Here's something.....

I have been meaning to show you this for a while. A few weeks ago we had a little get together where we decided to follow our own devices, can't remember now but I think we all started with a piece of calico. Unfortunately I can't show you what the others did but this is my piece. The figure is painted onto calico and appliqued and the background is hand needle felt.

My piece was inspired by a painting by Rima of The Hermitage.
Because I was actually working from the picture I asked Rima if she would mind me using it, she generously gave permission. This is the delightful piece that inspired mine and I bought a copy of it and a picture for a present for a friend from her etsy shop.

It is called "Soup and Pipe"
I have no affiliation other than that I love her work and the tales of her fascinating lifestyle, if you have never visited with her do take a peek.

Word association...

The subject for Doodle Day was Dogs. Immediate panic, I can't draw animals...it's all those legs. Suddenly the words Dog Daisy jumped into my mind. (A very black hole) So here he is.

Dog Daisy

I know he hasn't the right number of legs but this is ... art.
Not quite sure if these daisies are really "dog daisies" but they're the closest I have.

Sainsburys listened........

Remember I took issue with Sainsburys over the fixed price of Aubergines. They took notice of my complaint and raised the price from 99p to £1.18!!!!!!

March, at last....

At last I have achieved an acceptable, to me, interpretation of the Calendar Girls inspiration for the month. This was the picture of the Earth from Above which Carol had chosen for us.

On of my first struggles was the colours, I have difficulty in working with such "definite" colours. My second problem was what technique to use.
When I was at school physical geography was my favourite subject, thus my delight in the book by Yann Arthus-Bertrand's "The Earth from Above", which my son gave me for Christmas a few years back. So I wanted to do something that would actually suggest the earth.
It started with a piece of canvas slightly larger than the 6x4 format we usually use.The canvas was collaged with painted watercolour paper,with the addition of painted scrim. The frame is contructed by the off cuts from bringing the canvas down to size. I hated it!. But a lot of work had gone into it so I took the sand paper to it in an effort to "knock it back a bit".

I still hated it. In true Lynda and Carol form I painted it with gesso and then repainted it. I was still struggling to relate it to the physical earth which I love. I suddenly thought of the mica sheets I had somewhere in my stash and actually managed to find them. I covered the card with sheets of mica and was so disgusted I forgot to photograph this stage. I was getting desparate by now, and thought I waa going to have to abandon the piece which had so much effort in it. In disgust I ripped of the mica sheets (when you're are mean with stash as I am this takes some doing)and Wow! Lo and behold there as the effect I had been striving for.


Sharon, you may not like it, though I hope you do but at least you will understand just what went into it.

Daisies on the lawn..

Well, in my sketch book really. Helen Suzanne put an invitation on her blog Heb-Art Journal to join her in a weekly challenge to doodle. I thought this sounded within my skills and not too taxing and might make me pick up a pencil on a more regular basis. The subject this week was Daisies and here is my contribution.

Although doodling is something I do at meetings etc. I found it was quite difficult to detach my mind enough(not usually a problem) for it to be a true "Doodle". In the end I did this while watching television so I was only part concentrating. If you want to join in the fun click here for Doodle Day and click on the "to join up" on the top left of the page.

A little distraction....

Have you noticed that when a piece of work is not going well, how easily you are distracted? I am having a teensy struggle with this months Calendar Girls subject. The picture is by Jann Arthus-Bertrand. Now, some years ago I was lucky enough to be given his wonderful book "the Earth From Above" by my son so it wasn't a difficult decision, when I started to struggle,to re-visit the book and before I knew where I was this appeared.
A mixture of needle felting and my favourite french knots. Heaven knows what I'm going to do with it but it was a fun distraction.
This is photograph on the cover of the book and you can see it here. His website is a little difficult to navigate but worth the effort.
Ah well back to the drawing board.....

How kind.....

I am expecting a large envelope and this morning one landed on my mat, when I opened it it was not the thing I was expecting (patience I'll tell you when it comes).I was so touched and delighted. This is the cover of a magazine which I recognised as being the work of Susan Lenz the creator of Cyber Fyber,

there was a note directing me to this page

The lime green piece is mine. I am so thrilled to see it in print but I am touched that Susan has taken the time to send it to me. Of course I have thanked her pesonally but this is a more public thank you. Cyber Fyber was her creation and as I have said before the amount of work it must have entailed is staggering.

Normal service......

has been resumed. I hope. After my problems with the Photos on Yahoo Groups last Saturday my PC refused to boot up at all, to cut a long story short according to the expert(wonderful man) it was probably one of those automatic updates that didn't work properly. Heigho! Anyway it is fixed and now I can finally go an see what everyone has been up to.
But first, I was dying to show you this.

It is a Venusian Rainbow Backed Daisy Eater (he is a bit confused as he has never seen snowdrops before)and he is a distant relation of the rainbow backed fuzzy nutted moon snatcher made by Jude. I fell in love with him on Spirit Cloth last year and having been longing to make one since. As you can see mine is knitted and he literally "just grew" with constant reference to to the fuzzy nutted moon shatcher. Because he was so closely inspired by Jude I asked if she would mind me showing you. Her generous reply was that there weren't enough of these "fuzzy guys" in the world. So there you go,thank you Jude oops be quick, he's off...