Saturday 20 August 2011

Flowers inside and out!

For my birthday, in the spring, I had some Dahlias to plant. It was a mixed bag and if the leaf shapes and sizes are anything to go by there will be many different blooms!

This is the first to flower:


Looking forward to some more colourful flowers over the summer!

Talking of which...here's one I prepared earlier!




...a little random wooliness for a friend's birthday.....





...needlefelted onto a commercallyproduced bag using Rowan Biggy Print.

I'm hoping one day I'll be needlefelting onto my own wet felted items........





Sunday 14 August 2011

Collaborating!

Collaborate: to work with someone else for a special purpose
Cambridge Dictionaries online                           

I have had great pleasure in passing on a piece of random wooliness to a friend
for her to ponder upon!
As I don't want to add extra pressure to her cogitating I won't reveal the entire picture but here's a couple of secretive snippets!




Things are a bit quiet on the production front - I've got lots of creative ideas swimming around but as its holiday time they will remain in the pool until there's chance to get woolly!

Hope you are all having some happy times in the summer sun!

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Something Peaceful

Following events over the last few days I felt the need for something peaceful.....



Hope you are all keeping safe...




x

Saturday 6 August 2011

Being Creative - Summer

I think this post should have the subtitle of: Learning to leisurely stroll before you can run!
The thoughts, as usual, for this months Being Creative topic have been whirring away at speed for more than a month... I think the process of this creation is just as important as the final result..so please bear with me!!
Following a comment I made on someone's lovely ocean creation last month I began thinking about the composition of most of my projects... I like to make things colourful, bright, cheerful and warm....things that I suppose other people would like to look at...the fish I make are orange, the sea, blue....and I do know from holiday photos on people's blogs it can be beautifully blue...but its not always!
So I decided I should be a bit more realistic in my choice of subject matter for summer.....
I still thought of flowers...poppies.... but where they grow....on waste ground or by the roadside....
after a motorway journey last week observing the roadside flora (and what an amazing array there is..such a positive and pretty colour pallette bordering the ribbon of tarmac)..I picked Rosebay Willowherb...(for the picture -  in my head - not on the hard shoulder)

In the true spirit of Being Creative I decided to try something new and out of my comfort zone...
I enthusiastically ripped the plastic off a new set of watercolour pencils and opened the watercolour sketchbook with trepidation! (Yes, it was a mixture of emotions!!)
I began with a few sketch ideas to get a feel of the media, and the dived in headfirst!!
That's the point where I especially should have strolled....


As a first attempt I'm quite pleased..it certainly ticks the 'I've tried something different' box
and it has reminded me of some other factors:  I like to race with the wind in my hair before I have even taken a few wobbly steps; I'd love the finished article on paper  to look identical to the beautiful image in my head; I am so enthusiastic to keep the momentum going I power onto the next stage before the last one dries; I am aware of the benefits of relaxation and going with the flow; I am still trying to disguise all my 'could try harder's into positives!

It looks a bit more peaceful country garden than gritty roadside ...but again...thats what makes me appreciate even more the talents of people who can make a picture look like how they had imagined it to be, or what the viewer would like to see!

I have enjoyed this whole process once again, Thank you to Julia for the inspirational topics and to all the wonderful comments  that flutter across the ether and land here. Its so great to be able to share everyone's creations.

I will leave you with one of my rough sketches which, because I was still fairly relaxed, turned out more like what I had in my head than the real thing!