A very good week

I had a wonderful exhibition week with generous comments like ' is this the local art groups work?' ' lovely use of color' & 'inspiring' What more could a girl want? Financially it was pretty good, too, encouraging us to think about doing it again next year......!

 My rout to the exhibition - this is one mile from home

(click to see the lighthouse)

We still have work left of course but inspired by a chat about integrity with my photographer friend, who told me he'd have all new work next time, it ocurred to me that I couldn't possibly drag all this lot out.....again.

arriving in Plockton

So I've started to plan a new body of work - daunting but exciting

 the inlet next to the Hall

And quite a focus!

Driving home (yes I did stop safely to take the pic, many don't!) I'm on the mainland so that's Skye over there in the delicious clouds

I think I'd have come to that conclusion on my own, eventually, about new work as I did think a couple of times 'if so & so comes all the way over here specially,  they've seen it all before'

a tiny detour to the car park so I could get a pic of the bridge over to Skye

It gave me a small feeling in the pit of the stomach but I can now say all that work was for the 12 months of '11/'12 all new for 2013 - wow, what a sense of purpose I have now!

So I finally got one of 3 cushions finished! One visitor said how awful for me to just have to sit there all day & I told her it was bliss as I could get some work done ;)

A too bright pic of the 'piping' - my version of piping anyway - I think I stitched it in a conventional way, no cord,  but the strip of fabric was made up of lots of different colors & pieces of fabric....as you can see. Very time consuming but the pieces are generally the size they are, leftover size.

I couldn't leave the back out, I love a bit of detail. So using my rotary cutter ( yes I actually own one!) I sliced the 'piping' strip & zigzaged it down, quite sweet I thought.

I put all the really tiny bits of fabric, dust some of it, onto a square of denim. As time passed I fiddled it (?) into 4 smaller squares - they did get knocked about a bit before I got to them, then I laid a piece of organza over it all stitched merrily & cut into 4. I intended to make cards with them until a visitor bought a brooch & I thought, Brooches! I did cut one in half & made 2 cards, above, along with a few simple shell stamp cards & assembled some Acer leaf prints I'd done before into cards.

I put together a few of these cards too - I keep my card designs in A5 envelopes & each envelope should have all the necessary component parts (they don't always!)  so that I can grab my 'kit' & a glue stick & make them up 'on location'. The star is a commercial stamp & the hearts is made from cutting card shapes & gluing them down into a 'stamp'. The cards are sitting on a painted background, 6 A4 sheets in various stages - I took over a mini studio so I could dash off some card/collage papers. I seem to be very disciplined when I know I'm going to be 'stuck' somewhere for a length of time - I usually take too much stuff tho but I can't bear the idea of not having anything to do, a sort of fear of boredom I think  (I never get bored!). With a note book always with me & calming Yogic breathing & relaxation, it's not such a worry any more.

 

Lastly, I made these earings. I had my very good customer come by & she bought the 3 I had - I'd hoped to have given her a better selection but she inspired me to make more, anyway ;)

The pics are the right way thank goodness - you did make me laugh with your ricked neck comments! I think as I'd forgotten to resize the last post pics & loaded them in a one-er blogger couldn't cope, not surprisingly. So now I have a little free time before the Xmas craft fairs production kicks in to come by all of yours & visit!