Additional art piece

This is the Inspire Me Thursday challenge's latest word = PUSH. I had these photos of my grandparents for a long time just waiting for an inspirational moment to add them to my scrapbook.

Every weekend during the summer months, granddad took his family to the beach at Brighton on their push bikes. It was some 30 miles away but that didn't deter them and they had sandwiches on the beach and headed home during the evening sun. I think it was a ploy to tire them out and have a peaceful Sunday lie in.

This is the second piece of work I've done for my Tree Spirits diptich. I can't add a third because the fabric has run out - pity, but there it is. Maybe I'll extend by doing something entirely different, who knows.

Also finished Amber who is looking thoughtfully at the pewter twig and wondering what to do with it, will it grow or should it be thrown away? I really love the face on these dolls and have had another go as well as mixing up my patterns to make a new doll. Watch this space...

Bert arrives on Monday so I'll not have much time to play, and then I'm heading north to see my mother for a few days the following week, but hopefully I'll be back after that.

Tree Spirit

This week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge was the word GREEN. I had an idea banging around my brain for some time and had started it by painting a piece of 18" x 24" white cotton with alcohol inks at one end, then wetting the remaining two thirds and hung it up so that it allowed the paint to morph down the piece of cotton - I forget where I got this idea from but it would either be Cloth Paper Scissors or Quilting Arts magazines.



Then I used markel paint sticks and some rubbing plates to add extra colour to the piece. The painting suggested trees to me so I cut the cotton in half and sized it up for stretching onto an 18 x 24 cm artists canvass I'd bought. I made some air dried clay faces which I painted brown to represent the spirits, then added one to this canvass. (I intend to add a couple more trees to this series).



I also bought 3 different types of string: sisal, jute and normal (thinner) and couched this string into a tree like shape and around the spirit face. The ends were couched to look like boughs and twigs whilst at the bottom I unravelled the string to represent roots.



Research into tree spirits shows that the Oak spirit portrays strength, endurance, courage, inner nourishment. A doorway to other dimensions, to higher realms of truth, to the wisdom of elemental power. The oak is high king, guardian of the fertility of the land and its people.



How much greener could I get?

Fights and flights of fancy

Last week was great as my son, Gareth, arrived for 4 days and helped put a few problems right around the house. The dogs loved him, as you can see him fighting with them here. I also got to go out to my favourite pub with him for a Mother's Day lunch and it was he who bought me the Rome game - sadly I am no general and have failed miserably to appease the senate or to conquer any foreign places.

Monday was worrying as Digger had made his paw raw and bleeding again but it was Easter Monday and a visit to the vet would have cost a fortune. After a sleepless night I managed to get him into the Vets that morning and he was bandaged up and an elizabethan collar applied. We had to make it extra big because he managed to get to the bandage with the first collar and ripped a piece off and swallowed it, much to the vet's consternation. I had to hold his front end under my arm and the vet had to hold his back end under his arm just to get a bandage on the foot, and all of this set my condition off. By the time I had left the surgery, put Digger into the car, I was a nervous wreck and decided to get some Rescue Remedy from the nearest chemist. However, wouldn't you know it, I chose the smallest size that had label underneath of £3.10 but when I went to the counter to pay I was asked for £5.25! I queried the price and then we went through the rigmaroll of checking the shelf, moving the price to the proper place and checking the computer to see which price it should be and all this time I'm dancing up and down metaphorically, wanting to get out of the shop and down the dose.

That set the tone for the week as we had a newcomer to the market who was put in the next bay to me. He set up his area completely to the edge and moved his bench into my bay to sit and used a gap between my stalls and his to talk to customers. I sat stewing but I knew if I got into an argument I would not be able to compose myself, so I mentioned it to a friend who had a quiet word with him. He apologised and we left it amicably, and I gave him a few tips to show I was friends again but it added to my stress levels.

Today I took Digger back to the vet for a checkup and his toe is healing nicely, plus the bonus of a new nail growing from the root (maybe this is catching and causing the bleeding). The bad news is he has to keep the collar on for another week, poor soul. I decided to go shopping straight from the vets but had forgotten my shopping bags, so I had to ask for bags at the checkout. The checkout lady was most offhand and made me feel dreadfully guilty for asking for them as she grudgingly gave me 3 and when I asked for another 2 was quite put out with me. Is it so bad to ask for bags? My stress levels are getting a hammering this week, just when I thought I was cured.

Finally, here is Violet, my goth doll, I made a concentrated effort to finish her this week. She has little lacy pants and a skirt of leaves and a top to match. Her hands and fingers are wired so that she can be posed or hold items.

in fact I had a sewing bee in my bonnet and also made 3 waistcoats, 3 bow ties, and 3 cravats. I wanted to put a green waistcoat on my dummy and made a green bow tie to match but murphy's law came along as a customer wanted that bow tie, not the waistcoat; so now I'll have to make another for Thursday. I also want to make a ladies waistcoat to show a different style/design. Several women have been asking for them but I don't do darts or fashion seams so inventing a style that allowed for the bust but not the shaping was quite a challenge. I made one this week for a lady who bowled and had to wear all white; thankfully she was thrilled with it.

Cheating

As it is Easter, time is very short and I have to concentrate on what needs to be done and what can be done - don't we all??? So I couldn't resist putting up my picture of my art doll, Wild Ginger (which I made a couple of months ago) for the Inspire Me Thursday challenge which is Spice. I'm quite proud of this doll as it was my first and based on the ginger plant from North Sumatra and has inspired me to try more complicated dolls.

This past week has been quite busy as my eldest son, Gareth, arrived and stayed for the week! I managed to get him to do some small jobs around the house for me, and was rewarded with a copy of a video game called "Rome - Total War". This game quite takes over your life, as you plot and scheme how to build armies, and towns and go forth to conquer the world. You also have to appease the senate who make unreasonable demands and sort out financial dealings by trading and bullying. I spent the whole of Wednesday doing this much to my amazement; I don't know where the time went, so I have to ration myself or I'll go blind and stiff as a board as I crouch over my PC.

I must also play some more with Violet, I made up her arms and legs only to find I should have added a seam allowance, don't you just hate that, and made them long and spindly, so today I'll get some better fabric and do them again.

Scrapping

I went scrapping last night and had a wonderful time with likeminded ladies. The theme was snow and I had a couple of photos of my dogs' first snow experience which has made a nice piece.

It was someone's birthday so chocolate cakes were set out with cups of tea, but unfortunately I don't like chocolate and felt quite ill after an hour of smelling this cake beside me; must be something wrong with me, but I much prefer cheese and savory items.

We had access to a couple of machines that allowed us to cut snowflakes and words from our cards, but time ran out for me as I was anxious to get back to Digger and see if he had recovered from the anaesthetic. So I packed up and came home to finish my piece with what I had in my drawers.

Today Digger is up and about bounding around and making the usual noise for attention, and I never thought I'd be glad of it, but I am.

A tip : I came across this quite by accident - as you do - as I had a piece of curly clear plastic (as seen in the IMT challenge picture) I wanted to add it to a piece so I painted it with black acrylic paint, but it didn't look right, so I went over it with glitter glue. Much to my surprise the glitter glue, when dried, detatched itself from the plastic but still held together so I was able to attach it to the Key piece. I think you need to paint it with the acrylic paint first as a separator, but you could turn the curls over and do a reverse image - so many possibilities!

Improving

Yesterday's Inspire Me Thursday's challenge was KEY which suggested to me a musical key and I looked out pictures of clarinets because that was what my daughter used to play, and very well I might add. But clarinets don't have much impact as a photo so I had to choose something else - like the guitar. I'm hoping the musical score is actually CMajor, so forgive me if it isn't, I'm hopeless at reading music. At least this piece is on time, not like the last one - Ghost, that was done in such a hurry.

Digger is at the Vets at the moment, as his toenail hasn't come off and needs to be taken away instead. I felt so awful leaving him there as it's the first time he has been separated from us since he came to live with us and tonight is my scrapbook club. Still I can make it up to him tomorrow. It is so quiet at home without him, I didn't realise he was so noisy and Peggy keeps looking for him out of the livingroom window.

Must play a bit more with Violet and take my mind off him.