Jigsaw Puzzle Swap

I'm taking part in a jigsaw puzzle swap at the moment. First of all I was going to paint a ballet dancer en pointe, with her long hair standing up and to the edge of the top of the puzzle piece. I drew one in my sketch book which wasn't too bad, but once it got on to the puzzle piece it was horrid.

I then thought I would use an image of a couple dancing, I had an image already to base it on. The idea was to have the female dancer's foot sticking up into the top of the puzzle piece. I had to abandon that idea because the proportions weren't right. If her foot was in the right place, his head was missing!

So, I went to my collage box and on top of it was a Twinings tea box. I wasn't able to use the original image because there are a couple of advertising pieces on it, and also some creases once I had cut it out, so I decided to paint one instead. It is a poor approximation, but if I hadn't fessed up to using an image for inspiration, you would never know! The shiny bits are stickers for decorating your finger nails which I bought from Claire's during the week. They are a great size for art work, I'll have to go and get some more.

This isn't a miracle of miniature painting, these pieces are about 5 inches square.

Pam Carriker's Shades of Grey

I've been wanting to do Pam Carriker's Shades of Grey course for a long time now but was too mean to pay for it. She is now making the course available without going through a third party so it is cheaper than before. http://pamcarriker.com/online-classes/

These are the results of following the first two videos:

Life Book - week 1

I'm taking Tammy's Life Book course this year. It is a year long course and has several guest teachers. Pop a long to http://www.willowing.ning.com if you are interested. This is week one's homework.

The story of the amulet

Just read the story of the amulet by E. Nesbit. The take takes place in 1905 and I presume was written at around that time.  It is in a similar vein to the lion the witch and the wardrobe but without the religious undertones. Although it is a child's book I certainly enjoyed it. I read another book about an amulet as a child in the early 70s but can't remember which one, does anybody have any ideas about what it might have been?

year of wonders

I've just finished reading 'year of wonders' by Geraldine Brooks. It is set in Derbyshire in the plague and is fascinating. The population was decimated to the extent of an apocalypse and the survivors had great challenges to surmount. Our landscape would be very different today had it not been for the plague. The author was a war correspondent and this is her first novel. It is very well researched and I recommend it.

Dyeing in a bag

Last weekend I went to my friend Aggie's studio to some dying in plastic bags based on Helen Deighan's book Dyeing in Plastic Bags: No Mess, No Fuss, Just Great Colours. I've been wanting to do this for ages and was surprised at how easy it was.

Soaking up the Dye

Soaking up more dye overnight

Drying in the sun

Trying out some stamping before stamping the dyed fabrics

Recording the mixtures

I dyed several pieces of fabrics, a T-Shirt and a couple of canvas bags. I was going to print on the canvas bags but my experiments were not sufficiently crisp for me to want to do it on the bags or t-shirt. I'll have to think of some other form of completing the decoration.

THe Brilliance of You tube and a necklace

I have a beadalon knotting tool which helps you to make perfect knots when making jewellery. I tried using it yesterday, with mixed success (and I did RTFM). I watched a you tube video about it last night. I think the video is different to the paper instructions and it looks so easy. I haven't had a go again today to test the theory. You Tube is a wonderful place to find step by step instructions on how to do things. People are so generous in sharing their knowledge.

I also watched a few videos about the coiling gizmo and learned how to open and close split rings - you don't pull them from right and left to split the ring, you do it forwards and backwards which means they go back into the proper place when you have finished. I also saw a video which included a section on making wire which has a hoop at both ends (I don't know the name for them) and discovered that I had been doing it completely wrong. If you are interested, look at 7 minutes 35 seconds on this video.

Using my new found knowledge, today I created a necklace from the Sculpey beads made yesterday.  I don't have making the wire with hoops at both ends sussed yet (I have a measuring problem), but this necklace is a lot better than the last one I made using the same technique. I have ordered a pair of jump ring closing pliers which I want to use to make the jump rings on this necklace oval rather than round. This means that the rings will be less likely to open. Click on the image to see more detail.