Trying to Loosen Up with Dry Brushing.....

Hello All,

One of the reasons I signed up for the wonderful year-long class with Carla Sonheim

was to force myself to try different ways of painting......out of my usual comfort zone.

I won't necessarily like all of it, but you never know, I might discover something new

in the process.

My mini still life......try as I do it still comes out representational! Just HAD to put in

the drawn lines. But maybe it's a bit more free than usual.

I'm not giving anything away when I say that Carla is famous for her "find something

in a blot" sort of technique (it's not called that officially!). So I really had to hold myself

back in this puppy painting. Love the colours, and his one ear up.

"Just for fun" painting......I like it.

Bye for now, P.

Kipper....A Portrait.

Hello All,

I have a post tonight on the PaperArtsy blog, featuring my boy Kipper.

Just look at those eyes!

If you want to see how it's done, check out the blog HERE.

Back soon, P.

Quilt Cutting Dies.....Experiments!

Hello All,

I never can stay away from fabric for very long I'm afraid.

The paints are all still out and in use, but the ideas were missing. So I managed to

make a bit of clean space on another table to get my sewing machine out.

I really struggle with machine piecing.....the points never meet properly and I just

can't get a quarter inch seam!

When I saw an advert for an Accuquilt cutting die system where all the shapes were

in proportion for mix and match, I thought it might help. I also discovered that there

was a stitch in the quilting section on my Janome machine that made a 1/4 inch seam

from the edge of the foot. How could I fail?

But I have a Sizzix Big Shot Plus and you are supposed to use the Accuquilt cutting

machine. So I decided to risk it....and have been experimenting with combinations

of plates this afternoon.

Now I must emphasise that I am NOT recommending this...... I am not responsible for

broken machines or plates. I found that the safest way to approach the problem was

to start with the thinnest combination of plates and increase by the tiniest bit at a time

until it cut properly.

This is MY successful combination for MY INDIVIDUAL machine.

I have to point out that when I got my new Sizzix machine I found that with some

wafer thin types of paper dies, the recommended sandwich resulted in curved dies

and plates and I was a bit cross. However, when I removed the sticky instruction

label from the base plate, it reduced the pressure just enough to reduce this and still

cut. I now understand when demonstrators say "get to know your own machine".

I am quite pleased with the finished quilt block even though I have slightly more

than 1/4 inch seams so the finished block would not quite be 9 inches.

A bit more practise needed before I tackle a super king sized bed quilt I think.

I hope you enjoyed reading this little diverted ramble....... P.

The First Poetry Pages......

Hello All,

Today I made my first altered book "Poetry Pages".

This is how it started: as I said in my earlier post, I plan to take my

inspiration from the words on the page....... to avoid that "I really want to paint

something, but WHAT?" problem. I painted gesso to strengthen and seal the paper

but just left the word bits that I wanted.

"A Griffin, wheeling here and there about,
 Kept reconnoitring us...."

Stencilled wings and drew a griffin, and added texture paste.

"Beheld afar off, in the hooded shade
Of darkness, a great mountain (strange to speak)
Spitting, from forth it's sulphur-baken peak..."

This side collage, stencil and texture paste.

And lots of acrylic washes and runs.

I like this poetry thing. It's funny when you see things in a photograph, think I

need some bright yellow in the bottom right hand corner for balance?????

Maybe tomorrow.

Bye for now, Penny.

The Beginnings of an Altered Book....

Hello All,

Sometimes when playing with paints, inks and drawing, it is good to

get away from a blank white page. Thinking about that, I found a scruffy

old book in the charity shop, "The Poetical Works of John Keats". It came

to mind that not only would it give a good base to work on, but might also

provide inspirational prompts to create the pages.

I have started stitching groups of pages together to give them more strength to

take the paint, sometimes adding beads.

A bit of a problem though.........keep getting distracted reading the verse!

Always have that guilty feeling "spoiling" a book, but this one is very

much past it's best so that's fine.

It will be an ongoing project, so expect to see how it's going from time to time.

Probably involving gesso.........sigh :(

Bye for now, P.