiement with real photo. I have found that even though I print photos here the gel medium method will not transfer them. Will have to try printing to paper only.

I also worked on two new pages in my altered book. This first one says "Children .... must learn... astrology "...it is wonderful the words you can find in a page of normal text.

The second does not show the words too well in the photo...they say "worship ... a great many .... things " . It was a bit of experimentation. DH said he did not like these pages as they look too messy. =(

Finally, you may have noticed I have been trying out a few new Blog features. There is currently a readers poll which I invite you to vote on. =)

Rain Rain Go Away

Oh my did it rain yesterday morning !! It became so bad I was starting to wonder if it would enter the house.So how much was there ??

Next door are digging footings for a extention. This wheel barrow was empty on Thursday evening.

These next two pictures show the water collecting at the front of the house. DH had sorted out sand bags tocover the air holes round the house so that water did not get into the void under the house.

Here is a close up one of the sand bags so you can see the depth of water ..

BUT by 3pm the sun was out ,the rain STOPPED and all the water soaked away. We are lucky that the ground was not already satuated.

On to nicer things .... I finished the TW Needle Gardian this week ... Its a gift socannot show you the whole piece yet, else the new owner will know what is coming !


ALSO wonderful surprise arrived in the door on Friday .... A scissor keeper from Shannon. We have been exchange partners for the last year and this is the final package. The last exchange has to be something stitched by you .... Its hanging on my memories board in my sewing room right now =)

A local artist Sharon Hurst has had some of her art work converted to cross stitch by the Heaven and Earth Designs company.
http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=175_158

You can see more of Sharon's work at http://www.willowmead.org.uk/


And finally I took the plunge this week and signed up to the OPUS - Master Class =)

Creative Muse


The City and Guilds might now be finished but the ichy fingers are starting. I am on the Cloth Paper Scissors mailing list. The mailings are often to advertise new products but they also have short "How To" too =) The one which arrived at the end of June had details for creating custom collage necklaces. It looked a bit of fun. I sent off for the Memory frames (yes I know they got me to buy something) which arrived this week. So here are my first two attempts. The collage is made up of a mixture of ribbons and pre-printed card stock sold to make ATCs. Then finished off with some of my sheer or silk dyed ribbon... These two are hanging by the window in my studio. I think they came out really well

While I was buying the memory frames I also picked up some distressing ink pad and distressing embossing powder. Below is my first play with them. Its OK,but I think I need more pratice with them.
I am also moving along with my altered book too. No new pictures to share at the moment,but I am trying a few more ideas from the books I have been collecting over the years. I did have a giggle when I opened
one of the books, at the back was a sheet of take down instructions from the 2004 Pathways... !!

A little while back Elizabet asked if I would do a post about the C&G course I have just finished ... I have not forgotten you and am drafting plans for a post on the course in the next few weeks....=)

AND finally meet the 'little bugger' who is create a problem for us. This is Mrs Blackbird who spends each morning and evening sitting on the roof or in one of the trees shouting about the fact that Pippi the Cat is about. OK DH & I could cope with that until she started getting brave and dive bombing either Pippi or us !!! This photo was taken outside my studio window, so you can see how close she is coming. We have started having squirty bottles of water (or the hosepipe) to encourage her away. Thus diving at us gets her wet. It seems to be working so far, but we are concerned about what happens when we have guests to call ??!!??
Lets hope the water is enough and she does not start getting braver !

p.s. Back to old style of photos as borrowing DH's laptop which allows the blogger tools to work =)

And its all Over !

Just finished sorting out all the C&G sketch books into the large pile which need to be stored in the loft and the smaller pile which I will be keeping down. OK so the loft is not the best place but I was stuck for another location... Where does everyone store their output ??

The finished items will be hang round the house or given as gifts. I have 'rescued' a few of the samples which could become gifts.

So what next ??
A question everyone keeps asking. I have become interested in the idea of taking the Master Class with OPUS.
Masterclass in Stitched Textiles
"This course offers you a way to extend your personal practice in stitched and embroidered textiles to a more mature level. it is designed to meet the needs of those students who have already achieved their City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma or who may have completed the Opus Advanced Experimental programme. "
The link for more info on the web site does not work (goes to the beginners info) but I have the details in paper form I picked up at the exhibition. Its four modules over two years with a personnel tutor working with you.

BUT was thinking of having a break first. Want to try looking at Alter Book Art. Its something i have been thinking about for a while. Well a couple of weeks ago I picked up an old history book for 50p so plan to use this to learn. I have also treated myself to a copy of "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton which covers someof the basics like removing pages etc ... =)

Well I have made a start on the first two page spread as you can see in the image below. It happened to have a picture of the gun powder plot so worked with reds. Mixed some paint with gel medium to create the red glaze for the picture page.

Have a look at the whole albumn on web shots
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/559798333CdukPD

=( ... the bad news is that I am back to work tomorrow... but my two new students will both be in tomorrow.

City and Guilds ~ Catch Up !

WOW ... this week has flown by. Well the good news is I PASSED !!! The External verifier came in on Thursday , after a chat about my Rose hanging and my corset lamp she signed off my book =)

YES !! YES !! YES !!

The rest of the week has been rolling along. The stewarding sessions have been hard on the feet and have meant a couple of late nights. Had quite a few visitors I knew... Vicki from the Yahoo group, Lesley and Sheila from another C&G group, a lady from my local Embroiderers Guild branch (whose name escape me ... ooppss), DH , Dave from work and today my two sisters =)

Special gift from Lesley of a small portfolio case with each pocket holding a piece of fabric, thread or other interesting item... Its yummy . although Lesley organised them to go towards my next planned project - an altered book on my green house. Images below =)

Had some really nice comments about my Rose hanging (One lady sorted me out in the gallery to tell me just how much she enjoyed the hanging) and VERY mixed reactions to the wedding dolls. Generally the dolls are called Scary - although Rachel (who used to work for OPUS) said they were a good scary !?!?!

Noted visitors : Gavin Fry ... He is an OPUS tutor on the degree programme. He was interested in the Kantha work by the two Canadian ladies.

I have posted a few pictures of my work, see the slide show above. Although I had permission to take pictures of the other students/artists work I did not get their OK to share on the web so sorry! I did busy myself in getting my photos printed during the week and put together a small memory book of the setting up and the exhibition. I left a space for each of the other C&G artists and asked them to write a message into the book .. which I am please they have all done. Its quite a special book now. Wish I had thought about that for my Part one exhibition.

I have sold a few cards of my work, but its not clear which designs have gone as the sales table only keeps a tally of numbers sold. Have not sold many so I guess everyone will be getting cards showing my art works for the next year. The handmade cards seem to sell well although my bard button card does not seem to be moving.

Saturday is take down - but not until 5pm. Although it could be an interesting day as the Tour De France are in town and will have the prolog race in the capital on Saturday too ... The flying finish is The Mall. Which could be good as we might have a few extra visitors but notthat much fun to get back to the station with heavy bags.

Pathways 2007 ~ Day Two ~ Set Up

A busy day in the Mall gallery. I arrive very early and had to get another group to let me in.
Below are a few photos from today. Sorry none of the work, I don't have the owners permission to show their work. The morning was spent agreeing the initial set of items to be displayed and sorting out which of the white boxes we all required. Then came the messy part of the day when the walls and boxes were all touched up with paint. Strangely the walls are painted grey and not white. The boxes are painted white !

My layout has moved round a few times now and I think I will have a few new holes to cover and paint tomorrow. Why are we moving the layout around so much ?? Well I think mostly that my C&G work was not created to work together so we have to find a way for the walls to flow round. Now much of my work is very brown and red with the medieval work but the lily and frog handing is SO different with its yellows.

Our tutors quite liked a random sample I add in the misc book at the last minute... LOL ... but I have a few other in the same style one of which is very yellow, so dug those out to take with me tomorrow.

Hopefully we will have our internal assessment tomorrow too. Fingers cross.

Now although I tend to work quite large I am quite surprised at how small every thing is in my area.



Bad news for anyone coming into London the Crypt Cafe is shut until Oct =(