Wk 4

Still managing to keep up....just.  It was a peculiar week.  A good theatre visit to see "Juno and the Paycock" at the Geoffrey Whitworrth theatre, a local amateur group with a very high standard. Rest of the week was a bit of a misery with various dental issues. Uck so my Documented Life this week looks like this.  The prompt was to write a message and then obliterate all but one word.  I won't tell you what I wrote but the page looks like this.

My runner is a bit more cheerful and records the theatre visit and the fact that the snowdrops are up in the garden.

Good job that we can see them from the window as gardening is out of the question. We are moaning about the weather but only mildly inconvenienced, my sympathies go to those who are so badly affected. 

Hearts...

Before Christmas I bought a white "tree" from Hobby Craft and we had it decorated with tiny lights and silver baubles.  When it was time to take the decorations down I decided I liked my "tree" a lot . Of course, it couldn't stay as a Christmas decoration and then inspiration struck and I decided for January and February it would be decorated in hearts. I have had fun making them in as many techniques as I could think of, both paper and stitch. I just make one when the mood takes me.   I added a little bird and a couple of paper butterflies. It usually stands on the table in front of the mirror.

but I took this against the wall for clarity.

 My plan is for March and April I will replace the hearts with eggs, when I change them over I will try to remember to take a photograph of the hearts.
In case your wondering, the snowscape painting in the background is not by me, I wish.....it is by Canadian Artist Bill Zuro.
First Embroiderers' Guild of the year on Saturday, so I better put my sewing head on.

Keeping up........

...... Just.

Bust week last week with a meeting of The Girls where we tried to get to grips with the mysteries of the Needle Punch.  I failed miserably but as a reminder of the fun trying I looked for a stitch for my  runner that would resemble the loops. Thanks to Mary Corbet I found Turkey Work and after a bit of trial error I managed two lines.

Documented Life this week was to use an envelope from the mailbox.  I received a store card and it was in a very nice folder which I decided was more interesting than an envelope.  Thursday was a trip to the pantomime at Erith Playhouse, "Beauty and the Beast", written and directed by a good friend, Great fun to boo and hiss and watch other friends being extremely silly,.  So I popped this into my "journal".

 

with the programme inside

Saturday was a trip to Bromley Embroiderers Guild to hear a talk by Lynda Monk.  as ever she was informative and amusing.  So generous with her knowledge and such wonderful things to see.  I bought two or her screens for printing and trying out some of the techniques she spoke about, so watch this space.


I promised myself that when I put something on my Pinterest board I would also put it here. The other  morning I found this.  Adding fabric to a tag..  I have done it to make book pages before but thought this has many possibilities.

 You can see the full tutorial here at Yours Artfully 

and this morning thanks to BJ of ccrafts corner I found this great use for old Christmas cards,


 I only hope I can remember it when the season comes round again.

Q & L.....

the new challenge from the Craft Barn. Although I had really enjoyed the Alphabet Challenge and  because I had already given myself two challenges, I wasn't going to take part in this one.  However......the Q and L stands for Quotes and Lyrics and two words are given as prompts.  First ones Smile and Up.....after four days of not being able to get this song out of my head I decided the only way to do it was to put something on paper. So here it is..my take on "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" from the musical "Annie"

 I have chosen a smaller format this time. Gellie print and a mask I made from a magazine picture. I have printed the full lyrics and the creators names for future reference.   In distant historical times I played Grace Mr Warbuck's Secretary in an amateur production of Annie, I must have some photographs somewhere. When the children were little we used to play a car game where they gave me a word and I had to find a song, so I don't know why I hesitated in the first place. By the way, Up, Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon was the other song which kept creeping into my head.   Off to see what everyone else is up to.

Chalk and cheese......

Two things I have come across this week.  Very different. First the entire Book of Kells  has been put on line by Trinity College, Dublin. You can zoom in to the tiniest detail, fascinating.

An for something completely digfferent this short film which is a tiny bit shudder making but I found it funny.
FILM: MAKEOVER (2013) from Don Percy on Vimeo. 

Documented Life....

   This is going to take some keeping up but here is week 2.  The challenge was to include a selfie, well the reality is a bit gruesome so I did a "self portrait".......with gelli print background.

and the flyer from the Designer Crafts.

For my band on my cloth I chose a couple of pots and paintings to represent the exhibition and a little representation of the National Gallery

 I think I am taking up a bit too much space and the cloth will be too long for the table but I suppose a couple of  boring weeks  would take care of that.

Weekend again...

I see this year is intending to travel at the same speed as last year.  I have just spent really good day in London. The weather was glorious, bright and crisp and this young man was looking very proud of himself.

It was a day that made you look up.

The main reason for the visit was the  Designer Crafts exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Lots to see and admire, stand out for me was the work of  Batool Showghi. If you like Mixed Media go look.
We wandered up Regent Street discussing what used to be where and into Liberty  to gasp at the prices of the, undeniably beautiful, fabrics but longing for the days when a remnant cost less that £12.95. Margaret Cooter has a very informative and link filled post on the big London department shops of yesteryear
We tottered along to John Lewis as Liberty no longer sells satin bias binding and and finally  to The Cloth House No 47 Berwick Street. such a lovely shop and people.  It was good to see it filled with so many young people choosing fabrics.

A good day but now self imposed challenges need to be addressed.

I've started..........

........but will I finish?  I was taken with the idea of The Documented Life Project. Plan to use a Moleskin planner and acting on weekly prompts fill the planner for one year.  I bought a small planner, as my handbag is always full to bursting,  and realised that this was going to get unwieldy pretty quickly. So, I already had an A5 sized sketchbook and decided I could if I scanned them I could use the entries from the diary/planner and create my documents in them.   I am wondering if I can sustain responding to a weekly challenge. The prompt for Week 1 was

January 1 Challenge (Week One) - photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door. 

 So I "incorporated" my front door into the kind of house I dream about.  This one is Scotney Castle in Kent

 

I bought this charming book 

 and tried out a few flowers,
This is the diary page with a little collagraph I made as Art Van Go.

In tandem with this challenge I decided it would be fun to try and stitch an event from each week and create a table runner by Christmas.  If there is nothing outstanding I will add some stitching.  Here is our eventful journey on Saturday,

The rain doesn't show up very well but believe me it is/was there.

Here we go.....

...the decorations are tucked away for another year and the year has had a very busy start. Put my art prompts together.  I may embellish them a little more but for the moment they look like this.

Friday was our stitching group and I spent a happy day chatting and doing the boring bit of my quilt. Yesterday in spite of the atrocious weather we couldn't resist  the temptation to visit Art Van Go where Lynda Monk and friends were demonstrating thermofax and collagraphs.  Fascinating stuff. I was particularly delighted that with a bit of experiment I could use my Big Shot to make collagraph prints. Anyone know how to put a few more hours into each day?  I always wish AVG wasn't so far away but yesterday I made it a even further by going up the M1 instead of the A1(M). Never been to Luton before!.

Start.......

as you hope to go on.  I spent a lovely morning with my new large gelli plate, some cereal boxes and my Big Shot.  The result was 52 ATC's which I am hoping to turn into art prompts.  I started this back in the summer but like so many things it stalled, so with my New Year fervour I thought I'd try again.  I should have taken photographs but you know what the gelli plate is like you are carried away. The outside(printed) of the cereal cardboard gave me coverage problems but with a combination of  gesso, opaque Fresco Paints and a deal of layering I managed and felt very happy with my re-cycling.

Now to add a bit of stamping and the words.

Lynda Monk has been doing some wonderful things with Thermofax .Who knew fish and bird skeletons would look this good.