Tangled my name

This week I was in the paper and on the radio

weirdly embarrassing I was in the paper and the radio this week to promote the gym by telling the story of my 5stone weightloss :)

Sketchbook is winging it's way to Brooklyn, I finally got up the courage :)

Well it is finally done :) I ummmed and arrrred and then Brooklyn art library went and moved the deadline from the Friday to the Monday and my decision was made. I got my finger out and did it. It resulted in some lovely free work. I photographed it and scanned it and then the night before I added to two pages so I colour photocopied it :) So here it is

Front cover - polyfiller and acrylic layers

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3 - drawn with feathers :)
Page 4 - Drawing with spaghetti and ink
Page 5 - scraped acrylic and ink drawings
Page 6 - polyfiller
Page 7 - Stencil stuck to kitchen paper background and biro

Page 8 - Kitchen paper and ink using stencil

Page 9 - Acrylic scraping with oil pastel

Page 10 - Stencil and ink on kitchen paper

Page 11 - Rubbing of stencil and water colour pencils and biro

Page 12 - Stencil and left over kitchen strips - this has been worked into but haven't scanned the photocopy yet

Page 13 - Stitched piece

Page 14 - Stitched piece

Page 15 - Stitched piece - kitchen paper on cotton with stencil in acrylic and biro and stitch

Page 16 - -mono print background with colour pencil and gel pen - see how the deadline encouraged freedom!!!! from here on in

Page 17 - Acrylic scraped paper and colour pencil and permanent pen

Page 18 - stamped page and colour pencil

Page 19 - Stamped page with biro under gesso and acrylic

Page 20 - Aluminium tape and magazine pages under scratched gesso with acrylic.

Page 21 - painted page with ink bob and closing the book technique, I worked more into this page too and will need to scan the photocopy.

I am really happy with it in the end, and to allow it into the world. I found working so quickly and freely a liberating thing and so will try to remember this. I did masses of research on stone inscriptions for this project and kept this in my notebook separately and so there will be more work I think :) Hope you liked it.

Sketchbook project

Doesn't look like my sketchbook wil be finished in time for fridays mailing, i just have too much day job stuff on. I suppose it is no loss as I get to keep it? Or should I try??????? what to do

New watch strap

Hia am trying to get back into blogging small things routinely. I made this tonight, my watch got pinched on holidays and the one I have been using has a really uncomfortable strap, so much so I have not had it on for abut 2 weeks. I cut the strap off and used old denim. I added strips to hold the face down and zig zaged with the reverse for a bit of a pattern. I added vecro and binding to the ends. I am so chuffed with how soft it is to wear and how proffessional it looks :)

hia long time no see

Term has been taking over my life again, but I am enjoying teaching so much at the mo. Loads on but really positive.

Been making a rather large A3 collage mixed media thing as a gift for an angel in my life ( more on who later as she may read) so here are the starting points
Not entirely sure how it will pan out but hoping it is nice for her :)

Hope your all well, drop me a line as I am missing my internet mates.

Back from Hols

Hia all I am back from the holibobs. Was fab and HOT!!! Here's a few pics. Elle and I on the boat trip, went swimming off the boat was superb.

All the family :)

My scuba babe!

and a bit of stitching got done. I will be finished soon, was a sample of the bigger piece in the last post. I decided not to stitch that piece (yet anyway) and had a go at this one. I have stitched more but will show you once I have calmed down the seeding. I am giving this piece away (I will likely mount it on a canvas) To get the finished piece all you have to do is give me some feedback on the work I have been doing lately - not back slapping - like you would do at college etc to critique? Is my work a bit boring, safe? What do you think?

To stitch or not to stitch????

What do you think? Stitch it or not?

Translating it to fabric

Wasn't a huge leap I guess :) I got the bondaweb out and ironed down 1ply of a kitchen towel mop up first to felt.... Then stencilled it

Doesn't look much now but plan to stitch it while I am away. The next one I used bondaweb again and added some foil, then Ironed down a nappy liner mop up I have been harbouring for ages. Mono printed this with the stencil and a roller. Looks like it is crying out for stitches :)
Finally I did the bondaweb and foil thing and then added a 1 ply paper and mono printed. I wanted to achieve the effect of the piece I did in my sketchbook. I lost the foil a bit under the paper, it's not as transparent as the nappy liner, so may not bother with that next time. I started adding tone with a biro as I had in my sketchbook, looks good no????? Top is after and bottom is before. Thin I wil stitch it also though as this is very flat.
So was in a bit of self doubt last night, still am and if you want to comment I will be doing a giveaway on my return from holibobs, dunno what yet but will do something nice. Think I might be being a bit safe, always go for these colours, this sort of patternation has been done before, you know what I mean? so I thought right go to what you know... I do this often when I am stuck I write a ist of "what I know" about the topic in the hope it will kick start a chain of though. so this is what I wrote in my notebook (I told you before about the companion notebook ye?, I wrote 5 sides but will condense :))

What do I now about markings in stone-

• They recorded relationships, e.g. X son of Y (medieval graffiti) (grave markers)
• they were used to mark boundaries - Brecheiniog was marked out along the river Usk
• They were in old Irish or Brythonic language
• Vast majority were names (ironically i wrote my name on a stitched piece the other day)
• Ogham - Irish for "Point seam" - cause the markings were on a corner edge of wood or stone - at the point of a seam - surely scope here
• Links to Latin and Germanic runes - maybe a development stage here
• was a encrypted language - so that the Romans would not know the political, religious or military messages of the druids.
• Has relationship with druidic hand signals - people think it is based on hand sygnals as the marks are in groups of no more than 5 - e.g. digits
• Links to tally marks
• Is called the "celtic tree alphabet" as each letter is linked with a tree or land based item e.g oak, gold, etc
• Messages were sent on little rounds, denote ownership, or be magical, like the idea of little transportable things, 3D??????
• As I was reading more I found another marking system off a childrens welsh alphabet poster, it had Ogham and "Coelbren y beirdd" - meaning The poets memory wood. This lead me to think about what I want to say in these marking, do I want to look at modern memorials, names, what???? and I got to thinking about welsh poetry. Welsh poetry is hard - I did welsh lit at GCSE and I found the whole thing a mystery - how I got a C I'll never know but I did remember the "englyn" a kind of welsh Haiku, short snappy meaningful words. I am going to research, maybe even try to write a few??? we'll see how it goes :)

So there we are going to what I know always helps ("going to the mattresses" - used on many a tv mob show - preparing for battle and this is what I think of going to what I know as ), has set me on my way again. I have much to think about - lucky I have 2 weeks of sun to do it in :)

Am I on the right track?

I am in a weird place today, churned out more stuff than for a while - got on a roll :) and quite pleased with it, like the last few pieces in my last post. BUT am I on the right track? Is this stuff samey, repetative, not very inspiring, safe? Self doubt is creeping up. I don't want back slapping but open real critique would be most welcome? Any takers? I may have something to give away to a random commenter when I return from holibobs

New pages

Some more new pages, are you getting bored yet????

This one is a mop up paper again and I have used oil pastel to draw the shapes, I am trying not to over think these pages, and just do what comes to me.

This one is using a stencil The background is a mop up kitchen towl I used to clean my brushes on and I worked into it with biro. Love the top right. That was a mono print off the stencil.

This one was gluing in the stencil and closing the book to get another mono print, I love this technique, must have a go on fabric. Think I will do to take to stitch on holibobs. I leave tomorrow so better get a wriggle on :)

another sketchbook page

This was a red mop up sheet that i over painted with turquoise to clean my brush to be honest :) Was har to photograph as the acrylic had irridecence in it and so was bouncing the light around

Sketchbook backgrounds

Here are some of the sketchbook backgrounds I have layed up this week, in between taking in loads of summer clothes ready for Hols on monday :)

Just have to do something on them now :)

How they ended up.....

So pleased with how these have turned out :) I have adhered the cover tonight and have glued the top piece inside, I will likely work over the top of this. I am going to seal the cover too with gloss medium. Things I did to help the durability of this are, I kinda bevelled the edges of the polyfiller, I also made this quite a thin layer on top of gesso, to help it have a key.
Really pleased with how these turned out, so have the vibe I am looking for, can't wait to do this on fabric :)

Polyfiller pages cont.....

So I am keeping a side book which is far less formal along side the sketchbook. This way I am not without anything after it goes. I have been trying to gather like a visual alphabet on stone inscription and rock art. There were some sketches I did last night.

The poly filler pages are now getting painted, for those who have worried I painted the card with gesso first so it had soething to lock onto. It is very durable so far - I am hardly delicate :)
Painted with yellow and gold mixed
Painted with copper mixed with a brick red emulsion tester pot, and rubbed back with a damp piece of kitchen paper.

More layers of colour to come