Iron Men......

We took a short trip to my homeland, on the way DH gratified a long standing wish of mine, to see the Antony Gormley statues titled Another Place.  I had always thought of seeing them at sunset but it rained for the whole 4 hour journey and we walked to the beach sheltering under an umbrella.  But it was worth it.  This was my first sight to the left

and to the right

They stretch as far a the eye can see. My biggest surprise was that they were life size, perhaps because of the Angel of the North, I had always imagined they were large. It is hard to describe all the thoughts they raised, peace, a longing, of just wanting to stand and stare with them.

The next morning the sun appeared and I went back, there was a completely different atmosphere to the beach.

I would have loved to walk in the sunshine to find the end of them and  it would have been interesting to watch the tide come in but we had to journey on. I wondered what this one was thinking as he gazed at the wind farm.

 I liked this use of recycled Christmas trees to stop the sand drifting.

You can see more of Antony Gormley's work here.

F..(fe-fr)....

We are taking a short trip this week and I thought I would have to wait until I came home to do this fortnight's letter for the Craft Barn Challenge but I found a word and the juices started flowing .  The word I chose is "Firmament" and in my old dictionary it is explained as "the sky viewed, originally a a solid expanse with stars fixed in it: the region of the air."
I was inspires by these two images I found 

There are mancoloured versions of the sencond picture so here is mine

The stars are actually gold metal not black and they shine.  I painted the background with watercolours for a change, the village is made up from images stamped onto card, painted and collaged.  I am sorry I can't name designer but they are unmounted and I have had them for years. The sun is made from a a brayer clean off sheet from a gelli session. The angels are punched out of another gelli sheet as are the letters die cut with a Tim Holtz alphabet.
The thing I like best about this page is,  it has used things I have had for years. Here it is with it's tag.

A Wet Friday.....

Yesterday it poured, all day,  but I had been invited to the workshop of a new musical so I boarded the bus and went to a part of London I had never been before.  I made it to The Hackney Empire in spite of the fact that the bus windows were completely opaque with condensation. The musical is  called "The Silver Sword" and is based on this book which I somehow missed out reading. I do hope it makes it to the big stage because even in workshop form I laughed and cried and I liked the music and would like to hear it again. Well worth the soaking.


Have you noticed, I have received a gold star for my "A" entry of the Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge. Very pleased.

We are going north for a week so I will have to contain my impatience at trying out this technique from Gelli Arts.


Have a good week.

Fabric bowls....

Thanks to heegeldab I found this.



A fabric bowl made by Hilde Morin.  Go here to see some fab quilting.  I would love to have this much control over my beast.

Times gone by....

 A friend found this on You Tube, a different view of a city I love.  I particulary like the poiceman on point duty. Remember?


Her find fitted in nicely with a little book I have just finished.  I used the black cards which come with  DH's postage stamps which he collects. I am quite cross because I have just rid myself of a pile of these cards because I thought I didn't have a use for them. Typical.  The ATC are cut from a  cereal packet with my Sizzix and then decotated with flower prints. 

K.....

another trip down memory lane with this fortnight's Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge.  There are some really obscure words beginning with K.  I toyed with "kinetic" because I love kinetic sculpture but it is a bit difficult to interprate on paper. Then my eye fell on "kaleidoscope".  We had one when I was a child and it gave me hours of fascination.  Looking at the little bits of foil through the glass at the bottom and then marvelling at the patterns when you looked through the other end.  They seem to be mainly round these days but ours was triangular. If you are  tempted there are instructions for making one here
So here is my take on "Kaleidoscope"

First I made some gelli prints on thin card and  cut six equilateral triangles(Mr Craven would have been proud of me). I attached them with an eyelet, ensuring they would spin. I made a weathered wood background.


 

Here it is with the definition tag.

 and this is a Paint Shop Pro digital kaleidoscope of the second picture

Thank you if you left a comment last time, I did try to visit everyone and there are some great ideas out there.  So fascinating to see the coice of words.
Small rant....Is anyone else becoming exasperated with the increasing "predictive text" on search engines and such.  I know what I want to say and the machine, clever though it is, does not. End of rant. Thank you.

Virginia....

The Big Road Trip moves on. We visited this state on our first trip to America and it hold some of the happiest memories.  Remember this?

Well we found they really are blue.

Our destination for the evening was supposed to be the town of Roanoke but we stopped in for a coffee, at the Peaks of Otter Lodge , we oouldn't resist the ice cream and ended up staying the night We had a wonderful meal and stopped up late talking to some of the people who lived locally but came up to the hills for the weekend.
On the way down, and quite be accident we came across the Pat Buckley Moss Museum, I  fell in love with her people and her snowy landscapes.

 

 

We were allowed to take photographs in the gallery but this may not be the case, I will remove if it breaches copyright. You can see many other paintings here (Google Images)

I bought an embroidery kit and this has hung in my living room ever since.

We returned to Virginia on the last full day of our trip and spent it in  Colonial Williamsburg. What a fascinating day that was, a real step back in time, we watched a house being built with only the tools that would have been available in the 18th century and of course we voted againt Independance.  My most abiding memory is the sound of a pipe and drum band fading away into the evening, a poignant ending to what had been a wonderful trip. It still brings a tear.
Thank you Marit for evoking some really wonderful memories.  Here is something I made a while back but I realise now where I, probably,  found the inspiration.

A....

Now you see it....

Now you don't......

My letter A for the Craft Barn Alphabet challenge.  My first thought was, of course, Alphabet but I am hoping to make a book of this challenge, if I get to the end, and I have an idea for the cover firmly fixed in mind. So I had to find something different, I toyed with Astrology and Astronomy but then this lept out of the old dictionary.

I had never heard of this charm before.  My triangle isn't exactly equilateral but geometry was never a strong suit.
I cut the letters from gold paper with my die cutter. I remembered, from childhood, those sliding panels that used to change the picture but couldn't find or figure out how to make one (if anyone knows please tell me)
so I made a rabbit which disappears (wrong way round I know but it had to be where it is).

W......

is the letter on the Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge.with circles in the background,( I nearly missed this )  My first choice was "windowsill" a word I have always liked saying. ( It has a kiss at the start, in the middle and a smile at the end, try it.)  but it wasn't in the old dictionary I am using for the definitions.  There are some really nasty words beginning with W, who knew I suffered from "wind-dropsy" I'll let you look it up, I am too polite to mention. In the end I settled for warpaint as it was a word I could play with.My old dictionary said "paint on the face and other part of the body on going to war, a practice among certain savage nations" don't know why I suddenly thought of football fans.Then I thought of how we like to don out warpaint before we do battle with the world.I gellied a background and  made a war mask and searched for suitable images so here it is.

 No copyright breach intended, if anyone has a problem please advise and image will be removed.

Experiments....

I thought I would explore a few ideas I found in my wandering...this is the link to a tutorial on making stencils with hot glue and this is my stencil and a test piece.

The I tried glue resist from here,  I didn't have the Elmer's Gel so I tried a Pritt Stick, the white one made quite a good resist

the green stick less so but I still quite like it,

The third thing I tried was from Andy Skinner, well my crackle didn't crackle, (I didn't have the same products) but I really liked the results, especially as the used two acetate prints I have had for ever.

and finally I saw this, again, I didn't have the exact products so my rust became patina instead but I would never have thought of using it on fabric.(the little square)

I had forgotten just how much I like the atc format.  My thanks to all the artists who so generously share their knowledge and gave me a lovely mornings play.  I do which Hobby Craft would up their game, my local branch is undertstocked and over priced. Or better still Michael's  and Joann's open up here and bring a little competition (and all their lovely products)

Maryland.....

 

is this weeks stop on the Big Road Trip.  This is what I have learned, it has very varied scenery and is a must unusual shape.

I noticed a town called Cumberland so, of course, I had to visit.  
It looks interesting and it has some very nice houses for sale.
Red Crab Soup is a speciality and this recipe makes it sound good, I might try it one day.
Baltimore has one of my favoured NFL teams, The Ravens, could be something to do with quaterback Joe Flacco.

My last bit of learning is that it was in Maryland that the Ameican National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" was written. So I made a tag as my piece of art work.

Virginia next, better start looking out some photographs because I have really been there.

A little book....

I "found" two more lanscapes in my gelli patchwork, desert sunsets.

(I wanted them side by side but blogger wouldn't play)
So delighted with my little creations, I made a little book.

Firefox and Google seem to be having trouble talking to one another at the moment, finding it very difficult  to leave comments.  Thank you Debbie, she is working on a beautiful rust cloth here.

Anyone found a good substitute for Google Reader yet?

A new handbag......

I wanted a handbag that was light, would go round my neck and was big enough to take my ipad!!!  I tried everywhere, why do they make handbags that weigh a ton before you even put your phone in them? So.. this is my new handbag, made from experiments while working with Jude Hill,  I built it round my ipad, but I wanted safe pockets for my cards and phone.  I went to buy a zip....£3.50 for the smallest size so I went to the charity shop, paid £1.95 for an old handbag and had a ready made secure pocket and phone pouch to put in my new bag with very little effort.

This front and back.

Louis Vuitton it ain't ..but it is just what I wanted.

More Gelli ,,,,

yes I know.....

I was thinking patchwork, crazy patchwork to be exact and then I thought what if I take some gelli prints and cut them as you would for starting a quilt. I took five prints and trimmed them to size.  I am sorry there are no step by steps, it all came together too quickly. Then I clipped them together and drew wavy lines on the back and then cut along these lines  so I have five piles of five. Then I took one from each layer and glued them to another sheet. These are the ones I liked best.

They are approx 10" x 7"
What I didn't realise until I started to play with the ones that I wasn't to pleased with as that of course this made then the perfect size to make ATC's.  As I looked at the pieces I'd cut I began to see little pictures.
So with a little help from water soluble crayons and a few judicious lines these emerged.

R is for....

Rubbish. This was my immediate thought in the Craft Barn Challenge this weekend and once there it wouldn't budge so not being the weather to rush out and pick daisies I went to play.  My first association was with the lovely Eric Morecame,  (One of his catch phrases). How many have happy memories of getting the family around the television to watch the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special? Then as I worked on the page the images I had seen of children searching rubbish tips, trying to find something to sell, became firmly lodged. So this is the finished page.

Gelli background, the word made in Paintshop Pro with lots of layers.  The rubbish made from pieces torn from magazines. The definition from the very old dictionary I am using reads " Rubbish.- fragements of buildings or any structure: ruins: waste matter:anything worthless."
I am sure, by now, many of you will have seen this video but I think it is worth repeating here.