WOYWW 874 Pastels, sewing and Thames cruises

Hi all, As I’m joining in with our blog circle care of Sarah’s craftshed, I’m sending healing hugs to those of you who are unwell, especially to our Neet. 

My art class desk isn’t very interesting at the drawing stage. 

Our tutor, Claire, shared some techniques for using soft pastels with watercolour. 

This is my desk at home, testing colours and trying pastels for the culvert painting 

The pastel over watercolour for the water didn’t work well for me, but I tried using clingfilm over wet paint and I think that may work better. 

We’ll see more techniques at art class this week. 

I managed to do a few bits of hand sewing in the last few days, taking up B’s trousers, the sleeves of a jacket, and putting a patch pocket on this jacket. It was sold with its trousers as pajamas but it’s too pretty for that. The trousers were far too small so I chopped off part of a leg to make a pocket. I like the lime green contrasting cuff. 

The back of my waistcoat is progressing; I don’t always get Bella’s supervision since we’ve had dry weather, there are such interesting things in the garden. (We’ve only had 2 dead mice so far). She sends you all purrs though, and is happy to sleep under my crochet when she’s worn out from patrolling the garden. 

Our French goddaughter, Alexia, came to London on Saturday with her partner, Pierre, for a works’ trip to the Harry Potter studio, which Alexia loves. It’s ten years since she and I visited it. 

Sunday was free so we went on a cruise down the Thames and back with them, and had a late lunch before they had to catch the Eurostar home.  

It was great to see them, and fortunate that the company where Pierre works decided to have a trip here. We’ve tried to coordinate before for a trip including the HP Studio but you have to book so far in advance it’s been difficult. 

And finally…

I’ll be round after class. My turn to bring cake this time, what’s your favourite? Mine’s the apricot and almond bara brith that I attributed to Granny Boswell in my novel, A Sense for Silver. Here’s the recipe. The only thing I’d change is to put the apricot glaze on it when it comes out of the oven. 

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 873 cats and culverts

Hi all, l’m joining in with our bloghop, care of Sarah’s Craftshed, sending healing hugs to those of you who are unwell, and to Neet, who’s back in hospital. 

No art class last week so my ‘desk’s’ my lap (and Bella the cat.😻)

I’ve finished the fronts of my waistcoat and am starting the back. 

I’ll be back at art class tomorrow. 

Our next art project is a soft pastel study of a round culvert. I found one in our village, next to a house we’ve christened  Ferdinand de Lesseps’ house, as he’s taken as much care with the banks of the Nailbourne by his garden as his namesake took with the Suez canal. We saw the benefit, though, in 2000 when the far side of our ‘hilltop’ village was under a foot of water as its culvert was blocked, but our side, beyond de Lesseps’ house, was dry. The house is for sale, now, so I hope the next owner’s as good. 

And finally …

I’ll be round after class with hobnobs and ginger biscuits 😀

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx 

WOYWW 872 Art mistakes, glueing on an opal and new gadgets

Hi all, I’m back for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

Here’s my desk first, at art class. I made a big mistake towards the end of last week’s class. I was painting dark inner shadows and our tutor said ‘Use a big brush’ so I did without thinking and made my main cast shadow far too dark. 

I tried lifting it out with a damp brush but it wasn’t working. 

At home, I got the idea of using my ‘magic sponge’

(There are many brands online, you can use them to clean all sorts of things)

This reduced my cast shadow to a more acceptable level. I tried to get the eggs closer to their colour but, having over-worked them, the graphite had mixed with the watercolour and made them muddy. A lesson learned for another time! 

Another gadget arrived this week:

It’s a Yarn gator I bought it off a site on Facebook ages ago, but it’s taken so long to arrive I’d forgotten it. It’s handy to reduce yarn tangling - its advantage over ones I’ve seen before is that you can open the two sides. My waistcoat is growing under Bella’s supervision, and she sends you all purrs. 

. 

My most delicate work this week had me sticking an opal to my thumb. I bought this gold charm of the NASA Friendship 7 rocket (John Glenn’s earth orbit mission of 20.2.62) 25 years ago, when I passed my MSc, to remind myself it wasn’t rocket science. I told Brian I’d bought a NASA rocket off eBay and he was expecting it to come on an artic 😀. Anyway, when you open it, it has a little figure of John Glenn but the face plate is empty. 

I always thought of adding a little opal and found a 1.2mm one recently. Of course, I first stuck it to my thumb but have sorted it out, and now I think it looks better.  

And finally: 

I think that one might be true! 

I’m sending healing hugs to all of you who are poorly or recovering from illness and accidents, including our Neet, who I hope is now recovering. 

No art class this week, so I’ll be round earlier. It’s my turn to bring biscuits, which are your favourite?

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 871 Tricky perspectives and crochet

Hi all, 

I’m back for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s Craftshed. Sending healing hugs to Neet, and hoping you’re recovering. 

Here’s my desk:

You wouldn’t believe how tricky egg boxes are to draw, they’re a minefield of tricky perspectives. We’re doing watercolour over graphite so the shading is all done in graphite and the watercolour is applied on top. 

I have yarn left over from Brian’s slipover so I’m making myself a waistcoat (not to be worn at the same time he’s wearing his!)

I’m making this with just two colours of the yarn, plus cream, under Bella’s supervision, of course. She sends you all purrs. 

There’s a rainbow one and shades of blue & green, which seem to work well. 

One thing I don’t like about this King Cole yarn is the neps which are supposed to give the yarn a tweedy vibe. 

They’re only loosely attached so I’m pulling them out. They look dirty to me. 

I’ve also tried a ‘Melt the ICE hat in support of the people of Minneapolis. 

And finally ….

I’ll be round to visit when I come back from art class -I hope there are biscuits😀

Happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 870 Tricky drawing and a completed slipover

Hi all,

I’m joining in with our weekly bloghop, and sending healing hugs to our Neet

Here’s my desk. This graphite and watercolour painting of an egg box is a dastardly exercise in perspective. Here’s my desk:

Here are a few of our winter landscapes from last week:

I managed to finish Brian’s slipover the evening before his birthday. 

I have some yarn left over so I’ve started a waistcoat for myself, under Bella’s supervision. 

She sends you all purrs. 

I’m using only two colours with the beige, a green mix and ‘rainbow sky’. It’s a little darker but I’m happy with it. 

We had a lovely lunch at Francs in Canterbury (which had an excellent review recently from Grace Dent). B wore his new cotton waistcoat:

And finally …..

 

I’ll be around after class so put the kettle on! 

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx