Tuesday 11 February 2014

Birch Blog Day 2

A big thank you to all who dropped in yesterday. The discussion on the best leaves moved between blog comments and Facebook - mixed social media?

Today did not start well as two home truths were discovered quite early on: there was no food in the fridge and there were several urgent emails that needed attention. I also needed to look at the New Products for the March issue of WoW.  It really was 'Wow' as Sam Packer, who tests all the WoW products, had been playing with her Gelli plate, using some interesting implements. Watching her demo at the Devon show had convinced me to get a Gelli but I shan't play with it yet. This is a sample of her gelling.






By the time those issues had been addressed the morning was almost gone.However, as is often the case, a slow start can mean a fast catch up so I set to work just before lunch to produce reams of wrapped thread to join the pieces of wood together. This was a bit like a jigsaw puzzle and took our combined intellect and a quick lunch to sort out. Clive then drilled the holes, making sure they lined up. With great presence of mind I took a photo before he bore them off to the shed.

Lacing was far from easy and I need to make more wrapped yarn so that I can have some knots in dangling down the front of the work.

I needed to get it all hanging together as I am off to visit the WWSIL (wood-working-son-in-law) tomorrow for some advice on whether to wax or varnish the wood. I shall have to take it to bits again to do that so it is quite loosely held together. I shall also seek advice on the hanging mechanism - mirror plates perhaps, as it is quite heavy.




I spent some time dissolving some water soluble paper on a stamp, drying it and then sticking it onto the bark. the edges were dissolved so it looked like part of the surface. It looks OK - better than the photo above suggests.

I tried some of the leaves - almost everyone liked the first and last pic (many thanks for that confirmation) so I combined the Vilene leaves with the metal ones - see below



.


Looking good, I think and I just about managed to machine embroider two of the leaves which I shall paint tomorrow and see how they look.


Now I am shattered and find myself looking enviously at that cat, fast asleep on the bed.




My cleaning lady thinks that I have trained Smudge to lie on his old dressing gown - she is well impressed. Never having had a cat she does not realise that they learn at their mother's fetlock (I'm sure cats don't have knees) to lay on anything placed on a bed - just in case it is a freshly washed and ironed shirt.

Time to collapse in the chair and work some seeding stitch on the leaves. See you tomorrow.





4 comments:

liniecat said...

lol you know cats so well!
Loving the bark project !

Heather said...

9The water soluble paper piece is so well integrated into the bark - clever idea. Looking forward to the next episode.

Fibrenell said...

Great to watch your progress. And I agree that sometimes you get the most done when you have limited time - cuts down on the dithering and in my case the cups of coffee while I procrastinate!

Vicki Miller said...

My cat loves sleeping in my scrap fabric tub, or infact any old box lying around, even my work basket.
The birch piece is looking good