Hi all

I all I thought I woud drop in and say hello, I am not dead! I am in a pit of my usual downer, not coping well with day to day at the mo. I don't want an answer but why sometimes is life so hard. Everyone seems to bumble along ok, but there always seems to be some disaster lurking around the corner for us at the mo. IPerhaps behind closed doors things are different.Nothing particuar but anyway I am so trying to hold it together that bing creative is the ast thing on the adgenda at the mo. Hope yu guy are all good and I will be back soon as I am going on a workshop on Sat and so at leat that should get me out of the dark hole! Love carol T

Advice please!

I wondered if any of you lovelies coud tell me if it is worth selling on Etsy or somewhere like that? Do you sell much and does the commission cost much? I would like to earn a little extra cash but don't want to start it if it isn't worth it? Thanks all.

Bit of fun - TIF

I was thinking about TIF and my Wonderwoman thing. I wanted to do something fitting of my age now as god help i couldn't get away with the outfit now, and was thinking about my preoccupation with cuffs of late. Well I decided that this probably began with Wonderwoman's cuffs. So I decided to use some of my fabric to make a wonderwoman cuff. I also used it as a toille for the others I am going to make in my industry unit, as i wanted to see if the closure I was thinking of using would work. and YEY! it does.
I used 2 1inch curtain rings, and it works a treat, and greater news I can put it on myself, rather than having to nag DH.
I used some of my foil painted in turquoise and copper.
and wa la!

Page for Helen - INDIA

I have gotten my page for Helen done on time, for a change! I have been really trying to clear my commitments at the mo! I have just been reading Anna's blog where she was talking about being a true Gemini and having a thousand projects on the go at once. Well I am a true list making Virgo, never happier than when ticking something off my list! Well here is my piece for Helen, her chosen theme was India and remembering that I had traded with Sara from Kuwait a favour for some embellished ribbons I went in search! This was the most Indian of them with lovely saffron colours and paisleys. I harvested some of the metal work from the bits I cut off and used up some of my painted cotton, in saffron colours. I also Kantha'd the piece too, as it is an Indian technique.
I am sweetly aware of sending the worlds worst binding to Helen, of all people! Well I did my best! I am not up to par at the mo as I have a horrible case of Flu.
I also included an acrylic scraped tag with more paisleys.

Not my usual colours, but lovely to work with. I had fun!

Can I also put out a reminder about the Cerdlyn card art fund raising appeal. It is to raise money to keep Plas glyn y weddw gallery open and I blogged about it a milion years ago. It asks or either A5 or postcard size art works in any media to be auctioned at the gallery. Well they are due in at the end of March. A CV (short artist statement) should accompany the work as well as contact details. The back of the work should be signed and dated, and have a title.

If you would like to take part leave me a comment and I will email you the address, as I wouldn't like to put out Elfryn's address here!!! If you remember me saying about this please try to take part as this fab galery will close without some help! Thanks so much.

Arch and pin

I have been trying to get some of my commitments done early this month for a change! The first is my arch for swap on my group Textiles challenges, and it is for Alis. She suggested a great many things including pink and mermaids, so I wet with this. I made a mermaid Dottie doll complete with scales! and a sea background.
She sits in a wave pocket.
The background is a bit of mop up cloth from a painting day. and below is a piece of silk that I dyed. This is the back of it. I painted some foil and stitched hearts on the back.
This lead me to the pin I need to make for a swap on Alis' group Unlimited textiles. I embellished the background with some thread that had broken free from a spool, I put this between two pieces of Lynda's dyed scrim and embellished it. I then added a piece of the painted foil ad beaded it. I added a brooch back and wa - la!!!! The theme was passion.

Faf page from Helen.

I recieved the most amazing page to finish off my page swap for FAF today. It was from Helen and you can se it here. I didn't get back from parents evening till late so no light to photograph it, but Helen has lovely photos so pop over and see it. I can't tell you how fantastic this page is in real life, the precision of the smocking and the yo-yos and beading. The rusting is just smashing. Thanks so much Helen.

Cuff!

A quick link for you, my little sister Sian has started a blog to record her knitting and crochet. She has caught the bug!!! She has been making loads of hats, and you have the added bonus of seeing what I would look like if I was thin! Go check her out and leave her some comments, I am sure she will be chuffed!
Now on to me! Today I have been having a total play. I am making cuffs or C+G but I wanted to play with the embellisher today, just for fun, so I made 2 cuffs, one for Sianabanana! and one for me.

I used a card frame to wrap the yarn around and then I embellished it and cut it off when joined. I felted the yarn in to make the tie. I am pleased with how it turned out, it relies totally on the gorgeousness of the rowan yarn I bought, but then it is just the start of a bit of play. Plese excuse my knarly scar, that's where I had surgery after the dog bit me a few years ago, a lasting reminder.

Tif for January finished and a card for a friend

On wednesday Ellie may and I went here:

It was the Holiday on ice show in Cardiff. I don't know about Ellie but I was LOVING it, it was amazing. The headbangers were so close to the floor, the speed, the costumes were just superb, and Kyran Braken was sublime! You'd have thought I was the 4 year old, I didn't want to leave.

I have finally finished my January TIF challenge which I combined with Emmy's January page for FAF. Emmy's page needed to be a mandala and since mandala's are about self exploration I decided to link this to the TIF challenge of who inspires you. I decided that I would use inspiration from my blogging friends that have been so inspirational over the last 2 years, I would "steal" thier style!So clock wise from the top we have :

Lynda- stitched to paint with emulsion and then ink, beaded.

ME! - I have woven fabric and hand stitched and covered in buttons.

Emmy - I have used sme stretchy velvet and gathered it as I stitched, I tried to capture Emmy's style of covering in stitch, encrusting.

Jan - Jan loves to recycle and so I used a sweetie wrapper and stitched through twinkle organza and then melted back, I added a piece of melted felt and stitch.

Carol M - Lutrador ad lace, highlighted with metallic rub ons and fabric rolled beads.

I hope I have captured some of their style, but kept it my own.

Below is a card I made for a friend. I won't reveal who yet!

Fun and Cyber Fyber

I am starting off today's ost with a bit of fun that i saw on Arlee's flickr. It is a rubik cube maker that uploads your art to a model rubiks cube. I thought my industry pieces would fit in really well, so off I went to have a play. And here they are:

The bottom one fits so well, this was the paper quit before I added the dark turquoise and the embellishment. It just fits the squares so easily. These are so fun.

Now on to the serious business of Cyber Fyber. I managed to finish these cards today to trade with Susan. I used my industry theme, as this is whirling in my brain at the mo. They will be posted off tomorrow.

Mandala for Emmy WIp - also for TIF january

I have made a start on my mandala for Emmy, who was my January partner for the FAF page swap. I am obviously behind!!! I chose if you remember to page hamage to the styles of the amazing internet friends i have made over the last 2 years. So I chose Emmy and her's is the wedge on the bottom left. I have stitched in great amount on to gathered stretchy velevet that someone had sent me that was a lovely delicate green like the palette Sharon set. The next in a clockwise direction is in homage to Jan my good friend, who loves to recycle and so I have usd an only sample of bondaweb on twinle organza burnt back to reveal a turquoise sweety wrapper. Then we have Carol M and a piece of lutrador and lace, highlighted with gold and siler rub on's. The top wedge is for Lynda, and is stitched, painted in emulsion and then ink. and finally is little old me! I have woven some cream cotton and lace and I am going to embellish this with buttons and shell beads which I love.
The backing is a piece of painted cotton and I have left to integrate these to the background now.
This is my piece for Val for the calendr girls swap this month. Visit the group's blog to see more about this.

Paper quilt done - at last!

I have finally finished the paper quilt for the true colours challenge. I am really pleaed with how it turned out. I have bound it with cotton painted with acrylic in the same way I did with the actual quilt. It's finished size is 11" square (ish!!). This was a very satisfying piece of work, in no small part because of the lessons learned in it's making. Thanks to all of you who gave me advice and help with this work.

I have also 2 other things in the pipeline, my calendar girls febuary post card which is for Val, and my piece for January's TIF challenge. I have nearly done this, it has been combined with Emmy's FAF page for January as she wanted a mandala. I decided to make my mandala in the style of the people I admire, and I am about 3/4's there. I hope to finish it tomorrow or monday.

This months TIF s based on :
What are old enough to remember? and.......
Now being the baby of the bunch in many cases here, I feel ashamed to say what I remember. I unusually don't have many early memories. My strongest was my deep love for Wonderwoman, man I wanted to be her! Torville and Dean at the olympics, the Bolero! and hence why i am taking Ellie may to see Kieran Bracken in Cardiff on wednesday to see the holiday on ice. Later it was pop groups like take that and Bros and Kylie and Jason (still love Jason!!! Yey for Echo Beach!). Now this all seems a bit too superficial, but and the last bit will give you a laugh. This was taken on Charles ad Di's wedding day, I remember as the outfit was made for the street party. Note the attention to detail, gold rope and cuffs, but what was my mum thinking with the socks! Why no red boots!!!!! I think I might make a wonderwoman inspired something. The other in the pic is my sis Vicky, just to shame her!You all laughing now!!!!!!

Cre8tivethreads - go check it out.

Link for you!!! Please go take a look and wish Jan Lewis well, she has been a timid blogger and i want her to keep it up as she does such amazing things. Go check out all her 10 posts on her work for a new exhibiting group called Meniscus. Big kisses Jan, so chuffed your work has come together sooooooo well.

Nearly there

I am so much happier with this piece now, infact i have finished all i am going to do in terms of decoration, I just have the backing and mount to do. I have painted up some cotton in the darker colour tonight and am waiting for it to dry now so that i can bind and back. I am now ususally a fan of binding, far too precise for me but this piece calls for a definate edge i think so i am going to do it. It was a sod to photograph this as the metallics were bouncing light all over but this one is pretty accurate in colours. i have added some text at the top and finished the beading now. I chose to say "True colours shine through" like the Cindy Lauper lyric. I think this ran through my head from the start of this task, although i did consider "Hidden gems" as well. Funnily enough I had only been talking about having you own internal soundtrack the other day with Enid my C+G lecturer, she caught me singing and mumbling away(under my breath of course as I would never unleash my voice on others!!!!) as i drew in class and was amazed that I have my own in head IPod! I hear music in my head all the time, it really shapes my thinking sometimes, and she was really jealous that I have this capacity for music.Anyway the point being this probably shaped what I chose to write. I did it in dark blue ink to start and highlighted in a blue and silver metallic pen, but this didn't have enough impact, so i went over with a black pen tonight and I am much happier with it.
Close up's were hard to get too but I thought you might like to see it closer. Thanks to all for all the lovely and helpful comments you have left me on this piece, having such a supportive community of artists is such a big help. On that note I wanted to say that i am trading with Susan Lenz on her Cyber Fyber idea. She is single handedly organising an exhibition of artists from the Blogging world and trading a massive amount of cards and ATC's. I am going to trade one of each and am definately going to do one in the style of this piece of work. Well done Susan on having the guts to follow through such a massive undertaking and on the wonderful group of artists you have brought together for this show, I look forward to it with great anticipation.

I got brave!

Well I got brave and added a darker colour using black and turquoise acrylic mixed and applying with a sponge. I think it is much better now. I still have to add more beading and I can't decide on the stitching or the lettering, but there is time yet!

Additions

I have made additions to the paper quilt taking into account what michelle said about adding a large circle. I felt that the eye wasn't able to travel around the piece very well so i have been beading away, so much so i have worn a groove in my finger!!!! I wanted the beads to look like crusty corroded bits. i have tried to add a circlular shape all be it a broken one. I want to do what Debbie suggested too and darken up the edges, but I don't think i will go quite as far as black maybe a much darker turquoise, mixed up with black. I may put a black binding on however. Thanks girls for all your help and advice, this is what i love about blogging. I think I might add some stright stitches in a dark turquoise perle to help the circle shape. I love deb's idea of text but i don't know what I want to say yet!

Layout - Watcha think?????

I wondered if some of you lovelies would give me some honest opinions about this piece, I have added some copper and some of those things from the backs of Ellie's toy packaging. I have added some washers painted and couched on too. Now i want some opinions, I am not sure about it??? Thanks for your help in advance!

Paper quilt on the move at last

I have made a further go at my paper quilt, I may well meet the end of january deadline for textiles challenges. My plan for the true colours quilt was to use my work for my industry unit as a theme. I showed you this piece a few posts ago. I painted it with copper acrylic. Today I over painted a new layer in stewart gill pearlise in mermaid and when that was dry a layer of turquoise acrylic. When this was dry I used a damp cloth to rub back through the layers . My idea for the quilt was True colours - What lies beneath the surface. I wanted to give the idea that yur true colours shine through the layers of yourself, deep or what!!!!All I need to do is find a focal point now. The top one is the full layout and I have worked in thirds and I have some nice indutrial looking bits I have been collecting, from the fastenings of Ellie's toys. I hate toy packaging, it is always a mass wrestle to get them out and for a long time i have been thinking there must be something I can do with them. Here's a close ups. Any ideas on focal point gratefully recieved!

Further to the drawing more design work

This term we are looking at form in college and i explained last post that i have decided to look at the plight of the Welsh miner's wife as the source of inspiration. We had to do paper mache and so I used the flat iron as a mould . I had to cut the paper off the iron and rejoin it but it has worked out well. Enid asked me how i was going to decorate it and so i had thought about emulsion and ink but then having idea showered the topic, i thought about make do and mend and how my grandmother would make her childrens clothing so i found a vintage child's pattern in school for a dress and used that to finish it off.

I also made an armourture from newspaper for a large peg. It isn't as porportianal as i would have likes but I am pleased with it.

Fruits of last nights labours

This is my next study in pencil. I had to tear one of my photocopies of my still life from last week and colour in the bit we tore away. I am really really pleased with mine. I am having real fun with this topic.

Inchies

I know you have all forgotten about the inchies by now! and honesty so had i until i tidied my stash today. So I decided i was going to get them on the canvas that i had bought all that long ago. i glue gunned them on as they were all sorts of textures on the back and I didn't want to show the stitches to hold them. I love how they look together, like little treasures. It is hanging in the kitchen now and is lovely, so thanks to all who sent me their little bits of gold treasure.