Always new surprises.

Are you good at following your plans? I'm not.

My plan was to finish a painted/embroidered piece that have been around for awhile. With my fourth pillow done I should finish off my piece. BUT........... while I was weaving in the ends I came to think about a rag doll I made some time ago. What if I made something special for her.
Somehow my last ideas always wins, so now I'm "playing the doll". In the photo you see a normal sized granny square and the ones I make at the moment. Excactly what I'm making I'm not sure of myself, but I'll show you when done. My ragdoll has this very fun face and when she sits on the table looking at me, I get the feeling that she expect something very special from me.

If I can make something special, my thought is to bring her to the Christmas market.  Right now I enjoy making these tiny granny squares and we'll see what it becomes in the end.

Have a beautiful day!

A quick HELLO from a yarnpile.

One more to go.

I have lived in a yarnpile the last week and today it's time to look around to see what happens in the world. I've had lots of fun making these pillows, the process of choosing the next color is so satisfying. Most of the yarn is from the lot that was given to me, but I bought some to make it even more colorful. In the one below I bought the turquoise and I feel it added just what I was aiming for. This pillow has a summery feel to it I think.

Next photo shows the reverse side.   

Here are the three I've made so far.  I'm going to make one more like the smallest one. In that one I added the offwhite color and am happy on how it worked out. These colors are not my favs, but I have alot of them so I have to try using them. It might well be someone elses favs.

Last photo shows the reverse of the smallest one.

This afternoon I'm going to visit my Moster, it's her Birthday today. And coming Saturday my mom is leaving for Mallorca again, so I'll have to spend some time with her as well. Otherwise my life is good and I so much appreciate the freedom to do whatever I want to.

I hope life smiles to you too!!

Another busy weekend.

 

Finally Sandra finished her project poster.

Sandra has been very busy finishing her poster this weekend. The exhibition will be on Octobre 17th and then it's over. I'm very impressed on how she worked all weekend, really she didn't want to but she had to and forced herself. When finished she was satisfied and sooooo happy. Her final result in the photo below.

And this is how she looked when finished.

We had alot of discussions during the process and I'm proud to say she did some good choises. What one can't see in my photo is the use of twinks. Sandra did some detailwork on the leaves not painted with shimmering colors. In the beginning she thought of using the monkey tail to grab some letters, but ended up letting it hold the tag saying: Form and Phantasy, nice project.

It has been fun to guide her through this project, and I'm proud of what she's done. I really hope that the leaders will see what an amount of time she has spent on this task. Most important of all is that she is proud of herself and what she has done.

Colors, colors, colors.

I was in such need of colors that I forgot to post about what I'm doing.

It went well last Sunday sharing the family story and after that I've been crocheting. It's such a reliefe to just create without any specific goal in mind. The big piece in the photo will end as a pillowcase. I'll probably make another one where I'll plan a bit more.
It's so fun making this with all the colors involved. Stripes of different designs, trying out things I can in a new way. I have several kinds of effect yarn which I'll use in my next one. It might become something useful.

The patches with the round shapes within I found via internet and had to try if I could do them. I could! This weekend Sandra is coming and we have to finish her poster. In Octobre she is going to exhibit all her products and that will be fun to see. I'll photograph it all and share her results.
Right now I'm eager to start crocheting again so I'll leave for that.

Have a joyful day everyone.

An unplanned blogbreak.

 

Not much playing with colors these days.

We got busy finishing our project on finding family members from way back. The whole project will be presented for some members of the family coming Sunday. That's why I had to pause from bloging. Still we have some unfinished threads to follow so until next week I'll be doing that.

Our diningtable is filled with papers, magnifying glass and other needed items. Have you ever tried to look up your forfathers? For me it's very interesting, old stories, finding connections and getting a picture of how they lived back then. I can't wait to share our findings with other family members.

So that's what I've been doing, and also will do the rest of the week.

Stay creative!

An ad in the mailbox.

 

Today I'll show you something I made earlier this week.

Some days ago we got this ad in the mailbox. He, Arne Garborg, was a great author, born and raised in our county. His wife, Hulda Garborg, was the founder of the Bunad as we use it today. I have been thinking of doing something about old photos and this ad reminded me of that.

To give my thoughts a try I copied Huldas face and used it for my first attempt. It's so cool to see a face grow from black color only, well it could be any color of course. My first attempt is made just for fun and to see if I could enjoy working with one color only. And yes, I think I will try some more.
 

 My intention with this specefic one was to add colors to it in the end but when I saw this result (below) I couldn't do it. This one combine old and new times in a great way I think. If I added colors to it I would have ruined that clear expression. In later works I might do it though. The only thing I'll have to do is to find old photos and transform them to something similar to this. It might be fun.

When it comes to Hulda Garborg and her effort for the bunad I thought I would share a link to an inspiring blog. If you ever need color-inspiration this is the right place to visit. If you love beautiful photos it's the right place to visit too. What inspires me the most is all the new color combos.  It's all about Scandinavian folklore fashion. ENJOY!
For those of you that doesn't have a relation to bunad, this might feel like the purest fun fair, but for us that have a relation to it, it's nothing but beautiful. We do see fun things too, though.

Last day making blobs.

And I totally lost the inspiration today.

 

That always surprises me when it happens. Top inspired one day and totally uninspired the next. Why is that? It has been fun though to make these blobs and find new ways of doing things. Todays piece shows a new thing too, I used a tool similar to a comb and dragged the color over the sheet before "printing". If I were a bit more inspired I would have used more color, my intention was to make lines.

I like the flower and the ear, what the two of them are doing togrther is more difficult to explain.

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Below you see some of the pieces I never used. A bit later I will make a theme where I will use them all. Coming week will be without a theme. I feel the need to do what I want when I want to. But I'm quite sure I will doodle some days. For a long time now I have been thinking of making my own "doodle- library", that way it will be easy to find the right design whenever I need it.

The family digging project is close to end and that's a good thing. I think we have hundreds of old documents starting from 1850. They're all difficult to read but we've done most of them now. Remaining is the job to get them in system and present them to the rest of the family. I bet there will be some ahhh's and ohhhh's, we've found some real surprises. Funny thing that, one always believe that our forfathers were proper in every way. They were not! All the storys we've found could become a book, a juicy one too!

Wish you all the best!

A big mystery.

 Unfinished.

 

Todays work is made on a less heavy paper. I'm very in doubt on how to finish it. It's a very special piece and for me it touches something deep inside. It's like having a flash from ancient times. You know, when the glaciers were melting and people started to settle down.

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What's up and down? I've turned it a thousand times and am not closer to an answer still. I've added some small details but couldn't do any more. What do you yhink?
I have thought of adding the ancient alphabeth along the edges, but I'm unsure. Until I know, it has to be put aside.

Below I've turned it the other way around. In some ways it feels more correct this way. I have to smile, this is one of the rare occations when I'm unable to make a decission. Very unlike me.

What would you have done?

Have a good day everyone!

Phew..........I need a rest.

Todays work was an obvious one too.

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Did you see the bird too? For me it couldn't be anything else, he's tired and needed a rest. The hot sun has been there all day while he was flying, and he probably has a long way home.
Yesterday I didn't do much, other than making a try on something else than my theme. Sandra needs some letters on her exhibition poster and I'm trying out different ways of doing them. She will of course make them herself, but it's good to have tried what not to do. I'll continue a bit today.

Have some excitement you too!

Interesting days.

A new way of doing it.

I've told handyman that I want to have a plate of glas on top of my desk because it would be so easy to mix colors directly onto the plate. Easy also to wash it away later on. As a start he found me a squared window-plate, slightly bigger than my watercolor paper. That was how I came up with this new way of doing things. New to me at least.

I paint on the glas. Choose my colors and at the end I lay my paper on top of it all, some heavy books on top of that again and leave it for awhile. Using my 300 grams watercolor paper, thick and with an uneven surface, I get some interesting results. There is still enough paint left over to do a second " print " I'm so amazed on how this looks that I'll have to explore it further. I want to try if I can do a planned outcome and still get this cool result.
I didn't add much to the startpoint I showed you yesterday. The piece looks much nicer in person. I used a small amount of my twinkling paint too but it doesn't show in the photo.

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The one below is another startpoint made this way. It's the uneven surface that make all the dots. It's much more easy to gain a strong color too, this way.

This is the second " print ", I like this even better than the first one. To make this print I sprayed a tiny bit of water onto the paint before I added my paper. That's probably why all the small dots appeared.

Can you tell I'm enjoying this? Now I want it to be more than a coincidence, I want to gain the result I plan to make. I don't know if it's possible but I'll try.

Have a good day.

Being trapped.

This is how I made it, how did it look in your mind?

 

Todays work is the purest monkey-business. A monkey and a jellyfish, not the most obvious couple I would say. I'm pleased on how this turned out, for a moment I thought of making the monkey a chef with the jellyfish as his chef hat.  It suited me better this way ( no arms, legs and body), make some strings around him and he's trapped. I'm not too happy about the plait though, but it's all just phantasy so it doesn't matter.

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Can you see his fear for that string closing in on his eye? In person this painting looks interesting, simple but still detailed and things to wonder about.

I do  make a lot more than I show you here, and now it was time to do it a bit different. This new tecknique make me curious and I will try it alot more. Below is my first attempt (startpoint) I'll tell you more about the tecknique tomorrow.

Have a creative Sunday!

HELP, I'm getting poisoned.

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This was such a fun painting to make, I had no thoughts on what to do other than to have fun with the water colors. Can you see the brick tube in the background? That's what this little fellow is running away from, pollution. He was so cute I couldn't let him pass. I didn't use many details either because the image was so clear from the beginning. What I do is this, I randomly place my chosen colors onto the sheet and leave it to dry. The exciting moment is when I return to my work and see what I can do of it. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph this one before I did the pen work. I was much too happy to discover this little fellow.

 The one above is my startpoint for tomorrows work. How will it turn out? What would you have done to this one? Think of it and compare with my result tomorrow.

Have a nice day!