Cabo Roig

Tiles feature all over the place of course and many have a distinct moorish flavour to them. The coast was inhabited by different cultures of course over time so these influences can be found. I was tile spotting like some major 'anorack' but resisted too many pics of them lol

Small walls were topped in this interesting zigzag which caught my eye.

I love that there was so much human constructed pattern in Cabo Roig and you couldnt help but see the modernism influence in the design of many of the buildings.
There were buildings that struck me as very Art Deco and the colours of buyildings were sympathetic to the natural landscape.

Having said that we drove past Benidorm and that looked like a monster invasionof humanity on the natural coast and one I would never wish to go to see.

Spain, pattern, colour, graffitti and a gammy foot dohhh

Nature manages to out do us on every level doesnt she? Vibrant and exhilarating colours... even the frozen shrimp colours were intrigueing in the supermarket!

Spain, (Cabo Roig) was as Id expected it to be, full of Brits and Irish folks lol but we were lucky with the weather and the skies were a liberating blue, that lights up the mind after the dull greys of the british winter months. The Mediterean was that magnificent shade of blue that almost cannot be believed. So it was a nice break....up until I pulled a tendon/ligament or whatever around the achiles..then it was somehat painful!

Should be packing but....

Now I should be packing for the weeks holiday tomorrow, assuming the aircraft takes off and Ryan Air dont cancel due to volcanic ash but a quick pic or two.
I have done the first something with the painted what-ever-it-is fabric  squares, that seem to be abit like tyvek fabric. I found it at Scrapstore and mentioned it in a prev blog entry but dont have the original pic of it, so do scroll back if you want to see it in its pre-faffed with state!
So here goes, a pictoral tutorial lol

1.2.

3.

4.

5.

Now this isnt finished yet, but having cut the painted flowers out, much like peeling an orange you know? I caught them up together in loopy form with light stitching, as in pic 2 above.

The cross piece in pic 3, was the central painted area of the original piece of fabric and I caught it up on itself, as in pic 4.

This I attached off skew on the flower shape and then carefully heat gunned/zapped it all.

It doesnt have the same zizzing qualities that tyvek has, so it was interesting to see how it altered and the dot like impressions of the original fabric, show through the paint. But, zapping it from behind last of all, made the edges disintegrate more. 

Must try to blether other test pieces in other products to se ehow that affects its behaviour too, but that will have to wait till I get back off my break. Watch this space!

Oh and heres a tactile solar system- ish I  threw together today for a totally blind child to use in class later this week.......it has a brailled text 'key' to use with it, so he can find which planet is which, well, hopefully!

 and the mixed odd shapes to the left of (large) Jupiter above, are asteroids and meteoroids, of course they are!

Oh yes and Cyndi reckons Im a 'mixed media artist'

http://www.mixed-media-artist.com/2010/05/mixed-media-artist-lynne-lewis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MixedMediaArtist+%28Mixed+Media+Artist%29

.... so I should maybe stop calling myself a 'CLARTist' !!

Thanks Cyndi, Im chuffed to bits to be acknowldeged as an mma!

Okay cant put it off any longer, packing it is....

Catalogue killin' continues

Now inspiration strikes in the strangest ways doesnt it! There was I topping up the dogs flea 'spot' treatments and having bought a new variety of the stuff...this one comes in the foil-ish container above. Interesting shape yes? Then I'd had Philly and crackers for supper and the little tin foil lids are a nice thickness....

So .... out come the alcohol inks ....

  I used the Cranberry Adirondac Alcohol ink using a sponge, dabbing rather than painting it on, then knocked it back abit with brown paint, again dabbing it with the sponge.

I let it cure overnight and then cut down a photocopy of a PreRaphaelite Angel and glue stuck, him/her into the alcove. I painted over him/her with acrylic wax to seal it place.

(Are they androgenous them Angels?)

So quite liking the alcove effect, which fits just nicely (serendipity!)behind the larger window Id cut out, I then attached both of the above to the back of the 'killed cat'. But since the alcove sticks out at the back, I stuck it all onto a piece of neoprene foam, about 1" thick.

I had to gouge out a rough alcove shape in the foam, so the prominent alcove would lay in it.  I got the foam from Scrapstore and its pretty useful, because if you zap it with a heat gun, you can impress into it and then use it to stamp with ...

So this is where Im at with this one so far..

and remember Im taking my lead from Maggie Greys original idea of 'Killing catalogues' by burying them outside in the garden over winter.

So its inspired by her antics with catalogues of her own!

(http://magstitch.blogspot.com/)

Oh I forgot, I had wafted abit of gold paint around the edges of each window. The piccy on the right shows the thickness of foam that is now backing the 'killed cat'......sorry about the un-aesthetic cans of soup!

Now in looking for something recently, I found a PHD (project half done, yup, the unbiquitous UFO)and realised it wasn't half done at all, it was virtually complete and didn't really need anything more doing to it.

So now I'm trying to decide how best to present it for hanging and so far I have splodged the edges of a canvas with colour and I may stitch the piece on that... but here it is laid on the canvas.

'Earths Layers'

Now, Ive been busy at work this past week or two making stitched items. Bean bags with fragrances but no beans in lol for example, and also this
Pepper Pig up and downy watnot toy ..

and yes, thats my left foot!

Im currently making a fabric solar system model for a totally blind child to use.......basically a strip of fabric with couched lines symbolising the orbit positions of the planets. I plan on having the different sized planets represented by diff sized balls which can be stuck on with velcro.

If its successful I will show a pic of it, well even if its not, it might give someone a laugh!

Oh and lastly here's pics of my cork board in the kitchen and my family photographs........and yes, ageing sucks!

Long post I know, but these bits whilst I think of them!

Funeral and then time out on the beach

Attended a cremation last friday morning with my daughter, it was for the Mum of her ex from when they were in their teens. Not many there, but such lovely things were said about her that we were both really upset afterwards. Not all shmaltsy, but telling the amazing things shed gotten up to and had achieved in her life.
This lady had been very kind to my daughter and thought alot of her, though I didnt get to know her at all well then, the celebration of her life made me realise Id missed out.
Made me think that my two wouldnt know what music to play at my own 'do' so maybe I should put a plan into action, to make it easier for them to organise things, when I trip away to who knows where. 
(Hopefully not just yet .... )
Plus it also made me realise I probably wouldnt have anyone there to say such great things about me, to help my kids, so they might know who the real me, was? Does that make sense? lol Dont worry, not looking for volunteers!
Sad that when we pass away , all the amazing things we have seen and done, that have been special to us, moulded us, changed us, thrilled us, is lost and our kids know nothing of any of it.
Unless it has been written down, recorded some place I suppose.

Anyway afterwards, I went to the coast and I took some time out on both North Beach, Bridlington and then Fraisthorpe beach to the south.
The coast has a calming effect on me but poor Tylah had to go to work afterwards, pity. So piccies of what I saw ... patterns and textures ..

The one on the rights almost like a middle finger salute! (sorry lol)

Fraisthorpe beach is littered with huge war defences that have fallen apart now and the muscle growths above, cover enormous 6' square concrete whatever the were's, but I loved the gnarled wood as much as the encrusted,largely vacant muscle beds textures.

Above right looked for all the world like a fossilised fish, but was infact concrete remains broken off the defences and submerging into the sand....but when I printed it off ...well ....

or maybeI also collected some of the lovely seaweed  off north beach that I so like, that looks for all the world like old lyle stockings, reckon they'll ever be back in fashion? I want to try dyeing it, hadnt thought to do it before but just wondered how it would look.

Over the glorious weekend, (no sign of the sun today mind you) I did a little bit in the garden and also some clarty bits, so see what a difference a week makes to the primroses!

And those accidental backgrounds I ended up with?

Wall art of a kind. I dribbled pva glue on them, which I then dribbled Crafty Notions special effects paint on, let it set for a while and then heat gunned it all, to get the horse(?) effect and the raised squiggles. The pva balloons up when heated and then, deflates into an almost leathery remains.

I mentioned the odd coloured cd packets I think, that were at Scrapstore and here they are as you find them ..

Im not really sure if they are Tyvek or a Kunin fabric but they do zap down and the odd plastic, feels as if it should 'do' something too.

SO, I painted afew and will see what happens with them, as I go along.

These paints are much like the Stewart Gill paints, rich, luscious and go far

further than youd think.

Beaut fabric and UK Scrapstores

Meant to mention this before, but when at the NEC, I spoke with a really pleasant lady buying, on the Art Van Go stand and we watched Lynda Monk use her incredibly clever techiques. Then we sat alongside eachother on a workshop later on and discussed kunin felt. How some Kunin zapped successfully and some didnt. I mentioned our local Scrapstore here in Hull frequently had all sorts of useful stuff for crafty folk like us. 

(They are to be found in most major cities though they are not a national chain, each individually run and as such, can have different joining criteria and differing, clean industrial waste to offer its members, though they do swap scrap with eachother several times a year. )

Here in Hull you pay a joining fee, in my works case, £18 annually and for that you get 3 membership cards and you pay about £4 for a shopping basket full of 'scrap' when you visit. Or I think its £8 for a large wheeled trolleys worth. Art students can pay for days entry and of cousre if you dont find anything to interest you, then you dont pay!

Now Smita went in search later on, of her nearest Scrapstore in Leicester I believe it was, and there, for £30 annual membership you could go and take scrap free, say once a month or so, so there its a higher joining fee but then free 'scrap'. However she didnt see very much at all that she would have wanted to take away with her, so didnt join.

I knew we had some kunin felt on a 60" roll at our Scrapstore for a very cheap price and shed loads of foil, so took her address and obtained some for her and posted it to her, to 'play' with. Now in exchange she very kindly sent me this delish fabric and as soon as Ive found her letter, with her email address in it I will email and thank her for it .......so Smita if your reading this......Ive put the letter down somewhere safe.......and I love the fabric!

They now have some natty 5" square cd sleeves I think they are, with coloured, yes!  green, yellow, blue, pink and white squares of textured Tyvek in them!

fab fab fab! Well they didnt look much like Tyvek at first, but they didnt tear sooooo ..... then they didnt dissolve in water, but hey presto - they do disintegrate with the heat gun!

SO Smita I will send you afew to play with, and you too Shelagh and you too Maggie, watch for the postman next week!

But, they have now sold out of the Kunin.......... :(

Took a ride this afternoon out to Bridlington to collect my new Janome, not an all singing all dancing machine, just one that I can use specifically for machine embroidery in that the feed dogs will drop.

Took some photos on the beach, will post them in the next post, and I collected some dried seaweed, I love the stuff, its shaped like fingers and has the texture of old lylle stockings!

See Im so easily pleased, sunshine,  a walk along the beach and abit of beachcombing. Id be such a cheap date if there was only some bloke daft enough to give me a try! 

There's more ....

The cats have been fed, Ive had a bite to eat too, so now back to a catch up ...

Not a great picture but enough to give you an idea of the felted poppy and its construction. The knitting needle 'nob' end is central and Ive centred a twisted tangle of novelty yarn around it, then stitched the individual leaves into position. I think I must have ensured the flower wouldnt slide down the needle, by finally squeezing some pva into the base of the flower, around the needle.

And to prove I love real flowers too, a couple of cheery yellows to greet me when I hang washing on the line -  Spring at last!

The cowslips remind me of my childhood and walks in 'Fairy Glen', which  was a strip of gated, hedgerowed land, set between fields on the outskirts of Broomfleet village, up here in East Yorkshire. It was choc full of violets, primroses and cowslips growing wild when I was a child. There were bunnies and birdsong and coming from Birmingham city, I was in heaven in there, it was to me, a real secret garden of sorts.

It had a humpy backed, once cobbled, mini bridge but overgrown with grass and weeds, beneath which was an odlet, a stream. We kids once scrambled beneath the bridge shape and found small stalactites hanging from its roof and a mill stone straddling the streams waters.

Later I learnt that it had once been the site of Fransiscan Friary (or monastary of sorts) and of course that only added to the mystical magic of the place. Sadly, it was to be levelled by the lands owner in later years, so he might have a larger area to plant, so any archeology will have been covered over Im sure, hidden, lest it hold up planting probably.

This collagey piece is finished now I reckon, kept it simple since I was just playing. It reads Charm with soul - and so to bed, no ulterior message there lol  - it just sort of happened as I scanned pages for interesting words to tear out! Shelagh, thanks for the cellophane and plastic netting!

Its straightforward, being only torn strips from a magazine, laid side by side onto a brown paper bag whichw as ironed onto fusible interfacing. The torn words were glue stuck into postion, then I coated it all with acrylic wax and laid a piece of burgundy/black voile across it.

Left it to dry thoroughly and then hand sticthed into it randomly.

I zapped it a little with the heat gun to cause afew holes ( like stockings I thought lol) then attached the netting and the cellophane, followed by another light zapping. It was a therapy piece you know? Like doodling lol

Now the next piece was a small canvas I picked up for 10p at a car boot and it was blethered ( that yorkshire technical term again ) in oil paint, in a gaudi like chaos of colours, none of which sat well next to eachother!

It 'spoke' to me, but its taken a while to decipher what it might have been saying !

So after black gessoing it, splodgingly, I added afew bits, a piece of crochet, some torn voiles and paper, some of that plastic netting again Shelagh and this is as far as Ive got with it.

Ive been letting it thoroughly dry.

But its says Icon to me at the moment, I think! So more layers and zapping, maybe even cracking, is needed there yet. Though in miniature here on the page its looks abit like a Nightmare Bride!

And - so to bed! 

A Magstitch bundle!

Now this sumptuous bundle arrived as a gift from Maggie Grey (http://magstitch.blogpsot.com) and Im still drooling over it, Thankyou So much Maggie!  I know you said several of us would receive a gift but Id imagined a small something not a smashing bundle with an original sample included!

That jade is so vibrant and all the fabrics work well together too..... so my brain is in scheming mode - what to do with them, whether to use them altogether or use them to compliment other pieces..........oooo I do like the thinking process before you get stuck IN... lol

Rusty Rita has been framed, quite simply, with some mishapen handmade paper covering a cardboard insert edging, to keep her trapped at the back of the frame. Ive hung her in my kitchen, shes too much of a waif to sell on lol

Now these flowers are also in my kitchen and are made using fabulous old unloved plastic coloured knitting needles. The needles can be quite brittle so they wont take a great deal of wear and tear sadly. I have collected quite afew of these needles and think this is the ideal way to display them around the home. Though I do have a batch of them simply in a jug, and odd ones dont matter, its the happy mix of colours, along with the nostagic memories they revive, that pleases me about them.

The flowers are made with no particular pattern from hartd washed woollen jumpers, picked up at jumble sales, car boots and charity shops.

They tend to be made from whats left when Ive done making fingerless gloves or hats or tea cosies or broaches from the woollies, so notalot is wasted!

Then of course, the medley of even smaller bits can be trapped between voiles and smashed together with the Embellisher!

Okay the cats are all sat alongside the computer here, making sure I know they are truly starving and so I had best go and feed the trio.

More later lol