Here it is!!

My sketchbook arrived today and what a dinky little thing it is :) Less frightening than I expected.

My feet are for size reference, plus elevating due to tendonitis :(

I wanted to write down as much as I can abut my process and thinking for this project. So here I go, if I bore you shout up!!!

Q.What do I want out of doing this project?

A. I want to try to sort out in my head what my work is a about? I want to find my voice/my subject/my style and know what I am about. I want to be like all those people who have found something they adore, so much so no matter your feeling on the subject you can't help but admire their passion for it,when I grow up (Ps running out of time at 34)

Q. what are my thoughts on the subject - Below the surface

A. Initially I wanted to do something on self esteem, self image - thinking of how we all hide behind a mask, wanted to look at insecurity and make up to camouflage what's beneath. However is this the way I want my work to go? Is this something that will be my body of work? Simple answer - NO. I hate drawing people and am not good at it. I am not a conceptual artist is something I have to realise.

So then I had to think about what i am about, well I think I am about Pattern and I think I am about colour. So now I have to re think. I want something I can study as a starting point, I want something to be below what ever that is and so I started to think about what was in my local museums and area. I thought about Welshness and thought of love spoons and their hidden messages. and thought that this is far too commercialised and sappy a theme but liked the idea of the messages - messages from the past, that some of us understand but mainly walk past and don't get - now I am on to something. So off I virtually toddled to the Welsh national museum site to check out this sort of archaeological thing, thinking abut cup and ring marks to start, but got side tracked by standing stones and medieval inscribed stones and stone sculptures (ps I will do the for real visit to the museum when holidays commence). So I am there I have patternation and a blank canvas for colour and find out that we have a collection of standing stones in Margam which is very near by, so a family outing will ensue as there is a great park next to it :) pray for the rain to clear up for the weekend :)

Now did I ramble too much? Do I make sense? Is it worth writing this nonsense down? Sorry for poor grammar and punctuation :)

New and improved phone case

I worked on my design for the case for my phone. I used denim again, as I really liked the chenilling I did. I cleaned up the sewing keeping it to a zig zag. I used the seam again too. This time I took Jackie's advice and tried stiffening it, I used pelmet vilene.

I used the bleach out on the back.

Much more happy with the zig zagging this time and the whole thing is a major improvement. I am hoping to make a few more of these now as I have masses of small off cuts of denim from school :)

Iphone disaster

I had a major Iphone disaster last week, having dropped my phone and smashed the screen. Costing me £50 in excess, but thank goodness I had insurance. So I saw Jackie's lovely Iphone covers and thought I'd have a go. Here is one I did AKA Jackie...

Recycling some denim from my FAT clothes :) But I don't love it - it is Jackie, not me. But I did enjoy playing with her technique, maybe when pennies are less tight I will invest as hers are sooooo neat and so lush.

So I went back to the drawing board and thought about what I wanted. I wanted more me, so I remembered a chenilling technique I had played with on city and guilds and set to cutting bias strips and stitching them. I played with the zig zag width to get the pattern nd then scuffed the edges with a suede brush. I wanted to highlight the double stitching and used Velcro for ease o opening. Lessons learnt - much more me BUT not happy with the finish, not loving the zig zagging, everyone else's seem so neat and mine never do, any suggestions?

As promised

I stuck a little more to the brief that Michelle set this time. This was the stuff I found with fresh eyes in my magazine. I am rather pleased with it.

Grid Lock

So I LOVE Michele Ward's blog, it is so colourful and inspiring, and while lurking in the mist as I have been for a while now I have started reading blogs again. I saw Michelle's post on a new challenge here, and thought it might be a spur as was so easy and inviting - just the confidence boost I needed. So Michelle suggested that you find things from your stash, and I have been working on some wedding invites for the SIL and this red was the basis along with the flower cut out from vintage dictionary. But then I was found wanting - little stash to hand being that I am in the mist, so grabbed a magazine and found a few bits.

So this is what I did. I thought I didn't have much in the magazine, but with fresh eyes I found more this evening.

Detail

Detail

I also found a whole new set of things in my fav turquoise and so am setting to a collage as per Michelle's instructions too. All this is to dip my toe in as I have signed up for this :

http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

Judy Scott - such a good friend, backed up Deb's fab advice to go to the sketchbook - sounds like that Mafia quote - "Go to the mattresses" and so I have with a big brave step :)

Hello neglected blog

Hia all, and my sadly neglected blog. I have been very remiss in not posting of late. Hubby has a new job starting tomorrow and I hope he does really well, and am sure he will.

I am in the middle of a huge slump. I don't know how to get back into making, making anything. I can doodle, and am fiddling with wedding invites for my sister inlaw but am at a real solid impass for my own work. I don't know how to begin, so am going to ask, what do you do??? How do you get over things? Any help appreciated.