Beautiful Bernina

Let me introduce my new swiss companion...
Bernina!!!

Last week I took my digital Janome machine to be serviced. I'm pretty rough on my sewing machine and it was in need of a bit of attention. Well the shop had several used reconditioned machines, one being this wonderful Bernina. For the sewing savy Bernina machines are known as the Rolls-Royce of the sewing world. The best things to come out of Switzerland, Bernina and Toblerone!
I have aLWAYS wanted one but didn't think I could afford one, until now.
well maybe this one isn't new, but my goodness she is wonderful! I think I was meant to find her!

 Started with a bit of playing about to see what she could do. Thought I would make some Daffodils as I have photographed them recently.

 She is so quiet and sews so easily.

Then onto making some wee cottages on papercloth.

working on larger pieces of papercloth, creating texture..
Having fun seeing what is possible!

Spring sunshine

I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dancing Daffodils;
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze
(William Wordsworth)

The last few days have been filled with lovely sunshine, and then on friday snow!..
This was Eilean Donan castle last week before the snow... It did look glorious! Those Daffodils really were dancing in the sunshine.
Many of you may recognise the castle as it graces shortbread tins and 'visit Scotland' posters, and who wouldn't want to visit if the sun shone like this every day!

 Eilean Donan is about ten miles from the Skye bridge.

Daffodils blanket the ground in the woods on the Island...celandines too are starting to peep through the earth and open their small yellow flowers.

 Primroses too...

Yellow daffodils picked from the garden...
captured in my sketchbook.

Finally for those curious souls who are waiting to see a little of what I am busy with.....

 I will reveal once finished, but I think you get the idea of where my mosaic paper clay pieces are going!

sketchbook hydrangea

Getting back to routines after a little break can be difficult and all I seem to have to show this week are some pages from my sketchbook. Summer is done and time to capture a few of the late blooms before they fade,

 Hydrangeas are such chameleons...
Sometimes blue, sometimes pink... what colour are yours? :)

Other news this week is that my new mixed media workshops started in Lancashire,the course runs over several weeks so I will post some photos  at the end. Already I am very excited by what the great group of ladies have created.

Better get back to the workdesk and get busy.... :)

.

The beauty of small things

 I love big expansive landscapes, although within those landscapes I am always drawn to small details.

 Textural grasses, delicate leaves and jewel like blooms.

When I photograph landscapes I usually get down on the ground  to fill the foreground of the image, it's almost as if I'm small animal peering through the wild grasses! Looking down as well as around always unearths small treasures.

 Amongst the grasses nestle Marsh marigolds, or as I have always called them 'Kingcups'. They are like giant buttercups and they really glow in the sunlight.
I took these photos a few weeks ago when they were at their best, it's been a good year for Kingcups.

I painted them in my sketchbook.

 They inspired my new collage painting...

WIP

I built up many layers of paper and paint.

detail

Detail

Blanket of kingcups mixed media on canvas

My first attempts at glass fusion!

I recently tried something NEW!!!
A glass fusion workshop!! I love glass and it is no coincidence that when using paper many people comment that my work has a stained glass look...
It is of course impossible to work transparently with paper and the idea of glass fusion has been whirling around my head for some time.
The workshop was hosted by Glass-maker Lynda Drummond and was such fun!!1

test pieces out of the microwave kiln

We started the process making a test piece nugget in a microwave kiln!! I thought Microwaves were just for reheating cold cups of tea!!!

Then we moved on to a small wall plaque
This was what I really wanted to try out to see if I could make a mini landscape.

Beginning to cut the glass

We used a type of glass called bullseye glass, the most difficult part was cutting the pieces small enough!

placing the pieces

We also made several other small test pieces.

And below is my little collection after firing!

For a first attempt I am rather happy with my collection . :)
Of course glass always looks better through a sunshiney window.
So .........

Off to search Ebay for a kiln!!! :)

Knapweed and thrift. Wildflower collages

Last week it was thistles, this week my inspiration is the thistle-like Knapweed flower which blankets much of the highland landscape. Its more friendly than the thistle as it does not have the jagged thorns. I love it's colour and tufty blooms.
 I enjoy reading old folk-law tales about wild flowers and apparently Knapweed in days gone by was picked by eligible young women who pinned a bloom to their blouse.  When its florets began to open it was said the man of her dream would be near! This is not a theory I have tested, but it certainly sounds exciting! :)

I worked in a more abstract style on board, unusual for me as I usually collage on canvas or wood panels.
 A few weeks back I read a blog post written by the very talented Jessica Stride . She used the hardboard backing from a picture frame to work on. I thought this was such a great idea I would have a go. It does away with the dilemma of how to frame a board piece as the frame was meant to fit!

I'm not sure I really need the glass in front of the collage, I feel it takes away from the texture a bit, but I can always take the glass out and just keep the surrounding frame. I'm not sure whether  to paint the frame either... decisions decisions. ;)

 Other bits this week inspired by more wild flowers

Sea-thrift and tern.
 I had to check in my wild-flower book to see if I was using the right shade of pink paper.

The tern is covered with old book papers and crackle glaze to give it a feathery look.

Linking to Paint party friday

In and out the dusky bluebells

Today is the the first day of 'Summer of Color' on-line yearly challenge.

It is my favourite on-line art challenge as each week of June a colour prompt opens the door to all sorts of colour exploration.

This weeks prompt is very fortunate for me!

Blue+ Blue+Green.

Fortunate in that over the last few weeks I have been our searching for bluebells as a reference for a bluebell collage/ painting

I was reminded of the childhood song ...

In and out the dusky bluebells
In and out the dusky bluebells
In and out the dusky bluebells
Who will be my partner?

Tippy tippy tap tap on your shoulder
Tippy tippy tap tap on your shoulder
Tippy tippy tap tap on your shoulder
You will be my partner

we called them dusky bluebells although I think some versions of the song use the word dusty. We also used the phrase 'won't you be my master?' not too politically correct these days so this is the friendly version ;)
  I thought creating a bluebell wood at dusk would be beautiful,So for the past few weeks I have been photographing bluebells while on my travels.

Bluebells are so  beautiful and fit perfectly with the 'Summer of color challenge'

In and out the dusky bluebells. mixed media on canvas

Forget-me-not sea-stars

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven,
Blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow )  

If you saw my earlier post this week ( click to take a look) you may remember I was working on a seascape collage/painting and was about to add the forget-me-not flowers. I was so inspired by their beautiful colour and tiny but perfect flowers.

The more I read about this beautiful little plant the more fascinated I became,
 I discovered.they have royal connections, as King Henry IV of England adopted the flower as his symbol  way back in the 14th century and the tiny blooms were symbols of love and mourning especially during Victorian times. For such a small and unassuming flower they have a whole lot of history!

After collaging the background land/seascape I tore small paper fragments to create the flowers and then used paint and iridescent three dimensional paints to create depth.

WIP

And then built up paint layers. The sea was collage/painted onto aluminium foil so it has a metallic sheen behind the flowers. This is very hard to photograph, but it really does shimmer through the layers.

Detail

Finally the finished canvas below.....

Linking up to paint party friday