Sea Blue

I have used this stitched piece as a background for a photo group competition on Flickr.
It was one of a series with 'blue' titles ie Lavender Blue. It is worked on a silk background and uses carrier rod silk strips which I painted and used Iridescent Tinting Medium to add some sparkle. The stitching is mainly Cretan Stitch, with some machining and seeding. Carrier rods are lovely to use and fairly cheap; you can turn them from something quite ugly into something fine and tactile.

If you fancy donating to a good cause have a look here Great North Swim.

Blog Award

Thank you to Abigail for this award.
I always enjoy following the links from the blogs which I enjoy, but I tend to keep my current blogs in my favourites list, because it does change according to my current interest – which means this is a good opportunity to point people in the direction of some really interesting and I think unusual blogs to which I would give this award.
http://thisiswhatisee.typepad.com/ Interesting photographs of her daily life.


http://echoesjournal.wordpress.com/ Beautiful art work currently on the theme 'Summer is'.

http://www.susanpm.blogspot.com/ Generous in sharing techniques.

http://hannahlamb.blogspot.com/ Cyanotypes using natural materials, and documenting her artistic struggle as she follows an MA course.

Dynamic Drawing

This may or may not be dynamic but it was the first group exercise on my drawing workshop of that name which took place at Morley College yesterday. We all moved around the table using either charcoal or pencil drawing the person infront of us on the same piece of paper - difficult to explain, it reminded me of moving on in county dancing. There were many similar exercises. I am not sure I really enjoyed the day, could have been my mood. It was a different approach which I am very open to but there was more talk than practise.
'Art in Action' on Friday was v. wet and muddy, probably like being at Glastonbury but we were lucky enough not to be camping and came home to much needed fish and chips. I particularly admired the drawings of Julia Polonski who uses muslin and texture over her drawings and for the second year the stitch marks of Roanna Wells.

'Carried Away'

Thanks again for the comments. I do agree that creativity is about that wonderful feeling of being ‘carried away’, either being entirely in the moment and forgetting everything else or carried away with a surge of enthusiasm and just wanting to get on with making/creating.. However, I also know that when I look at a piece of work that I truly admire it will tend to have a certain simplicity and rightness, with nothing unnecessary added or taken away. I think there tends to be too much angst around about the creative process, but at the same time perhaps that is what keeps us going, the striving for that moment when one knows a piece of work is just right and complete.

This week I have been completely taken up with the inspiring work of Alisa Burke. I went to a local DIY store for a hedge trimmer and bought a trial pot of chalky emulsion (such lovely colours). It worked well on fabric and this lead to a Google search which via Quilting Arts brought me to Alisa Burke’s work. I paid to downloaded one of her videos because I just felt she could be me using all the left over bits and pieces. Her video is excellent and really encourages you to layer techniques.
Recent enthusiasms include cyanotypes, must do more when the sun shines, and life drawing, I would like to go to an ongoing class, but there isn’t a convenient one at the moment. I will put it on the list.

I also found this site which can take up a few happy hours if you are an enthusiast for colour; it could also help in working out interesting colour themes. Nice to play with anyway.

Woolworths' Book.

Thank you for recent comments and especially the birthday wishes.
Here are some more pictures of the Woolworths' book; it surprising the memories that the shop provokes. There are still lots of news stories about its demise and also about the young woman who has started the new version, Wellworths in Dorchester. Of course, Woolworths is now on the internet so not quite dead.

I think I did get a bit carried away, especially when I found the ‘boil proof’ elastic in a local charity shop, which is probably why it was not chosen. Also I had to find a way of doing the lettering and printing by hand which made it a bit inconsistent in style. I took the photos of our local store for the cover and added some texture with scanned muslin.

I bribed someone in Dorchester to send me the bag, which is lined with cotton and printed with Closure etc inside. Completely carried away as you can see.