Still making Christmas cards. Time is fairly whizzing along now. We are in the middle of November already. I am sure November only started last week...I could be wrong but that is what it feels like. We have had lots of rain and gales lately and I am having to clear out the wet birdfood and dry the table every couple of days. After all what self respecting bird would want porridge? I enjoyed drawing the deer in last week's post so I thought I would do a few more. To simplify things I have used the same image as one of the deer last week. I tried lots of variations of different colours and shades but I thought this one worked the best. I also thought I would do a white background to see which I preferred. I like them both. Matilda and Ruby My featured artist this week is a very lovely lady and friend called Heather Ritchie. We first met years ago when staying at her B&B in Reeth, North Yorks. We had stayed the year before and Heather was away but her husband knew we were interested in arts and crafts and let us have a peek into her fascinating studio. We were inspired by all the wonderfully coloured rugs she had created just from strips of wool fabric. You can view more of her rugs here. Heather is a very well known and respected rug maker and teacher and travels all over the world holding workshops and displaying and selling her rugs. She even made a lovely rug inspired by one of my paintings. The photos below cannot show the tiny details within the very large rugs and the wonderful shades of wool she uses which she dyes herself. She uses her local landscapes of Yorkshire and her daily life and memories to create the rugs. My brother's partner Lesley is in the process of writing a book about Heather's life in rugs which is to be published next year. Can't wait for that. She has also started a not-for-profit organisation called Rug Aid which is dedicated to teaching blind people in The Gambia to create their own rag rugs and sell them to provide living funds. On the 21 November the organisation is holding a Rug Rave in which groups or single people can participate to either make their own rugs or raise money in other ways for the organisation. You can read about that on the website too. Heather's Studio in Reeth Guiding Light rug Bearing Gifts rug showing Heather carrying her sheep The Ha'penny Ferry Rug Rug of Fleet, Heather's Dog Christmas Eve Rug These two lovely delicate etchings below are by printmaker Flora McLachlan. The images are very magical and fairytale-like and totally mysterious. I love her work. You can see more of it a quite a few places on the Internet including Art of Illustration, (you will have to go to the bottom of the page and enter Flora's name - sorry, I cannot link to the right page for some reason, but there are three pages to look at, here at Sanders of Oxford, and here at Artweeks Gallery. The Flowering The Wood Pool So much lovely autumn scenery around at the moment. Our weather has been very changeable lately. We have had lots of mists, a few frosts and now we are being battered by gale force winds and rain which is all coming from the south. I expect there will be far fewer leaves on the trees after this weekend. If you like your ceramics quirky with wildlife on them you cannot get better than Anna Lambert. Anna is an English ceramacist living in Yorkshire who has work in many galleries and craft shops. She has a huge display of her work here at the Junction Workshop. The cockerel below is actually a tureen and has feathers for a ladle. Intriguing. Bowl With Field Birds Oat Jar With Herring Gull Cockerel Tureen Have you ever noticed what long eyelashes cows and horses have. Seems a little unfair really when they are not the least bothered about what they look like. You will need to click on the pictures to see them in more detail. Anne Anderson is a Northern Irish artist and illustrator who now works mostly in printmaking. You can find more examples of Anne's beautiful work here at Artzyard Gallery, here at Seacourt Print workshop and here you will find a site called No Alibis which is producing a limited edition book called "The Book of Lost Things" which she is illustrating.The three lovely images below are her work. Love Birds Collograph Prevailing Wind Scrabo Through The Window I am always on the lookout for interesting and attractive cards. Christmas cards always appeal to me if they feature partridges in pear trees. These were buy one, get one free, so I got a couple of each design. I came across a poetry book in a charity shop the other day and it is one I have wanted for a while. It is A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman. This particular copy is very special because it is illustrated by one of my favourite wood engravers - Agnes Miller Parker. Parker was Scottish and quite famous for her book illustrations. Her work is so beautifully elegant and rhythmic with well defined textures. This is a well-known but very beautiful poem of Housman's. If you click on the image you can see it large enough to read. Housman was an English classical scholar who died in 1936.
From the Swallowtail Garden Seeds collection of botanical photographs and illustrations. We hope you will enjoy these images as much as we do.
...sorry I haven't posted all those lucious basketry pictures. I was diverted with prep for this show- The Island Artisans Spring Show! I'll be there at the Group Table from noon to four today and tomorrow from 10:00 to 2:00 and 5:00 to 6:00. Hope to see you there!
Genetic analysis suggests the bottle gourd floated to the Americas from Africa.
Shapely gourd with woven support and a looped basketry handle. Calabashes tend to be round-bottomed and therefore do not sit vertically on their own, requiring a rest or cradle of some kind to keep them upright. 13.5" Inquire About This Item
The traditional basketry of the Salish First Nations people is a beautiful art form. Learn the simple method here (with pictures) to weave your own Secwepemc-style basket from pine needles.
Beth Ann Magnuson Victorian Lace Eggs ~ gorgeous hand made carved Victorian lace eggs for Easter and beyond ~ almost too beautiful to believe!
The first time I saw Kokopelli, I thought he was a modern Southwest stylistic figure. The more I learn about the humpback, the more mysterious he seems.
Sulamith Wülfing (901-1989) German artist and illustrator. For copyright image permission issues contact: Bluestar Communications Corp: [email protected] To order Sulamith Wülfing prints and cards from Bluestar Corp: www.bluestar.com/hazel-doc/pages/start.html
Space to Create: An interview with fiber artist Nicole Robins and a tour of her Sydney studio.
Somehow summer is over and I have no idea how that happened. Maybe its the weather - it's been hot, hot, hot and sticky for the last couple of weeks around here - but whatever it is, I am NOT ready! Regardless of my desire to stop time, my middle kiddo goes back to school tomorrow and my oldest has been in school for almost three weeks. (Which is still hard for me to wrap my mind around since we are so used to starting school after Labor Day.) This year we compiled a "Summer Fun List" of around 30 things we wanted to do during the summer. (We still have several items on our Summer Fun List that we haven't completed, but I'm going to claim an extension until the autumnal equinox on September 22nd for those. Is that cheating?) This activity was inspired by one of the list items - "Go Stargazing". I found a site called Lie Back Look Up that has a lot of great activities, including a printable star map for kids which I printed out and brought with us to the beach in early August. The girls were able to find a couple of the easier constellations (i.e. The Big Dipper) but were struggling with identifying the others. (I think its a bit like using a microscope with children. You may know what you are seeing, but the kids can't distinguish between an air bubble and an amoeba due to their limited experience.) When we got home, I started thinking about ways to explore the constellations with them. I found an awesome book by HA Rey (the creator of Curious George) called Find the Constellations. I also saw quite a few constellation cards on Pinterest - check out my Science with Kids board to see some of them. My favorite are these from Lie Back, Look Up that includes information about each of the constellations on the back. We printed those, laminated them and stuck them on a key ring for future reference. Then I had a flashback to my own elementary school days and remembered making constellation tubes out of those black plastic film canisters. Since those are pretty few and far between these days (who uses film?!?) I thought we could make them using toilet paper tubes (one of my favorite things to repurpose). I found a few examples on the web, but no super clear instructions and since I did them completely wrong the first time, I figured it might be a good DIY project to write up in case other people have the same problems that I had. So, here it is. Let me know if you make them and have any feedback!! Step 1: Print out the constellation patterns from the About.com Space site. I think these may have originally been intended for use with the smaller film canisters because I found that I needed to print them at 120% size to match the approximate diameter of the toilet paper tube. The other key thing here is to make sure to select "flip horizontally" found under the 'layout' option in the print screen. I ended up with inverted constellations the first time because I didn't do this step. Because the words also end up flipped, I would print out an extra sheet not flipped so that you can use it as a reference. (I developed the ability to read upside down pretty well when I was teaching in the classroom but trying to read stuff flipped gives me a headache!) Step 2: Gather the rest of your materials. We used the following: empty toilet paper tubes glue stick tape scissors black construction paper squares (4.5" x 4.5") black sharpie marker giant push pin cork board Step 3: Cut around the outside, dotted line around the constellation pattern. Glue to the center of the construction paper. Step 4: Place the construction paper on the piece of cork board (I doubled it because my cork was fairly thin) and use the giant push pin to punch holes where the stars are located in the pattern. Step 5: Trim around the square into a rough circle shape (it does not need to be perfect!!). Then make cuts from the outer edge of the construction paper into the center, but do not cut into the constellation pattern. This allows for easy attaching of the construction paper to the cardboard tube. I made cuts to divide the piece into 8 wedges - you could probably do more to make the fit even smoother, but I wouldn't do less. Prefold the wedges by holding the circle with your thumb on the edge of the white constellation paper and folding the wedge upwards. Step 6: Center the constellation in the top of the cardboard tube and tape each wedge down. Start with the wedges opposite each other (i.e. 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock) then move on to the ones perpendicular to those (i.e. 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock). Finally tape the remaining 4 wedges down then go all the way around with another long piece of tape to add extra security. (You could also use duct tape here.) Step 7: Using the sharpie marker, write the name of the constellation on the side of the tube. Step 8: Close one eye and use the other eye to look through the tube at the constellation pattern. Start by sharing the name of the constellation with your child and have them look through the tube at the pattern. As they get more comfortable with the patterns, do it the opposite way and see if they can tell you the name of the constellation after viewing the pattern. Step 9: Because the tubes are fairly delicate, store them in a secure box. We chose to use a fairly thick shoe box. Also, because we only had enough rolls to make 4 constellation tubes to start, I put the extra patterns in the box as well so we could make more as we collected more empty toilet paper rolls.
One plant that I always make room for in my garden is the gourd vine. Like moonflowers and morning glories this rapidly growing, sprawling vine is perfect
Net Weight: 4 oz Spool Length: Approx 408 feet Width: 1/8" Break Test: 70 Lb **************** MADE IN USA **************** * 4 oz Spool of Artificial Sinew in choice of earth-tone and standard colors. * Wide enough to split, doubling your yardage so your supply of Artificial Sinew will last through many projects. (Note: The Natural is a single ply thread) * Can also be rolled for a round cording. * The Earth colors are a toned-down rustic look, not bright primary colors. They give a great natural look. COLORS AVAILABLE All spools are 4 oz net wt / 136 yds / 408 ft unless otherwise noted* _____________________________________ Earth Colors: 4 oz Spool / 136 yds / 408 ft MIDNIGHT (Dark Blue) HUNTER GREEN DARK MUSTARD YELLOW BURNT ORANGE BRICK RED RUST *** NEW *** Standard Colors:_(See Photo)_______ TURQUOISE ROYAL BLUE PACIFIC BLUE DARK BROWN LIGHT BROWN NATURAL (single ply - non-splittable, 504 ft.)* BLACK WHITE New Colors:_______ HOT PINK / MAGENTA ORCHID (LAVENDER) DARK PURPLE RED YELLOW EMERALD HUNTER FOG *NEW* -(Light Grey) ORANGE *** NOTE *** If you would like a color that is out of stock, no problem. Just send a message with your request and I'll order it for you (no additional charge). I check messages several times a day and will be happy to help. FAST, same-day shipping for all in-stock orders. __________________ Looking for WAXED THREADS? View MORE THREADS from artgalstudio here: https://etsy.me/3UOkyfo QUESTIONS?? - Don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks for stopping by! ****** Vintage Purse/Handbag Pattern!***** Try this perfect vintage handbag pattern with clear, easy-to-follow instructions, available for instant download from HarmonyCollectibles: https://www.etsy.com/listing/192149686/digital-download-gorgeous-pine-needle?ref=shop_home_active_3
Whether you eat it, or clean with it, luffa gourds are the most versatile vegetable around.
Gisteren is Sinterklaas met zijn Pieten weer in Nederland aangekomen. Ga je lootjes trekken met familie en moe
Steve and I are on our way back to Los Angeles after spending several wonderful days with Nadine and Lars Bolander. Our friend, Interior Decorator Penelope Bianchi, was our traveling companion. For those of you who know Penny, you won't be surprised to hear that we didn't stop laughing the...
Have you ever had one of those moments when you were merrily skipping along, minding your own business when something hits you in the face? Whap!!! Well, that’s what happened when I found Carol Long’s Pottery! Wow! She has the most elegant forms, with the most intricate detailing, and the most amazing glazes! Love ’em! […]
Gardening with kids is a great way to get kids learning and making global connections. Yesterday, Nicollete shared with us an art activity that her kids did while gardening in Ecuador. Sometimes it is a
Japanese Basket
watercolor constellations activity to learn about the stars, go along activity for Follow the Drinking Gourd
For nearly 10 years, Sophie Mouton-Perrat and Frédéric Guibrunet have combined soft lighting with delicate paper craft to create ethereal sculptures.
A closeup of Eric Stearns’ double-wall pierced vessel.
