Mythical Creatures

This little creature is one I drew for the drawing class I am attending. We were asked to draw a mythical creature and I decided I would do an underwater creature. After drawing we were asked to colour it. I used my Koh I Nor watercolours. I love these paints as their colours are so beautiful and the clarity of the colour is outstanding. I really enjoyed this activity and can see how they might be used in my textile work.

Beading

In addition to my felting and dyeing I have had a blitz on making beaded necklaces. So far I have made six. These photos show two of them. I will add the others to the blog shortly.

Dyeing and Felting

I am participating in the Creative Challenge for the Canberra Embroiderer's Guild annual exhibition later this year. The brief for the challenge is to use running stitch on a piece of fabric no large than fat quarter size to make a three dimension item. I have dyed two pieces of silk georgette, one of which I then felted (see Picture One). I based the colour scheme on the Australian King Parrot which has distinctive colouring of almost irridescent green head and wings and a bright scarlet body. I now have to do the stitching and turn it into something - I think I will make a bag. I still have to decide what I will do with the second piece of fabric which is not yet felted. Maybe I could make a nice scarf to go with the bag.

Creative Sketchbooks

Part of my most recent work for this course was to draw several sketches from a plant source. This is my work. (pictures 1 and 2 show my sketches) and picture 3 is an image of the original eucalyptus leaves and nuts. This course is really interesting and challenging but doesn't make you feel that you cannot do it. I know my drawing has to improve but nonetheless I feel this was a reasonable attempt for a learner.

Preserving

My husband Alf is a keen vegetable grower and here is his latest lot of tomatoes, capsicums and zucchini - turned into a sauce and preserved for winter. Don't they look good - it makes you want winter to arrive quickly - which in Australia it is not far away.

Photo expedition with Doreen

Doreen has already written in her blog Creative Meanderings about the really lovely day we had at Bredbo taking photographs. You can see Doreen here along with my photos of fences. I had a fixation on them that day. They really are good means to provide perspective in a picture. I hope to do an embroidery with a fence in it. Bredbo is a small town about an hour's drive from Canberra an although so so dry as you can see from these pictures the ambience was beautiful. So quiet, just the sounds of birds and a lovely light breeze blowing and the warmth of autumn in the air. Doreen bought a delicious salad for lunch. It was a great day.

New Papers

Part of the Creative Sketchbooks course I am doing is to create some papers made from brown paper and watercolour paint. This is what I managed to do. I was very happy with the outcome and it has given me some food for thought about how to take this technique further. I feel I am beginning to get back on track and have a number of ideas bubbling away in my head for further experimentation.