Reflections

Photo taken crossing Salford docks footbridge, of the bridge reflected in a glass building.

From outside The Lowry Theatre, looking towards the footbridge.

Forests and Warm Feet

Wearing my “all the forests” brooch as a reminder to value our forests and to protect them from government plans to sell them off. HM Gov has responded to public pressure by postponing the debate for a few months, but we need to keep up pressure on MPs.  Sign a petition here.

Gull Aglow in Salford Quays, warming it’s feet on the waterside lamps…

House, friends and a Show.

Fabric house, one of a series. They’re fun to make.

Friends: Would like to say thank you for the kindness, love and support I’ve recently received from my amazing daughters and wonderful friends- those near home, at Ten Plus, at The Beech, at Bollin, the Wild Woods group and also my neighbours. I just can’t express my thanks enough. I’m so very fortunate and will remember your kindnesses for the rest of my life.

Now, let’s get back to the blog and some fun :D

Exhibition: Ten Plus Textiles have an exhibition at Salford Art Gallery at the moment. It’s a ‘Retrospective’- 20 years exhibiting together as a group, of course me being so young and all   ; )  -I’ve not been a member for quite so long.

Amy, Salford’s lovely curator said we had over 300 people at the preview and she’s very pleased with the exhibition. So if you’re local to Salford, UK, pop in and take a peek.

 

Photoshop Artwork

A quick sketch I did a while back, scanned in and layered with vintage imagery from a variety of sources.  And below is a repeated pattern of hearts, this is just one example, but there’s lots of other colourways up my cyber sleeve… they’re addictive!This is the heart on its own…

I used a section of a photo of an acrylic painting I did a long time ago, for the centre. I “cut” it into the heart shape, added a darker shadow underneath and a decorative vintage background. I altered the colours and the colour balance and well, fiddled and diddled for a ridiculous length of time.  Then copied the heart numerous times, made each one smaller, altered their colours and placed them in a 16 x 16 grid pattern as above….. Now…. anyone got any ideas as to how I can use this in some marketable means? Answers, please, on a postcard to….(or a comment would be nice =)

Pictures in the Post

Had a great surprise today. A print of Uta’s work arrived with a lovely notecard. You can see the image here in Uta’s online gallery. It was a ray of sunshine breaking through a cloudy day… (my mother-in-law had a fall recently and broke her hip, so we’ve been rather distracted by our worries and concerns). Thanks again, Uta!

Leafy crown and doodles

E and R  came home this weekend for a family trip to see Yann Tiersen play at  the cathedral (though it was a bit of a disappointment!) . On Saturday, we went for a walk in the local park, and fed the pigeons, (don’t sing that Tom Lehrer song ) and lots of squirrels. One of which clawed E’s finger in its peanut eagerness :(
It was a bright afternoon and we did enjoy ourselves (despite the ‘Sciuridaen’ assault).
Before we left, we crowned one of the old park litter bins (so old it has a lid!) with maple leaves and *unknown* others.

Phantasy (pretentious use of ‘ph’) building doodles have been oozing from my new sharpie pens into my sketchbook~
And a friend from Ten Plus Textiles has created a new blog, take a look :)

Grunge cottage

Trying to kick start some new work… (my Work in Progress folder is rather slim at the moment).  Doodled around and this ‘grungey…’ is that a real word?)… cottage started to appear. That song by Space, “Who lives in a house like this?” comes to mind. I was going to stitch some red flowers on the plant on the windowsill, but I liked it better looking defoliated and grim. Seems to help suggest a story line.

Japan Day 2010, Accordion frame book.

Made this…

…after visiting the ‘Japan Day’ at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, which was organised by the Japan Society North West.
We saw: demonstrations of…erm… *turns to programme*...kyudo (archery), ikebana (flower arranging), bojutso (miniature railways), bonsai ( know what that is), origami (ditto) and kendo (fencing).  Here’s the shy lady who was doing the origami, she kindly gave permission for me to take a quick photo-And look at the old bonsai-
I’m not usually a buyer of kits… but I bought the kit to make an accordion frame book from this ‘Festival of Japan’ stall,  (more kits are available here)Here’s what it looked like out of the packet…It contained washi paper, card and instructions. I decided I’d use some of my own stock of painted card instead of the supplied white card. I made a couple of the frames:I made the other four ‘frames’ and inserted some plum painted card in three of them, to pick up on the red/purple elements in the printed washi paper…Then I used more painted card to join them together following the kit’s instructions. Here’s a back view:And a couple more close ups:

It was fun making it. Needs precise folding, but the washi paper in the kit was cut very well, which is important.

Ugly cat

I was reading Uta’s blog and I promised her I’d put a photo here of our ugly pot cat… I like it, I think it turns ‘ugly’ inside out and somehow comes out cute. I have strange tastes, clearly.

Tunes Night at the Beech: A good time on Wednesday. Live music that could be heard across the green. 4 dogs : Tilly, (sweet black dog that belongs to one of the band), and three others padding about the pub- a spaniel, an enormous german shepherd and a friendly hyena… well it looked a bit like a hyena :). I do like The Beech Inn. Instruments:- Melodeons. banjoes, guitars, accordion, cello, recorders, whistles, Northumbrian pipes, mandolin, cittern, bones and ukulele.

Comfort Food: Making a big pan of split pea and veg soup this afternoon and a  spiced apple crumble. Daughters coming back from university this evening for the weekend and both have ‘flu/colds.  Pass us the tissues? Hey ho…

Drawings and Lady’s Mantle.

Couple of drawings: One older, one newish- such precision. Should have been a watchmaker.

Lady’s Mantle: A lovely plant. Though not everyone shares my feelings on this… Ahem. However; she arrived a few years ago, uninvited, but nonetheless welcome. She’s rather taken to us. She’ll grow in the borders, in pots and in the cracks in between the stones. She looks beautiful in the rain. And according to the BBC website, the Royal Horticultural Society bods have given it an award. So there. ;) Here’s a photo: