WOYWW 129 and AEDM days 22 and 23 - craft fair prep

Yesterday, straight from work, was my last ceramic class (it was just a row of three) and I made an angel with a textured dress.  Unfortunately my phone had run out of battery so I have no pics.  I had made a small rose from clay which the teacher then used to make a small mould for me.  I created some little roses for the angel's dress.  The plan is to make some felted, embroidered wings for her :)

I squeezed some 'art time' in today for 'Art Every Day Month'.  Just a bit of doodling but without AEDM I'd have just not done any!

I'm off to work at the Bean and Brush later, teaching our Christmas ornament class.  Today I've been busily preparing for the Chorlton Arts Festival Christmas fair which is on Saturday.  Why do I never leave myself enough prep time?!!

So my desk is a little messy busy today!  Neater desks are available for view over at the Stamping Ground :)

I've finished three more pepper pot flower collections.  My minions are looking after them whilst they dry!

I've also prepped some papers to make some small journals and cards with for Saturday (when I don't know lol!!!  I can see a couple of late nights coming up).

AEDM days 20 and 21 - in the 'Drawing Lab'

Honestly, I can't recommend Carla Sonheim's 'Drawing Lab' highly enough!  It's just brilliant for getting you painting or drawing without that highly invasive 'inner critic' sitting on your shoulder whispering into your ear!  It's also full of short arty exercises for when time is limited, perfect for me at the minute.

Yesterday was mostly spent doing school prep so just before going to bed I did some one-liners, drawing animals using one continuous line.  Carla has a short video here on the Sketchbook Challenge blog if you'd like more info.

I started with pigs, then a couple of flowers followed by an owl who looks like a penguin!

I've been avoiding drawing cats as I'm not that keen on them picture wise, but finally gave in and love these manic kitties!

Then I gave some birds  a bit of a go.  For the last one I wondered what it would look like with 'walking legs'.  Normally my brain wouldn't even let me have a go at drawing something like that as 'I can't do it', but with one liners they're not going to look like the animal anyway!

It was my first day back teaching today after having bronchitis.  I was still feeling a bit wiped out so after a day with three different infant classes in a special school I came home and fell asleep!  Woke up feeling the need to do something relaxing so flicked through 'Drawing Lab' and..

...decided to finally give Lab 8: Imaginary Creatures a go....and created a moustached penguin lying back in shock at..what?!!  Hmm, that's in your imagination ;)  I love how fun he is, yet I never would have drawn a moustached penguin lol!

It started off with layers of random marks made with watercolour paints.  These yummy koh-i-noor ones were supposed to go in my eldest son's Christmas stocking - oops!  They are such handy, stackable palettes and rather nice paints too.  I bought mine whilst out in Wales somewhere, although checking online they're cheap enough to get George another set!  

AEDM day 19 - found poetry on a spoon

I love rummaging through old books and finding quirky sentences that make me smile.  These snippets of 'poetry' were a little more controlled in that I just hunted for descriptive words relating to my chosen topic!  

I started making these spoons earlier this year after seeing something similar by the hugely talented Kelli Perkins.  It wasn't 'til I just checked for the link here that I realised how similar - oops!

I've got a few more inked up, it's the word hunting that takes the time!

Prompted by Gwen's lovely flower yesterday I got started on some felted flowers that have been in my head awhile.  I added some merino wool and snippets of fabric to a piece of yellow felt, then free machined some flower outlines before cutting them out.

It was the container that gave me a bit of trouble.  I bought five pepper pots from Dunelm Mill the other day for just this purpose, inspired by Sue Pelletier's wonderful snowmen.  I just couldn't decide what to put in the jar!

I tried buttons, beads, even tiny stones, but went for snippets of fabric in the end.  It still wasn't looking right until I added some snippets around the base and some cotton around the rim.

Just to show you the back - I stitched the felted piece to some old net curtain as two layers of felt, one of which was felted on top, was a bit think for the sewing machine!  Ok, off to write more poetry.  Thanks to all for the advice yesterday, much appreciated :)

AEDM days 17 and 18 - more of the seahorses!

I've moved onto the next step with my felted seahorses, mounting them on a background.  I used my dumfing machine (that's an embellisher for those unfamiliar with this wipso and twiglet term ;) ) to add merino wool and some other bits n pieces to a piece of cotton fabric.

I then moved over to my sewing machine and added some bubbles and texture lines.  I started adding some french knots and tiny beads the other night, then realised I'd struggle to sew it onto the background with them there so stopped!

I've placed a second seahorse behind a rectangular mount.  This actually took longer to do as I felted and sewed this piece without an embroidery hoop.  Now to work out how to attach it to the mount!  Any tips gratefully received :)

I'm not selling them framed, just thought I'd try one in a frame to see how it looked.   I can't decide which type people will prefer though, the funkiness of the embroidery frame or the safety of being able to put the image behind glass.  What do you reckon?

AEDM days 15 and 16, WOYWW 128 - nice parcels and some drawing

Line drawings on my 'workdesk' today (the arm of the sofa!) of a hosta leaf and a hydrangea flower.  I'm working in a large-ish square kraft notebook from Paperchase for a change (and also as I wanted to work in a sewn journal rather that a spiral bound one!).

These pages are part of an online course I signed up for called 'the art and design of surface pattern' with Beth Nicholls and Rachael Taylor.  I came across this via another AEDMer's blog and it just tugged at me 'til I signed up!  Beth's blog 'do what you love' is fab, and she mentioned how great the latest BBC documentary 'Frozen Planet' was.  So, with plenty of time in front of the tv today...

... I did some blind contour drawings of some of the penguins.  You just hAvE to watch these guys by the way, who knew there were criminal penguins!!!

My owls are coming along too...

And I'm pleased with yesterday's journal page playing with circles.  

This is based on a photograph I took a few days ago of the bubbles in my bath water!  I printed it out A4 size, cut out the larger bubbles and sprayed gold paint through this stencil.  The other 'bubbles' were traced onto the page.  Yesterday also brought me some goodies in the post...

... so now I can peruse your article Kate :)  I also received the prize I won in a raffle at the Great Northern Contemporay Craft fair.  These are so pretty!

And today's post brought these stencils I ordered a couple of weeks ago now from the US (and had forgotten about!)

Antibiotics are kicking in so feeling a little better, thanks so much for the well wishes :)  If you'd like to see more work in progress head over to What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday at the Stamping Ground, and you can keep up with the 'Art Every Day Month'ers over at Creative Every Day.

AEDM day 12 - clay seahorse!

I brought a piece of clay home from my class on Tuesday night and it's been calling my name since!  So this afternoon I decided to translate my seahorse design into clay.

After creating a paper template of the seahorse, I rolled out the clay, cut around the template then added the stripes across his body.

I then added texture to his various sections.  In some areas I've pressed a shape in eg rubber stamps, pen top lid, a bizarre metal something..., and in others I added bits.

My favourite additions are the tiny bits of stamped clay which feature numerals!  I then went on to play around with the clay a bit.  I was intending to make an angel based on a cone shape but ended up with a slam pot! [that's what gives it the wrinkles down near the base, a good slam on the table]

It's a bit odd looking, but I like it :)

There's all sorts of great work going on for Art Every Day Month and you can find the links here.  I've met lots of new people already :)

AEDM day 11 - felted seahorse

What Art Every Day Month is doing for me is focusing my attention on following through an idea.  My 'emergency' tags on which to make something if all else fails are still in their packet!  I used one of yesterday's  as inspiration for my felted seahorse.

I started with some curly locks and used them to 'sketch out' the outline of the seahorse using my needle felting tool.

I then added in various colours of merino wool before felting in bits of felt, organza and old scarf!

Next stop, the sewing machine ;)

edit:

oooo, just love it :)  Now it will sit for a while whilst I decide what to do next!

AEDM days 8 and 9 - a fantastic evening playing with clay ...

Yesterday was a bit manic (I spent the day teaching, went straight from school to another one to run a Numicon workshop and went straight from there to a two hour evening class) but culminated in leisure!  Our local grammar school runs adult classes every November and I signed up for the ceramics one.  It's just for three evenings in total.

After rolling out a piece of clay, we pressed lace, dried orange slices and other bits n pieces into the clay to create texture.  We then wrapped it around a tube and created a cylindrical pot.

I then had a bit of a play, layering snippets of clay, and created a book cover.  I'd like to incorporate my textile work into my clay pieces so made three buttons and saved the piece I cut these from to layer over a stitched and needle-felted piece.

AEDM day 9 started early as I woke in the night with chest pain (I've got a cold!...Again!!!)  I need some ideas for next week's clay class ... well, I need to refine my ideas as I only have two weeks to do the work!  After a bit of a hunt on the internet I found this fabulous work by Elizabeth Howe...

... GoRGeouS!  I also found a blog stocked full of great inspiration - I love so much of the artists' work that Sara features.  I now have plans for next week in my notebook :)

AEDM day 6 - an autumnal walk in the countryside

I am very lucky to live really close to the Cheshire countryside so this afternoon saw us taking a walk in Tatton Park.  As it's 'Art Every Day Month' I dutifully took my sketchbook and drew some of the things I saw and liked,  as directed by Carla Sonheim in her book 'Drawing Lab'.

It still needs the colour adding to it, but I'm happy to have done some drawing!

I chickened out of drawing the deer though and just took photographs instead ;)

AEDM day 5 - drawing with my sewing machine

... one of my favourite activites, which Kirstie Allsopp described as "the crack cocaine of the craft industry" on 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain' this week lol; not sure about that one but it is great fun :)

I used the designs I did in my sketchbook yesterday, stitching them onto patches of felt I had lying around near my sewing machine.

I had saved a funky label from a cardigan I'd bought from Fat Face this week and decided to add one of my pieces to this.

I 'drew' onto my fabric, then cut around the body of the flower before adding it to the tag and stitching a stem and adding a leaf.

Tonight we're off to a bonfire party :)  I love it all, the sights, the smells, the treacle toffee and melted marshmallows, but fireworks still frighten me from a safety point of view.  At least the dog is getting deaf as he gets older so the loud bangs don't bother him so much.

I'd just like to say that my heart goes out to those who've lost friends and family in the M5 Somerset crash last night.  Involved in a crash myself this time last year, similarly in the dark and wet, I still cannot begin to imagine how horrific this one was.  Surely they can't now raise the speed limit to 80mph on the motorways!