Bank Holiday Bluster

August 27th was Bank Holiday Monday. The day was more so reminiscent of a blustery, cold, wet, dim Autumn than tail end of the Summer. Depressing... It is a little known fact that people living in the north east of England are advised to take extra vitamin D supplements due to the lack of sunlight. Also, a taxi driver told me, last Winter, that he had a Norwegian passenger who said it was colder during the Winter in the north east than it was in Norway! He said she was grumbling that she couldn't cope with the 'damp', that the coldness of the season in Norway was a dry cold rather than a wet coldness. I've lived here (by choice) for the past eight years, and I've only this last year gotten out of the habitual need to sneak a hot water bottle on the morning bus journey into work during the Winter....

Anyway. I spent Bank Holiday Monday with my parentals. We kept company in the morning at home. Dad crosswording, Mum doing her lovely tapestry and some geneology research, and me (going nearly cross-eyed in the dim daylight) getting into one of four crochet projects on the go at the moment. This is my version of the 'Flowers in the Snow' blanket by Solveig Grimstad (from Ravelry, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flowers-in-the-snow). If you are unfortunate enough to have not signed up to Ravelry, or choose not to indulge in such delicious yarn adoring procrastination, then she (Solveig Grimstad), has provided an excellent translation of her pattern (using US crochet terms) with photos, on her blog, which you can access here: http://solgrim.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/sirkel-i-kvadrat.html .

Note to self: This beautiful design is called 'Flowers in the Snow' for the reason that each motif/square is meant to be bordered in white. I, in the throes of 'Intent to Destash', chose navy blue around apple green, teal and purple flowers. Dim days + dark borders = strained, peeping peepers! However, these are a combination of my favourite colours and they look fabulous together nonetheless. Here is what I have completed so far:

The other project I am working on is 'Nancy's Waves Scarf' by Cori Dodds on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nancys-waves-scarf ), which is a free pdf download. I am using a Regia sock yarn ( 4 ply, wool and nylon blend). The yarn colours crochet out beautifully with the pattern, however, I am suprised how 'scratchy' and rough it feels and wonder if even using a little conditioner when I block it is going to make it any softer?  The link on Ravelry offers 'yarn ideas' for the project, and I'm thinking that when I do this again (lovely Christmas gift scarves), I might choose something more luxurious like Mini Mochi, Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball, Noro Silk Garden, or Araucania Ranco Multy.... However, those choices will mean new purchases and conscious avoidance of Intent to Destash!...Oh woe.

The Artful Adorner has taken a blog break to write out a hundred times 'I WILL destash!'.....

This is my Nancy's Waves Scarf thus far:

After lunch, we got on the bus into the city and spent a pleasant hour or so wandering around the Laing Gallery. The two exhibitions at the moment are 'The Family' and 'Quentin Blake' illustrations. My favourite 'Isabella and the pot of Basil' by Rossetti is out on loan alas, but I was delighted to see another favourite, 'Cat in a Cottage Window' by Ralph Hedley, remained for viewing pleasure. We convened for coffee and tea and cake in the Laing cafe before heading back to the bus stop home (their Rocky Road is delicious!).

I have not abandoned my art journal exploits, I managed to complete two A5 size pages for the day on some scrap paper (that I will paste into one of my books). Before I sign off, I 'd just like to mention that my parents saw a fantastic Rolf Harris exhibition in John Lewis (Newcastle upon Tyne), which is on at the moment.

Oooooooh, tomorrow is Woollee Wednesday!

Kate and Klimt

Every Spring and Summer I go down to Leicester to spend a few days with my friend Kate. She is retired, as she has Multiple Sclerosis. The disease has severely clipped her creative wings as this dear friend, fellow Muse and confidante through my adult life, has an amazing talent for personal style, accessorising and interior design.

I stay in the guest bedroom which is dominated with the most inviting, voluptuously dressed (in Kelly Hoppen), comfortable four poster bed I have ever had the pleasure of sleeping in... Before I get to slip under the duvet though, I have to undress the 'work of art' bed, keenly attempting to remember the order of the eight different styles of pillow, the shams, the throw, the demi throw, for when I try to dress it again the next morning.

The next morning is one of the things I love about staying with Kate. I will jump out of bed to throw the curtains open, letting the sunshine flood into the room. Then I clamber back onto that bed head at foot end and lie, staring up at the wall at the huge Klimt, Mother and Child, print above the head of the bed. I love staring at Mother and Child. The rich colours and patterns, there is always so much to see:

I have been thinking for some time about Klimt's art, so last night my art journal page was 'Klimt's Shapes'. I studied three of his paintings: The Kiss, Fulfillment, and Adele Bloch- Bauer. From these works I sketched out in black ink the main shapes he frequently uses, then coloured them in as closely as I could with my watercolour pencils. This is the finished result after about an hour of filling the page:

I am very pleased with the result, and this has led me to think about creating pages using other art forms.

Playing Walkabout With My Creativity

Yesterday, I had so much fun painting out the first colour layers of my art journal. I had picked up a childrens book last week from a charity shop for 50p. It was one of 'The Secret Histories' series. When I blocked out the cover image, I kept 'The Secret Histories' title. I like it. It has nice thick paper pages and a padded hard cover. I covered the front cover panel with a lovely Suzanne Woolcott, Gorjuss, card illustration, which says on the lower right corner 'I found my family in a book'. I love Suzanne Woolcott's illustrations and this image just seemed to fit the purpose of the art journal.

I thinned the book out by taking out a number of pages, and the remainder I pasted three pages at a time together, so I was left with, including the inner back and front covers, nine double page spreads. Most evenings last week were spent applying white gesso to the pages and I only painted one layer of gesso fairly thinly to allow some of the print through.

I went through my set of Derwent Art Bars, scribbling groups of colour across the double pages. Then, using a small spray bottle (travel size from Superdrug), spritzed water over the scribblings and blended with a paint brush. Because I am way too impatient, I then applied my heat tool to speed up the drying process. I worked this way throughout the book. The Art Bars, when dry have the look of a dense water colour wash, but with quite a matte wax finish....

Aside: I completed a page in another journal with Art Bars a couple of weeks ago. After researching online the best pens to use for journaling, I purchased a set of Sharpie 'Write on Anything' pens. They do not write on top of an Art Bar layer! The wax residue from the page lifts off onto the pen tip and this prevents ink flow. Had a very interesting conversation with the very knowledgeable gent, who works in the Blackwells book shop art department (Newcastle Upon Tyne), about the best pens to use. He highly recommended the Posca pen... Yes, it works fine on an Art Bar layer....

Back to my art journal. Where was I... Ah, yes, so after creating my first layers, I went about creating more layers with collage. I'm always cutting things of interest out of magazines and junk mail, which I sort into three trays: Imagery, Background and Type. I have quite a range of collected (hoarded) ephemera.

This is the first double page spread:

I am rather pleased that I had the type print to be able to put this in. 'I am playing walkabout with my creativity' encompasses the exploratory theme of this art journal. Enthused, I started playing about with another page spread. I went a bit wild with this one. I have no initial plans for the page designs, I just let my mind wander and see what comes up. This next picture I will entitle 'Dark Romance'. It began as an Art Bar layer of blended Alzarin, Primary Red and Black. I collaged areas with some torn magazine paper in shades of red. Pasted some type, imagery, flower dies cuts and sequins on. Sprinkled some lovely fine burgundy glitter here and there. Then I wondered if applying white tissue paper would add a distressed look. I am pleased with the result:

So, this is what I have done so far. I cannot work in silence and I find listening to podcasts in the background keeps me productive. Yesterday I listened to various episodes from 'Layout a day: The Simple Scrapbooking Podcast', 'Stash and Burn' (wonderful knitting podcast), and 'FAMM Radio' (Fiber Arts and Mixed Media podcast).

Okay, so, I am cat sitting Harris from upstairs and he has just plonked himself on my knees, front paws on the lap top. I think he wants to blog too! I'll sign off now and give this gorgeous boy some attention. Bye for now.

In Love with Art Journaling

Hello again. It's been quite a while.... Six months of ups and downs, uncertainties, anxieties, horrendous work stress, personal stress, a sudden (unexpected and utterly tragic) death, friends with serious health concerns.... A lot to cope with, and I, at one point, wasn't coping very well at all. 

Suddenly I became a sponge for every bit of worry and negativity that was affecting the whole wide world. Every time I tried to pull myself through the mire of dread, something always seemed to slap me back down. I was trying to be strong for everybody, but I wasn't strong enough for myself.

Anxiety and depression signs and symptoms seemed overwhelming. I turned to comfort eating. Weight gain added to my feelings of despair. I turned to my GP for help. Apparently I am not the right kind of person to take antidepressants. 

My GP... I am SO glad I ended up with a holistic, mind and body positivity, philosophically inclined doctor. She's fantastic. She won't hand pills out willy nilly. She knows me better than most and for this I am thankful. I am thankful that she reminded me at my lowest ebb about the kind of person I am. I always look for the positive, in everything. Yin and yang, there's always a positive to be found somewhere. She reminded me how proactive I was during my slipped disc injury. She told me hat she looked forward to seeing me in an appointment because I always make her smile. I like to create smiles. I like people to know that they are doing a wonderful job in every small way that they don't even think about. She reminded me of my creativity. She switched on the light for me when everything had seemed so dark. "You will find your path through this. You always do".

A dear friend, suffering debilitating back pain & depression, my co-creation inspirative muse, told me she was going to look into training to become an Art Therapist. Curious, I looked into it. The more I read, the more I thought, this might help me.

This blog, amongst others,  has been responsible for so much new found positivity: 'Art Journaling as a creative process' (http://artjournaling.blogspot.co.uk/p/why-art-journal.html). Thank you so much Kelley Luckett! - I have learnt to let go and not take responsibility for things I have no control over.

 I had a fortnights holiday in July, and I decided to begin an art journal and complete a page every day of my holiday. I can't wait to get my pages up onto Flickr to show you what I have done! Art journaling has released me from months pent up stress and uncertainty I was feeling. The process of creating a page, drawing with some writing, it's really relaxing. I feel a sense of achievement afterwards and I look forward to the next page I will create. I like to draw directly with black ink, decisively, no messing about with pencils and perfecting rubber marks. Any accidents are happy accidents, and the process is one of deep concentration. I almost zone out into my own bubble of relaxation. Presently, I am very fond of the transportability of water colour pencils and Art bars. So, I can throw in some colour and wash it later. My sketchbook and pens are always in my bag nowadays.

Art journaling has come to the fore and reawakened my love of altered book art. I feel quite guilty. Today is Wednesday. Woollee Wednesday. Tonight I am hosting for the knitting and crochet group I created over a year ago. I'm waiting for the Woollee Wednesdays to arrive and I'm blogging about my love of art journals....Not done much crocheting for the past 2 months!

I have '4' art journals on the go at the moment. The first, 'How To Feel Better', is constructed from an altered paint samples booklet, containing the most part of my summer holiday. I'm just finishing it off from photos that I took back then. I have a big A4 artists ring bound sketchbook that I'm filling with paint and collage, with many thanks to the inspiring work of Journal Artista (http://www.iamjournalartista.com/). I have a journal in which I am practicing drawing people and faces skills, and a journal of favourite words, quotes and doodles (I've quite gotten into Zentangle too!). I've also gotten my lovely mum into making an art journal habit, and I've started a regular post card swap with 2 friends.

Some of my previous altered art and mini albums can also be seen on UK Scrappers (http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/ ), where I am ' Artful Adorner'.

A Feather Floating In An Abyss Of Despair ....Then A Ray Of Hopeful Sunshine

My, my, I've been a naughty sprite not keeping up with my blog! So much to bring you up to date with, where to start?....

Ok, sketching improving, but still very basic, small steps etc makes as close to perfect as I hope to get.

This year has been pretty depressing with various events creating a cul de sac for artistic achievement. Work over the Summer was hard & chaotic & I just couldn't magic up much creative energy.

I survived a very scary breast lump experience - Resolved itself as an aspirated cyst, but 'Lump' had seemed almost an extra appendage which I referred to in the third person & talked to for a while even (?!), with philosophical musings on life & death doldrums for 3 wks before 'it' got seen to in breast clinic. My mum survived breast cancer 3 yrs ago, so my panic is understandable.

My best friend was diagnosed this Summer with thyroid cancer. She has now had a total thyroidectomy. Her docs 'think' they removed all the cancer, but want her to undergo 'belts & braces' radiotherapy anyway to be 100% sure. She is a mother of 3 & 2 Cav.King Charles pups. She has been SO strong through this so far & I know she is terrified. It's really hard to see her so muted & dulled down from her previously crazy, bright & gung-ho self. She looks & is SO tired all the time.

At the start of September I was felled (I am a mighty oak in stature), with acute bilateral sciatica. I NEVER WANT TO FEEL LIKE THAT AGAIN. The experience was excruciating & I was off work for nearly 4 wks. I couldn't walk normally for 7 days initially. Short distances felt like marathon efforts as I had to keep stopping for fear of passing out with the pain or that my legs were going to give way. I couldn't even sit for 12 days. The meds my doc prescribed nearly wiped me out into cuckoo land (as if day time tv hadn't done that already), & I spent a good deal of time lying flat. The episode was both physically & mentally draining. I felt so helpless & disabled having to ask strangers in the supermarket to pass me the bagels from the bottom shelf ( I could not bend forward at all for some time). Plenty of pride was swallowed, but I persevered by taking private physiotherapy (a combined program of sciatic massage, gentle exercise, ice therapy, TENS & acupuncture). All this along with the strong meds & I couldn't tell you exactly what helped me the most, but I cannot reccommend acupuncture enough, as it seemed to really take the edge off my most acute pain attacks.

Anyway, there was not an awful lot to do but stare at 4 walls or rather the ceiling all day. Distracting my mind from the boredom was an exercise in itself. I had read everthing at home I could get my hands on, given up on day time tv, become obsessed with not missing certain radio programmes. Being unnable to sit to do any jewellery making, my hands were ailing me to do something. What could I do both standing & lying down?.....I began to crochet again.

Presently, a fair few weeks later (but not completely free of the wrath of sciatica), I remain addicted to crochet. Pleased to say I am a new member of Miss Spiritual Tramps Knitting group (see google groups). As well as taking on the crazy idea of crocheting ALL my Christmas gifts this year, I have successfully incorporated the craft into my jewellery designs. My previously creative dearth is once again ROARING with enthusiasm & I have so many ideas that I feel I must stop my ears up with corks to prevent them escaping!

I can't wait to show you my creations....I've asked for a digital camera for my joint Christmas/Birthday present. Although it is a sad fact that those of us born around Yule DO miss out - there is sometimes room for a little bribary potential for a larger than normal gift at this time of the year.

Dire Dexterity & Other worries

I am in the habit of keeping a sketchbook & pencils in my shoulder bag ( the Tardis), now. I don't really feel as though it contains anything of much notability so far which I'm a bit glum about. It is really difficult for me to try & desist from describing ideas in rough note jottings in favour of 'sketch' . The habit I have, is like a really tight knot that I'm finding particularly hard to unravel in order to relearn from scratch. I was talking with my Mum about this on the phone this evening. Mum has oodles of artistic talent in the mediums of sketching, watercolour, oils & bronze-casting sculpture. She mentioned that Dad has recently started playing golf with my ex- high school Head Of Art. I grumbled down the line in response....I always got the feeling I was a disappointment to him....Mum had taken 'one' evening class with him back then & everytime I had to hand a piece of art homework in he used to tell me that if I put more practice in I would be as good as my mother....They (the teachers in the art dept), thought I had huge potential. I managed to hold onto the Art subject until I was forced to drop it (due to other 'serious' academic committments according to my parents - I was 15, without much choice in those matters), & all the tutors fell out with me. Mum says she'll help me remaster the basics during my Summer break back home (3 weeks to go, can't wait). I'm thinking of my holiday as a kind of Summer School in which I know Mum will make a most excellent tutor.
My other panic dips are associated with becoming familiar with ARTCAD & similar 3D rendering software. I was thinking that maybe I should email BIAD & enquire as to whether they would let me know the favoured software used during the course AND maybe a list of required reading texts? Hmm.... I was browsing around Amazon last night, my wish list is now mammoth. Tim McCreight seems to be a popular Master Craftsman / author...'The Complete Metalsmith...' , appears, from the customer reviews, to be a standard, invaluable tome for the course. Is this a good place to start I wonder?
Well, I suppose I won't find out unless I make enquiries. Another item on the Mother-Daughter epic phone call agenda, was the Cambridge Open Studios event. Quite excited since I Googled it( http://www.camopenstudios.co.uk ) & discovered a decent number of diverse jewellery artists would be taking part. What an excellent opportunity to ooh & aah & pick brains!