Weekend with Sandra.

Time to start Sandra's 4H projects.

This weekend we started working on Sandra's 4H projects. The first one she chose to work with was to tie a friendship bracelet. We picked her favourite colours, 5 strands of different colour. Then she started the job. It is very important how the knots are done, and that was the first thing she had to understand. She is a quick learner so it was easy showing her how to.
She is not as patient as I could whish and after a while she lost her consentration. Made some mistakes so we had to untie again. Her whole expression showed me that she didn't want to continue. I suggested a break, and she left the project at once.

 

After a while she continued and in fact she finished it that same day. You should have seen her, so proud of her self and the beautiful bracelet she had made. We made some plans for coming weekends and she prefers to work "hard" on Saturdays and have freetime Sundays. That's ok with me too. I think this whole thing is going to be very fun and that we both will learn new things.

 

A couple of hours before she should leave for home she started a new bracelet. That one is ment for her best friend. Before I knew she had made 2 inches. I didn't show her this time, so it became clear to me that she had taken the tecknique on board. Wow, I'm impressed.

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I'm still hooked, making patches and other things too. Last couple of days I've made a cushion and now I work on a blanket to use on top of a baby carriage. I was given all this yarn and now I feel like using some of it. I have promised my friend to participate on this years Christmas market, so it's good all things I can do. :-) The above photo shows the cushion, I'll probably remove the blue stitches and replace them with a chain row instead. I think it will look better with a more visible blue. Below is the blanket I'm working on at the moment. You see the width here and the lenght will have something between 10 and 12 squares. And then I'll add some kind of ending edge.

I hope you all have some creative days too.

Bullions, Wings and Flowers

I'm still making my patches. Just wanted you to see some closeups. They are so fun to make and no rules!

The bullions are some beautiful eyecatchers.

The wings could be made as a flower too.

Different yarns are a must in this kind of work.

 The sun is shining again today and I enjoy it alot.
I hope you are having a nice day too!

What a sunny day can bring.

I've been doing some fiberwork lately.
 It all began with a sunny, shiny day and I had finished off some potholders.

 The beautiful weather made me want to make some flowers and other patches. It's just so nice to sit down and make something without aiming for something special. All the beautiful colours are glowing in the sunshine and my desire to make more grows with the glowing. Before I knew I had made some great flowers and I continued the next days.

 
 Now I think I'll have to make another freeform handbag. It's so relaxing just to make and not have to think of a specific pattern. I should perhaps think a bit of the colour combo, but then again I'll just see how it turns out.

I had to search through my stash of yarns to find some effect yarn. The more colours and variety in texture the better. Today I was down town to buy a couple of extras. I can already see that this will become a special one, and it's about time to decide what form it shall have.
It will be a shoulderbag with long handles, so far I've come in my thinking. It probably will have a rounded shape since I prefer that to a squared one.

The photo above shows the early stage of joining the patches. I shouldn't have started that yet but I couldn't wait to see how it looks. It would have been wiser to wait until 75% of the batches were made. Then there would have been more to choose from and easier to combine. Well, it's me who make them and me who will finish it off so I guess it's ok.

I hope you are enjoying your days too!

Superfriday!

Friday was a fantastic day. So many good things happened to me. I have a teacher friend that unexpectedly paid me a visit just to say hello. A male friend and his daughter came to visit too, and the young girl wanted to paint so we all did that. And then came the mailman. My February trade painting was landing in the mailbox together with a letter from Russia and a postcard from The US. What more could a person want for one day alone?

After a slow morning  my teacher friend came to visit. She is teaching a disabled boy this year, and Friday they had planned an excursion which included a visit to my place. After visiting me they drove to the sea to have a look at the waves and perhaps pick some nice stones.
My male friend Per and his daughter Klara lives in Oslo and are on a visit to Pers mother. They used an opportunety to pay me a visit too which I appreciated.
 Klara is such a sweet girl and much less shy than she was a year ago. We painted and Klara was allowed to try my twinkling watercolours. She enjoys painting but after a while she wanted to explore Sandras room and play with all the new stuff she found there. It is really amazing to observe children, how fast they can turn from one thing to another. Klara found some toys and went strait into another state of mind. She was serving coffee and the dolls got some real treatment from her. When her father told her the time had come to leave, she begged him to wait just another minute.

I'm so facinated by all this, had completely forgotten how it is to be a small child. When I'm thinking of it I can remember I was like that too. Changing the play after what possibilities the toys in front of me gave me, and never failed to make the situation real. How blessed children are to own that skill!

My friend Per is a nice guy too, in some areas we are much alike and I really can't resist his laughter. In the photo his eyes are closed, but normally he is FAR from blind. It was nice meeting with them both again.

And then the mail.

Postcard and letter from fellow postcrossers and my trade painting. This months trading was between  Julie Ann Bowden and myself. The angel Lucy light is now in my home and I'm so glad for that. Julie paints some beautiful paintings, and I'm especially drawn to her faces. It's like a miracle to be able to study one of her paintings in person. Thank you again Julie for trading with me, it almost feels like winning the lottery.

Have a dive into Julies blog and discover all her beautiful art. You won't regret using some time there.

Take care everyone!

This day started pink.

Today was the day for finishing off a thing or two.
Our beautiful sunrise painted the sky pink today, it was a breathtaking sight. The sky was velvet blue and the pink in stripes over the mountains. The blue colour was quite unusual too so I had to photograph it. Later on I had to clean and wash my kitchen, too long since last time I felt.

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After washing I sat down to finish off a cushion I've been crocheting. I had to crochet that one because of a comment I left on a blog, Had to ensure I didn't tell the girl anything wrong. And I didn't. She wanted to crochet a cushion with diagonale stripes and struggled to find a written pattern to that purpose. I told her to measure the diagonal and crochet a square that held that measure. By folding in all four corners one get diagonale stripes. This is an easy way of doing it but, there is a minor drawback. One of the seams do show off at the back side.

In addition I got a great postcard in my mailbox today, all the way from Canberra Australia.  It's a quiltwork that has been photographed. It's almost unbelievable that it's possible to do such nice work. At first I thought it was a painting but the text on the card told me otherwise. Great card to pick up from the mailbox.

Notice all the beautiful colour combos and the very even lines. This really is first class work!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Making shadows.

I still practise making shadows.
It's not always easy to add a shadow to a painted/drawn image. The big leaf I did the other day was quite easy because of it's form. I tried to paint a peony today, and it's far more difficult to add shadows to that image.

In addition I discovered that I didn't do it consistanly which is a must if one want it to be credible. Perhaps that should be my goal this year, to learn how to make credible shadows. Another thing I will learn this year is to paint transparant glass, like a vase or similar things. I'm so impressed by people that can do that. Perhaps it isn't difficult at all but for me it looks almost impossible. The clue is how one mix the colours and where one put the white lines I think.

Some days ago I painted my stencil leaves once more, they are really fun to make and I think they look real. Some of the shadows get the leaves stand up from the paper and it's tempting to try to grab them. Again it's an easy form to work with, but very fun though.

Have a creative weekend everyone!

What a messy day.......

Today I was going to make some paper, I had to try before Sandra is going to learn it. I spent at least an hour to rip up my eggboxes in small pieces. I watered them and let them soak another hour. Then I used my ( don't know the name in English) but translated from my language it will be stickmixer. Amongs other things it's used for cutting things. Those pieces that wasn't already resolved was cut by my tool. Then I had to add the right amount of water. I've never done this before so I had to try my way.
The well made frames came to use, and everything ended in a big mess. I stood into my elbows in mess before I had to sit down and laugh. If anyone had seen me........... I almost couldn't stop laughing. Thank God I did this before Sandra was going to. The main problem was the frames, I had used some fabric that tended to stretch too much. So I have to put something stronger/not bendable on the frames. Then I'll try again.

Later on I had to finish the shawl I've been knitting and this evening I finally found some time to paint again. Nothing big but useful as practice in making shadows. I really need to practice that alot more.

Can you see the uneven paper? My sketchbook isn't ment for watercolours. But, this time that came to my benefit, it looks much more like a real leaf with these "bubbles".
Tomorrow I think I'll spend the day painting, it's so nice to do and I've been away from it too much lately.

Well, that's all for now, take care everyone!

A fun weekend.

What a fun weekend we had this time.
I knew Sandra would love the twinks, and she certainly did. She was allowed to use them in her journal and in some other paintings she did.

Now that she has turned 9 years old she has become a member in an organication called 4H. The 4 H's stands for: Head, Heart, Hands and Healt. There the children/youths learn a lot of different things. Sandra is conciderd a trainee this first year, and I have been asked to guide her in her tasks. She has chosen to work within an aera called Form and Imagination. This weekend we made some suggestiones to what things she want to make. She will bind some friendship bracelets, decorate a schrine, make her own workbook in which she will document the processes of all her making, make the paper to use in her workbook, make a multimedia painting. And in the end she'll have to plan and make a poster to hang over her exhibition in mid October. In addition we thought that recycling could be our main goal during all her making.
I think this will be a great year for Sandra and she will learn a whole lot of new things. She is looking forward to start all this and so am I. We've made an agreement that if we have to buy anything I'll pay the bill and in return she has to help out in the house doing specific tasks.

It was so fun to see her paint this weekend, so determined what to draw and paint. I actually think she has grown using her journal. Now she's much more secure in her choices and it seems she has taken onboard the fact that she is the one who is the creator. I'm really glad for this new security of hers.

 Abowe you can see her studying the result and wondering what to do next. And below a close up.

Her final result is another one of my favorites. Look at her lively expression, the colours used and the surroundings. She saw these figures on a candybag, very small ones, and decided to do them in her journal. I'm very impressed the way she transformed them to be her own creation.

I didn't paint much though, I've been busy knitting. I'm so happy to report that my February trade is ongoing right now. I'm knitting a shawl for my trading friend. My goodies will be a painting, can't wait to see it in person.

Take care everyone and stay creative!!

A bit of this and that.

A stencil painting.
My very first attempt using the new colours. I used a stencil drawing to paint. One thing is for sure, the glittery stuff are dancing when I paint wet. Fun to see! In this first try I wanted to see how two colours would mix ( one on top of the other) and if I could manage to do it without leaving any visible watermarks. It went well and left me wanting to try even more. And I will for sure!
There is just so many things I want to try nowadays. I have my theme to work and develop a bit more, there is a tecknique I want to try and new ideas keep rolling.

How to photograph the twink-paintings
leaving a result where one can see it's something different? I tried several ways and think I found the best for me. The lense has to be almost the same hight as the motif, if I do it as "usual" one don't see the differens these colours creates. I think they will photograph well in a lovely sunny day.

Today we had to skip our training, the weather is so bad that my training friend couldn't leave job. The day-shift was unable to appear. Snowstorm! The traffic has been messed up all morning.
I have recovered from my " bad knees" but I'm still careful.
This photo was taken just a few minutes ago, the same tree as in the sunrise photo some days ago.

This weekend Sandra is coming, and I can't wait to show her my new colours. I know she will love them too.


Have a creative weekend! 

First experience with the "Twinks"

First step done.

Have you ever thought of how nice it can be to not know the process you are going to try?

This question came to me last night when I was going to try my new colours. Not knowing make me able to do" mistakes" that can lead to good results. Not that I did yesterday, but in general.

I decide to do some colour samples and used the leftovers to show the colour on the pots. The process of making the samples was an interesting one. I got to know about each colour, and they behave differently. Some of them are quite oily others more watery despite the fact that I used the same amount of water. It's visible on the samples so I will always know what colours will behave one way or other.
I have not tried to blend them yet, that will be another experience. I will try to use them on top of my ordinary watercolours too, to see how that will work.

Another fun thing I saw was the water, in which I cleaned my brush, how sparkeling it became. I'm going to save the water and use it when I'm going to make my own paper. That could result in some interesting papers, don't you think?
Handyman made me 6 frames to that purpose some months ago, and now I'll have to try them. I have been saving my egg boxes with papermaking in mind.
Have anyone else tried to make paper? If so, any good advice?
Below you see the colour samples. I'm not quite sure how to store them, but right now I think I will just find a string to thread them onto. 

I really love all the bright colours, but I have often seen that the more earthy ones are the ones I use in my work. All the white shades ( right side) can be used to make a paler shade of the bright ones.

So far so good!
Take good care everyone!

WOW, another package.

But this time I traded with money.
( Also known as buying)
I had to visit the postoffice to pay the customs for this package. I have been vaiting for this one, and today was the day. Can you imagine my excitement? I was close to get the opening done down at the postoffice. Back home I couldnt wait another minute. All these lovely colours. My goodness!!

Twinkling H2o's.
Below you see one lot opened. Two more to go. But, I think I'll have to register them so I can be able to know which lot they belongs to. All the lids are black on top so I think it would be wise to mark them with some of the colour inside the box.

In the papers coming with the package they wrote me an underlined message. They so much appreciate my business that the website charged  $ 8.17 too little in shipping costs. :-))
Inspite of that they've sent me some goodies for free too, which I appreciate alot. Below you see what I got for free.

I'm not quite sure how to use the silk thing, but I'll just have to pay their website a visit again to find out more about it.
Now my fingers are itching, what a fun month this will be! I'll will be sharing my experiences with you. You know the painting skills wasn't included so I'll have to trust myself. :-)


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I've been doing some changes to my blog and now I know nothing. There were no way around it so I'll have to get used to it. Amongst other things I've made a Trading page, go have a look and if you see something you like to trade let me know.
Now, it's all about colourfun for me, have a wonderful day you too!!