Dreaming Spirals

I haven’t done any painting for ages and it really lifts me up, so when DH took the kids off to play bowling this afternoon, I grabbed the chance and started sploshing!!! I’ve been feeling really run down recently with the antibiotics and this infection so I needed a pick-me-up. I started on lesson 5 of the Personal Symbols course. The first step was to paint a symbol in white paint on painted fabric.

This was on painted pelmet vilene. I got through loads of white paint as it really sunk in and the symbol I chose was a little too complicated for this, I think, but we shall see as it progresses….

For this I decided to use one of the collage pieces which I had stamped with a flash of lightning stamp which I carved in lesson 4 but it needed more adding to it, so I carried on with the lightning theme.

This fabric was one of the vast mound of pieces which I paint to use up paint already in the palette! I painted tear drop shapes on it.

The next stage is to paint over the white in different colours (the white is to give them better definition over the background colour, I think), but they need to dry first.

As usual, I had some paint left over (only white, but that didn’t stop me adding lots more paint!). This is the result - I’ll post a picture when it dries because it will probably look quite different once the colours merge (I often add copious amounts of water to assist this process, and scrunch the fabric up a bit too).

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I started making another clapotis yesterday with the blue silk I got from the yarn coop. It is gorgeous to knit with and so smooth and shiny. I’m using a spreadsheet from the Clapotisknitalong2005 Yahoo group to keep track of the rows and am also purling the stitches to be dropped rather than knitting them. It’s a lot easier to see if you’ve gone wrong that way. So this one should be a lot more accurate than the last! I’m definitely addicted to this pattern!

Here it is from the stockingstitch side:

You can see a ridge now where the stitches will be dropped eventually.

And here it is from the reverse, which I think I like better so far…

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If you walked along Newport’s high street, you would mostly see chain stores and hoardings. But it must have been a very rich place in Victorian times because some of the buildings are very ornate. You have to look upwards to see the grand touches.

This turret is above a building society. In isolation it could be a romantic tower or folly.

Here are the tops of a couple of other buildings.

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A couple of people asked me if I wanted to swap ATCs with them, so I’ve made some more! If anyone else wants to swap, there are six going begging! (Of course, if I’m really enthusiastic I might just manage a few more….) Here are the second lot:

I also thought of a creative use for the iron grid thing you get with those disposable barbecues. To use it as a frame/mount for one of my collages! If it rusts through a bit, it will just add to the effect! There are quite sharp edges, however, so I decided to wrap thread round them and bend the sharp edges over using pliers. Here it is so far. I’ve decided to weave threads diagonally across too. I’ve just done one green one so far but intend to do a lot more. The rough edges need a bit more smoothing - any suggestions for good ways to do this? Or what I SHOULD have done? (I’ve got another of these grids which I’m intending to use for another one). What do you think of this ‘found objects’ method of mounting?! Any comments welcomed!

This is it with the collage piece sitting on it. I need to zigzag round the edges. I think I will attach it by stitching it to the grid in four places.

There are a lot of arches and things in these collages and ATCs (they are all the same piece cut up) and I have stitched ‘portals’ all over it.

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I love looking across at the rows of terraced houses in Newport, across the railway embankment from where we live. One day I’ll use one of these images in a design. Very typical of South Wales.

I recognised this view when I was watching the TV adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett last year. I saw them filming in a large building on the way to Zachary’s school (it was meant to be a hospital in the film) and this was taken just across the road from it.

That’s the Cathedral on the skyline - it dates from about the 12th century (or even slightly earlier; despite being a historian I’m always hazy on dates - what’s 100 years here or there?!).

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I got a yummy book through the post last week - Jill Goodwin’s Dyer’s Manual, full of information about natural dyeing. I didn’t want to fiddle around with mordants and stuff just this week, so I decided to save my teabags and dye a few things with those. I also added some herb teabags I’ve had in my cupboard for too long. Tea has tannin, which is a mordant, so you don’t need another.

One of the things I put in was this silk which had been rather half heartedly rust dyed by wrapping round a washing line pole back in January. It didn’t take very well, probably because it was too cold! The surprise was the black parts, which was the rust reacting with the tea (and maybe partly with the iron saucepan; at least I think it is iron). It is a deeper colour than this in reality. I like the markings on it.

Here is another piece which I put in after the other stuff came out. Again, this is deeper than the photo, though lighter than the above piece.

I also did some wool rovings, some silk crepe and some linen. These are closer to the true colours.

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Earlier in the week I cut up one of those collages and have got a pile of potential postcards! But I also made some ATCs - Artists’ Trading Cards, for Dale’s swap. Here they are.

I’ve never made ATCs before. I think I prefer postcards - the ATCs were a little too small for me.

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I’m not feeling very well today - got a tooth which has been playing up for some time and I was trying to hang on until my dental appointment next week. But yesterday I had a lot of pain so I went and waited in the dentist’s today until he could see me. Turns out I’ve got an abscess for which he’s given me antibiotics, and he says I’ll probably have to have root canal treatment or have it out. It wasn’t my regular dentist so that decision will have to be made next week. Yuk. Either way it sounds horrible. I’ve only had to have fillings so far. And antibiotics don’t like me so I may be keeping a low profile for the next few days! Anyway, a few photos to brighten up this blog post….

Continuing our theme of bridges, this is Town Bridge, with one of the yellow school buses on it.

Here are the arches of the railway bridge close by.

And this was the new pedestrian bridge last Tuesday - it looks like a bridge now!

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