A day out and a day in.

Yesterday we decided it was time to revisit Highcliffe Castle, so we pottered down to Dorset, had a look at the art exhibitions that were on [some interesting ideas], spent some money in the shop [things for Babybel – 4,, things for Gran and Granddad – 0] and had a good lunch in the excellent cafe.

Then we came home and I played with GIMP, which, I’ve concluded, has much more interesting filters than PSE. This is one called Qbist, layered over one of the photos from college.

 

 

 

 

And while I was at it I had a go with the Hockneyiser

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Lunapic – this is the Obama style filter, you’ll be amazed to hear.

Then I began to have to fight with BT Total Broadband and/or Google Chrome to  get, and keep an internet connection, so I gave up, turned everything off, and watched a very good programme on Indian textiles on the telly.

 

 

Today, Wensleydale went to help Babybel’s Daddy do DIY - [and Babybel, of course, who has her own tool kit]. I stayed at home and kept busy. I:

1. painted some black paper with Inkaid, on which to print off some of the 230+ images of myself I’ve accumulated over the last few days. [Vain? Moi?] Tried to remember if I usually use two coats, as per instructions, or only one. Plumped for one.
2. Went up to local shop to buy things we forgot to get in Sainsbury’s.
3. Took delivery of parcel.*
4. Made birthday cake with ingredients bought in shop.
5. Put serviettes to dye in the washing machine. They were once white, but got a bit discoloured so a while ago I dyed them blue to go with the blue paint in the dining room. However we no longer have blue paint in the dining room so I have dyed them black to go with the black curtains. I suspect this will be their final reincarnation.
6. Made coffee. Still no reliable internet, so phoned BT. Waited while someone told me repeatedly how very busy they were– thank goodness its a free phone number. Eventually got through to a very helpful young man in India who managed to improve the connection no end. Everything now working apart from Chrome.
7. Made mock up of the triptych for Wednesday, which involved wrestling with a metre and a bit of lining paper – very curly lining paper. Decided to make the real thing bigger. Wrestled with an even bigger piece of very curly lining paper, painted it with gesso, and glued on quotes from Robert Frost and TS Eliot. [Pretentious? Moi?]
8. Took cake out of oven and dyeing out of washing machine.
9. Made a cheese sandwich and a strong spritzer.
10. Put dishwasher on and washed up the non-dishwasherable.
11. Painted triptych.
12. Found variety of papers and ironed Bondaweb on to them.
13. Made cup of tea. Downloaded Opera, as recommended by Cheese Major, which has changed sine the last time I looked at it. Felt confused, but discovered it has a mail program which might allow me to give up on Outlook – followed instructions to download it, couldn’t believe it was really that easy.
14. Tore up Bondawebbed papers and ironed the bits on to A4 cartridge paper, on which to print off some of the 230+ images of myself I’ve accumulated over the last few days. [Vain? Moi?]
15. Saw Wensleydale coming up drive, breathed sigh of relief, and put kettle on again.

* Aforementioned parcel. What could be in it? [Not the cup, that’s there to show the size.]

A lot of packaging, 4 catalogues, a receipt and a little white box – overkill packaging, perhaps?

The little white box contained this, a somewhat more expensive replacement for my £5 charity shop watch, which finally gave up the ghost last week. As the local charity shops don’t seem to sell cheap watches any more, I decided I needed some colour in my life and gave myself another early birthday present. It is rather fun

 

 

 

 

Spot the difference?

Tomorrow is the actual day of my eleventy third birthday, so we are off for a family outing to look at model trains. Not that I am specially interested in model trains  but I know a young lady who is, and watching her watching them will be lots of fun.

Minimal embroidery – and images.

Another piece of Banksy inspired work – I've been thinking about phrases which include textile [-ish] words but which mean something else. Like ‘a tissue of lies’. Worked on silk gauze and backed with a piece of graffiti-ish painted paper. You can see that I slaved for hours over that one.

I have other ideas, so the muse may have been kick-started again. I have made myself go and do stuff in my Installation Art sketchbooks for Contemporary Textiles – which, surprise, surprise, has led to some ideas for embroidery. I have even tried some drawing but those you won’t see – this blog may include warts but there is a limit…

On to the images. I have mentioned Lunapic before – I think it was the first program I found when I started all this on that fateful insomniac night …

At first glance it looks quite old fashioned – especially after Flauntr – but sometimes I like old-fashioned. [Memories of Eartha Kitt singing ‘Old Fashioned Girl’ come into my head.]

I like Lunapic’s easy ‘Undo’ – and the way it stores your ‘Undos’ as thumbnails below the image so it is easy to click on one to regain your original.

There are a wide range of effects – even animations if you want – but only a few of them allow you to tune your image. So an effect like ‘Colouring Book’ which  works well for a passion flower …

may work less well for  a dahlia – and you can’t do anything about it.

 

 

 

 

But there are some nice effects – like ‘Lego’, which might work well in a counted thread technique -

 

 

 

 

and ‘Bars’ – especially if you played around with the colour by adding a different effect -

 

 

 

like ‘Colour Spotter’.

 

 

 

 

 

The ‘Custom Collage’ setting allows you to make a collage of several different effects – the yellow one is ‘Thermal’, but I can’t remember all the others …

 

 

And, although Lunapic will make a conventional motivational poster if you want one -  the ‘Obama’ effect [really] is much more interesting,

 

 

 

 

and you can use ‘Focal Black and White’ if you want something a bit more subtle.

 

 

 

 

 

I find Lunapic relatively easy to use, and it offers you a fairly wide range of effects, many of which I haven’t found elsewhere. The major drawback is that it doesn’t allow you to tune images much. Probably worth getting to know the effects you find interesting for occasional use.