stamps

I've been playing around making my own stamps. The bullrush at the top and the goose were both cut on lino and the trees were cut on a soft, rubber material. I was really pleased with the goose but the shading was pure serendipity - it should have come out as a solid colour but for some reason the acrylic paint I used decided to do its own thing and make it look like a proper goose! The trees came out better than I thought they would as there was some quite fine cutting involved but the softer material was much easier to cut than the lino. I suspect it won't have such a long life as the lino though.

I'm beginning to think about trying to make a proper lino cutting on a block that I can make several prints from - say for Christmas cards. I think I need to practice for a while first on the small stuff and at the moment I have two fingers that I've cut quite deeply so I need to try to avoid that. What we suffer for our art!!

I'm getting excited about this which is a bad sign!

the name escapes me!

I know what this flower is because I have lots in the garden - they seed themselves everywhere. I have these pink ones and some blue ones but I can't for the life of me remember what they're called. I'm sure it will come to me eventually so I won't agonize over it!

chives

How wonderful it is to be able to go outside with my camera with no fear of it getting drenched in the rain. I wandered round the garden in the sunshine and found lots of new growth to photograph. These chives are so delicate, balancing at the top of their sinuous stems.

stitching finished for first page

This is the first page with all the stitching finished. I scanned it this time rather than photographing it and the colours look much better. Can't seem to get the hang of photographing this sort of thing - the light always seems wrong and the colours don't look good. I'm not going to finish making this into the properly backed page yet because I want to do a few more before I decide on the backing colour.

Stitch Sampler

This will be the first page of my stitch sampler book. It's two thirds finished and the stitches used are wave stitch, raised chain band and bullion. It will eventually be cut out around the silk rectangles and mounted on another piece of silk to form a page. When all the pages are finished I'm going to make them into a book, maybe making a cover of needle weaving on canvas, an idea I found in Jan Messent's wonderful book 'Celtic, Viking & Anglo-Saxon Embroidery'.

Goodbye to a true friend

Misty died today. I had never realized how aggressive some cancers are and how fast they work. Our expected twelve weeks more with her in reality became just four. There are too many empty places in the house and garden and Rosie and I are struggling and keeping close to each other.

Stitching again!

Whatever I start doing, I always seem to return to a desire to stitch, or hand embroider. So, with the help of a great book by Effie Mitrofanis, I've decided to start a little fabric book of stitch samples. These three pieces of silk are to be the basis of the first page. Boring, I know, but hopefully the start of something OK. And I'm aware that I haven't posted on my blog for too long, so I'll try to record this project as it goes along. Interspersed maybe with other stuff now and then.

My beautiful old Irish Wolfhound lady, Misty, who is just over nine years old, has been diagnosed with bone cancer. She has a huge tumour on her upper jaw which at the moment gives her no pain thankfully although the time will come. She's still able (and very enthusiastic) to eat which is good but I'm beginning to think of soft things rather than hard now. The forecast from the vet is 10 weeks, possibly extendable to 12 months if we resort to hugely aggressive surgery followed by ongoing chemotherapy. How lucky we are that we can make a considered choice on her behalf, and give her 10 weeks of happiness rather than 12 months of misery. We'll know when she's ready to go and can offer her the mercy that we are unable to offer our fellow humans!

Sketching

It's so long since I posted anything and, despite there being no need to blog regularly, I still feel guilty. I've been working on a sketching course and this is one of my studies.

Lawn Roller

This hasn't been used for a while and has been abandoned behind the bonfire site at the bottom of our garden. It's as heavy as it looks!

Tapestry Landscape

I've finally started weaving my first tapestry. I had a problem right at the bottom (or the start of the weaving) with the weft not covering the warp properly but I think this was because I had the weft pulled too tight as it seems to be better as it grows and as I get used to it. I'm not sure at this stage whether I'm pleased with it or not and until I get more weaving done I won't know. I marked the design on the warp to make it easier for me to follow and then put a sheet of black paper behind the warps so I can see what I'm doing. The bobbin on the table at the left is my prized possession - it has a brass tip and it feels so much nicer to weave with than the all-wood ones. It was hugely expensive though so I'll have to collect a few at a time and put them on my birthday and Christmas lists for years to come!

A close up of progress so far.

Tomorrow I have a day off work and I'm going to the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy. I can't wait; I'm so excited - all that wonderful colour!