Arty Meme

OK Laura and Maz have inspired me to have a go at this.

The first five people to respond to this via the comments will receive a piece of artwork from me. It will be original and a surprise.
The catch?
If you respond you have to post this to your blog too and continue sharing the art.

Textile Tuesday

I've been working on catching up on my Textile Tuesday pieces.

The first is Abstract.
It now being, almost, winter and very wet here in North Devon the river has reappeared on Newberry Beach. It runs under the beach in summer but each winter pushes its way through the pebbles and flows across the beach.
On its way it makes little whirlpools as it flows round the bigger rocks - fascinating.



The second is Lucky.
The arch is how I see my life at the moment. We have to step through that archway into the unknown.
We have done it before but hopefully this time it will be a very lucky arch for us.

So teeny tiny!

I signed up for a swap.

Yes, I know this is nothing new but this was to do 1 inch square collages.
Always - well nearly always - up for a challenge and to have a go at something new I said I would join in.
After all I love to decorate dominoes so how hard could it be?

Oh boy, this was hard.
When I decorate dominoes it is usually with ink, paint and stamps but this was collage.
Started out OK. Did the collage backgrounds and was very happy until I cut them to the squares.
Had to go and read the instructions again.
Had I got the size right? The squares were soooooo teeny tiny. I had to have it wrong. But no!
I actually thought of leaving the squares as they were but I thought that was maybe a cheat and a cop out. What images to use?
Well as many of you know I have a passion for vintage nudes and I just happened to have a few rather small pics. So voila, here you have a teeny tiny vintage nude gallery.

Did I enjoy the challenge?
Well this has been the most challenging thing I have done for a while so yes I did enjoy it in a way.
Am I hooked as so many seem to be on these wonderful tiny canvases?
No fear! I take my hat off to the intrepid artists who love this but goodness I would, at the very least, have a new pair of glasses.

Courage

This is my page in Claudia's Everyday Book.
The colours are Purple and Black and the them Courage.

Found it quite hard to get going on this one. Love the colours but the theme was hard for a coward!
Then I remembered St George. Whether his dragon was an actual threat or a perceived threat it did take great courage to overcome that beast.

So here he is in all his glory.

New Bag

Well here is the latest addition to my bags. This is my favourite so far and that is as it should be don't you think? I always think you should like your current work the best, doesn't always happen though.

This is some more of the fabric that I painted a few weeks ago. It's nearly all gone now so the paints and dyes will be coming out again this week.
I was given the lovely little dragonfly charms and they just set off the top boarders perfectly.

I had great fun making the cord too. This is only the 4th cord I have made this way - zig zagged on my machine over fibres - and I love it. It is great the way the look can be changed using different sewing threads. I really have to get some metallic threads though as I'm sure that they would add a "zing" factor.


So this lovely little bag is now in my Etsy Shop. I would be sorry to see it go, but then things have to leave the nest and fly away sometimes!!

Textile Tuesday - Black

Well I have no idea where the first half of October has gone and what do I have to show for it?
Well not a lot and I don't know why.

I don't seem to have been sitting around doing nothing. Maybe I have just started a lot of things and not yet finished.
YES, that will be my excuse.

Even this piece isn't really finished.
I have posted this as part of the Textile Tuesday challenge - Black.

It is part of my patchwork project. I am making an 8 point star table centrepiece and table mats.
They are part of a Christmas themed class I am taking at Lower Campscott Farm

The course is run by Margaret Hill. Margaret Cowell, who owns the farm, has provided a most beautiful work room for us to use.
What more could you want? A fun course, great company and wonderful surroundings.

Next month I will - hopefully- be finishing the star and mats so I will let you see the finished results then.

Quotes Books

I have been working in a couple of Quotes AB's.

June's book theme is eyes.
Don't know why but I dislike eyes. Maybe they are the window to the soul and I don't want anyone to go there.
Whatever I didn't know where to start until I read this quote from Mark Twain and Little Red Riding Hood came to mind.
As altered artists we do have to have an out of focus imagination.



The theme for Kim's book is Wild Wicked Women.
Well I love those and seeing as I had been looking at quotes on eyes these two just seemed to go together.

The quote from St Jerome says:
"The face is the mirror of the mind and the eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart."


Well now we are getting to it. I'm not letting you too deep into my secret heart either.

Pocket Book Class

It's years - 15 actually - since I did freestyle embroidery on my sewing machine. It was not a happy experience that, mostly, was down to a personality conflict with the person who was trying to show me.
Recently I started to play again but stuck to wavy parallel lines and grids.


Last week I started an online class at Joggles run by Janet Clark.I have been a fan of Janet's for
many years and
have always wanted to be an owner of one of her lovely bears - I will one day.
So when I saw this class I jumped at the chance to both work with her and have a reason to drop that feed dog and be bold.


These are my covers for the pocket book we will be making.
I have really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the next part of the class.

Oh by the way, one of the things we did was to paint and then melt nappy liners. Never thought I would be going in the chemist to buy them again in this lifetime!!