A Birthday Collage

My D was 50 last week, so I made him a collage of my interpretation of Ben Sgritheall (pronounced 'screel') Quite daunting doing it considering he has painted it beautifully loads of times! It's the beautiful hill we can see on the mainland from the very edge of our property, & as you walk around the bay it follows you & changes shape. This is my first pic of it, but I feel about it a little like the guy did in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' , kept looking at it, thinking about it seeing it from different parts of the peninsula, almost wanting to ask it "what do you want from me?!". (I didn't actually ask it)

That's when, about a year ago I decided to climb it, & then I could say, ha, got you! So I did, thanks to a supportive family after about 6 months gentle training - lots of fast walking, flat & up little hills - I hadn't climbed a Munro (a hill over 3,000 feet) for 20 years. So it was a big thing for me, especially as most of my joints ache a bit most of the time, & thanks to the practice of yoga, again, just gently & sheer determination, I whouped it! Did a bit of fundraising, too, thought I might as well while I was up there & gave it to 2 places who are really good at enabling others.

The hill enabled me in all sorts of ways (once I had recovered & could walk properly again!) & so now, I can just make a collage out of it. Simple. I'll probably make one again.

My tenth row of 6 squares

One of the most satisfying things about this blog is that altho my 15 yr old helped to set me up here & D helps me sort out a 1 degree rotation of some images in photoshop (altho I did 90% of today's) is that I'm managing my blog. That probably doesn't sound much to some but as a slight technaphobe it's a great achievement for me. I learn more each week, & I am less frightened of doing so each week. That's thanks to my family's amused tolerence of me (I can't get cross at that, they may not help anymore!)& of course thanks to the poeple who look at what I say & do & encourage me to continue.

Three hearts

I've finally got a rather blue tinted heart pic up for a constructive crit. It is pinker, really, but maybe a blue/paynes grey wash might help to 'bring it all together'!

I'm in the middle of clearing/cleaning the studio, may show some before & after pics later - I enjoy sometimes seeing that on blogs & I feel more focused & organised if I think I may want to make a post of something later.

Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think - I'm bouyed up enough by the last lovely comments I got - I can take it & thanks :)

All you need is love

Well, I thought I'd join in with all these lovey sentiments that I've been enjoying. I do love hearts all year round tho. Still haven't got round to taking a pic of my heart collage - when I look at it it does seem very, well... pink.

Meanwhile, a day late again, there are my six squares. This time they are an attempt at 3D. A friend lent me a book on Mixed Media/found object jewellery so instead of laboriously writing out the instructions, I decided to choose a few samples & make my own versions using what I had, for a 3D 'sketchbook'. It's such a validation when you open a book & see all sorts of wonderful creations made out of components that are already scattered all over your studio, admittedly they're deep inside a box or gathering dust high on a shelf & when you see what can be done with the things you too have collected, almost all your life, you realise that there was a purpose to your hoarding. Very satisfing, but I'll have to stick to the more messy look, my fingers aren't able for delicate wire twisting!

Happy Valentine's Day! I had hoped to show my hearts, but both batteries have gone on the camera. Modern technology, where are we without it?!

Middle of February

The days go by so quickly, in a blink of an eye if you're not careful. I'm still loving the square a day. I've started 2 sketchbooks, one for the terracotta & blue squares along with the neutral ones (I won't have 'beige'!)& one for anything with pink in. I'll set up another book for the fabric squares. I may even make it!

I've tea dyed tiny tags with the date on & thought I'd stamp them with the numbers, but it's the alphabet I have so I wrote them myself. I need to start stamp carving too... Now that the squares are out of order, re-sorted into color groups, another kind of picture emerges. I need the physical reminder of an image, to see it & feel it's texture, smell it even! I'll need to produce more than I have if I'm to have any hope of making any kind of a living in the new season, approaching quickly. No pressure there! Then to actually bring them out, for show & tell AND to get a constructive crit, not just from a customer in the studio who tells me they don't have any artistic talent, but from others like me, people who are working thru these things themselves! Well, I must be feeling strong:)

A feel of Spring in the air - I've just hung out my first laundry of the year (!) Good to open the windows a bit without the risk of losing the contents of the room across the Sound! I feel for the people still under a white coat, but spring will come!

To justify reading blogs I try & make a (personal) workshop out of something I see or from someone's generous tutorial. (I've gotta say with all these copyright things on some blogs I'm terrified to let anything see the light of day!) I've seen lots of stitching over bits & pieces of threads & fabric covering it & burning/soldering back but I usually just succeed in making a black smelly hole, despite reading over the million books I have on the subject. I'll keep trying! (a good place to stick some gold paint!) I also saw someone use veg bags, sorry, forgotten who but they were lovely, but she made me get up & use one of the thousand bags I've kept. Blog people share so much but a big part is inspiring us to go & use the stuff we've lovingly collected & do the thing we want to do - it gives us more permission to be what we want to be. Well, it works for me anyway!