Living Creatively

Small Steps

2010-09-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so a friendship bracelet is not the height of creativity but it is ababy step towards creating again and something new for me. This doesn't have the silkiness of the ones we made as kids as the threads were a bit more bulky and did not hold together in a single thread. It makes the bracelet more bulky and the individual notes bigger but I like it. I just had them lying around...

Rags and Riches

2010-08-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

Not a lot has been happening creatively here for most of the last year... The only thing I have done is paint a scarf a pale purple as it's lightest colour. I got ill and everything stopped, and I do mean everything. It all seemed too much. I needed to sleep and to recoup. I had other stuff going on to... redundancies and then a continuing set of work place issues...

But recently I have felt the creative juices starting to flow again. I do not intend too make much jewellery for presents this year, I am a little fed up with jewellery but I have started a piece of jewellery for my niece.

It will be a spiders web. Not a full 360 degrees. Somewhere between 200 and 270 degrees to give a nice v necked sort of a choker. It is slow going though. I finally figured out how to make the radial bits so that I can thread the cross parts so they hang consistently. They are being made using ladder stitch so they are growing pretty slowly. For several hours of work I have only two radials at maybe 5 inches of beading!

While on holiday I visited a number of crafty shops and gained some ideas of slightly easier things to make for different family members with one or two requests. My Mum saw a pretty cube necklace she liked and admired a herringbone bracelet I had. My sister wants more earrings in different colours. None of these things would really take too long. I also saw a beautiful crystal necklace I covet.

The most important thing though is rag rugs. Cumbria is full of them and I remember falling in love with one as a child. I always wanted one. My Mum started making one but fell out of love with it quickly as she started with little knowledge or support.

On the first day of the holiday we met a lady who made them. She told us to use any materials we liked, not just wool as advised by more traditional makers. She even said you could use plastic bags. She also told us what sort of materials to use as the medium and gave us ideas of tools. She showed us how to prod and hook.

Everywhere we went there was rag rugs that my Mother and I eagerly examined. Then at Dove Cottage we found a lady doing a drop in workshop to have a go. It seems they have decided to try and save money by making their own. We think a couple of things were a bit wrong in how they were doing it. The prodding tool was blunt rather than coned so as you pushed it through to make a hole it didn't ease the threads apart completely and actually snapped some. This would make the rug prone to falling apart I think. They also did not poke the next rag through the second hole of the previous rag. This, we were told, would help secure them all together.

So now I am itching to find some hessian and a nice conical bottle opener or some such to use as a prodder. I have lots of old clothes I can chop up...

Green Vine Scarf

2009-10-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today, apart from finishing the catches on a couple of necklaces, I decided to do some silk painting. I am hoping to do quite a few scarves as presents this year. My Greta Aunt and Grandma normally get jewellery but I thought a change might be nice so this year they will get scarves. I also want to do a scarf for each of my close family.

I recently bought a book on silk painting and this has really helped. I have discovered that the best way to get smooth blending is to paint on wet silk. I also bought a few more tools and dyes and things. I still really need a frame though. Having the silk on the wall means the dye and water can gloop behind the silk and stick it to the wall. This effects the eveness of colour.

My Great Aunt likes all things green. I began by watering down some turquoise and painting the entire scarf. I then found a vine pattern I liked and copied the core pattern and blew it up. I then copied it onto the scarf using clear gesso. I then painted over it all with two shades of green in both diluted and neat form. The pattern has been preserved in turquoise and is lovely and subtle. I think this scarf looks a lot better than my previous efforts, despite being so simple... Wet silk is definitely easier to paint!

Busy Bee-ding

2009-10-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

I know I havn't posted here for a while but that doesn't mean I havn't been busy, it just means I havn't picked up the camera or connected the laptop to the scanner...

So here we are with a little update and some very bad photos (my camera is awful at closeups).

Most of the ladies in my family seem to have birthdays around Christmas so this time of year always sparks a huge making session. By the end of it I am sick of the sight of jewellery... I don't like everything I make. Some people I make for have very different taste to me but I try to make things that they will like.

My Sister
This year she asked for lots of earrings, preferably long and dangly. So I made lots and she will get some for Christmas and some for her birthday.

My Aunt

She likes bold and funky designs and purple is her favourite colour. I still have one more thing to make for her, for her birthday. This bracelet is very intricate and made from two colours of delicas (little tube beads). It is sort of like an eggbox in shape.

My Niece

She is currently debating turning goth and requested chokers. The first is black and is a beautiful design. some of the beads have an AB finish for an extra bit of shine. The second is in carnival blue which is dark blue with a glaze on top so the beads are almost black but have an irridescent effect which includes purple and green but is mostly blue.

Future Mother-in-Law

She likes long things in purple and pink. The first is much darker thn I would normally make her but I like this sort of colour much more. The big beads are clear triangles with a metallic amethyst lined hole and they are beautiful. The second is a work in progress in peach, for a bit of variety. It is being evry slow and irritating. Spiral stair case is normaly quite quick but the drop beads I have included in this one are harder to pick up and are really slowing me down. I am also going to need to buy a lot more of them in order to finish it.
Family Friend No. 1

Last year I made her a necklace in this design. She liked it so much that she asked for some earrings to match so she has them and a bracelet to.

Family Friend No. 2

Is a beautiful lady who has the stature and personality to carry off big and bold things. Her preference is for earthy colours. This necklace includes chips of glistening goldstone.

You may have noticed that a very important person is missing - my Mum. I posted about her silver bracelet previously and I am going to make a lariat to match. I have an extra month for that though so i need to finish f m-i-l's necklace and do my Aunty's necklace before I start that. It will be a loom based piece like the bracelet in the same beads.

Bracelet

2009-09-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the bracelet form my Aunt. It is made of size eleven delicas sewn into squares which end up with two corners 'higher' than the others. The squares are then sewn together to form a sort of zig zaggy strip a bit like an egg box.

I love geometric shaped pieces like this but I have to say, I was very bored by the time I finished this one! The little beads combined with the way it folds up a bit means I have done a lot of stitching for a bracelet. I am so glad my Aunt has tiny wrists!

I will post photos once I get F to use his fancy camera that can zoom in on things and take nice pictures close up, the one he won't let me near....

Beautiful Blog Candy!

2009-09-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Get a pretty package where even your name and address have been turned into art.

Find a lovely, inspiring card inside with beautiful words.

And a luxurious looking package as well.

Open it up and find a book (the original bow was far nicer but I had to look at it as soon as I opened it...)

Open the book and it expands!

Read the beautiful words and admire the lines and the colours and the textures.....

I can't do this fantastic book justice with my camera and scanner. Believe me, as good as it looks here, it is even more lovely in the flesh. The pages glint with metallic swirls. The covers have a lovely handmade paper sort of texture to them. And of course, there was no way I was going to bend it to make it easier to scan....

The words in full are....

for Rose

each day in itself brings with it an eternity

everything on earth is being continuously transformed because the earth is alive and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognise that it is working for us.

remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

if what one finds is of pure matter it will never spoil and you can always come back. If what you found was only a moment of light like the explosion of a star you would find nothing on your return.

listen to your heart it knows all things because it came from the soul of the world and it will one day return there.

and the other side...

from the alchemist paulo coelho

the soul of the world is nourished by peoples happiness... to realise ones destiny is a persons only real obligation.

...an when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.

never stop dreaming follow the omens

intuition... a sudden immersion of the soul into yhe universal current of life where the histories of all people are connected and we are able to know everything because it is all written there

with love from Suzi XX

So Suzi, all I can say is wow! Thank you!

2009-09-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

My Mum placed an order for Christmas. She wanted a silver bracelet. She like the lariat I was wearing that I made on the loom. She also would be happy with some subtle pattern. There also needed to be a secure but easy fastening.

This is what I made. A simple design using three colours of bead, two shades of silver grey and one metallic silver made on a loom. The catch is a very clever one I found in a book on spirals. Basically although each of the three big beads fits through the loop easily, they can't all go through at once.

Mandala Swap

2009-09-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I took part in a mandala swap for Artist's Trade cards and I really wanted to share the lovely cards I got back!

Thank you to everyone who took part!

Finished Wish Jar

2009-08-22T02:04:00.000-07:00

Well it is finished! It has been finished a little while and I have been poor at posting...

I painted it again with some sludgy purple paint I mixed up. I then had a flash of inspiration and painted over with the blue interference paint rather than the violet. This has given the jar a lovely lilac shimmery colour which I can't photograph....

I also edged the windows and the top with irridescent medium.

Then I wrote some wishes and put them in.

And I tied some wool around the top.

And now it sits on my altar....

Dad's Day

2009-08-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have been up to is this - a birthday pressie for my Dad. He loves greyhounds so even if he never uses his new silk hankie he will love it....

Wrecked End

2009-07-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

This is the official end of Wreck This Journal. It isn't the end of my journey with it though.

The last couple of weeks I havn't spent as much time on it, other things have been calling me. The journal is still on my desk though. There are things I have done and not scanned, not shared. There are more things to do that I have planned in my head.

I may do them, I may not.

Other things are stirring... I have started writing. Not since a child have I done this.

I think my beginning of WTJ was the thing I learnt the most from.

I learnt nothing is ever so broke it can't be made beautiful.

I learnt I am far braver and have far more gusto than I give myself credit for. Maybe I don't actually creep passively through life. Maybe I have forgotten all the tough decisions, the wild changes. Maybe just because I don't wish to turn my life on it's head right now, doesn't mean I have become passive, weak and cowardly.... I am just making different choices right now.

Art is play and play is art. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you let yourself out to play regularly....

Pink Thing

2009-07-25T13:29:00.001-07:00

The f m-i-l requested a long pink necklace for a friend which is to say I had absolutely no choice but to drop everything and get one made as soon as possible.

I went bead shopping on one of my days off and the sight of all those lovely beads distracted me from my anti-beading state and I accidentally decided on something a little more complicated than necessary. The result is a necklace that is sparkly and pink and pretty but really, really not my style...

I used...
Size 12 seed beads (little doughnuts) in pink transparent glass with a rainbow glaze, lilac translucent pearl.
Size 12 hex beads (heaxagonal tubes) in clear glass lined with lilac and clear glass lined with hot pink.
Size 12 Triangles in transparent pink lined with silver and clear frosted glass.
Size 12 tubes in pink silky (think the same affect as Tiger's Eye)
Size 10 seed beads (doughnuts again) in clear glass lined with pink and clear glass with a rainbow glaze.

The design is a simple spiral with three 'anchor points' and because each side has a slightly different length the tube is not completely straight is has a gentle spiral in it's shape as well as it's pattern...

Hen / Stag

2009-07-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Someone I know is getting married and a whole bunch of us are having a little stag do for him. Traditionally women don't go to stag parties but things are changing. I have never met his bride to be. In days gone by, with small communities you would automatically know bith the stag and the hen... So stag do it is! My first ever!

Someone got a cheap hen party set of a wand, headpiece and L plate and I being me, offeed to alter them.... Oh I enjoyed this soooo much! I let my inner child out and she had a ball! This is definitely my artists date for this week. The more icky and tacky and girly and over the top the better...

So we have wand with added ribbons as well as wire fixed with crimps with bells and beads. I also made a handle with gingham tissue paper and adhesive pink ribbon that says for you...

Fluffy L Plate was smeared liberally with interference violet paint. Adhesive ribbons were added top and bottom and all around the L. Stick on gems were added in clear and white on the white background and in pink on the L. I punched some hearts from pink pearlescent card and stuck these on too. I added some stickers to the L and then liberally dosed it all with glitter....
Finally we have fluffy horned headpiece with veil. I added ribbon in pink and white /pink pearl all down the back. I then sewed beads around the headband. Some cheap purple gems were added beneath the horns and then I painted the bottom of the veil with pink metallic paint...

Oh, did I mention the stag is a big, strong chap who is not in the slightest bit girly and can pick up cars? (yes really) Good job he is the sort who is up for a laugh...

Altar, Alter

2009-07-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

Today I received a little packet of loveliness in the post, all the way from the other side of the world. One of the things was a beautiful clay disc with different symbols on each side. This disc is for use in earth healing and if you want to know more then Miss R is the lady and this is the place to go....

Now this disc was so lovely that it needed some place good to go. My altar was the obvious place for it to go. Except my altar only really existed in my head. I had the table in place but nothing beyond that. I suddenly realised I needed to gather the things together for it and get it done...

This was the first ever piece of silk painting I did and I always intended it to go on my altar and now it is, finally, there....

Some time ago I started, but never really finished a hearth craft course. I found a beautiful stone way back when which has been living in my kitchen. I always intended to paint it and tonight I finally did...

Here is my altar with the candle I dedicated on my hearthstone. The little figure is a very plain and crude polymer clay effort of mine. I struggled with this type of clay but a little prayer and it suddenly played ball and moved into shape. The ribbon I was given at Bride and of course, my new clay disc.

In large part, my abortive teacher training is responsible for the growth in craftiness in my life. This is a papier mache mask I made in one of our art sessions at college. We were supposed to work in pairs but I didn't, I wanted it to be mine and I had a vision. I had to work like crazy to get it done in the time but I did... and I love it. She sits above my altar...

So thank you Miss R, I achieved a lot today because of a lovely little gift...

Wish Jar Update

2009-07-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

My wish jar is still very much a work in progress. I didn't post any pictures before of the early stages with clay so here are a few from just before I started painting.

It has had a few paint jobs.

White

White with grey and black.

Interference paint over the top.

Black

Purple mixed with irridesent medium

Sample area of interference violet.

And still I am not happy. Something isn't right...

Roundup

2009-07-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

This week hasn't been so very creative as others in many ways. Being sociable has reduced my free evenings and I am not sure if writing an astrology chart counts as creativity.

I have been having a few issues...

I intended to paint some patterns on to cotton for another project. I used silk paints and gutta to make the lines. The paint spread along the threads under the gutta. I painted the gutta on both sides but it just couldn't penetrate the heavy cotton threads enough and the silk paints just soaked along them, spreading colour. I guess this why batik using wax is more common on cotton.

Today I bought four little pots of fabric paint as well as some fabric painting brush pens. I am looking forward to seeing how they work out and whether or not I can get the effects I want.

I have also done a little braiding. This is a lovely skill I first learnt at a workshop I went to with my Mum. She chose to do one on something more patchworking but not being a sewer so much i went and braided. We used simple cardboard circles with notches in them to hold the threads. I now have a foam disc with many notches which came with instructions for producing more patterns of braid than the one I had always used before. It is very theraputic, moving the threads and something I can do with little thought in front of the TV, once I reach a nice rhythm.

WTJ stalled. I used last weekend for starting my wish jar and astrological chart rather than wrecking. I did a little today but this was on the page sent to be by the most marvellous Mel. I can't say what is in progress but I really decided to torture the poor thing! In the olden days, the most vile of criminals were sometimes hung, drawn, and quartered. I won't describe that barbaric practice here but suffice it to say the poor page has been hung, drawn (or coloured) and quartered but also stabbed and filled with little bullets. Well and truly destroyed... *grin*

I also started a book called The Artist's Way with a group at On The Wing and I think this is going to be a beautiful creative journey....

Wreck This Melon

2009-07-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

The lovely Wright Stuff has given me a beautiful little award. I love this award, it always makes me smile whenever I see it. So here goes! (and you may find a theme...)

Ten things I love....

I love the coaster that Mel made from my get a friend to destroy this pag
I love the back cover of my journal, I love squidging the hearts and glitter around...
I love the way the silk paints soaked through and how they look on the black page with white letters.
I loved walking my book...
I liked playing fetch with the lost page and losing it in the sea...

And now for some of my most favouritest wreckers (trying to avoid people I always give awards to)
GenieSea
Judie
Kavindra
LaWendula
Magpie
Gretchen

Thing is, all the wreckers are so fantastic... Everyone has been on such a journey with this book and it is incredible to see the differences in journey, the sheer variety this book has inspired. I love it!

I am so glad Jamie started this for us and I am also so glad that so many old friends are on the trip too... Mel, Sam, Leone, Beverley.... If you don't believe how fantastic this all is go here....

Wishes in Waiting

2009-07-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I added the intention of making a wish jar to my list of 101 things. I had read about them on the blogs of others and tracked down some things online and seen some lovely pictures of ones others had made.

A wish jar is a jar where you put little pieces of paper with all your wishes written on them. It helps them to come true.... And is kind of neat and lovely....

Decorating a wish jar is very personal and every single one is different...

Miss R looked at my 101 list the other day and asked if I had made one yet. This got me to thinking about it and this morning I woke with an idea.

I had an idea to cover the jar with air drying clay and then make circular holes in the clay so you could see into the jar, like little portholes. From this idea flowed other ideas. to colour the glass in the portholes. To paint the clay with my irridescent paints. To paint the jar black under the clay so it would act like a mirror on those parts....

So I painted it black and rolled out clay and squodged it on over the top. I looked inside and discovered it hadn't had the desired effect. It looked black. Black with the occasional stippling of terracota. Not good. Off the clay came and the jar trundled off for a wash.

My next attempt was to smear green irridescent paint on and then on top of this, some blue irridescent paint. I then rolled out clay and squodged it all over the jar. I then used my knife to cut out the portholes. Where I made portholes I also removed the irridescent paint.

I nearly made a lid but I wasn't feeling a clay lid....

The jar is now drying, which might take some time...

Smiles by Post

2009-07-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

I received a lovely package earlier this week from the fair Mel. I have already shared some things and will share others later but some I wanted to share right now. Little postal smiles...
Thank you Savannah!

Wrecking Crew

2009-07-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

This week I have had some help with my wrecking. My 'Ask a Friend to do something DESTRUCTIVE' page has been completed and I didn't look while it was being wantonly destroyed. Mostly because it was taking place the other side of the Atlantic form me in Canada at the hands of my soul sister Mel.

I now have a delightful little coaster to sit on my art table amongst all my clutter! I also have a little innocent journal page with which to wreck some havoc. Mel also sent a lovely pressed flower for my pressed page and her daughter sent some goodies (see a different post).

I took my journal to the far west of this island I live on but I didn't do as I planned and lose my page there. I instead lost it in a small fishing cove near there. I wrote things I wanted to lose on the back and crumpled it up into a ball. I threw it for Little Dog a couple of times and she would run after it, pounce on it, throw it in the air and then drop it. When I threw it in the sea, she grabbed it back out again. She then dropped it but those sneaky waves came and stole it and within seconds it had vanished into a forest of seaweed....

I did a few other destructive things - nothing overly exotic really....
I coloured pages with oil pastels and then ripped and glued and taped...

I drew pictures with glitter glue and then closed the book so it spread...

I dropped silk paints onto a page and watched them spread. I intend to clean this page up by spattering it with bleach but I havn't gotten there yet.

I discovered that the silk paints had soaked through and I loved the way they made this page look.

I coloured the lines that were coloured outside of the line....

I do feel my wrecking pace has slowed. I am trying to not neglect other projects as much and my wrecking is now mostly confined to the weekend really.

Don't forget to click on the picture of the journal in my sidebar and go see what others have been doing!

The Wreckers

2009-07-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

This weeks wrecking has been a little slow. Not surprising really with the pages I tackled. I still have any number of in progress pages but the only four pages I wish to show you are these...

Lines in motion. I did this while F was driving, going from left to right across the page and down the page with each colour before starting at the top with a new colour.
Non-stop Line. I have drawn mazes in this way before and really enjoy the effect they give (see postcards) so it is not surprising I did the same thing again but then wrecked it... ink splodged on in various colours and then water sprinkled onto the page on top. The ink has spread through several pages.
Coloured Page. I started with some small shapes and then did contours round in a lovely set of pastel markers. I love the effect this page gives. The markers soaked through so a couple of other pages will have this as a background.
Doodled Page. I doodled in and on and around th text as requested...
Then there is my title page which I re-wrecked and forgot to post a picture of...
I have had a few other interesting bits.

The gum F and I stuck on the sticky page has slowyl dried and as I have kept flipping through the book and forcing this page open, some of the paper has now torn.

My composting page had a little seed sprouting in the thin layer of compost on top! It was too small to handle and move and seems to have suffered in the heat...

My time passing page now gets a date stamp whenever I open the book to that page and look at it for more than a split second. I write the time and date in whatever pen comes to hand...

So observations....Not many really. Just the gentle process of metamorphosis between create and destroy.... The silver tape on the spine is splitting as well as gaining a lovely rumpled texture. I shall fix this at some point and preserve both the texture and the broken bits in the process.... I love my journal..It is so mine. Other books I own always remain to some extent the property of the author. This one is all mine though. I own it and it is a reflection of me....

Melonomania

2009-07-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

Lovely Leone of Naturebrushstrokes has tagged me with the watermelon award. I already completed this award on my other blog here, so this time my melons are going to be creative (maybe red with yellow splotches, or purple crosshatching with blue and gold highlights?)

So basically I list a few things that make me happy and then I list a few blogs that make me happy....

As this is my creative blog there shall be a creative twist....

My journal makes me happy. I love wreck this journal. I love the bits I have repaired. I love the back cover with glitter and hearts trapped in a pocket so you can squidge them about. I love looking at other peoples wrecking. Thank you so much Jamie...
I love postcards. They invade my life in several ways. Postcrossing makes me buy postcards and send them to people around the world and causes lovely postcards from exotic locales to drop onto my door mat. I love Postmuse, who sends her blank postcards out to people who live or have been there so they can write their stories or thoughts on tha back and then post them back for her to blog about them and share the stories. I love 4x6 expressions, a lovely postcard art yahoo group where beautiful people make beautiful postcard art. I love Postsecret where people send secrets on postcards to be published on a blog and in books.
I love discovering new art supplies, like irridescent paint and metallic paint and beautiful papers...
I love supportive soul sisters, who spread the comment love and give me lovely things to comment on in return. The first of these was the lovely Mel....
I love making things. I love pay it forward and blog candy which make me stretch myself in new directions with new projects, mostly after I have started as getting started can be hard to do sometimes.
I love silk painting. It doesn't matter what you, the beauty of those glistening paints on that lovely silk just works... Try it (and don't worry if you don't have all the fancy kit... Chances are you won't produce perfectly rendered drawings on your first few goes so...)
I love clay. It feels so much like mud and I love it... I must play with clay more.
I love paper. I need to learn more about it, to make it, to bind it, to use it... My Dad was (is) a printer and I grew up with the smell of hot ink and paper. I watched him caress paper so it would do what he wanted and all line up or so he could tell the thickness. Paper is in my blood, going back three generations. I think i am the fourth...
I love my printer. It is a scanner, copier and printer all in one and prints off good quality photos on expensive paper. It is a real godsend...
I love beads. All those millenia of human creativity have resulted in so many different types of beads made from so many materials. Then to add to it all, the patterns and stitches we have discovered for putting them all together....

and now for my ten blogs... Looking at my ten creative fave things, I really feel that for me, creativity comes in a community, the two things go hand in hand here.... and they should in these blogs too. This is my all time bestest so there will be some repeats, not only from me, but back up the chain of awardees as well.... Starting to go in circles but hey...!

and if you can't see why i like them....

For Me?

2009-06-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

The lovely Mel has decided to gift this blog with this lovely award!

The Guidelines:

1. Post picture of award with link back to person who honoured you - check!
2. Pass along the award to deserving persons whose blogs you have just discovered - more on that in a minute!
3. Leave a *note* informing aforementioned recipients of your bloggy award-love - will do!

Now I find I am not having so many new blogs added to my blog roll as I have had previously... That is just because I can not physically cope with too many more lovely people's lives and a full time job.... There are many, many mroe blogs out there I would love to immerse myself in....

But here are a few, and only arty ones because this is my arty blog...

1) A Clear Path to Happy
2) Mama Craft
3) Warrior Girl, You're a Warrior Mama Now
4) Here be Dreams
5) Knottyneedle
6) Little Scraps of Magic
7) Today and Everyday

I thin seven is an excellent number!

Each of these blogs brings little pieces of happiness into my life. They are all relatively new to me and (I think) this is the first time I have tagged any of them...

So thank you again Mel!

Wreckless

2009-06-28T08:22:00.001-07:00

It feels like smaller steps at the moment... Doing pretty things more than reckless things...

I have started way more pages than I have finished...

The colour the entire page, page
The press leaves and other found things page
The sticky things page (I stuck some gum in and then managed to persuade F to as well *grin*)
The sample household substances page
The nonstop line page
The document time passing page

But I did draw lines while in motion (thank you F for driving!) and I really like the result...

And I wrote CREATE on one short edge and destroy on the other short edge and then metamorphosis on the long edge...

I also started reworking my front cover with some lovely irridescent paints...

Wrecking Roundup

2009-06-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

I have really loved this weeks efforts. Last weekend was really productive and produced some things that I have written separate posts about.

My journal is for now going through a period of beautification but I am sure this will come to an end some time.....

I have been wondering why I couldn't pick a really difficult page to do last week. I came to the conclusion that I can plan something to do for every page but until I actually try and do it, I can't feel if I am resistant to it or not. I think the pages left at the end may be the ones I find most dull or the ones that are really, really challenging to me. So for now I am going with the flow....

I slept with my journal one night and wrote in my journal about it.... I spotted someone had stuck some fruit stickers on the wall and on the door at work, so I surreptiously released them as I walked past them, aiming for no one to actually spot what a strange thing I was doing, I think I suceeded... A journal page has traveled to Canada for some friendly destruction and my whole journal will go there to be posted back at some point....

Here are some pretty pictures of this weeks wrecking....
And some less pretty pictures!
Lavender oil and jasmine scent dripped liberally everywhere then hot vanilla scented wax and lavender flowers scattered on top. Bits of lavender and wax keep falling out! *grin*I used the 'slam the book quick' technique for my burning and it was much fun!

Oh and earlier this week Kelly Kilmer wrote a really nice bit about what it is to keep an art journal...

Sweet Nothings

2009-06-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

What do you make a lovely young lady for an exchange? I thought long and hard and eventually decided to make a mobile... It had many incarnations that lived only in my head but eventually something emerged.

I made the letters to spell out her name using air dry clay cut with alphabet cookie cutters. I had to use the end of a paint brush to push them out which gave them an interesting texture. They are also all different thicknesses. I pierced each one with a needle to make a hole for threading them.

Once dry I painted them with PVA to seal them before covering them with black acrylic. Over the black I painted each letter with my lovely new goldens interference colours full of delicious glittery micaeous particles. I love the colour they came out!

I had ideas of threading them and wrapping them with wire and beads and having all sorts of bits dangling such as wool and ribbon and all sorts of glorious things. And I started this but it was just too much and it didn't work. I ended up rethreading the letters onto black cat's tail wire for added flexibility and fixing them in place with tube crimps and putting a lobster clasp at one end via a jump ring and wire guardian.

It may be a simpler look but I love this so much! Hope she does too!

Blog Candy: Aimeslee

2009-06-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have finally sent of my first piece of blogcandy and when you finally get to read this it will have been received by the lovely Aimeslee!

I started silk painting this year with only instructions found online to help me. I have created three painted scarves. One for me, one for Mel and now a third....

I only had four colours of paint but I have now expanded my collection to seven!

The third and latest scarf was rather more complicated than my previous efforts. I had wanted to use some Islamic art and this was a good opportunity. This meant that the design was rather more ambitious than anything I had previously tried. In this style of silk painting you use thick goopy paint to draw lines that act as barriers for the liquid paints. In this design the gutta is black and there was an awful lot to apply! I copied the block and pinned the copies to the wall and stuck the scarf on top and then copied the pattern onto the scraf. Then I had to add paint inbetween all the lines.

The borders are a little different though as there is no gutta and the paints are more roughly applied so they merge and run into each other more. The very centre was painted in grey first before the navy was added over the top. The affect of the navy paint was achieved by sprinkling some alcohol on to carry the wet navy paint.

Although I love the scarf I am not sure if I would do one like it again. It was very time consuming and the precise design was difficult to do correctly. The scarf is full of mistakes. And I don't want to think about the time it took!

The scarf has had an interesting journey to it's destination that has been considerably lengthened by arrival at the wrong address. So it actually ended it up with not one but two postal journeys...

One other thing is that the process of making the scarf has left me with quite a few pieces of interesting paper where the thick black gutta has soaked through and the liquid silk paints have soaked into the paper. Every one is different and beautiful!

Butterfly Art

2009-06-21T05:13:00.000-07:00

I love doing this sort of painting. I remember it fondly from my childhood and recently rediscovered it care of Caspiana.... So when short of time last night, splodging some paint on and shutting book before leaving it to dry was the perfect thing.

I used purple and pink ready mix, metallic pink and lilac, irridescent medium and interference violet acrylic.

The paints glimmer in the light and contrast really well with the muddy edges. I liked it so much, I had to do one for my Neice's book as well....

Is Beauty in the Eye?

2009-06-21T04:46:00.000-07:00

I started gathering white things for my white page and found a whole heap of stuff. Of course, I tried to get as much stuff on my page as possible!

Here is a rough list...
paper: Watercolour paper, acrylic paper, photographic paper, crepe paper, toilet paper, tissue paper with pearl squares.
Tape: masking, electrical and label
Fabric: felt, cotton, lace, thin gauze
Fibres: toy stuffing, embroidery thread, KO beading thread, ribbon, irridescent fusible fibres, art threads
Pencils and pens etc: correction pen, glue pen, irridescent oil pastel, chalk
Liquids: wax, acrylic, glitter glue, gesso
Powders: glitter, clear embossing powder
Buttons and beads: flat plastic button, old pearl button, vintage beads, coconut spacers, cats eye beads, white millefori style bead, size 11 white ceylon, size 8 white opaque, frosted drop beads.
Other stuff: white netting, plastic bag, stick on gems, stick on foam letters, craft pom poms

As I made this page, I was working quickly and filling up space rather than worrying too much about placement. Some of it was practical though, for instance one piece of lace wouldn't stick so it was helped with some tape and sewing. Some was experimental, particularly the wax dripping.

I always knew this page would be about texture because it was to be plain and white. The word that sprang to mind when I got to the foam letters was beauty and I went with it, even though I am sure this page doesn't form to the classic understanding of beauty! I thought some more and the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder came to mind. I imagine this sort of page would be really interesting to feel, particularly if you couldn't see it. So is beauty in the eye? Or is it somewhere else? Maybe the mind? Obviously the phrase means what is beautiful to one may not be beautiful to another but....

I have some favourite parts of this page...

The feel of the wax drops in the toy stuffing
The three stick on gems together
The spirals on the gauze as they show the change in texture
The triangle of fusible fibres that comes down from the pom poms
The beads sewn randomly onto the lace
The gesso in the net

My scanner was convinced this page was black and white and I had to con it to make it scan in colour. Even so, I don't think the scanned image shows off the page so well. But just imagine running your fingers over it....

This page won't be permanent. It is randomly thrown together and will not be able to take much throwing around. I will also find other white things to add I am sure! That top left corner is looking a little dull to me..... *grin*

Back to Wrecking

2009-06-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do was implement some of the ideas I had had to repair and prettify the damage caused by walking my book.

I got some purple ink and painted the white scuffed parts of the back cover. I then watered down the ink a little and painted the parts of the last page that show when the book is shut. I watered it down a little more and started on the next to last page and so on...The idea was to create a stepped look with the colour slowly changing. I like the way this looks but it isn't as extreme as I had hoped!

Then I started work on the back cover. I placed some sticky backed plastic on the inside of the back cover and then placed some cellophane on the outside of the front cover so it stuck onto the sticky backed plastic where there was no book cover. The cellophane was some florists wrap I saved with words written in silver and on the cover it has flower and part of leaf.

I noticed that the there was a nice cavity and decided to pour some glitter in. I used pink, white and purple and then added some punched out hearts as well. I then sealed up the spine by using some silver tape and cut the plastic down to size. I used some tape on one edge to make sure it remained shut. I had to use some glue at the spine and a little extra tape to seal it up.

Now I have a book I can tape up and put in the post! If I hadn't wanted to create a book I could tape up to post I would never have thought of repairing the back cover. If I hadn't wanted to show the purple terraced pages rather than hide them, I wouldn't have used clear plastic. If I hadn't done all this and created a clear pocket I wouldn't have thought of filling it with pretty things. I really love how it has turned out.....

Wrecking Ball

2009-06-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have decided to only post on this once a week but to write every day!

In summary of this week... I have come to realise that my approach to this journal is a reflection of my true approach to life, how I should be living in order to be true to me. How we approach this journal is really, really personal and can tell others so much about ourselves.

My attitude towards the wrecking has changed completely - each act of destruction is a chance to create a new set of possibilities. I have some plans for the repair / transformation of my journal following last weeks seriously destructive start but this requires a little time... It has given me some lovely ideas.

I am not sure if I am ever going to be able to consider my journal as finished! Each page can be reworked and reworked. Destructive acts can just add layers and layers of character to it. If something beautiful is lost it doesn't matter, it is still there in my laptop, stored for all timeand there is the possibility that something even more fantastic can be made from the new starting point.

Experimenting is great and this journal is one great big experiment....

*****

Saturday
Took journal in shower and gave it a bit of a wash with my shampoo bar and then my solid conditioner to. It now smells nice and is a wee bit cleaner! Took the book out in the car and left it in the car so it could bake a little to help it dry out.

I started the day by feeling a little sorrowful about my book. It is a mess. It is haggard and old and the chances of me managing to make anything nice and pretty in such a book are just so slim. I was mourning the fact that I could have created a thing of beauty and instead I have this abused hunk of sodden paper which is still muddy.

But then I began to think. I can fix it. There is no reason I can not fix the damage and turn parts of the book into something else. There is no reason I can not mend the cover and tape up the spine. In fact I will need to if I am going to send it in the post... I can still have pretty but it doesn't have to be pretty and if it is pretty, i can make it ugly again whenever I feel like and pretty it up again too.... Maybe this hournal will never ever actually be finished....

Sunday
The journal is still wet so I can't do a whole lot to it really. I pulled out a page and stuck it under some soil to compost in our garden. I pulled out another page to screw up and put in my black jeans pocket before I wash them. I figured that I might as well do something fun to the washing page before so I could see what washing does to colour to. One side I used watercolour pencils and the other I used oil pastels....

I then put my journal out in the garden to dry and every so often I popped out to open it to a different page to help with the drying...

Monday
The journal was still damp and found itself left on the landing to dry today. After work I finally crumpled up my washing page and put it in my jeans to wash and that is where it is right now. I have my draw of pens next to me and my journal and I am going to have a play while we have a film on TV....

... I have doodled and dabbled... My front cover has been embellished with metallic markers and it now has a luscious flowering vine. My name page has my name. I discovered that my name spelt backwards gives DNILASOR which kind of makes me think dinosaur, so I drew a very rough dinosaur to go with it. I added some page numbers. Page one is the taking book for a walk page and it has a giant metallic green one. Page two is an orange shower page. Page three I can't find but I did rip a page out and screw it up. Page four is the stub of a composting page. Page five is in the washing machine still. Page sixIs the one that tells you to embellish other pages and six a is the front cover. Page seven is a lovely messing connect dots with eyes shut and eight is my name page.

BUT MY JOURNAL IS STILLLLL DAMP!

Tuesday
My journal is still damp. some of the things I did last night have altered since last night. They have bled a little, mingled a little, passed on to other pages a little... I do need to get the thing dry soon though otherwise it will start to smell and go mouldy. Might have a go with my hairdryer later... In fact I think it already needs some odour assistance, my shampoo and conditioner seem to have worn off... The scent page calls. Job for tonight....

My washed page has come out nice. The oil pastels are still there, mostly. The water colour pencils have been mostly washed out but there are hints of colour here and there. The page has a lovely soft crinkly texture now to.

While everyone was out of the room I sneakily borrowed some pens...

At lunch I did a bunch more things...

Thursday
Noticed that my composting page is not composting - it is being eaten!

Leafy

2009-06-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

Another spread in my Niece's book which I completed last weekend. I applied clear gesso mixed with white paint and then closed the book and squidged it. I peeled it open and then stuck some pretty multicoloured pastel leave skeletons into the gesoo. No idea why the second picture is black and white...

Wrecked

2009-06-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

I had no expectations of having a journal waiting for me at home as I left work. I drove home deciding to go to a nice shady wildlife reserve called Kennall Vale for a walk with Little Dog. It is a steep sided valley which used to be home to an explosives factory and then later a granite quarry. The mills for the explosives works were water powered by the river and a series of channels (leats) that run between the mills. All is ruined now but more beautiful for it. Full of growing things and water. Go see my other blog for some pictures.

So I got home and there it was - the book I have been waiting for. But I wanted to go out.... I decided to break the back straight away. This is a bit symbolic to me. I always break the backs of my books but never of library books or books belonging to others. Breaking the book is my way of claiming this journal and making it mine...

So I had a quick flick through and found it... 'tie a string to the journal. go for a walk, drag it.' ooohhh... but people might see me - um, so? but it will be muddy and dirty and nasty - er, isn't that the point? I couldn't think of a good reason NOT to do it... Not given the whole point of it.

So off we went in the car. Little Dog had to stay on the lead there so I had two leads... There is a long path into the reserve proper and since last time they have covered it in granite chippings. This started to scuff it up nicely. I was starting to feel braver and stopped thinking about the things to come.

My two leads got tangled up a couple of times and Little Dog ended up trampling Journal Dog a couple of time - mind you so did I. The path was fine to start with but it got muddier the closer we got to the main river and my book slowly started to get dirty.

The path along the other side of the valley goes along the backs of the mills, past the leats and the waterfalls, through shallow streams, across wooden bridges lined with chickenwire, down steep granite steps. I had to grit my teeth to get through the first puddle but after that it got easier.... And my book got dragged through it all...

I bumped into a couple of people and I picked up my book. My excuse is that they had dogs and dealing with two leads - one of which held an excited hound. I got my book back to the car, not exactly safe and not exactly sound, not any more...

My journal is now officially wrecked, having done this in such a big way, right from the beginning I feel free from the desire to make my wrecking pretty. Nothing I can do to this book is ever really going to make it pretty now! *laugh*

Hope you are all having as much as I am!

The wrecked front - not too bad?

This is what remains of the back....

This gives you some idea of how much of the back of the book has gone.... *grin*

So how do I feel? I would never have chosen this prompt to follow if I hadn't been desperate to do SOMETHING to blog about tonight and still go for my walk. This was a pretty tricky one for me, some of the others would have been easy. Trashing it so much, in public, was fun! Nothing else I can do to it, could wreck it this much (could it?) so surely now there is no pressure? (is there?) It was very, very much beyond my comfort zone - no safe easy start here...

Pastel Yellow

2009-06-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i bought some nice new pastels - four yellow ones this time. I don't know why but when I decide to try out new pastels I always seem to end up doing circles of colour and blending. So here it is yellow for Project Spectrum's air. I have found this hard because air is hard to reproduce pictorially as you can't see it and yellow isn't my most favourite colour....

Wreck This Journal

2009-06-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

OK - so my book hasn't arrived. I want to get started. I want to have a look. I want to be part of the group. I feel left out.....

Well I did until I read through the links posted by others showing their progress. So many people out there are intimidated by the blank page. The unusual instructions. The lack of reverence they will have to show to a book.... Not many people have really gotten started yet.

In my desire not to feel left out, I have been hunting around on the net about this book and I found a few things that I have found inspiring and I guess others might to, if they are feeling blocked...

First off is the Flickr group and second is the author's blog which includes pictures.

I put off buying this book when I first heard about it. The idea of destroying a book kind of hurts. But as soon as I got hold of the idea that not giving it a go would mean I would miss out on some fun and some weird and wonderful experiments in the world of creativity, well... Things began to change. More than a book lover, i am a rule follower and if the rule is to wreck this journal then I am hoping that I can follow this rule to the hilt... Maybe I can make up some new exciting rules for me to follow in my life while I am at it.

So if you are stuck, go be inspired by what others have achieved. I think it helps to look at the trailblazers - kind of comforting.....

Little Gems

2009-05-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

I used to make a lot of jewellery. I made for birthdays and Christmas for 9 ladies at one point. on top of all this I was making for myself and also accumulating a whole bunch of stuff I didn't want which is on sale in an arts centre up country.

Then one day, mid way through the piece that was to be my Mum's birthday piece I got stuck. The very thought of picking up my beading needle was suddenly horrid. And I didn't for 6 months. I had birthday pieces for my sister and my Aunt to make as well and these didn't get made either.

I bought some new beads for my sister and aunt to allow for some simple bead stringing rather than bead weaving lots of tiny seed beads. But still I couldn't bring myself to do it. It has taken six months and they have probably completely forgotten I owe them pressies. In fact my Aunt never got her Xmas present either because I have been waiting to post them together....

This is my Mum's necklace. I have one similar but in sea colours and she liked it and asked for one in purple. The big beads are made from lots of seed beads. I was on the last beaded bead when I got stuck and only had a few more rows and then to string it all together to finish...

This is my Aunt's necklace. You can't really get a good look at it but the sequence is large milky purple bead, faceted clear glass bead, smoky grey hex bead, purple AB seed bead, lilac delica, silver tube and then lilac swarovski bicone and then back through to the milky purple bead ad infinitum. So it has a little variety to it and some sparkle....

This is for my sister. The focal beads are round pillows with a spiral on them. They have an AB finish which gives them that irridescent finish of paua shell. Each bead has been placed on a pin which I worked to have a loop at either end. A jump ring connects each loop to a length of chain.

The odd thing is that these pieces took less than an afternoon to do, although my Mum's piece would have taken more than that altogether. My Sister and my Aunt know I have been struggling with my jewellery making so perhaps won't be surprised to see something rather simpler than normal....This is my Aunt's rather late Xmas piece.... i have vowed not to let this happen again - if I get blocked again i shall go and buy them small pressies rather than just let it all be late...

I have also printed off two of my favourite photos of recent times to send each of them and I shall write them a prper snail mail letter to go with them. This is what I have been waiting to do for my first 3 months of snail mail letter writing for my 101 things... Oh and these don't count for my always send pressies and cards on time because they are from before I started the 101 things....

The Next Chapter

2009-05-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today I went onto Amazon and ordered my copy of Wreck This Journal so I could take part in the Next Chapter, a blogging book group. I am really looking forward to this.... Only thing is this book was on special offer to come with two others by the same author... I had also promised myself a new (to me) Charles de Lint but the one I chose was also on offer with two others.... I fear there is much soul nourishment winging it's way to me....

Misty Maps

2009-05-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

When my Dad retired from printing, I kept some of his equipment. Not as much as I now wish I had but some... A little treasure trove. Amongst these items, there is a large block that is a street map of part of London. Obviously this fit True North Art's current challenge perfectly!

In the top one, I stamped the postcard several times using black acrylic. I then got some blue ink and painted it on. Some parts were highlighted with irridescent oil pastel. Using a black highlighter, i wrote some questions such as 'where am I?', 'Can you show me the way?'. These words disappear somewhat into the map image but the map image is confused.

The second image was created using acrylics. I first smeared dark blue on with a glue spreader, then white and then light blue and finally a little irridescent medium. I then made some letetrs out of playdough as stencils and painted dark blue mixed with irridescent medium around the playdough. Then I put on some silver acrylic as well. I removed the playdough and stamped on the map with black acrylic. The words say 'You are here' but you will have to look closely to find them.

I love these maps and I think they express where I am right now pretty well....

Purple Woven Maps

2009-05-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I know this may not seem the most exciting spread in my niece's journal but I like it....

It is basically clear gesso mixed with lilac paint. I have a sheet of altered map from which I cut a few strips which I wove to make the borders. I then glued the two border elements onto the pages. The map was from a tourist leaflet at I layered on pink, lilac and metallic purple acrylics, making sure I scrapped off enough so the map shows through in places.

I love the map. I scrapped in a diagonal direction so the strips in each direction have the diagonal in the opposite direction. The blues and greens show through and look lovely with the pinks and purples. The metallic paint gives it something lovely to. Click on the photo and look at it bigger!

Go get a map and get altering!

For further ideas on bringing maps into art, go look at True North Arts! (and enter her contest!)

Orange

2009-05-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Ghosts of Autumn

Butterflies are really Flowers

Orange Abstract

Spectrum

My postcard group always has a lot of swaps going on. One upcoming swap has an orange theme and these are the cards I have made.....

Postmuse Postcards

2009-05-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

I received these three lovely postcards as a thank you from Postmuse for taking part in the orphan postcard project!

Top: Carlsbad Caverns
Middle: A doorway in a Charcoan building
Bottom: Mesa Verde National Park

Postcard Swap

2009-05-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

I took part in a Trading Frenzy recently on my yahoo group for art postcards. I traded two cards and I got these two lovely cards!

Abstract in Red by Aimeslee

Drizzle A by IndigoBlue

Bliss

2009-05-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

My blogging soul sister Mel found this... Unfortunately / fortunately she found it late... Given the Creative Clutter addition to the rules I shall have a go on my lovely week off which is unfortunately, not this week but the next....

The Challenge:It is the lusty month of May and I'm celebrating my 100th post on The Painted Garden. Forsooth I feel a challenge coming on……So I am flinging the gauntlet at the feet of all those brave enough to take up this quest…..Search your heart and then…..Paint, paste, photograph, create, or compose your personal masterpiece in the medium of choice….Said masterpiece to be entitled “MY BLISS” and indeed reflective of that subject.

~Creative Clutter~ rules: There are none. Do it whenever, post it whenever, just be sure to SHARE your BLISS with us.....

This came from the lovely Granny Annie's Place via Whymsical Musings.

Sea Rose

2009-05-10T02:53:00.000-07:00

My blog name is Rose Sea and while searching for a little flash of inspiration to do a nice flickr photo mosaic, I decided to use this name...

What I discovered makes me realise that this is a very fitting name for me. I love the places where land and water meet, not just the coast but marsh and bog and fen to. It is patly in the blood - I come from fenland stock some way back.

The muted greys with their hints of blue and green and th soft pinks seem suitable somehow. With the odd flash of that rich green so much a symbol of verdant life. In these places where earth and water meet, it often feels to me that neither of those is the dominant element. The element I always feel most in these places is air. They are places to breath deeply...

Both old fashioned roses with their glorious scents that even I with my dead nose can smell and the salt and seaweed of the sea make me want to breathe as deeply as I possibly can.

I guess this has ended up being a Project Spectrum post after all... and thinking of that - lets do some more Project Spectrum photo mosaics...

Big Things

2009-05-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

I suspect I may have a few less blog posts on here for a while... I have some larger ongoing projects that I don't wish to blog about as it will ruin the surprise! I am happily creating away! *grin*

Metalliferous Earth

2009-05-03T02:39:00.001-07:00

I also got some lovely metallic oil pastels - the sort you buy one by one and try not to let yourself pick up too many colours at a time.....

I had a little play this morning and drew spirals which I then blended. I kept adding to highlight the colours I wanted in each part of the picture. It has a lovely soft but sparkly earthy feel...

I have to say these more expensive pastels are much smoother to use than the cheap nasty ones I have a pack of. I can see more colours creeping home....

Irridescent Medium

2009-05-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the lovely Truro Arts shop where I made a few wee purchases... I found this lovely stuff called Irridescent Medium. It is for use with acrylics and you can either mix it with acrylics or you can paint over things with it. It adds a bit if texture but more importantly it gives a lovely sheen... I have only played with painting over things so far..

This was fairy paper left over from the Hello Kitty card. I had left over purple gesso which I used up. The irridescent medium was used to highlight the fairies so they gently shimmer. I then added the text (yes I know it is wonky!) int hree different coloured purple pens.

This card is going to be postcrossed for someone wanting art cards and encouraging people to produce them themselves... I drew the maze in a silver pen and then used a limited selection of water colour pens. I then slapped lots of rridescent medium over the top.

Cornish Culture Card

2009-05-02T03:38:00.000-07:00

Last I night I got a new postcross address and read about the recipient. And thought hmmm, thanks for saying what you want, you can have that card of Porthcurno I have lying around upstairs awaiting a home...

Then this morning I had another look and realised that actually, they had said very clearly what they wanted. They wanted some words in your native tongue and a translation into English (which I immediately discounted because I only speak English) and some culture (culture on a card? where do I get that?). But as I thought about it I realised I could do this...

I looked up Cornish poems and eventually found this one here.

I decided to take the repeating bits of the poem and put them on a card. I also really liked the picture at the top and decided to use it, bargain! Culture and language! The card above was the result...

St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and legend has it som nasty non-Christian Irish folk threw him off a c liff on a millstone. He made his way to the lovely Perran Bay in Cornwall. Here in the bay, a top the sand dunes he built himself an oratory and began converting the local animals to Christianity. He eventually got a little more ambitious and started converting people.

The original Oratory was made of wattle and daub and was eventually replaced with a stone one. The dunes of Perran Bay continued to grow and in time the Oratory was abandoned to the sands, where it still lies. They built St Piran Old Church further away but eventually this to was left to the sand....

The Cornish language nearly died out but was saved in the nick of time. It is one of the old Celtic languages related to Gaelic and Welsh. I don't speak it but some Cornish words are part of the everyday vocab down here.

The words of the poem by Tim Saunders mean:

'Sand dunes hold a treasure captive between land and beach:
Black the deep nook where the shadows meet,
white the foam on sand.'

So in the end I managed culture and Cornish...

Godiva and May

2009-04-29T12:42:00.001-07:00

I have a picture in my head and I wish I could get it out....

I had looked at some images of Godiva and found this lovely picture (where I can't remember). Godiva is linked to May, I read this on a blog but I can't remember which either.

The images of Godiva and this picture and may poles with ribbons have recombined in my head to give a face with bright swathes of hair flowing out and covering the page like ribbons. I wish I felt I had the skill to get it there....

Trevithick Day Scavenger Hunt

2009-04-26T02:12:00.001-07:00

If you want to know where the images come from then read on....

1) local currency
This is a special edition £2 coin commerorating Trevithick.

2) local flag
I really expected to find a St Piran's Flag (Cornish Flag) which is black with a white cross but I didn't... This was a tiny flag on the windscreen of a vintage Mini Cooper on display.

3) local food
Cornwall is famous for clotted cream, and the icecream made from clotted cream. This is an icecream van selling Cornish clotted cream icecream.

4) something rusty
Well it used to be rusty! This is the water pump that used to power the organ in the chapel where the flower festival was. It has been fully restored and pictures of how it used to be were displayed behind it.

5) local wildlife
Well.... At the flower festival, celebrating God's Wonderful Word, this was my favourite display, entitled Kingfisher... Hence wildlife...

6) Local nature
The trees and stuff are all nature but I wanted to squeeze in a picture of the Battle Stone or Maen Cadorath. It once resided elsewhere, between villages called Gwithian and Gwinear and was said to commerorate a battle with each dot and line remembering a death in this battle. It was moved in 1904. I think this is typical of christianity in Cornwall - Celtic Christianity which grew from the people and landscape as well as from the cult of Christianity is somehow a little mroe forgiving of things that might be deemed pagan - it adopts them whole and swallows them up, adding them to itself in recognisable form so little is lost.

7) local stamp
Not exciting stamps, sorry but there are some nice Finnish stamps there to.

8) part of your neighbourhood
View down the main street.

9) traditional house
A typical street with typical granite terrace houses.

10) a local person
Commercial Square with the Holman Male Voice Choir singing - if there isn't a local somewhere in this picture then....

11) local weather
Another display from the flower festival entitled Storm.

12) local transportation
A replica of the Puffin' Devil, the first ever steam powered mobile transportation device, created by Trevithick.

13) traditional local clothing
The children's dance in which the girls dress as Bal Maidens (the ladies who waited at the mine entrances to process the ore) and the boys as miners.

14) night sky
From my back door...

15) sunrise
Very cloudy day so the sun didn't really rise, the cloud cover just got lighter.... Again from my back door.

16) local product (non-food)
Craft fair stall showing carved wooden bowls and vases.

17) something furry
A dog...

18) something feathery
Penzamba samba band member with lovely feathery headress.

19) a sign of the season
Primroses and wild garlic growing on an old grave in Camborne Churchyard, just round the corner from the Battle Stone.

20) a part of you
An accidental photo...

21) your main hobby
Books...

22) a local shop
A fabric shop which had a lovely display to commemorate Trevithick Day.

23) a local restaurant
Tyacks is an 18th century Coaching Inn which is now a hotel, pub and restaurant. They often have live bands as well. All of the buildings shown are part of the hotel.

24) a street sign
Union street

25) a local mailbox
A mailbox in the corner with the Golowan Band in the background.

Orphaned Postcards!

2009-04-24T14:25:00.001-07:00

Postmuse has a very interesting project. A large collection of blank postcards with no stamps, or postmarks, or writing. Claim a postcard and it will be sent to you, to write on and send back. You don't have to live in the place the postcard shows, just having visited it is enough...

I claimed three and they arrived today. I had to scan them in....

I have a picture of Cadgwith, a postcard showing old engravings of Kew Gardens and a map of Cornwall. Luckily I get to go post things tomorrow so off they will go again....

Can you help a poor orphaned postcard?

Goodbye Kitty

2009-04-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

My latest postcross card called for a slight diversion from my normal diet of landscape cards. The only thing they listed as liking was Hello Kitty... I looked online and saw no cards so the chances of finding any in my small town are kind of low. I did look in the biggest local supermarket which has a whole aisle of cards, but no trace of hello kitty...

Never one to turn down a challenge I thought I would make one!

The pink gingham is tissue paper. The flowery paper on the right is fairy paper with said fairy removed. The flowers on the left are a vinyl tape. The for you at the bottom is sticky ribbon. The heart is a peel off. Kitty herself is some clipart I printed off.

I then laminated it so it hopefully won't fall apart in the post.... I stuck a label on the back for the stamps.

I can't imagine she will get to many hello kitty cards so I hope she likes it!

Punk Postcross

2009-04-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

I have recently started using Postcross. A lovely idea for exchanging postcards with the world. I sent my first five, of which only two have so far arrived and this entitled me to send two more. So far I have just sent normal landscape and nature cards of Cornwall but my seventh address called for something a little different...

This person is an artist who likes altered art... They want things half destroyed, changed, whatever and of course, I had to rise to the challenge....

The plain white card was splotched with cats eye inks. I then used stickers to do the writing. Crumpled the card then cut it up and finally stuck it back together with tape... I hope they like it!

Easter

2009-04-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

It isn't that I haven't been creating - it is just that carrying my laptop up to my scanner and making room on my craft table amongst the drying things only happens when I have time.... This piece and the butterfly swirl piece have taken quite a bit of time and have had various drying stages.... I know this piece is a little late but hey...

The bottom layer is some nice bright wrapping paper. Pictures were stuck on top and then light green coloured gesson smeared over. I then added the tissue paper rainbow leading to the card eggs. I wrote Wordsworth poem about daffodils in gold pen down the middle and the story of Easter over the rainbow (the one where the Goddess comes to earth on a rainbow to heal a bird but the wings were too broken so she made it into a hare that laid brightly coloured eggs and whose appeareance each year ushers in Spring).

Over the picture of Mary discovering the stone rolled away from the tomb I drew a sun in gold and used chalks to colour it like a sunrise. I then added a gold frame and added a little gold to the whole piece. I added the names of Easter and other Easter time festivals in green metallic paint around the border.

The Easter picture is from a childs book, the old picture is of the Goddess and I found it on wikipedia, the little passover picture was from a website giving free Jewish clipart, the hare is from my llewyllns calendar, the hot cross buns music is from a childs nursery rhyme book. My favourite picture is the one in the middle by artist Thalia Took who kindly allowed me to use her work here.

I am not sure how much I like it - I think i have a lot to learn about using pictures in my work...

Butterfly Swirls

2009-04-19T05:53:00.001-07:00

These pages were made using strips of blue tissue paper in various hues. I then put very long thin strips of silver and white tissue paper over the top. I then mixed some clear gesso with some cheap silver premix and a tiny bit of good blue acrylic. This gesso was mostly see through but added to the blue of the page and the silver gives just a tiny bit of glittery sheen. The butterflies and flowers were punched from holographic paper and glued on. At the bottom I used some art fibres but these haven't come out very clearly, they irridescent in two shades of blue and two clear ones with blue or green sheens. I then made little trails behind the butterflies with my glus pen and added some blue green glitter. I then spray fixed it.

As normal the scanner can't capture the play of light on all the glittery bits on a page like this...

Mylandia

2009-04-19T05:38:00.001-07:00

I created this map of Mylandia in response to CollageDiva's lovely prompt which you can see here.

Renee's Award

2009-04-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ann has given me this lovely award, right back at you! Go have a look at Ann's altered art and her lovely little paper dolls!

It was started by Bella and Ces to honour their friend Renee.

I now need to pass it on to eight artists I admire and there in lies the difficult bit! Eight! Only eight! How hard is that?

Well here they are!

I found Sue sometime ago and she has two blogs one for doodles and another for mandalas and both are full of gorgeous art.

Dianne has a lovely range of art, from proper arty drawings to luxuriant collages. Her recent Kandinsky inspired pieces are divine!

Thalia Took creates beautiful Goddess art that shows the many, many faces of woman. I love reading about her different Goddesses and what they have to say...

Magic Cochin is an illustrator and print maker. On her blog she talks about many things but you have to go see her latest print...

I only just found Misty but I was impelled to look through her blog and I fell in love, over and over again. Her dragons, her faeries, her lighters, her jewellery. She is one prolific lady!

Go have a look at the little folk of Bone Head Studios... They are ever so endearing!

Suzi is a calligrapher and she makes words into art. The words she chooses always speak volumes and she truly makes them come alive...

Aimeslee shows me what is possible in the world of multi-media creativity and I hope someday to have some measure of her skill...

There is of course one other person I have to honour - I admire my blog soul sister Mel and her path seems to so often mirror my own. So much so, I don't think I can be entirely objective, she has to sit at the top there everytime!

Scavenging

2009-04-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have made a decision about this hunt. I shall go to a May Day celebration in two weeks time in a Cornish town and try and take pictures of all 25 things in one day! This has the benefit that things like traditional clothing should be covered. There are three big May Day celebrations - Flora Day in Helston on Friday, Trevithick Day in Camborne on Saturday and Obby Oss in Padstow on Friday. Since I have to work, Trevithick Day it is!

Tag

2009-04-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

Suzi from Spirit Whispers has been tagged, and in turn, has tagged me!

Here are the rules if I tag you!

1. Link to your original tagger and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I never know what to write on these things - it's like leaving and birthday cards at work.... So here goes...

1) In my teenage / very early twenties I was a goth. I used to wear black eyeliner and mascara and back comb my hair and wear lots of black in general...

2) My right side of my body is bigger than my left - my right leg and arm are longer for instance...

3) I have a long standing fascination with celtic knotwork and spirals. I am not sure how this started exactly. A long time ago my sister became pregnant while she was part way through her degree. The first weekend she was going home after my parents were told was going to be a hard one and I purposefully went home and acted the clown. I managed to redirect my Dad in this manner quite a few times. My sister never realised what I was doing or why but my Mum knew. A few days later when I had returned to work two books arrived in the post from my Mum and they were some of Aiden Meehan's wonderful series. My Mum and I have never spoken about this, it was just understood.... A quiet, unspoken thank you....

4) As a child I never used to have nightmares. My sister would drift through my room fairly regularly like a ghost to go sleep with my folks after a bad dream. Sometimes I would wake in the night and be bored and lonely and want to go sleep with my folks. I would think of the nastiest things I could to upset myself so I could go and sleep with them.

5) I am really bad with plants, I would love to have green fingers and maybe I do have them - they just haven't connected yet... I have managed to kill a few plants in my time. Now I only buy desert plants - cacti, succulents and things like yuccas and dragon trees... *sigh*

6) I haven't been to a dentist (except once to an emergency dentist for an abscess) in fifteen years and I have no fillings.

7) I have a little fledgling collection of cuddly dragons named Domestos, Harpic and Big Blue. They are all toilet cleaners and domestos 'kills all known germs' *grin*. I also have purple lobster, a seahorse, a crab and three eyed fish.

So on to the tagging... (because Suzi tagged this blog, I am only going to tag folk from this side of my bloggy endeavours)

Aimeslee
Alice
Ann
Barb
Emma
Siobhan
Sue

Unfinished

2009-04-11T03:09:00.000-07:00

These pages have started life in various ways - either experimenting with new supplies or using up bits of paint....
Black left over acyrlic with green coloured gesso over and finally left over gold acrylic.

Words - each layer has words starting with a different letter of the alphabet and goes in a different dirrection. I used kids metallic markers - more pearly than metallic!

Experimenting with some new kids window paints and glitter glues... I love the softest of this page.

I played with a new multi coloured ink pad and the bag of little creative type I found from the things I saved when my Dad retired as a printer. The green is left over gesso and the words matched the type - the past does indeed seem to live on in me, from one generation to the next.

Experimentation splodges with ink stamper pens and some new stamps - I need practice at stamping!

Photographic Scavenger Hunt

2009-04-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

I have as one of my 101 Things, to complete a Photographic Scavenger Hunt. I don't like the idea of competing right now or of having a time limit. So I am going to take a previous hunt's list and search for them at a better speed for me. Maybe sometime in the future I will do a more formal and competitive hunt, I do after all, have plenty of time till my 1001 days are up!

So the list I have chosen was hosted by Nicole B Photography.

The list is as follows!

1) local currency
2) local flag
3) local food
4) something rusty
5) local wildlife
6) Local nature
7) local stamp
8) part of your neighbourhood
9) traditional house
10) a local person
11) local weather
12) local transportation
13) traditional local clothing
14) night sky
15) sunrise
16) local product (non-food)
17) something furry
18) something feathery
19) a sign of the season
20) a part of you
21) your main hobby
22) a local shop
23) a local restaurant
24) a street sign
25) a local mailbox

The only requirement for me, is that I don't give away whereabouts I live in Cornwall, or photograph any people I actually know... Our camera does have a zoom but there is a real loss of quality so some pictures will be very challenging to take and may have things in them in a very, very small way....

Elemental Photo Mosaics

2009-04-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed making my first photo mosaic so I thought I should make some more for Project Spectrum and Creative Every Day. Over the course of eight months Project Spectrum will look at the four directions with links to various traits such as colour; earth - green, air - yellow, water - blue and fire - red. The theme for Creative Every Day this month is colour.

I entered the appropriate colour in flickr search and choose 9 pictures from the first page of results...

A Picture of Me

2009-04-10T03:10:00.000-07:00

I found this on Quinceberry's site earlier:

Thauna issued a challenge on her blog...and I accepted. Up above is my life in pictures...this was fun! I'll explain., and then join me if you like.

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into FD's Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

I don't want to say the words I typed in to get these pictures as many of them are names. What I did do was select the picture I liked best on the first page of the search results - even if it had nothing to do with the search term. For instance Heath Ledger gave me a woman with two wolves because the artist had been listening to Heath Ledger and included this in their writing about the piece. Do have a go though! It is really good fun!

Doing this hunt I found these lovely silhouettes. I particularly liked this one and it seemed full of synchronicity that is was inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Este's 'Women who run with the Wolves'. There has been much talk about this book recently in my e-verse. I bought and read it some time ago but the memories of this book are fuzzy n my brain - maybe I should get it out again...

Cheating?

2009-04-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

It has become obvious that I am not going to get five people to take part from my small set of followers, not that I blame them - some of them sell their artistic endeavours, some just don't have time, there would be as many reasons as there are people...

However, there are a whole bunch of other people who have already signed up to this, who are also struggling to find five people....

Is this cheating?

I have no idea but having decided I want to make five things for five people within a year, I don't care...

Blog Candy

2009-04-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have signed up to Aimeslee's Blog Candy give away, so here it is... (I felt no need to change her wording *laugh* except for the country related bits)

Here's how it works:

The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me! I will choose, but it will be made with you in mind. Could be any kind or size of card, bookmark, an altered object, but it will be something that can fit in an envelope or padded envelope for receipients in the UK, and in an envelope for those of you in foreign countries. Like I said, just a little sump-sump! :-))

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make, but I will try hard for that goal and I'll do my best work, too.

2. What I create will be made with you in mind so it will be unique.

3. It'll be done sometime this year (You old-timers know an entire year just might not be long enough, haha, but I am committing to it!).

4. I will not tell you what it's going to be. It will hopefully be a surprise.

5. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must offer this blog candy on your blog! This is how we expand the love.

Re-post this on your blog, offer handmade creations to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog (then come here and post).

Add my name to the #1 slot on your card- I am your first participant. When you create your give away, you will become the first participant on the new list for the people who participate with you. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment here telling me they did (I will go to your blog to check that you have this posted) win a handmade gift by me.

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

SO ...... who will be the first 5 folks????

1. Aimeslee

2. Mel

3. Ann

4. Suzi

5. Savannah

A Secret...

2009-03-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

I am taking part in my Soul Journal Yahoo groups Mandala ATC swap. For those (like me) who have no idea what ATC means, I have finally discovered it means Artists Trading Card. This means I have to produce 20+ cards, either copies or originals. As it is sometime before everyone will receive their cards, i don't want to post pictures of the cards or certain details... I wil later, but not now...

So here it is...

I began with three sheets of white card upon which I marked the cards out. I then gesso'd with a mix of clear gesso and acrylics in colour one. i used a glue spreader so the mix gave a nice texture with little ridges and different thicknesses of colour. I then used scissors to scrap some chalk off a stick onto the wet gesso mix. The chalk was in colour two and once dry I brushed it so it gave a softer look in places. I then splatterd some ink on in colour three.

I then began work on the mandala itself by cutting out circles of sugar paper in colour one. I then used oil pastels in colour three to draw round the edge of the circles and then smudged the colour inwards. Onto this i stuck six shapes in a darker shade of colour one and into the centre of these, a smaller shape in colour two.

So now I have to choose my affirmation and copy them onto each card. I would also like to pretty up the back of the cards a little, if I have time!

One thing I love about the cards is that every one is different. The balance of the three elements of the background varies. The way I cut the shapes and glued them on varies to. Every one is unique!

I also love the fact that the cards suit Eostre and also fit Project Spectrum! Bonus!

Mandala for a Teenage Girl 2

2009-03-28T08:53:00.001-07:00

And the second mandala... using much the same tools as the first.

I added some spray fix to both mandalas to try and give the glitter a bit more staying power...

Burning

2009-03-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

This image was completed early last week.

I started with red and orange marker pen scribbles, then I added pink and red ink marks. Over this I added red paint. I then spoldged on white paint and spread it using a kids texturing tool. I then cut out some flamey shapes from some irridescent cellophane. The words are in gold stickers and although it has been cut off a little, due to the size of the book, reads ' How bright do I burn?'.

Mandala for a Teenage Girl

2009-03-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

Just because I have been busy at work with overtime and very quiet on this blog, doesn't mean I haven't been creating! I have a lot of things complete or near complete it seems...

This mandala sits on one side of a spread in my niece's book. There will be a second mandala on the other page of the spread but that is still at pencil mark stage. They each sit in the middle of a near A4 page for her to journal around. I haven't included affirmations as I don't want to inflict my views on her, I just want to create a pretty place she can share her own.

This one was made with silver and lilac embossing powders and a glue pen; pink, purple and silver metallic paints; purple and silver crayola markers; silver fine line pen and silver and purple glitters. The page is gesso with white acrylic over the top.

I found this hard to get a good image of because of the sparkliness of the mandala. Some of the detail with the fine silver pen is lost as well in this picture. Some of the images appeared in silver all over!

I was inspired to include some mandals in my nieces book by the prompt from the Soul Journal group I belong to. They have a yahoo group here and a blog here. This month includes an ATC swap and a mandala competition.

Kenny's Page

2009-03-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Collaged with yellow magazine pages. clear gesso. Paint 'Black Dog' large with black acrylics.

Wrote a selection of the names we used for him in red gel pen round the outside of the page as a border. Wrote in orange gel pen around the page some of the things he used to do.

Used acrylic washes to create 5 'frames' getting smaller as they went in the page. lemon yellow for the outer one and cadmium red for the inner one with gradations in between.

Discovered what to do with my autumn blending chalk pack and used the yellow, red and prange chalks to make the colours radiate from the middle. (wish I had scanned it at this stage as it was pretty!)

Mixed my copper and gold metallic acrylics to give a more appropriate shade and then spread lightly over the top of the page with heavier dollups in the middle.

**********************************

It has been over two weeks since I wrote about this page first and it has taken me this long to be able to finish as I find it a very moving page and finishing it has made me feel very sad.

I used the images from a lovely sympathy card as a template. Kenny was a black dog and his earthly body was done using black sparkle embossing powder and his spirit in snowflake tinsel embossing powder.

His name was printed from my PC and I cut the letters out to make a template and I had put some irridescent cellophane underneath. I used the template to sponge on black paint which I overlaid with PVA glue and then pasted the cellophane letters on top. Finally I added some sparkly stick on heart shaped stones.

Book Making 2

2009-03-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

I managed to part F from an old light blue shirt and cut a large rectangle out that was enough to cover the book completely. I then took my silk paints and started to paint the cotton. It became obvious painting was not going to do it so I just dropped it on using three colours, azure and navy blues and purple. I then sprinkled it with enough water to make it damp and scrunched it in my hands to allow the water to spread and the dye with it.

I scanned the material several times and above shows one of these although there is a bit more purple in real life. I then added some metallic inks with a sponge - do this after you have put the cloth onto the book as the glue made this a little messy as the ink ran. The silk paints were fine because I had ironed them to set them.

The photo below shows the board covers laid on the cloth. I cut the board near the holes to make strips. The cloth will act as a hinge between these two bits of board so the book can still be opened once it is bound.

I then taped the board across the middle to hold it the distance apart I wanted it and to hold all the pieces tsraight relative to each other. Make sure you allow a little extra spine width to allow for the thickness of the board - I didn't and had to rip a few pages out. Then glue the outside of the board covers and stick down onto the cloth. Stroke the cloth outwards to remove any bubbles and wrinkles and to ensure it is taut.

The masking tape across the middle is no longer required so can be removed. Fold the fabric across the corners and glue it so that wherever fabric touches fabric or card with the fold it will stick. I then ironed the corners to ensure the material was smooth and well folded. I then glued all the fabric flaps, ensuring there was glue right up by the cover and folded the material over, ensuring that I smoothed it to make sure it was taut. I then removed any excess glue that had come through the cloth and secured with masking tape as it dries.

This next part is hard to photograph... I then took some black cotton and took it through one of the board holes through the cloth into the inside of the book. I then threaded all the pages and took the cotton through the hole in the other cover and through the cloth. I then took the thread through the second set of holes, then the third and fourth and then back down. I did this alot of times!

Make sure all tail ends are at the same place and sew them through so they are between the first / last page and the cover. Knot them together and then slide them under the sewn down spine, near the holes. Then put glue along the spine to stop them escaping and coming loose. Press down the spine so any escess glue comes out and wipe away.

Of course it isn't finished yet! I need to make or find some preety paper to glue across the first page and front cover and also the last page and back cover. This will hide the edges of the fabric and the board on the inside and ensure the book is fully joined together. Now I have lots of lovely interiors to make for my Neice!

Book Making Part 1

2009-03-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

I started to make my first book tonight.

I haven't done much. I took 24 sheets of A4 paper from a folder which had 4 holes punched. I then punched four holes in each of two pieces of A4 board for the covers. I then took 23 further of the pages and sliced them so I was left with a thin strip of paper with the four holes. The slices will sit in between each full sheet to make the book fatter so there is a little more room to accommodate collage and paint.

Next I need to find an old shirt of F's....

Things I Want...

2009-03-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

I popped into the big Tesco on my way to work this morning and discovered there had been a switch around in their stationery aisle and new lovely things had been added. They have increased their supplies for scrapbookers and card makers with more stamps, stickers, die cuts and pretty papers.

Some of these things are worth buying but others feel a little pricey. One thing I intend to look at again is their new lacey tapes and I may be tempted by their stamps but the real temptation lay further along the aisle...

In the childrens craft section they have added new tools for painting. They have shaped sponges and sponge stamps and sponge rollers and a lovely little pack of tools with foam tipped widgets and sponge tipped widgets and other lovely things for adding texture...

I am slowly learning that for my preferred style of journaling, tools are much much more preferable than pretty ready made things. I love combining different media and exploring this side of things which is why soul journaling appeals. I admire the other side of scrapbooking but it is very un-me.

I look forward to new purchases with new pay packet.... Unfortunately time is going to be limited shortly as there will be some long, long shifts at work for stock take.

From the bottom of my heart...

2009-03-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

I worked on this spread today and it represents my feelings of grief as I lost my dog this weekend. I started working on a second spread to celebrate him but it as yet, unfinished.

I began with a light blue gel pen in which I wrote a list of many of the things that bring home my loss. Then in a green gel pen I made larger emotional letters repeated three times on top of each other representing some of the things i am feeling.

I don't like lime green too much and I have a bottle of metallic lime green. It is quite thin cheap paint and I used this to cover the whole page. I then blobbed on yellow and blue acrylic and closed my journal. I removed excess paint by blotting with spare paper.

One top of this I stamped the final letters with black acrylic. I then highlighted parts of each letter with gold metallic paint and smeared some on the page too. I then wrote some other words in a glue pen and added gold embossing powder.

I like this page and how it shows the layers of my emotions. The colours are ones which make me a little uncomfortable to use but added together they create a nice effect. Grief is not an ugly thing in and of itself so I would not have wanted it to have been an ugly page in the end.

Preparation

2009-03-05T11:42:00.000-08:00

I am at the time of preparation again after my splurge of page producing last weekend. Last night I collaged scraps of paper as a base on two new spreads. I hope to do more tonight and then I need to start gessoing sometime soon.

I bought a pot of clear gesso which I can tint with acrylics last weekend. I have discovered that this has a very different texture than my home made pva coloured with acrylic. It is much more chalky and transparent than the pva. I have used it on a few bare pages but discovered it doesn't have the omph to cover over the lines.

Last weekend I started creating some other pages with out collaging to begin with. These have some way to go! I cut a hole in two pages and sandwiched some clear cellophane in between. I then stuck newsprint around the frame. It provides a window between two spreads one is silver tissue paper and blue gesso and the other is metal tape and reddy gesso. I need to build up the layers and the art on these pages....

I also hope to start making the journal for my neice soon. I realised I have binders full of high quality paper punched already with four holes. These would make a good basis for a book for her... I just need to find some large thick card for the cover now I think. I know F has some old cotton shirts I can nab to cover the board and if I punch holes in the board I can use the existing four holes in the paper to bind it all together... I think...

I also discovered that my supermarket had some lovely tissue papers in their card section for wrapping presents. There is an irridescent one, pink and blue gingham, lilac, turquoise, white with silver stars and butterflies... A lot of them were reduced and I really look forward to playing with them!

I read somewhere (Kelly Kilmer I think) that some people prepare whole journals before starting the more fun parts. I read somewhere else (Quinceberry) that some people have multiple journals on the go... I need to look into this!

Daisy Chain

2009-03-04T10:37:00.001-08:00

I have to say that this photo is sadly the best of a bad bunch and this little necklace is now on the next stage of it's journey to it's owner. I found it very hard to photograph these little translucent beads as they have a shiny and slightly irridescent coating. There are three colours of bead - blue, pink and clear with each daisy having a bead of another colour at it's centre.

2009-03-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

I bought some new paint today. Tesco have a craft section in their bigger stores and their range changes. They sell kids paints of readymix which are an awful lot cheaper than my tiny tubes of acrylic and perfect for journaling. Today they had new bottles of black, white, pink and purple readymix but even better they have new bottles of metallic ready mix in gold, copper and silver.

Unfortunately I still have my dull daisychain necklace to finish and so I am going to resist the pull of paint and mess and magic and pick up my beading needle and continue making daisies. *sigh*

I promise to take a photo before it goes to it's new home.

Earth Part Three

2009-03-01T03:36:00.001-08:00

This part of the collage is now done I think. I will add all four collages to a large sheet of card board I think and papier mache and embellish a frame for them later on.

Soul Journal

2009-03-01T03:23:00.000-08:00

These are the pictures from yesterday with a few extra things done to finish off each spread.

Spread 1

This is my least favourite because of the muddy, dark quality of the brown. I am not sure it is finished. If it is, it is because I have given up on a bad job! *laugh*

Spread 2

I love this one. A friend of my Dad's recently died of a heart attack and he was only 46. When the numbers reached 46 over the top of the butterfly style squished paints it just spoke to me of living life to the full because we only have short lives really, like flowers and butterflies. The black hand outlines are embossed in sparkly black. 46 is the last number and it sits to the bottom right under all the flowers.... I don't think death should be seen as something gloomy because I have beliefs to help me believe the dead go on. Death is hardest for the living but then so is life....

Spread 3

This is a very gentle, subtle spread with the colours all being quite similar. The silhouette was done in glue pen and then lilac embossing powders used. The wings and outline were highlighted in copper with lilac ink added to the wings and white acrylic to the head. Even so it is hard to see the detail here and not much easier in real life.

I would love to hear what they say to you!

Progress

2009-02-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

I have been quite busy since leaving work early yesterday.

Earth - Some paint and glitter have been added to the original after a little (but not enough) experimenting on the copies. I just have a little text to add then this part of the project will be finished. I think I may mount it on some cardboard and papier mache a frame of some sort.

Soul Journal - I have missed out the house pages from Caspiana's for the moment and have been enjoying the collage pot pourri pages. Basically Caspiana gives a list of instructions to carry out on a page and you have to do them in a different order. The results are a little random especially if you are haphazard when selecting colours.

The first of the three spreads has an unusual look for me as I used the first paint I picked up to dry brush the two pages was brown. The second colour I picked up was yellow so the wash I did didn't really do much. I then drizzled and flicked some metallic paints onto the page. The last step will be to do a silhouette of a figure.

The second spread has turned out much nicer than the first. I blobbed primary colour paints onto the page before closing the book and squidging all the paint together. Over this I used some pinky chalky inky stuff which toned it down in a subtle way and coloured the white spaces. When I wrote the numbers across the pages I got as far as 46. This number is especially significant right now as a friend of my Dad's died of a heart attack last week. He was only 46. This page began to take on the essence of living a life fully and brightly, no matter how short, like a butterfly. I forked on some black paint and then drew round my hand with a glue pen before putting on some black glittery embossing powder. I heated this up and all the little left over bits of dust to so the page is glittery and colour full with black bits as well. I then wrote on some words in silver like Be, Blossom, Flower, Grow etc. The last stage will be to sew on some flowers made from felt.

The third spread was started using a dusky pink chalky ink pad which didn't get into all the folds of the paper and so highlights the texture of the pages. I used some wool to stamp on some copper ink. I wrote the alphabet in purple. For the metal I added some eyelets (which will be under the flowers on the other side) and some metal tape. I then gesso'd out a section with pinky gesso. More steps to follow...

Jewellery - I have had to pick upmy beads again after a three month break as I have demands to fulfill. I am currently 9 inches through a daisy chain made in size 11's (11 beads to an inch) in transparent glass in clear, pink and blue.

The worst thing about the journals is that many of the steps need drying after.... This also makes it hard to scan in as whenever I start I don't think about this until I have wet pages!

Earth Part Two

2009-02-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is my Earth collage for Project spectrum so far...

The brown panels at top and bottom and the flowers in the bottom right are from an envelope.

The four triangular images in each corner are microscope images of very thin sections of rock, used by geologists to examine mineral content. (These are quite plain, many contain much more vivid colours as different wavelengths of light are used to identify the minerals - to look st more try 'thin section rock' as search in google images)

The central cloud like image and the image in the very centre are both fractals, mathematically generated images.

The stone ring is Men an Tol, an ancient stone in Cornwall.

I am really pleased with the result so far but have decided to experiment with some colour photocopies before committing to the next stage of altering the original. I will experiment with colours of paint mixed with glue and amounts. I want to bring the images together more smoothly before I begin working over them... I want to add a food circle around the outside of the stone, a haiku and some glitter, maybe in a nice triple spiral....

I like the idea of bringing the four finished collages together with the Goddess Reya mentioned. I am hoping I can find out who she is!

I can tell I am going to enjoy taking part in Project Spectrum and can't wait to see what others produce!

Earth

2009-02-22T02:45:00.001-08:00

A little while ago I decided to look at the four elements and see what they meant to me, particularly as a scientist, and also their symbolism. I have just re-read my blog written on the brainstorm I did for earth, which you can see here. Reading this has sparked images and ideas in my head.

For each subject of Project Spectrum I want to complete several different projects and I would like to include an A4 journal style collage sheet on each. This is my current idea for my earth journal sheet and I shall start collecting images etc soon.

In the centre is a picture of Men-an-Tol (a Circular Cornish stone with a hole in the middle) Around the stone is a little food cycle with the animals flowing round the stone. This is overlaid on a fractal design which has been altered to make it faint. In the corners are nature patterns, such as those from rocks. There will also be a border at the top and the bottom taken from a pretty junk mail envelope. This is liable to change somewhat but it gives me somewhere nice to start from. I would also like to include some words on the page somewhere to....

Yesterday I also bought a pack of air drying clay and I expect to do something with this. I also like the idea of getting out my bead loom and doing something in earth colours. We shall see what else I get up to....

Soul Journal Update

2009-02-21T12:52:00.000-08:00

I am still following this course but progress is variable! Although some parts take only a few minutes, drying can take a lot longer... This means that with the many layers in some pages, I get a little frustrated with the pace.

Today I prepped the next spread with white acrylic and pva. I also mixed in a little blue ink and discovered that ink makes the glue go stringy. It was useable but I wouldn't do this again. I also prepped a second spread with pinky coloured lottery slips. This afternoon I gesso'd the lottery pages and prepped another two, one with diary pages with a turquoise header block and the other with yellow bordered puzzle pages.

So nothing exciting to show right now...

Postcards Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen

2009-02-21T12:46:00.001-08:00

Postcard 11 - Silver and gold pen. An town and road type pattern based on Aborigine patterns.

Postcard 12 - Card and glue. In honour of Ben Nicholson. I may not much have liked his displayed work at the Tate that i saw last week but I can appreciate some of his techniques. This was inspired by his relieves.

Postcard 13 - Watercolour pencils used by dipping in water first. Drawn for Word Wednesday - Fish. I love these pencils but I don't much like this drawing!

Postcards Nine and Ten

2009-02-17T11:17:00.001-08:00

The effect of the postcards is growing and spreading across my wall....

Postcard Nine - A continuation of the doodle I started (which turned out to be a sort of maze) This time I doodled within a word.

Postcard Ten - this postcard was covered with foil insulation tape, words is made up of black foam letters and the butterflies were made using a punch and some magazines. I like the simple meaning behind this postcard. That words are a mirror and they are also fleeting like butterflies... It fits nicely with the theme for Creative Every Day this month which is words...

Soul Journal

2009-02-17T11:06:00.003-08:00

I scanned in my last two pages and realised that scanning was much better so here is my whole journal from the beginning...

Page 1 - stamps and various pens

Page 2 - images outlines copied on to plain paper using fine line pen. Colour added using pens, inks and eyeshadow mixed with pva.

Page 3 - Violet and black inks sponged on. Images glues on with pva and then watered sown blue acrylic paint added. Some further detail added in copper pen which is not very clear.

Page 4 - Prompt - I forget covered in tape and quote made out of foam letters

Journalling Day

2009-02-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

Today I have been journaling.

Pages 3 and 4 are complete. Over the pink and black ink I pasted 24 images that were selected according to the list in Caspiana's blog for the scavenger hunt for this page. I then used watered down blue acrylic to paint mostly between the images. I then used a copper pen to decorate and add words. The copper doesn't show up to much and is pretty subtle but looks pretty.

Pages 5 and 6 are probably finished. I spent some time writing on the prompt 'I forgot'. I actually found this a little upsetting as I listed many good things that I had forgotten to do. I then taped over most of the words I had written. I used sellotape, book covering plastic, holographic tapes, masking tape, double sided tape, florsists tape (with double sided tape), white labels, yellow post it tape and adhesive velcro pads. I then looked for forget quotes and found this 'remember your humanity and forget the rest'. It felt perfect for this page as it is all about letting go of the things you regret and forgot and moving on... I used sticky letters to put this on the page.

I know this ended up a little different to Caspiana's prompts but hey... I haven't sanded or gesso'd this page and I am as yet undecided about...

One thing is for sure - I can't use the foam letters again in this book as it really won't shut if I do!

The Four Elements (Project Spectrum)

2009-02-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

I have decided to join in with this project, called Project Spectrum! This year it will focus on the four elements or the four compass directions each of which has been associated with a material and a colour. Each element will be explored over the course of two months giving plenty of time to produce something and fit in with Creative Every Day.

At the beginning of the year I focused on the four elements a little and brainstormed on what they meant to me before writing about them. This project feels like a nice extension on this work.

Unforgiving...

2009-02-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

I have decided to alter my plan for this blog. Reading about how I did something yesterday but haven't copied it for uploading yet is a bit dull. Life happens and I shouldn't feel guilty about it. From now on I will only post the art and bits about the art. I will post no apologies or anything else. If I have no art, I shall not post.... I am human and I work and sometimes I have other things to do... *laugh*

Happenings

2009-02-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Not much going on today. Absolutely dog tired.

However two days ago I started the next stages of journal pages 4 and 5. I dabbed the pages using the violet ink in my new set with a piece of sponge. I expected the ink to be darker but over the white gesso substitute it was a violent magenta. I decided to tone it down a little bit by using the other side of the sponge piece (a kitchen scouring sponge I cut up). This was coarser and the black ink i used contrasts well, if a little dramatically.

I have started collecting pictures to stick onto this page as per Caspiana's scavenger hunt but am no where near finished. I have many beautiful magazines with lovely pictures but like Mel, I can not bare to cut up my beloved national Geographics... So I used one of the many catalogues that get sent to us in error. The pictures may well feature a lot of clothing...

Sometimes it just doesn't happen...

2009-02-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Today there is no creativity. Sometimes real life takes over a little and there is not time until it is too late and you just don't feel like it... Or anything else either...

Numbers Six, Seven and Eight

2009-02-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Number Six - Heart in oil pastels

Number seven - Doodle Wave with house on top (no idea why) in black fine line pen and watercolour pencils.

Number Eight - Doodle in fine line pen and watercolour pencils. My favourite and something I will experiment with again!

Soul Journal: Soul Armor

2009-02-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Today I have been working on pages two and three of my journal. Soul Armor! This is the types of things you need to protect yourself and your creativity.

I didn't want a big armored chap, it feels wrong somehow for me. Woman can protect themselves in their own ways and well, it is about ME protecting MYSELF. I do however have companions. I have a magical stead to carry me safely and two hounds (Rhodesian Ridgebacks) from my dreams to protect me and keep me going. These companions are most importantly friends as well...

I found images on the net and printed them off. I held them against the window and put a blank sheet over the top onto which I coped the features I wanted. I then cut them out and glued them onto my page. I added some colour by painting with my new inks. I then mixed some very sparkly eyeshadows with glue to create a lovely paint. This does not show it's full lustre in the picture.

I started adding text and I have finished for the day. I suspect other things will be added to this picture over time but it is fine for now... I have to say, I find this quite challenging and tiring!

I Tried...

2009-02-08T02:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I did try to be creative... honest...

Nothing quite worked really.

I tried to make a card and the glue wouldn't stick the elements down...

I wanted to take photos on our walk but F and I were sharing the camera...

I bought some scented petals and love heart candles to update the fire place but didn't put them out...

I bought some lovely inks, watercolour pencils, oil pastels and some beads but I didn't get round to using them...

By the time we finally got back in, I was cold and the coffee I had drunk was sitting funnily. So I had a bath and that was about it. I wrote my other blog and added some of F's photos... *grin*

Soul Journal Photos One (Day One and Two)

2009-02-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

Pages Four and Five showing first two stages - Newspaper scraps stuck on and then written over with sharpie pens.

Pages two and three after third stage - covering with glue and white acrylic mix.

Page One showing the greaseproof paper that I had to peal off. I like the pattern it made.

The strange green squiggle is me covering up my surname afterwards. One thing doing this made me realise, is just how many names I have used! I have a name that lets me do that... As to Evil Aunty Rolo... That was my pet name that my niece and nephew used to use for me. This all came to an end one day though... Obviously I was an evil aunty in a gooood way... *laugh*

Her playgroup only allowed two people to register to pick her up and my Mum and my Sister were they. One day my nephew had chicken pox and my Mum being a nurse was the nominated person to look after him. My sister had to work. So the playgroup had been informed I would be there. When I turned up the lady gave me a little smirk as I collected my niece. It later turned out that in her excitement she had been telling the staff all morning that her Evil Aunty Rolo would be picking her up... *sigh*

Yesterday's Postcard (5)

2009-02-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

Having admired some of Sue's Doodles, I would like to bring some doodle power into my postcards. Not sure this one quite does it. I used various pens and pencils and crayons...

Today...

2009-02-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

I have continued on my journal and have a nice new first page with my name all over it. I am undecided whether to photo this and post it given it has my full, real name all over it. Not sure how I feel about that! Also did a green postcard which again is a little naff.... but hey! I do love the first page of my journal though. The layering detracts from any naffness there may be! *laugh*

Photo catch up tomorrow, I promise... *yawns*

Small Beginnings...

2009-02-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

I would love to post a piccie of today's efforts but I have no idea where F has put the camera. I have had fun pasting newspaper randomly into the first three spreads of my journal. I have then written about my feeling son top. I made some gesso-ish stuff from pva and white paint. When I went to paint the second page with it I discovered that greaseproof paper is not the same as waxed paper as my first page stuck to it... I peeled it off and it created an interesting effect - both on my page and the greaseproof....

Photos tomorrow.. maybe... or a big catchup at some point anyway...

New Ideas (at least to me they are)

2009-02-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

While looking on the blogs of fellow CEDers I found this blog by Susan. This led me to this blog by Sarah Whitmire. In this post, Sarah begins a tutorial on Soul Journalling. Looking at Sarah and Susan's pictures I am determined to have a go!

I have been reading Sarah's instructions. It seems I will need to buy gesso which will require a trip to Truro although I think you can make something similar with PVA and white paint? She also recommends cheap acrylic paint as these have much less pigment and so are better for layering and giving a wash effect. Today I stopped off on my way hope and bought some cheap kids paints. Bigger bottles of blue, green, red and yellow. Smaller bottles of metallic purple, pink and green. Little pots like the ones you get with painting by numbers and some tubes of more expensive white and black. Sarah also recommends Sharpie pens as they will not run when you paint over them, so a pack of these went in too.

I also bought a cheap A5 hard back book but I am as yet unsure whether I wish to journal in this or not. I could make a book... Or I could wait till I get into Truro....