Commedia del'arte #426

 Hi, here's my painting/card making desk this week.My great friend, LLJ, had a birthday, and, knowing she likes hares, I did her a card. A little joke as well, with the bamboo, as she's trying to eradicate it from her garden.





I also painted her a reminder a brilliant day we once had at Wallington hall, kicking up leaves like crazy. This was why I was practising leaves a few weeks ago - not that I could say ;-)  oh, and a pair of the lapis infinity earrings I was working on last week.

Brian and I went to see the Rude Mechanical Theatre company on Sunday, with another friend, Chris.  - they come and do a Commedia de'Arte play every year on our village green. It's part of a tour they do. They're very funny and talented. I think they only tour the South of England, but they're well worth going to see if you have a chance.

thanks for visiting/commenting. Have a good WOYWW week, all. hugs, Lynne xxx

art for art's sake #425

Hi all, here we are for another peak at each other's workdesks and crafting.
I've been finishing up my latest lapis infinity earrings and making an origami box to send them in.

On Sunday, I went to an exhibition by an artist friend, Catherine Robinson.

It's on till the end of July in Faversham, if anyone's around, and well worth seeing.

Catherine's print, Migration II, is the poster image, right, and is really beautiful. She's done a lot of work in support of MOAS, who help save the lives of refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.

I needed to send her a card, and so painted this one as a comment on "Migration" - still enjoying my Japanese watercolour brush pens.  

That's about all this week - happy WOYWW, everyone!

 

hugs, Lynne xxx

Hokusai, herbs and healing #424

Hi all, 
Here's my weekly look at my workdesk - see http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/ for more.

As reported last week, I'm making more Lapis earrings and so here's my jewellery making workdesk.

I've  been out and about, buying herb plants for the long border in our back garden, which Brian's planted. This border has recently been weed cleared and had a ton of spent mushroom compost dumped on it. I was struggling to think of what to do with it, but eventually had the brainwave of making it mostly herbs. We suffer a lot with slugs so I decided to buy mature plants and hope they stand a better chance of surviving. We need to get more plants yet, to plant closely to keep down the weeds, but it's a start.

As you can see, Thea has made a good recovery, after a week of keeping her in and bathing her bites with a cleaning liquid from the vets that looks like feline iodine. I'm not sure if she was helping or just using the wheelbarrow as a good place for a snooze! 😏


I also returned to the Hokusai exhibition with LLJ and Gordon, as the BM has changed the pictures. The dragons were particularly impressive.

We had a great day out together.  On the way out we also visited the Assyrian bas-reliefs. I swear those gods are carrying handbags!

Anyway, have a good week all, hugs, Lynne xxx

Catminding and earrings #423

Hi all, it's Wednesday again, and time to show my workdesk. If you want to know what this is about, head over to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/, where our kindly host Julia will tell you all about it.

I've had requests for more of my infinity drop earrings so I'm back to the jewellery making workspace this week. I've more of the lapis beads so will make more the same. 

At the same time, our smaller, but very fierce cat, Thea, has been in a fight, probably with a big, nasty tabby who bullies her, so we're keeping her in until her 6 bites  (6! poor thing) have healed and she gets her nerve back. I'd like to get my hands on him, but what can you do?

Anyway, I've been cleaning her wounds daily with the special feline iodine-like stuff from the vets and she's not infected or in pain.

She's either sleeping behind the settee or sitting on me, so its tricky doing anything when she's awake. Brian says it's a good job Doctor Who has finished (his traditional hiding spot when the Daleks come on was behind the settee.)

Anyway, have a good week all, hugs, Lynne xxx

unknitting and tennis #422

Hi, I don't have much to show on my workdesk this week, apart from my knitting, which I've decided to undo and redo. I like the pattern, but need to improve the joins between the different blocks.

Apart from knitting, the main thing I've done is to go to Wimbledon, to see the tennis (Centre Court, my dears). Thanks to a great friend who got tickets in the ballot. we had the best seats in the house, even looking DOWN on royalty!

We saw Andy Murray and Petra Kvitiva win, and Stan Wawrinka lose, as well as a couple of entertaining sets of Dustin Brown.

The grounds were beautiful, flowers everywhere, and the whole day was just immaculate. Pimms, strawberries and cream and all ;-)  


Anyway, that's all for me this week, have a good week all, hugs, Lynne

Repairs and lots of outings #421

Oops, just realised it's Wednesday and I haven't done my WOYWW,  I've been doing some jewellery repairs this week, so my workbench is my glue tray.

One of the last things I made before I stopped silversmithing classes was the pendant below for my goddaughter's 18th birthday. She had lost a stone and it's taken me a long time to find a replacement that would fit. 

When I originally made the pendant, (made from scratch) I rolled the backs with leaves so it makes an attractive pendant from the back and can be worn with colours that would clash with the stones. 

Apart from my very slowly growing knitting, that's all the craft I had time for this week.

 On Thursday. I was in a team from work which won the 2017 IET (institution of Engineering & Technology) Railway Quiz. We had a secret weapon, my husband Brian. ;-) That's us two on the right.

On Saturday night, Brian and I were in London to see the brilliant singer/pianist/guitarist Jackson Browne. He was great, but it was sweltering in the Albert Hall.

On Sunday I went for a walk along the Military Canal in Hythe, with my friend Chris and her dog, Becky. The canal was built as a defence against Napoleon. The water lilies are coming out and look great. 


Tomorrow I'm off to Stoke as my mother has to have a 48h heart monitor and with her having dementia, it's probably not going to be easy.

Then on Monday,I've been invited to go to Wimbledon with a friend from Cornwall - Centre Court!!!!


More about that next week.I hope, but things are not quietening down just yet!



Still, I'm glad to be out and about.
Have a good week, all, 
hugs, Lynne xxx

Lapis #420

Hi all,
Is Wednesday coming round even faster than usual or is it just 'cos I'm back at work?


Anyway, here are my two workdesks this week - inside for jewellery, and outside for painting 

The feline supervision has been very lackadaisical this week - must be the weather!



The bits came for my lapis lazuli earrings so I had to think how to put them together. The infinity loops weren't big enough to take a lapis bead, but I thought they might have taken one of the gold knots.

In the end, tho, I preferred the infinity loops empty and used the knots for a second pair.

Finally, a thought for the families of those horribly hit by a terrorist attack, ie a van driven at them, outside the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, this week. The terrorists of the earlier attacks are not representative of Moslems. Innocent families leaving Ramadan prayers should be safe from such horrors. 

 

that's all for this week, have a good week, all! hugs, Lynne

 

Painting & Earrings #419

Hi all, it's time to share my workdesk again. If you want to know what this is about, head over to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/, where Julia will explain all.

This week, I've been trying to improve my drawing and painting. I found it useful to find & print a picture online and to copy it, making variations.


So I was interested to see this article in the Guardian newspaper, about how children can be the best art teachers, and for them to recommend copying slowly as a way of improving.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/10/why-children-make-the-best-teachers

 I've also been watching a fantastic new series on the BBC, on the Art of Japan, and have fallen in love with a painting by Sesshu called Splashed Ink Landscape, below.


Can you believe this was painted in the year 1495? Around the same time that Leonardo da Vinci was painting the  Last Supper?? It's so impressionist. Now that's a painting I'll never be able to copy!

I've also been working out how to make myself some lapis lazuli earrings, with an infinity connector charm from the Silver Corporation.

I'm hoping I can put one lapis coin into the larger part of the infinity hoop, and dangle another off the bottom. I've just ordered them, so we'll see next time.

While I was photographing my desk, Thea decided that it's her turn to star on this blog, rather than Dino, and came and sat on me for an hour to make sure.

So have a good week, all! Please don't apologise for visiting late or not visiting, I think this circle is for us to enjoy as best we can. 


We're not all going to visit everyone or post every week, and that's fine with me, and, I hope, with you. hugs, Lynne xxx

Copycat WOYWW #418

Hi all, a busy week, this week, as I've started to work from home again, before going back to working in the office in London.

Before the weather broke, I was still painting outdoors, closely supervised by our 2 cats ;-). 

 My mother-in-law, aged 95, is in  hospital and I want to encourage her to try with the physio, or she won't walk again, so here's a card I made for her, copying Dino (and making him look a little more dynamic ;-) 

It was my birthday on Monday, so Brian and I went up to London to the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/hokusai.aspx

My new favourite painting is the waterfall, below - the water looks so vigorous. We then had a long, lazy Italian lunch and came home.



On the knitting front, I'm trying to incorporate both patterns by making a sort of windowpane on the front - maybe a few at the bottom and a few near the top? I don't know, I'll see how it goes and how much patience I have for unravelling the inevitable snarls.

My grandfather's peonies, which are supposed to flower on my birthday,  had flowered early this year, the story of that is found here: 

http://lmcollis.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/peonies-on-my-birthday.html

That's all for this week, have a great week, all! Hugs, Lynne xxx 

Painting in the sun - WOYWW #417

Hi all, I really enjoyed last week's anniversary and received some beautiful ATCs. 
Many thanks to all who kindly sent them xxx




Now I'm off the horrible antibiotics which meant I had to stay out of the sun, my desk has moved outside.




I'm still very keen on my watercolour brushes. Thanks for all who were encouraging me last week. I've found pinterest to be very helpful, and am using it to think about how to paint specific things, like the shape of leaves. More on that another week.


Having finished the back of my cardigan, I was just knitting some pocket backs for the fronts and am faced with a quandary. I really like the random self-striped pattern they make - almost Japanese. It would only look like that in these 4" x 4" squares, due to the repeat frequency.  
So now I'm not sure whether to undo the stripy back and start again, or try to have these squares on the fronts somehow. Any ideas? 

Anyway, that's all for this week - have a good week, hugs, Lynne xxx

WOYWW #416 - Happy 8th anniversary to you all!

Hi all,
Happy anniversary to you all! I've only been part of this circle for a few weeks, but I am amazed and inspired every week by your craft, your colours and your generosity, so many thanks to all of you. 

If you want to know more, head over to the Stamping Ground, which has heroically hosted our peek at each other's crafting desks for 8 years today!

This week, I've been making my first ever ATCs, to mark the anniversary. I still work on my lap, but have had to extend to my footstool as the projects increase. It's still not as tidy as most desks.😉. 

I've used photos I took on holiday in Japan last Nov, plus Japanese paper I usually use to make nice origami boxes for packaging earrings etc. I did find the silver border stickers useful. 

I'm not a stamper or paper crafter, usually, but I make jewellery so I've added a fan charm, and wrapped them nicely (in case my gluing's not up to scratch. 😉)

My email is above, so let me know your address if you're in my PIF chain, and I'll send you my address and a card.

The other parts of my workspace this week have been focussed first on my necklace, (tbc) but mostly on my new watercolour brush pens. They've been keeping me good while I recover from my chest infection.
I don't profess to being able to paint well, but I enjoy it and in the end I think that's all that matters, don't you think?

 I did venture a birthday card for a friend today........


Anyway, I'll keep this short as I hope lots of us will join in today, have a great week, hugs, Lynne xxx