Dreaming Spirals

This is my birthday/Christmas present!  So I am going to have a play at making thermofax-type screens with it…

I will keep you posted!

For some reason, by the way, the categories which Livejournal puts my posts in are now numbers rather than names… I think my messing around with tags on Wordpress has confused it rather.   I will change them by hand if I can. 

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It is a quiet Christmas here - two of the kids have had Ipods so they are busy and the third has his nose in the computer as usual  (he is saving up to buy the bits for a super duper one so he had money and a computer magazine with a relevant article in it instead!!). 

Our tree is a real one this year - it was growing in the garden blocking the path and DH suggested he cut it down last summer.  I had the idea then of using it as a Christmas tree instead - it isn’t the usual sort but it smells gorgeous. 

DS1 cut it down for us and decorated it as well.  Here it is all lit up - alas, no more; for some reason the lights have fused and despite trying everything to get them back working, they stubbornly remain dim.

I have been getting on with the Etsy plan - I have spent hours in the forums and help pages getting to grips with it and have set up an account.  And taken LOTS of photos … so all I need to do now is actually list some things!  Watch this space….

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I’ve been meaning to open an Etsy shop for ages but just not got round to it.  All the sorting things out and photographing and writing about my work has just not got done.  So today I set myself a date… get one up and running by January 15th!  So please ask me how I’m getting on every now and then to nudge me into action!  I know, I should have done this a couple of months ago in time for Christmas, but better late than never, yes?  

As a first step, I spent this afternoon mounting a load of my work on to some foam core which I had painted and prepared months ago.  I wrote a tutorial on  how to mount a small quilt on to foam core and I found this very useful in reminding myself how I did it the first time!  One extra good reason why blogging is A Good Thing.

Here is the pile of work I mounted.  I put some of my fabric postcards on to foam core and I think they look good mounted this way. 

I arranged them more artistically on to my design board:

Next job: photographing them all and writing up some blurb.  Keep nagging!  Meanwhile, there are still some of my fabric postcards and small quilts for sale on my blog pages via Paypal. 

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While we were in France in the summer, one of the places we visited were some caves, Les Grottes de Savonnieres.   

These caves were interesting because of the calcium deposits which dripped everywhere and left stalagtites and stalagmites.  

At first, I thought ‘oh no, just another lot of caves!’ until I saw the use which the enterprising owners had put them to…

In the gift shop were lots of relief pictures which I thought had been engraved.    I don’t have any pictures of them, unfortunately, because we didn’t buy any, but if you go to the above website and click on ‘Museum and Shop’ you can see some.

All became clear when my rusty French managed to decipher the guide’s commentary - the pictures were made from rubber moulds being placed underneath the caves’ dripping calcium deposits.  After a few years, they were full of the mineral and on removal from the mould, you could see the picture!

Here are some in the process of being created:

Here are some stalagtites (I learnt the difference between stalagtites and stalagmites by reading Enid Blyton when I was a child - Stalagtites hold TIGHT to the roof, while stalagmites MIGHT reach the roof some day’!).

They also put articles like jugs under the calcifying drips and they were covered with limestone (according to the website… ). 

There was an area which was curiously beehive-like in its formation - I think this was caused by the ripples of water going over it.

All in all it was much more interesting than I thought it was going to be!

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I have signed up to a couple of challenges for the New Year. I seem to work better with deadlines so I hope this will push me and that I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew!

The two I have signed up for are:

• Dijanne’s Expressive Books Challenge- to create a handmade book inspired by our own work. I like the idea of this one, because I have played with making books before and made them for City & Guilds, but never really put my heart into making one! Since C&G, I have kept a motley collection of sketchbooks but I would like to have the discipline to plan and make one from start to finish.
• Sharon’s Take It Further Challenge - I followed Sharon’s TAST challenge last year wishing I did hand stitching and could join in! So I kept an eye open for her 2008 challenge and liked the sound of it. Sharon is going to give participants a theme each month and we have to develop that in our own way. And blog it - so you’ll be hearing a lot more about it as time goes by.

For January, also, I have signed up for an online course with Pamela Allen called Think like an artist. I have long admired Pamela’s work and am looking forward to taking part.

I also want to do more screenprinting and collaging next year and hope to incorporate the results in the above challenges.

Not forgetting, of course, the shawl knitalong…

Golly, all written down like this makes it look rather intimidating:)

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Here is the swatch for the Knitalong shawl which I am participating in:

It is rather larger than it should be but I’ve got plenty of yarn and I’m happy with the looseness so I think I’ll stick with the needle size, 3.5mm.  It is Jaggerspun Zephyr yarn.

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A week or so ago, I played with my new Angels rubber stamp and made a lot of Christmas cards.  Here they are, waiting to be sent out (we have to write our annual letter to friends so they haven’t gone anywhere yet).

I stamped them on to some of the tissue paper and watercolour paper and then backed them on to coloured paper.

Here is a sheet of stamps on the watercolour paper.  I love how the texture of the paper adds depth and interest to the images.

I also added embossing powder and heated it to add a bit of a shimmer to some.  Then I stamped one of the stamps on to some mulberry paper which I had bought earlier on, a la Andy Warhol…

Earlier this week, I also received my Pay It Forward gift from Shirley. 

Isn’t it gorgeous?  I love the lights and darks of the dyed fabric - see under the flap…

Wow!  Thank you, Shirley - I really love it.

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