Warning - Photo Overload!

I feel a need to apologise for the number of photos I'm going to bombard you with this week :-) Hope you have time to stick with me....
Firstly.....on Monday I decided to take Roben-Marie's journal workshop and so have spent a happy few days doing my favourite thing - splattering ink and stuff around (good job you can't see the carpet in my studio :-/  )
Here are the covers.....today I'm cutting up paper to stitch inside; I'm hoping to sell these in the coming weeks. (my daughter is about to start up a beauty salon with a friend so I might have an outlet for some of my work there).

 Yay..... one without green-overload!!!

Last week Maggi and I took the train to Birmingham to see the lace exhibition at The Museum and Art Gallery.  It also gave me (yet another) chance to see my favourite Pre-Raphaelites :-)

 'Proserpine' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

First we visited the real lace exhibition where we saw some truly amazing examples........ (and couldn't stop gasping at the fine detail in some of these)

 ....top left is a pillow from the exhibition....the blue ones are mine. Yes, I briefly dabbled with lace-making about 25 years ago......haven't a clue how to do it now though. Do you know anyone who wants to buy hundreds of beautiful beaded lace bobbins?

The focus of our trip...'Lost in Lace' was a truly amazing exhibition.

"Featuring large-scale, theatrical and visually spectacular work, this exhibition challenges perceptions of what lace can be..... see how the patterns, materials and cultural traditions of lace are represented through radical new approaches by 20 leadingUK and international artists."

Enormous 'lace' panels to walk through....

 clever interpretations.....

 weird ideas (this billowed slowly in different sequences - quite spooky!)....

 different materials and ways of seeing things......

.... this gorgeous black hanging looked like lace but was made of a material that I've forgotten the name of....Maggi, can you remember?

 A crystal 'chandelier' made from half a ton of Swaroski crystals!!!

 And finally, my favourite room......five dresses which seem to be floating in the midst of a network of fine black threads. Its mind-boggling to think how this was done.....

Well that's all folks.
Apart from a Peachy update.
Like him, I am also becoming an expert mouse catcher ....he has brought four live ones home this week :-( ....  and I have had to devise a method of rescue. Plastic box on top...slide card underneath....take to the wood at the bottom of our cul-de-sac.
Must remember to take a photo of the next one....... :-)

Who....me??????

Waxed Papers

You may have noticed I've had a rest from my PC for a couple of weeks! I'm going to be teaching a few classes at The Beetroot Tree Gallery so I've been practising and producing some examples.
I've been playing with waxed papers....great fun!!

This is my journal cover decorated with waxed papers and metal. I've just discovered the joys of cutting out shapes from the copper sheet using a paper punch.

To make the paper............first spray inks onto a piece kitchen towel and when dry, screw it up. Next step is to glue it onto a piece of A4 paper with a thin layer of PVA - keeping the creases . Then when the glue is dry you need a candle (or beeswax) plus an old oron (I used a quilting iron). Put the iron onto the wax and let it drip onto the paper, all the time smoothing it out with the iron. Don't let the wax get thick and cloudy (if it does, just keep ironing it away).
The paper ends up like thin leather.....it feels gorgeous........and of course you can stitch into it and use it for all sorts of things.

Here's the finished piece....click on it for a closer view.

And another example.

Journal Cover......and Gifts!

I decided to have a play with my Luana painting, so I printed out a small version of it and used it as part of a collage for a book cover. I used a variety of paints, plus thick gesso though a stencil, a bronze cross, torn papers and a gold pen.
I want to thank everyone who sent me such kind comments about my painting; this is all new to me so I really appreciate every single one.

My original painting is 8" x 8"....this book cover is quite small - 5 1/2" square.
If you've got a spare minute, I thought I'd show you some of my lovely birthday presents.......

.......a beautiful gold necklace with a freshwater pearl from my daughter and her boyfriend, a stunning chunky pearl necklace from my mum, a bead for my bracelet from my sister (its almost full now!), and a book (one of the presents from DH)..................some gorgeous fabrics, buttons and beads from my lovely friend Dot including 2 hand-made bird beads - just look at that cute little owl! (She also sent me my fabric book back from its trip around the world - I'll show you that tomorrow)

....and last, but not least, yet more luscious fabrics, a bracelet and a delightful hand-made doll from sweet Sesga in Wales.
I am so lucky to have such lovely gifts...and wonderful friends.