Afternoon trip

We have been having some fabulous weather here this week. It may turn out to be the best weather of the whole summer - that tends to happen in Scotland. My sister and I took a trip to the local ford yesterday so Indy could enjoy a little splashing time in the river. The scenery was amazing. I live with it every day but it takes those times when I can leave work behind, get out of the house and into the wilds to see it's beauty up close.

 

 

More hand painted wooden beads

I managed to get a few more wooden beads painted this week. More wildlife and more flowers. I have to say, it's a lovely change from the paper beads. It combines my love of beads with my love of animals and painting. What's not to love? Some of the flower beads are sold already but some of the wildlife beads are already listed in my new web store here.

Wooden wildlife beads

Something a little different from paper beads this week - hand painted wooden beads featuring some wildlife and nature. These are just prototypes but if all goes well - and my hands don't pay the price for all that tiny detail - I will try selling some. The small oval beads are just under 1.5 inches long and just over three quarters of an inch wide. They are officially the smallest canvas I have ever painted on. Tomorrow will be varnishing day. I just don't want to take a chance varnishing today if there is any doubt that anything is still wet.

Sample paper beads

I have been making some sample paper beads this week for a customer. She wanted beads with sea, sea-life and coastal themes and pointed me in the direction of some images that she liked. These are the beads I came up with. Definitely candidates for new bead designs so watch this space.

Journey journal

I took part in Linda Matthews' Creative Stitch Alchemy course recently. The idea was to make a mixed media mini journal using the theme of 'Journey' as a springboard for ideas. It uses fabric, lace, hand stitching, machine stitching, beads, sequins, rhinestones, whatever you fancy. I have always been inspired by India, the colours, the wildlife, the architecture. So I used it as my inspiration. I hand printed and hand dyed some of the fabrics and used leftover tatted pieces that I made some time ago. So it really is original to me. The finished journal is a bit bigger than the size suggested in the instructions but it allowed me to use pictures printed on fabric in mine. It was a really nice little course that allowed me to do something a bit different and I am really rather pleased with the finished journal.

Front cover: 

Inside pages: 

Back cover:

Spring

At long last - new old paper beads

Yes, I finally got them made. The Vintage Word paper beads that I used to make are now available in the new style. Being able to print them out instead of individually painting each one means the beads will all look similar and I won't have to worry about variation between sets. Hooray!

There is also another new set of Oriental themed paper beads - Oriental Flowers for the spring.

The perils of silk

Yes, working with silk has its drawbacks. On occasion it gets snagged on something and you lose 15 meters of thread in one fell swoop. This morning it was a pair of scissors that got tangled as I was releasing the lengths of thread to make a silk cord. It is definitely time for a break.

Spring flowers

I have been making samples for Gina-B Silkworks over the last few weeks. Spring is in the air and the bulbs in the garden are in bloom so I was definitely inspired by them. Ganutell (wire and thread work) seems to be very popular at the moment. Take a look at the images on search engines these days and it seem to have inspired lots of people. It is lovely to see that what was a dying art has become more mainstream.

Birds of a feather and a badger

At the start of the new year I wanted to promise myself that I would draw more this year. I did very little drawing or painting last year. None, in fact. This year (all two months of it) I have 'attempted' to do more. Not as much as I had hoped but something. It seems a shame to have a skill and not use it. So here are the first drawings of the year. I hope there will be more to come. I have a couple of small paintings on the drawing board at the moment too. The trick is finding time to get them finished.