Of Dentistry and Fish

Where have I been, it's been ages!

Not an exciting answer, I'm afraid as I finally had the troublesome tooth removed. This wasn't as bad as it could have been - last time it got infected and I was really ill. Feeling rather guilty as, going for the sympathy vote, I have hitched a lift to Urchfont Manor with Jane Wild. Always more fun to go with someone though but I hope we have room for all the stuff.

We are going to work on collagraphs - Jane has written a brilliant workshop on the subject in the March issue of WoW (out March 1st). I do love the chance to get away to Urchfont for a couple of days and just play. No phones, no displacement activities (well , there is the food and the chat but we still get a lot done). All this is tempered by the terrible guilt that I feel leaving Clive at home putting my Ikea storage units together. All part of a massive tidy up which may result in a big give-away!

Talking of give aways I have a lovely mini quilt by Phillippa Lack to give away. I photograhed it for her article in the March WoW (going to be a great issue). She kindly offered it as a charity give-away so whoever wins it must make a small donation to their favourire charity. More details and photo on March 1st.

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I have been doing some work on fossil fish. I do love their elegant shapes and I have lots of stencils so am pushing on. Above is a sketchbook page and below you can see a detail of work-in-progress resulting from it. I have it almost finished but keep changing my mind on whether to put in a conventional frame or stitch it to a stretcher.

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This piece may become one of my Ally Pally exhib pieces and I do find that work sells better when framed 'properly' and glazed.

What do you folks think?

Oh, to be in Italy

I've been working on stuff for my class in Italy in May. This cold weather makes you long for a bit of sun and we didn't get our few days in Morocco that we had planned. It all seemed to mean booking with British Airways who were on the point of striking. I have a couple of places left on the Puglia course if anyone else fancies a creative blast of warmth. The lovely thing is that we have transport and can go out and about taking photos and making sketchbooks with my Pogo camera printers. The one below is based on a fresco of the Three Graces.





Here's a detail of that page.





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A little work plus a laminated background and here's the story so far. I have to do some stitching on the background but I am having a great time with it. The course will concentrate on translating our photos using mixed media and things like oiled, painted papers - my current fave.

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If you can join me in May find all the details on http://www.masseriadellazingara.com/
Be quick though - it's very nearly full.

If you have an iphone or ipod touch, there are some great apps out there. Jane Wild introduced me to one called Type Drawing - you type in a phrase or odd words and then draw on the screen with your finger. Here it is on a black background. I have printed strings of words out and used them in the sketchbook above.
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This is a combination of the Type app with another app called Juxtaposer - which looks boring at first glance - just shows how to put a dog's head on your friend! But it works on layers - rubbing out the top to see what's under. Then it has other tricks up its sleeve. Both apps are very inexpensive and I've had a lot of fun with these two. The one below shows my Buddha drawing with some type on top.
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Then a bit of manipulation gives this.

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Finally, I was much amused by Jude's hinged door idea. I am quite sure that Smudge will soon be too fat to get through our catflap.
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Smudge prefers indoor pastimes as it is so cold. The whole family enjoys a bit of nature filming - especially David Cattenborough.