And then two come along at once...........

... I decided has been far too long since I played with paint and paper. At the beginning of the year Seth Apter suggested a prject for 2017. It is called Artifacts. 
"". This would be a no rules collaboration. Just find or make some sort of artist book, planner, scrapbook, 3-ring-binder, folder, or other container to document your creative experiences, whether they be in art, craft, or anything else. Then get to documenting in any way to style that works for you.""
That sounded like something I could do.  Loose enought not to become a millstone round your
Then Seth started to preview all the new stamps, stencils etc.  he has new for this year. Finger itchingly good.  That sent me to Paperarsty as I know they stock many of Seth's products and lo and behold they had just issued a challenge for January,to create using Pink and Orange so.......
a journal spread, using distress inks, sari silk, Treasure Gold , metal findings and a homemade tassel.

  Difficult to photograph. This is a scan.

 And here is one I made earlier,  more textile orientated.

No pressure then........

 ....my first offering for 1 Year of Stitches 2017   received 489 "Likes" and 60 very kind comments.  I hope I managed to respond to all of them but if I missed anyone,  thank you.  It has certainly been a fascinating week, the variety of stitches and styles is amazing. I have become slighly obsessive about my piece which now looks like this..

I am not sure about my attempt at  mendung clouds   , I find blues very difficult  to work with.   When I first started making stage costumes(amateur) the lighting designer (professional) told me that blues were the most difficult colour to light.  I think I should have stuck to my trusty indigo range but I was trying to brighten up.  We shall see if they balance out as the rest progresses otherwise they will have to come out. Not a pleasant thought as chain stitch may be one of the easiest to do but I have found it is a "b*****" to undo.

One of the unexpected benefits of 1 Year is the links to other places.  Here are two I liked. First

 A beautiful site for ribbon embroidery with very good tutorials. One of these days...
The other is Folksy a site selling modern British craft. I have ordered these buttons in anticipation of vast production this year.

We have a had a liittle snow here and worse, a biting cold wind so a bit of surfing (web) hs been the order of the day.
Please go an look at this site   Kirsty Mitchell    . I don't want to risk breaching copyright so I can't post a picture but I promise you if you like colour you won't be disappointed.
 I was hoping to be able to comment on La La Land but the weather put paid to that little trip.  Hopefully next week.                                                

Right.....

...here we go then.  Last day of 2016, another turn along the road.  Tomorrow see the start of
1 Year of Stitches challenge, I mentioned in the last post. I want to make something vivid. not my usual muted palette.

We shall see.

Here is a sneak peak of something I have been working on over the holidays.

 

And here is my wish for you all.

Mind blowing....

I have always had trouble with mirror imaging, as in trying to transfer a design.  Imagine my poor little mind when we went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery for an exhibition  of the work of  M.C.Escher
I am sure you are familiar with his works as I was, we even had a jigsaw puzzle once which nearly drove us crazy, but seeing them up close and the realisation that the woodcuts and lithographs were all worked in REVERSE had  my mind reeling.   An unforgettable exhibition. With all the intricacies of his later work I think this White Cat was my favourite.  So much detail in its simplicity.

This was pinned from his Gallery here
It was quite a dull day but the Autumn colours still shone through.

 I fancied a meerkat hiding in this tree but perhaps my mind was still twirling.

Colour.....

Thank you Andy could you please win without giving me a tension headache!
/i have been interested in  a few of the blogs that I follow have been taking part in the Summer of Color challenge.  I didn't really want to join another challenge at the moment but I was fascinated by some of the colour combinations(something I always struggle with), so I decided to try a few of them out, in a forlorn stash busting effort. I went through my various boxes, material, scrim, ribbon, theads, beads etc and then tried to find one of my photographs that could be manipulated to fit the brief.
Here are the first two. Citron Green and Turquoise

 Orange and Hot Pink.

I hope to do some more but you know my butterfly mind......

In my side bar is a link to my Pinterest site, I could'nt work out how to make one of the fancy ones. I succumbed when I realised that they seem to have addressed the problems people had with crediting the original posting.  I have a section for ideas for stasch busting and various techniques, my bookmarks list was getting too long to handle,

Colour.....

On Wednesday we visited the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Although familiar with his name, in my ignorance I have always associated him with rather grungy knitting.  All I can is Wow. On the one occasion I didn't take my "proper" camera to London I was suprised to find photography was allowed, so I had to rely on my little ipod. 

 This was the "Please Touch" wall just pieces of fabric loosely attached, gorgeous.

If you want colour,  put his name into Google Images. Like I said. Wow.

Making space, contd....

I have finished assembling the background pieces for Space and not the scary bit begins, to start translating all the ideas which have been floating around in my head. This is almost how it looks, can't get the colour exact

  I am going to place the "planets" one by one. The little circles on the right were added to that stip during the Sun, Moon and Stars workshop. They may stay as part of an "asteroid belt" we will see.
This was the moon last Friday, playing hide and seek......

I just loved the colours.....

Domestic crisis........

My freezer stopped working last Thursday and I had to wait until yesterday for them to come and repair it!!! With massive cooking session and help from my magical neighbour Jan we managed to salvage quite a bit.  One victim, though,  was a bag of frozen blackcurrants which really didn't look at all appetizing. I was on the point of throwing them when I looked at my hands and the red stain on my fingers.....Hmmmm.....dash down to the workroom and grab assorted scraps... put blackcurrants and scaps in a pan and simmer gently for about an hour.  Leave overnight and this morning.....

Non of the fabrics reproduced the colour on my fingers but they did produce this wonderful assortment of purples and greys.  It never fails to fascinate how different fabrics react to the same dye in different ways. Now what to do with them...............

It's what date????

 Definitely time to post a card for Spain, especially with a postal strike looming.  Here is my Calendar Girls card for October. When Carol first posted her choice she put a picture of a detail which I have had in mind ever since.  This was the full picture

and this was the detail

and this is my card for Neki

I painted velvet for the draped background and I made wired leaves on organza, something I had wanted to try..  The beads are two vintage beads from my bead box.

My other little experiment this week was making felt with soap and elbow grease.  I watched a demonstration at the Knit and Stitch and just had to give it a go.  I made a couple of pieces of what can only be described as pre- felt and I don't think this piece is much further along but I quite like it as it is.  I think this all takes more patience (and stamina) than I have but hopefully I will try again.

Has anyone else found that there is no such thing as pale red?  Pale blue is still blue, pale green is still green but pale red is PINK!