The sun hat strikes again.

 

Yesterday we went to Highcliffe with Mr and Mrs Cheddar.

The sun shone, and the sea sparkled.

 

 

 

Ronaldog was in her element.

 

 

 

 

 

I had fun too. Shells, stones and seaweed. [I didn’t bring any seaweed home.]

But I did take my sunhat.

 

 

 

 

As a result, we had a thunderstorm overnight, and in the morning what we laughingly call the terrace looked like this.

And I didn’t even wear the hat – it was too windy! Perhaps I can solve the drought problem single handed – or single hatted.

Of course, it did rain on St Swithun’s Day – and it is the last day of term – and JP wants to do some sun printing - so we are probably due for more rain …

It did cheer up in the afternoon, but I used the weather as an excuse to stay in and potter with pictures [dither with drawings?]. [Wensleydale was up some scaffolding clearing the gutter – no wimp, him!]

I revisited no. 30 – except it is number 34 now.  It is such a long time since I last used Inkaid that I had forgotten that it ends up white, not transparent [at least the matte white version does – I think there may be a clue in the name].

So this ended up rather whiter than I had intended – but I think it works. The paper was bondawebbed to black felt, and cut into strips which were overlapped and machined together. Then I machined the result into the book, which was probably the hardest part of the whole shebang. Definitely an improvement on the previous version – more character, and overlapping the felt makes it look more like the corrugated hoarding which inspired it. I feel happier about it too, as I have put more work into it – the previous version felt a bit lazy. I have this belief that you need to use at least three processes with a piece – like Inkaid, deconstruction and stitch.

I also revisited no.32. I'd read somewhere that if you cover an inkjet print with black Quink and then bleach it, the print will resist the bleach but the ink won’t. I thought it would make the image more oilslicky, so I gave it a try – but using a previous version first.

Guess what. Inkjet prints don’t resist bleach, any more than Quink does. It’s very atmospheric though.

 

 

 

As is the back. 

 

 

 

 

Just to confirm, I tried bleach on Mark 2, without Quink. I was a bit too enthusiastic with the bleach, but I like this version, too. So this is no. 35 - I seem to be working in a series. And it just manages to fulfil the three processes criterion, if you don’t count computer manipulation of the image and adding text as the same process.

I learned something else as well – don’t add bleach with a natural sponge …

Number 36 is something I started a while ago, using a magazine image and Applicraft Transferglaze. [I have a feeling you can’t use this with inkjet images but of course I can’t find the instruction leaflet…]

Not too pleased with this one – I ended up with a stretchy, plasticky, sticky image, which I found difficult to stick down – although that might be because of the background I chose. I tried to add more colour with Graphitints but they didn't like the plastic, even on the back. And only two processes – unless you include the background.

And then I splashed white emulsion paint on a variety of papers which I may eventually get round to monoprinting on.

So, a good day overall, despite the weather!

A finished piece.

 

Actually I finished it a while ago but couldn’t show more than a bit because it was for Art Quilts Around the World and due to be revealed today.  It was inspired by the ‘Solent Project’ of Kurt Jackson – and views of the Isle of Wight from the mainland.

 

 

By coincidence we went to the coast today – so here is a photo of a similar view. Perhaps I should have added a boat?

We had an enjoyable walk by the sea with Mr and Mrs. C and Ronaldog – who is a bit of a seadog.

 

 

Today’s flower is from Mottisfont again– a wonderful baroque honeysuckle. Possibly one to play with in imaging software, as it has such an interesting shape. Copied, flipped, inverted etc.?

The penultimate instalment …

unless I find something new.

Today it is Photoscape. This one looks different, and I found it took a bit of getting used to. The circular menu looks nice but is a bit off-putting if you don’t know what ‘Raw converter’ or ‘Splitter’ mean. The ‘Help’ comes in the form of videos – am I the only person in the world who loathes trying to watch videos on my computer?

If you click on ‘Editor’  you get a more friendly looking screen. On the left there is a list of all your files and folders – scroll and click your way through that to your pictures. You will see lots of thumbnails appear below the list. [Well, you get lots if, like me, you've got lots.] Click on the picture you want to work with – the thumbnail will grey out so you know which one you’re working with, in case you’ve altered it so much you’ve forgotten. I really like this because it is very easy to find the image you want, and change to different images as needed.

Click on ‘Home’ at the bottom of the page just next to the thumbnails.  The options for editing the photo are all shown at the bottom:  there are square buttons for B&W, sepia, greyscale and negative at the left and ‘Undo’ and ‘Save’ are over at the far right.

It is worth playing around with all the options – for example this is the result of increasing ‘Auto Level’, ‘Auto Contrast’ and ‘Sharpen’ to the maximum.

 

 

You can also add a [fairly simple] frame if you wish. Here's one for Mrs Cheddar …

 

 

 

 

 

although she’ll probably prefer this one. 

 

 

 

 

There are 25 filters, many with further options and most tuneable. Some are quite unusual like ‘Cellophane’ – which looks like an idea for appliqué with sheers.

 

 

 

I’m not usually very interested in distortion filters – but I made  an exception for ‘Illusion’ under the ‘Distorts’ heading. You can have up to 12 repetitions of the image.

 

 

And ‘Distorts - Window’ makes your image look as if you’ve printed it on a sheet of labels – you can vary the arrangement of the labels and the background colour.

 

 

 

 

If you click on ‘Region out of focus’ you can adjust the size and degree of the unfocussed region – but you can also apply another filter to that region – like ‘Crystallize’.

 

 

 

If you fancy doing silly things with your image click on ‘Object’ next to ‘Home’. Then you can add other images, text, or symbols  – or draw on your image if you so wish. The daisy image came from the program – i think you can add your own images but I haven’t worked out how to do it.

‘Crop’ does what it says on the tin. ‘Region’ removes moles and redeye, but also allows you to pixelate a selected area – useful for protecting the innocent in your images.  

 

 

This is ‘Distorts – Illusion’ applied to the daisy-dahlia before I added the text. Isn’t it pretty?

 

 

 

 

When you’ve finished exploring the tabs along the bottom, have a look at the ones along the top. ‘Batch Edit’ lets you do the same thing to lots of photos at once, should you wish to.

‘Page’ is great fun. You can make a range of collages, add borders, change the background colour etc.  ‘Combine’ seems to do something similar, but there may well be some subtle difference which escapes me.

‘Print’ allows you to arrange images for printing, and gives more options than Picasa.

And ‘Anigif’ does this. Very easily. [Just hope it still works when I publish this.] [If it does you may well see more of them – you have been warned.]

 

 

 

And one little extra. Click on ‘Photoscape' and then ‘Paper Print’, and print your own graph paper, lined paper, calendars etc. If you, like me, have a desire for landscape paper with lines – this will print it for you – although I would prefer not to have a margin.

I like Photoscape. There are lots of interesting filters and other things to play with, and It is easy to navigate once you get used to it. The paint section seems quite limited but I’m not really into painting my pictures anyway. I just wish I could read the help section instead of having to watch it.

And finally – Ronaldo the Wonder Dog just made the dizzy heights of the local TV news – which is the best thing I've seen on it, ever. Well done, Ronaldog!

A Wednesday wander

We went to Lydiard Park in Swindon with Mr and Mrs Cheese and Ronaldo the wonder dog.

Ronaldo was taking a press call when we arrived chez Cheddar, but I can report that the fame has not gone to her head – although she had to take a refreshing  dip in the lake at Lydiard to recover. [Swimming is her second favourite sport after football.]

We looked round the house and the church – well worth a visit. The Church seems to have avoided the attentions of both the Parliamentarians during the Civil War, and the Victorians, so it looks pretty much as it must have done for at least 200 years – box pews and lots of fascinating monuments.

Of course I managed to find some textiles [apart from those represented in stone or wood].

 

The Lord’s Prayer in crochet [?] -

 

 

 

 

 

 

a beautiful altar cloth -

 

 

 

 

and a stunning cover for the Book of Commemoration for those killed in WW1.

 

 

 

Today’s C&G sample is  another sun print on predyed cotton, with corded quilting. I was lazy and used twin needle machine stitching to make the channels.

Some good news!

Not about photos, although some good suggestions have been made, [thank you!] which I have passed on to the senior techie. I’m not touching anything in case I make it worse. I’ve even got the desk top turned off and I’m using the laptop instead.

The good news is about  Ronaldo the Wonder Dog, who I may have mentioned once or twice.

I did point out that her real name is Skye, and that she had been short listed for the Rex Factor award from the Dogs Trust.

Well – last night was the awards ceremony.

Guess who won?

I’ll be seeing her on Wednesday – I’ll let you know if fame has gone to her head.

I’m still lacking creativity so I decided to work through some of my pile of printouts of ideas from the ‘net.

Starting with this one.

Here is my version. A bit of recycled embroidery and mount card, some index cards and a binder clip. With hindsight a second binder clip might have been a good idea – but I like it. I may add a piece of elastic to help keep it closed.

  Here is another appliqué sample. Machine reverse appliqué. I think the variegated thread was a mistake – far too regular – but believe me this is the only way I would ever do a lot of reverse appliqué. I’ve tried it by hand and I didn’t enjoy it!

Fame at last

- not for me. Go here and scroll down to the bottom – Skye, a.k.a. Ronaldo the Wonder Dog.

The final is at the Hurlingham Club. Mrs Cheddar has to get a very posh frock. I think Skye will probably be equally stylish in her Man U. collar.

On a much more mundane level – some of my creative efforts. As mentioned I made black prints of some of the tile stamps.

 

 

 

 

And then in an effort to try to come to terms with Paint Shop Pro, I played with the scans. Which involved rather a lot of bad tempered muttering, rising at times to loud swearing.   At the moment I can’t work out how to put the results of my efforts here – I suspect it has to do with how I saved the images – but that can be tomorrow’s little effort.

Instead I'll show you  what the stamps look like after a bit of use …

 

 

 

 

And the inverted scan.

Some interesting patterns there – I always like stuff that comes good by accident. Why I like dyeing, I think. And you can always overdye what doesn't work …

 

Today’s brown image is another photo from the Hillier Gardens. Now this one could almost make me like brown.

It might also be interesting to play with it in PSP …

Late breaking news

- pushes Babybel off the front page!

Here are some action shots of Ronaldo the wonder dog in action, for footballing Border Collie fans!