Skip to main content

The owl, the fox, more fabric painting and a box of embroidery threads

 

I said the other day that I'd post a photo of the ATCs - a total of 30 - that I made for a Facebook group swap.  Well, they're finally done and have been posted.  I'm glad to have got them completed before the deadline, even though some weren't exactly my best work.  Themes chosen by the group members were wide ranging and a few almost defeated me.  They included Buffy the vampire slayer, Victorian architecture (preferably done in pencil), life drawing (ditto pencil), a Harry Potter creature, Shane Warne, and a horror film character whose image I definitely didn't want lodging in my head.  I went a bit rogue with some themes, going for abstract images or - in the case of the pencil life drawing - just ignoring that and doing a version of a Matisse collage instead.  Sorry! 

Overall, I don't think I'd take part in this kind of challenge again.  Partly because postage cost me £7.00, Royal Mail prices being as steep as they are, but also because I've realised I really, really resent having to spend time making something I don't enjoy or aren't inspired by.  I don't want to google images of TV programmes like Buffy or Alf in order to try and cobble something together.  I know that makes me sound tetchy - yeah, okay, I'm fine with tetchy - but if I'm being creative I want to enjoy the process as well as be pleased with the finished result.  Anyway, there were a few of the cards I was especially pleased with.  

I had a lot of fun making a collage version of Beaker from the Muppets.  But I especially liked my collaged-from-gell-prints owl and also the fox drawn with watercolour pencils.  
I've also spent part of an evening splashing paint on to fabric again, much as I did with the fabric used to make my mini dolls.  
Not sure what this'll get used for, but something will occur to me.  
Finally, I took delivery today of a box of embroidery threads.  All the colours of the rainbow, and a few more besides.  Before I sloped off to slimming club this afternoon I spent a little while happily sorting the colours into order.  
Let's see how long the neatness lasts!  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

  I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day.  It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice.  Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle.  Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it?  I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning.  I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point.  Time will tell.   This is a link to the listing, if you're interested.  This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs.  It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday.  I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax.  The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

In praise of wool

Just a quick post today. I'm offering you a short but peaceful break from the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of Christmas.  By now you've probably eaten your bodyweight in sweets//roast potatoes/pigs in blankets/cake/After Eights ... whatever your festive indulgences are.  You're under-exericsed, over-stimulated, feeling broke and possibly guilty about an argument with a relative or friend you've never entirely got on with.  So, here's something to take your mind off all that.   I've two videos to refresh and revive, and they both concern wool.   Interesting fact.  Well, I found it interesting.  About 1% - yup, one per cent - of the world's textiles are made of wool.  Out of curiosity, I also googled how much is made of cotton.  That's higher, but it's only about 24% and that's heading downward instead of up.  Synthetic fibres are the bulk of all textile manufacture.  Anyway, back to woolly wonders.   My firs...

Another week's flown by ...

  Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days.  Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden.  The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram.  I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them.  This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory.   It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them.  Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....