Button Making Online Course

You might have noticed that I like making thread wrapped buttons. There are just a few of my attempts displayed on Passementerie Buttons tab at the top of the page. Well, exciting news! Gina-B Silkworks now has an online course in making thread buttons. I learned my button making skills through Gina's DVDs but now it is available to anyone regardless of where they live in the world. The DVDs actually led to Gina asking me to join her design team and my projects are on UK national television regularly. So you never know where those skills will take you.

Although the buttons look complicated - believe me, I thought it would be impossible to learn how to make them - but it is actually a straight forward process that can be taken to all kinds of heights once you learn the basics.

I don't want to do the hard sell. I'm not a sales person. I want people to be inspired by what I make rather then talking them into buying new stuff. However I am VERY excited about this. I love making buttons. It was one of those totally unexpected hobbies that I never thought I would take to with such enthusiasm. And the cost is very reasonable - just £17.99 (roughly $23.84 US according to the currency converter on 22nd June 2018). Take a look at Gina's web site to find out more information - and prepare to become obsessed!

Coloured pencils waxing lyrical

For those of you who have been following my progress with my pet portraiture course I thought I would update you. I have been working with coloured pencils for this part of the course. Who would have thought a common or garden pencil would turn out to be so difficult to use. But then the point of this exercises is to push myself into new areas and learn new skills. Coloured pencils seem to be a little tricky. They need to be layered to produce many of the colours and textured needed. Unfortunately there is a problem with wax build up if you use too many layers. Argh! Once the wax has 'built up' it is much more difficult to apply more layers or detail on top. This is the problem I have hit right now. The question is 'how do you build up colour without getting wax build up?' Much more practice will be needed with them. Meantime I am taking a break from them to try pastels.

The pictures here are some of the colour pencil pieces I have been trying to create. The kestrel was done on NOT watercolour paper (big mistake - too bumpy), the rabbit was my first, experimental piece. He looks like he has just had a trip to the hairdresser and has come out with puffy fur. The dog is my work in progress. The fur is improving but the wax build up in the lower left quadrant is the problem I mentioned above. I guess I can only improve with time.

Tada!!!

At long last I finished my first assignment for my art course. Due to other commitments and my commissioned work it had to take the back seat for a while. It has been four months since I signed up. FOUR months! That is the 'still life' effect in action. Having to draw it makes life stand still. I sincerely hope it will not take me another four months to do the next assignment.

However, what follows in the course is the exciting bit - drawing animals and using a host of new media. Next stop: coloured pencils. Yippee!

No arty party

So, I have been doing this art course for a few weeks now. How's it going? Slowly. I was so up for this course. It was meant to rejuvenate my desire to paint. However, I knew the first assignment involved drawing non-animal elements and realised that it would be a problem. I was right. I have been struggling to draw some fruit and a plant. And I chose those two items because they were as near natural objects as I could get - the alternatives being spanners and tools, saucepans, a jam jar of pencils or a pile of washing up. To quote Dorothy Parker (I think), 'Oh, what fresh hell is this!!!' I cannot put into words how much I HATE still life. My tutor figures that she can tell alot about an artist's ability by seeing these items in graphite. I'm struggling. It's not that I can't draw them - I am just not inspired to draw them. I can find a million and one things to do instead of sitting down and tackling them. Anyway, enough complaining. The assignment will be done. I'm not having it any other way (that's my stubborn streak talking). On the plus side the final part of the assignment is to draw a really cute labrador from a photo. That is when the fun starts. I have scanned the apples I have drawn and the unfinished pot plant as a way of kicking myself into action. If I put them up here I will feel obliged to keep going with them and not take too long about it. That's the theory anyway.

Great results!

I got my results for my Open University course on the 14th September. I did so much better than I thought I would - 95%. So I ran off to sign up for my next course. Actually, it was done in a panic. I went to the sign up page to check the registration deadline (which I thought was the 19th) and found it was the 14th. So I had to sign up. Now the thinking starts and I wonder what else I could have done with the money (saving being the closest to my heart). I guess I'll have to wait and see if it is worthwhile.

Update

I had an incident with a wren this afternoon. It decided to have a holiday in my living room. Not the most welcome visitor when I've just had new carpet laid. Feisty little bleeder too. I couldn't catch it despite using my softest voice to tell it everything was going to be OK. It finally found its way out via the door. Hope it isn't away to tell its siblings about the new carpet.

Update on my news: I finished my Open University course - thank goodness. Not the most inspired course I have taken. As the old school reports often say, 'Could do better'. Just waiting for the results now. I have also been getting alot of greetings card work to do. Handmade cards seem to be very popular. Time to expand the line a bit I think but I am not sure which way I will go. I also took part in an exhibition, sold all my pieces and was invited to do another one at the end of August.

On the downside my online shop was shut down through no fault of my own. The guy running them just decided to finish up with them. The trouble is he didn't tell anyone and I found out by chance that they were gone. So now I have to think of a new idea for selling online without having to spend alot of money on it. My stuff does not sell on Ebay but Etsy seems to be popular. The trouble is that Etsy only sells in dollars - not handy for my UK based customers. I still have not managed to update my art web site due to lack of web publishing applications and I am getting really concerned about that. I might just shut it down and use Art Wanted as my base. So much to think about.

A new first

I finished my first non-realistic piece of art that I am to sell this week. The picture of it does not do it justice. The actual piece is more red and richer in colour. But overall I am very pleased with it. I enjoyed the process of making it. When I did my conventional painting my blood pressure was permanently raised. It was highly stressful for me as I was always trying to make it look how I wanted it to. I always fell short and as never pleased with the result. But I like this piece. I hope other people will.

I finally signed up to my next Open University course too - Ancient and Medieval Cities: a Technological History. I can't wait. It has been four years since I graduated from Royal Holloway: University of London where I read Classical Studies. It was a tough time for me but I NEED to study again. After this course I hope to sign up for the World Archaeology course in September. I have to admit that it feels good to get back into the academic world.