WOYWW 352

We continue to be very busy, and I haven’t had any time to speak of for art this week. I have done some more baking for the chemo unit, though (scroll down to see my last post for details) and late last night made two batches of biscuits to take in to the Ricky Grant chemo unit when we go in today. (I haven’t got an appointment, but just want to say goodbye to my favourite receptionist who is leaving).

I made cheese and cinnamon biscuits. I was sad last time I went in that a couple of people were not able to enjoy the cakes I took in because they had diabetes, so I thought a savoury choice might be a good idea this time.

I am going back to the hospital next Tuesday (8th March) to have my port removed. It will be strange not to have it any more as it’s been part of me for 10 months. Its removal marks the symbolic end of my chemo and (pending the results of further scans and blood tests over the next 5 years) the end of my cancer.

The only art I managed to do this week was to finish my kitty art journal page.

If you want to see details, please go here.

Also this week I have revived a long-neglected skill. On Sunday after church, our minister asked whether I would sing for them. It has been a very, very long time since I sang in public (or even at all!) and I had not played my guitar since I went downhill with my M.E., and then other things really took over. On Sunday afternoon I dug the guitar out from the recesses of the under-the-stairs cupboard, dusted it off and sat down to have a go. At first it was totally awful but then I expected that – however, what I hadn’t expected was that I remembered all the chords with no problem at all – memory is an amazing thing, isn’t it. I suppose remembering guitar chords is a bit like riding a bicycle, or like touch typing – it’s a sort of muscle memory! At the end of the session my poor fingertips were very painful as all my hard-earned protective callouses had disappeared many moons ago!

Since then, I have been practising for about half an hour each morning. On Monday, putting my sore fingers back on those steel strings took a great deal of courage and it really HURT! However, the only way to build up callouses is to do the thing that made the fingers sore to start with – playing the guitar! Several days on, they are still quite sore, but typing isn’t quite so painful this morning as it has been, and I think I’m on my way. My playing has definitely improved over the succeeding days, and I am sure that I shall be ready to step out in faith and do it in public before too many more weeks are up!

My hubby is thrilled that I am doing it again. There is another member of the family who is also thrilled. Phoebe!

Happy WOYWW everyone, and I wish you a fulfilling and creative week.

Treats and Tigers

Only a few more days to go to my surgery, and today was a day full of treats.

We decided to go out for a meal to one of our favourite restaurants so that I could have a final steak until goodness knows when! We were getting ready to go out when the delightful Indian lady who with her husband owns our local corner shop rang the bell and presented us with some samosas she had just made, still warm from the fryer! How very kind. We were unfortunately not able to eat them while they were so fresh or we’d have had no appetite for lunch, so saved them for this evening.

We had a wonderful meal – we both had steak, my hubby had salad with his, and I had vegetables, and both were served with chips and sauces. My hubby had cheese and biscuits to follow, and I had a crème brulee served with Baileys ice cream, a shortbread biscuit and garnished with three raspberries. It was all exquisitely served, as always, and quite delicious. We always enjoy eating there, and who knows how long it will be before I am fit to eat out again?

They took quite a long time to serve us as the place was busy, it being Saturday, so we didn’t leave till getting on for mid-afternoon. This meant that we had very little time at the zoo, which was our next destination!

I said to my hubby that it would be great to have a tiger fix before I went into hospital. I have always loved tigers. You can read about the pages I made in my Recycled Mini-Album last year on the subject of the tiger cubs my dad operated on, back in the 1950s, here. Here is the tiger picture I painted in my little leather art journal (I used a scanned version of this picture in the mini-album):

After I scanned it, I edited it to remove the fold down the centre:

and this was the finished mini-album page:

We had very little time at the zoo so we went straight past the lions and found the tigers! It was quite a steep climb, and we were glad that we had arranged to hire one of the zoo’s buggies for me – it was  quite similar to my own, which is too big to go in the car. (We have paid the deposit on a small folding one which we will be able to take with us for outings such as this.)

Here are the pictures I took.

Then my hubby took a photo of me looking at the beautiful tigers:

It was amazing being able to get so close to them.

As we went further up, we came across a couple of display boards, the first giving the details of the tigers. They are Sumatran tigers, and in the wild, these magnificent creatures are on the verge of extinction, being trapped in a horrifically cruel fashion by poachers who sell their bodies for Chinese medicine and on the black market.

The work of our zoo, and other zoos around the world, helps to preserve the tigers through breeding programmes, and also through education, and fund-raising to provide wardens in the jungles of Sumatra to fight the battle to save the tigers.

Here is the board with the tiger’s footprint, and a plaque for brass rubbing.

Aren’t they the most beautiful creatures? I have always loved them.

Here is a picture of my own little tiger – sadly no longer with us. She was Phoebe’s sister Chloe. lying flat out and displaying all her beautiful tigeriness. I think she was the most beautiful kitty we’ve ever had.

We had to make a fairly quick dash back to the reception to return the buggy 15 minutes before closing time, but managed to get the following pictures on the way. Here’s my hubby with a peacock.

The peacock made his way towards me.

You can see how nicely the zoo is laid out, with walkways and landscaping and lakes.

Ducks on the lake.

The main zoo buildings. The further one is where the reception and shop are situated, and the nearer one is the restaurant. We have been to a wedding reception here – a really fun place for a wedding! They have excellent facilities inside.

Opposite the buildings is the railway for the little train. After the reception, the wedding guests all had a ride on the little train that goes round the entire zoo complex! You can imagine all the wedding guests in their finery, taking their seats on the train for the tour around the zoo!

Some interesting tangled tree roots.

We had a quick dash through the tropical house – entering this hot and humid atmosphere, our glasses, and my camera lens, instantly steamed up!

No time to take photos in the desert house which led off the tropical house, but I did manage to catch a quick shot of the flamingos on the way back to the reception.

You can see what an overcast and dull day it was today. It was also very cold, but we were fortunate that it didn’t rain. We are going to return to the zoo when the weather is better and hopefully in the sunshine, when I have recovered from my operation, and when we have got my new light-weight buggy. We will spend more time there, and hopefully get lots more photos – we saw very little today but at least I got to see my tigers!

Finally, I have at last managed to get my hubby to take a photo of my new hair colour which I had done at the end of February just before I was originally due to go into hospital!

Altogether we had a brilliant day out together. After a quick cup of tea at home my hubby left to go out for the evening, and I have spent the rest of the evening on the recliner, watching TV and being on the laptop, enjoying my samosas, sorting my photos and thinking about this special little oasis of time that we have been granted, to rest and relax without Mum in the house, and to prepare for Wednesday when I go in for my surgery.

WOYWW 247

To find out how to join in the world’s biggest and most fun nosey-fest, click on the WOYWW link in my sidebar.

Not a great deal of change since last week, but some progress has been made on my teabag art:

On the left you can see the corner of the acrylic film I made with the used tea, now fully dried and ready for use. The large sheet of watercolour paper is a second piece for drying teabags, this time in a regular chequer-board pattern. To the right is my small leather art journal with pages painted with acrylics in preparation for teabag art. For further details of these, please see previous posts.

Here is a detail of the chequerboard design created by drying the teabags.

These are the art journal pages.

This is some fabric I’ve dyed with tea, ready for stitching some teabags. It has yet to be pressed.

Finally, here is the other piece of teabag-drying paper, with a few more marks added. Once I am satisfied that there are enough, I shall use it for an art project.

Other activities this week include a bit more progress of my knitting – remember my unravelled dress that I am re-knitting as a jumper? It’s been in abeyance for a while but good to take it up again.

I have also been working hard on learning my new video editing software – Pinnacle Studio 17 – the user manual is pathetic, and it’s not exactly intuitive, and very different from my old version (12). I have found some superb video tutorials on Youtube and also joined the Pinnacle forum, where there is excellent help and advice from people experienced in the use of the software. So even if I haven’t been in my ARTHaven that much, I have not been idle!

Beatrice is doing quite well – she’s still wearing her little dress, but the wound is knitting nicely at last, although more slowly than the vet had hoped, but she put that down to her age. However, a urine test result shows that she has a slight infection, so she is now on antibiotics. There is also some protein in her urine which indicates a slight problem with her kidneys, but the vet won’t address that until the infection has been dealt with. She is a lot more lively now, and getting up to naughty tricks – the other day she climbed the apple tree and got on the roof of the summerhouse and we were worried that she might jump down into the road, but my hubby has “kitty-proofed” the tree trunk with plastic anti-climb spikes to stop her climbing again. She is still pretty clingy and likes nothing better than to climb under the duvet and tuck herself under my arm – making sleep somewhat difficult for me!!

As for me, I have developed a throat infection and a dry cough which hurts my throat… Mum is treating me like a leper and won’t let me in the annexe in case she catches it!

Have a great week, everybody – full of inspiration and creativity.

My New ARTHaven–Tidying Up and Getting Organised at Last

My cousin came to visit us today. She is a keen crafter, and I was looking forward to showing her around our new house and showing her the renovations, but most of all, taking her into my new ARTHaven and watching her turn a bright shade of green with envy! In advance of today, I knew I had to tidy up and try and get somewhat organised in there, so that she would get a proper impression of it as a working space, and not merely a dumping ground. Although there is still a lot of organising and sorting to do, it is all definitely taking shape now.

The office section probably needs more organising than the ARTHaven proper, but at least it is workable. After my latest tidying, this is how it looks now.

On the right, you can see the magnificent bronze casting of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, created as an apprentice piece in my grandfather’s foundry works in the post-WWII years. It is one of my most treasured possessions and I have not been able to display it until now.

When we were clearing my parents’ house prior to selling it, I saved a lot of Dad’s things, many of which are going to feature in the album I am making about his life. I have collected together some of the objects that he made, and things that were precious to him, or which were of particular interest to him, and I have created a little gallery of “Dad’s Treasures” on top of one of my book cases. Some of these objects look very strange!

There is a story behind each one, which I cannot go into here because it would make this post much too long! One day I may detail some of the items if anyone is interested. Suffice it to say that every one of these items has become precious to me, and reminds me of a different facet of Dad’s character, life and interests.

Moving through into the ARTHaven proper, here is how the main papercrafting area looks now, with Sheba (my Cougar cutting machine) on the left, and the display area to the right of the picture..

I have now set up my video camera, and the two clip-on lamps which I had in my old ARTHaven – the lighting in the new room is extremely good, with LED spots all around, but I thought I would add these two PureLite lamps to help with filming and photography. Not having tried this setup in real life yet, I am not sure if it will be OK, or whether it will need some tweaking.

Here are some detail shots.

The video clamp with the flexible gooseneck came from Maplins (very cheap!) and I bought two right-angle brackets with camera fixing screws from the USA on Ebay. I have used one of the bases of the old video rig to clamp this arrangement to, to bring it slightly further out over the work area, and have had to add a bit of wood packing to correct the angle of the clamp. We will have to see how it works! The camera is a new one, which I chose on the recommendation of Lindsay the Frugal Crafter – she has this camera and gets excellent results from it. All I have done with mine so far is try it out, and I haven’t done any serious filming with it yet – it was bought for the new room, as a replacement for the old camera which was a nightmare to use because it kept making my computer crash. The new camera has an SD card instead of tapes, which is an improvement, and it will film in HD.

Moving on around the room, I have now set up my display area around the old fireplace. After fixing up the shabby chic shelf unit that I got on Ebay, I began to have second thoughts about 3 shelves instead of 2, because they are so close together that you can’t really use them for many items to display, but the unit is so attractive that I couldn’t bear to replace it! Instead, I have put some antique china pieces on the top shelf, some jars of paper flowers that I’ve made on the second shelf, and on the bottom shelf are some boxes and other small items. On the drawer handles I have hung various items received from online friends, and there are more on the mantelpiece below – those of you who have sent me things may recognise some of them if you look closely!

Mixed in among these treasured gifts are some items I have made myself, including the binder on the right which I created for a craft show I took part in several months ago, detailing some of my past work. You can also see my small leather art journal with the “Tyger Tyger” page displayed, and pages from my Fine Art album (both works in progress).

This zone will be in a state of flux, with new work being added as time goes on, and the display changed. I have too many ATCs to display them all at once, so these are something which will get changed periodically. I am so thrilled to have an area where I can put out works where I can see and enjoy them.

Further on around the room are the sewing, textile and drawing zones. Yesterday I spent a long time starting to sort the cardboard boxes containing all my fabrics, embroidery materials and equipment, sewing supplies, crochet, etc. etc. There is still a lot to do. Some of this is now stored in the storage zone, and I am hoping to get some more Really Useful Boxes to house a lot of it – these look much nicer than cardboard boxes, and being transparent, you can readily identify the contents, and they are more durable.

On the work surface below the wall unit you can see a stack of three small vintage suitcases. These came from my parents’ house and I intend to store supplies in them – embroidery threads etc. They are all in need of repair, but I love the shabby vintage look of them.

To the left of them I have put my two German wooden buckets – I was originally going to display these in my new bathroom but found that I had more than enough stuff for in there, and thought I could use them as decorative containers in my ARTHaven. Here I have used them to contain some fancy yarns which are far too beautiful to keep hidden away in a box! To the left are two vintage boxes from Mum. The large one now contains all my decorative braids, and the one on top is a Chinese camphorwood box which at present contains some small family mementoes that Mum had collected over the years.

I decided that the whole final section of work top was probably more than enough for sewing and textile work, so I have designated the final zone as the drawing zone. Here I have put out my Zentangle album and sketchbook. On the shelf above are my pens and Inktense pencils and various other drawing bits and pieces, with the larger items like my dressmaker’s curve underneath in the floor unit. The curved metallic object just below the power point is the last remaining part of a lamp that Mum had for embroidery – it was in a seriously dilapidated state and had to be disposed of, but it had a magnifying lens (in the white bag) on a gooseneck. You can see part of my second retort stand with it, and when I find the upright for this, I will be able to mount this lens for fine work. I also have my dad’s glasses with telescopic magnifiers which he used to use for ophthalmic surgery before the hospital introduced their first operating microscope. Maybe I will be able to do my ultra fine 22+ stitches to the inch again!!

Finally, the storage zone, along the wall dividing the ARTHaven from the office.

This still requires considerable re-organisation but at least it’s a bit tidier than it was! The cabinet on the left was in the original bathroom, and was moved through into here when the builders started the bathroom renovation – in the nick of time, actually, because after this, my hubby asked if he could have it for the garage, and I told him no – I’d already snaffled it up for my ARTHaven! (Considering that he grabs all the plastic Chinese takeaway boxes for his Man Cave before I get a look in, I felt justified in taking a stand over this cabinet!!) The cabinet is brilliant because the central, open part, has shelves which exactly accommodate that size of Really Useful Box – unfortunately these won’t go in the cupboards because the door occupies half an inch of cupboard space when closed, but it doesn’t matter because when they are closed you can’t see what’s n them anyway – which is probably a very good thing, given how crammed with stuff they are – bits of fabric, loads of old sheeting, rug wools, etc. etc.!

On top of the ex-bathroom cabinet, and running the whole length of the wall, is a huge deep shelf for storing large flat things like mount board, cutting mats for Sheba, etc. This is often a storage area lacking in studios simply because of lack of space, and I feel very fortunate to have such a lot of good storage for all sorts of things!

Even though there is still a lot of work to be done to get the room how I want it, it is now certainly a workable space, and having got on top of most of the rest of the house (apart from some odd bits of painting etc.), I can now start being creative again!

With this in mind, here are the art deco doorplate replacements I am working on – at present in the Heat Zone, but there is a certain fluidity between the zones, and I shall need to use this area for mixed media as well, I think.

You can see the mould at top left, and the two I made from Friendly Plastic at the top. I have been experimenting with Polyfilla One Fill as a substitute (being very much cheaper) and although they are extremely light and feel fairly fragile, I think this will be a good option – they do not require any strength once in situ, and if I have any failures at the painting stage, I shan’t shed any tears over wasted materials! I shall probably melt down the Friendly Plastic ones and use the material for other projects.

The mat which they are sitting on is my new Presspahn ultra-heat proof mica mat – my original one is only A3 and not really large enough for my heat zone, so I bought this one which is approximately A2 in size. (For details of these amazing mats, please see the description in my sidebar.) You can see my melting pot just in-frame on the left. In use, this radiates quite considerable heat downwards, and was the cause of one of my (too many!) warping accidents to my self-healing cutting mats! I will also be able to do work with the soldering iron and other heat tools on this, and if I want to prevent the build-up of material and stains on it, I can always put a non-stick craft mat on top. The smaller Presspahn mat is now back under the non-stick craft mat in the Papercrafting Zone, protecting the surface underneath from my heat gun.

In the main work area, I have today resurrected the album I am making about Dad’s life – I opened up the box and showed the project to my cousin, and thought I would leave some of it out so that I can start working on it again.

Having the large moveable floor units will be great when working on this project, as they will provide me with a lot more surface to work on, and to spread out the materials.

When the room is properly organised, I propose to do a video tour.

Out with the Old and In with the New

Well, folks, here is my usual end-of-year blog summary. (How many times do you have to do something for it to become a tradition? Lol!) Be prepared – it’s quite long, and contains lots of photos.

It’s been quite a year Chez Shosh, especially on the family front, with the main event being the sudden illness of my Dad and his subsequent move to residential care, and getting Mum settled into living on her own – my hubby has been totally awesome throughout and I don’t know what we’d have done without him. This all took quite a toll on my health and I’ve had a pretty rough few months, although I have managed to be creative when possible! The year didn’t start off that well health-wise either so I’ve been fairly limited in what I’ve been able to do.

It is now about a year since we put my parents’ house on the market and still it hasn’t sold, although the last couple to view it are very enthusiastic and I am sure they will buy it if they can sell their own house. Meantime we’ve found somewhere very suitable for us all, if someone else doesn’t buy it before we’re in a position to move.

My hubby retires in under 18 months’ time and in preparation for our eventual move, I have been downsizing, and my ARTHaven is now slightly leaner and meaner (although you wouldn’t think so to look at it!) – it is still not organised how I want, and is a bit frustrating to work in, but when we move, I shall design it from scratch and get it exactly as I need it to be.

Work in progress:

Creative-wise, the first big change was the arrival of Sheba, my Black Cat Cougar cutting machine which I got before Christmas last year, and finally opened up and installed on New Year’s Day. Because of health problems I haven’t used it as much as I would have liked, so I am still at the basic cutting stage when I’d hoped to be far more advanced by this stage, but with the help of the excellent forum for machine owners, I have had so much help and support, and it’s all there for me when I eventually do get going on more advanced techniques. Meantime, I have achieved something I never thought I’d manage in a month of Sundays and that is to get to grips with the Great Vector Drawing Monster Inkscape!! What’s even more amazing is that I have been converted from an Inkscape hater to an Inkscape lover! My friends on the Thyme Machines forum are responsible for this and I’m very grateful to them for all their help.

Some of my most successful projects using Sheba this year have been my 3-D Silver Butterflies:

and stencil-cutting – this latter has been very useful in my mixed media and acrylic painting, etc.

One of my greatest creative adventures this year has been the discovery of Zentangle. Almost overnight I became totally hooked on this art form, and it is absolutely ideal for me because on days when I feel well enough to be creative but not well enough to sit at my work desk, I can do this from the comfort of the recliner. From my earliest attempts:

to my Zentangle-Inspired Art:

this has to be the Most Fun Ever – and as the year comes to a close, I am happy to say that I have now designed my very first pattern!

Another new venture for me this year has been albums. I have long been attracted by the idea of creating one, and I now have several on the go – I started an art journal in October, in which I have so far only completed three pages, but it is an ongoing project to be added to when I feel like it.

I also started a Fine Art album in May, with pages depicting my favourite paintings from the history of Western European art. I’ve only completed two pages so far, but again, it’s an ongoing project.

In November I started my Tattered Time Mini-Album dedicated to the life of my Dad, so that I will have an enduring keepsake to remind me of all his achievements and his beautiful character when the time comes for him to depart this life. So far I have only completed the first page, dedicated to his ancestry.

The final album I’ve started isn’t really an album at all yet, because I am waiting for the ring binder and ATC-pouch pages to arrive! This album is a revamp of my original Zentangle album which is becoming too full to be manageable, so I’ve decided to redraw all my patterns onto ATCs and bind them in a more flexible manner which also allows me to see them all at a glance. Here are some of the ATCs ready to be filed once the pages and binder arrive. Each one has step-out instructions on the back.

My work during the course of the year has developed more towards a mixed media trend, and on the whole I’m doing much less card making, making cards only as a matter of necessity for family birthdays etc. Hand-made cards take so much effort, but for many recipients, there is not much difference between a hand-made one and one from a famous chain of card shops, and both kinds end up in the bin soon after the event. Make a piece of art with a folded back and a greeting on the inside and it seems to become instantly ephemeral and I prefer my work to be longer-lasting. This year, fortunately, we didn’t have any important family events like last year which was full of them, making huge demands of my creativity! I did make quite a few cards during the year, though – here is a sample of the more interesting ones.

One mixed media piece I made during the year was a small altered papier mache box.

I used overlaid tissue paper scraps with gel medium, yarn, Friendly Plastic castings from silicone moulds I’d made, air-dry clay pebbles, gilding flakes, etc. I also started another mixed media project entitled “Choc-a-Bloc” from a chocolate box insert but this hasn’t progressed further than the basic stage as yet.

I hope to make further progress on this next year, and perhaps develop this idea further.

Digital art took up some of my time this year too – I created some useful backgrounds from photos I took of an oil painting, and then manipulated them in Serif PhotoPlus, my digital photo editing software. Here is one of them being used to display some Zentangle ATCs for my album. (This is another of my own designs.)

I also had some fun manipulating photos of everyday objects.

In addition to this, I also completely revamped my blog background (not a job I’m in a hurry to repeat as it was a horrendous exercise!!) and I now feel that it better expresses who I am, incorporating various aspects of my work.

A great acquisition this year was a set of Dylusions ink sprays which have to be the most fun thing to use! Intense colours, unpredictable results, endless possibilities… I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use flower pieces cut on Sheba as masks, thus creating interesting backgrounds and at the same time colouring the pieces ready for assembly into 3-D flowers.

I made a special card using these inks, with butterflies cut on Sheba.

Other new materials acquired: I also greatly increased my stock of Perfect Pearls, and together with my alcohol inks, made a couple of palettes so that I could paint with these media and have more control over them.

Other materials and equipment I acquired during the year were a Rolls-Royce of a glue gun, a new heat gun, matting and layering rulers, a gorgeous set of Derwent Inktense pencils from my hubby for my birthday, for Zentangle-Inspired Art, and some new stamps, from Ryn’s designs and also a selection of background stamps.

My knitting enjoyed a revival this year. I have been clearing things out, including a lot of clothes I no longer wear, and decided to unravel some favourites and knit them up so that they fit me again! Despite my best intentions, not a single one has been ready to wear for this winter, but here’s the progress I’ve made so far.

This year, WOYWW celebrated its third anniversary and had an ATC swap to mark the event, and I acquired a beautiful collection of these miniature works of art from other members of the group, from all around the world, each unique and precious. I made a selection of Zentangle ATCs to swap. (I know – I did promise to do a post about this swap – I did a draft post some while ago, and hope to upload it soon, long after the event, but never mind!!) Instead of an ATC swap, I swapped flowers with Judy in Australia – she has my paper ones and I have her fabric ones!

This year was my first experience of swaps, and actually holding someone’s art in your hand really draws you closer to that person, even if you have never met, and I have made new friends online. I feel well established in the online creative community now and have derived so much joy from my blog – and I know that my loyal followers have too, which gives me a great deal of pleasure. Thank you all for your support and encouragement over the past year. Special thanks to all of you who sent me special gifts and cards to help me get through some difficult times. These are all treasured and I appreciate your kindness so much.

I must make mention of a couple of new friends I’ve made this year – at the risk of offending others I leave out, for which I apologise – one is Jennibellie, who I have nicknamed the Recycling Queen – I was overjoyed to find her first on Youtube and then on her blog as she’s such an inspiration and such fun, and also Ryn Tanaka who designs such fabulous art stamps, and I’ve really enjoyed our ongoing correspondence. The joys of the Internet – no problem having contact with friends in Canada, or anywhere else in the world for that matter!

What a wonderful year it has been for Great Britain! The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics, and now the news of a new Royal baby on the way… Despite the atrocious weather we have had most of the year, it has been a notable year in so many ways, nationally and personally. Let us all look forward to next year and to all the opportunities it will bring, to be creative, to give joy and encouragement to others, and to bear our problems and sorrows with fortitude and cheerfulness. A very Happy New Year to you all!