Book Week

Book One

'Another chance to see' the CTW book, which now has contents. Adding the contents took most of Wednesday, about as long as it took to make the book itself, if you don't include drying times. That was partly due to deciding to add a fancy, but not very successful, title, which had to be designed, believe it or not. Then I added the pasta machine prints I made earlier, and some real lace. (The bits of handmade beige paper, and the smudgy blue piece in the middle, are dampened paper embossed by putting them through the pasta machine with the collagraph plate but no paint, although the blue one did get some Rub-On.)

Book Two

Continuing work in the 'tree' sketchbook. You may be looking at some of these for a while before you see any link to trees. I got a bit carried away.

I finished the four-sided stitch trees. Then I got a bit patchworky with a couple of my Gelli prints, one on paper and one on fabric. I really like the paper version, lots of little 2" square bits of inspiration. Appliqué, or surface embroidery perhaps, or canvas work?  There are also a couple more knitted samples, and some of the grottier prints cut out and layered.

My thoughts have been turning, as they often do, to vessels, so I used some Gelli prints to cut out 'sketches' of cylindrical ones.  Then I actually drew some, if you count oil pastel and Brusho as drawing. And finally I knitted a couple of tension samples for felting, using a mystery white Aran/chunky from my stash, which are so boring to look at I haven't even photographed them. And it didn't felt much either. Lovely texture, not much felting. Time for Plan B, I think.

You may be thinking 'enough of all this sampling, what about making something?'  I have to agree. Wensleydale always says Plan B is thinking of Plan C. In this case it was deciding to try to knit a cylindrical vessel like the ones I'd been drawing, to see if they would actually work. I used smaller needles, in the hope that it will get stiffer when it felts.  It took several goes to find a cast on for the base which looked as if it might lie flat: I remain to be convinced. But when it's as tall as I want it - or when I run out of wool - or when I get bored, I shall cast off and felt it in the hope I can produce something which will have a reasonably flat base and stand up by itself, even with added cables/holes/lumps and bumps etc. If not, it really will be time for Plan C. 

Mind you, it will be time for Plan C if it does work, just a different Plan C.

It"s been a tiring week.

There's been knitting - a scarf finished, a scarf started (the VHC made it clear that he wanted a scarf too - 'a boo one'), some trees, and a small experimental vessel. It's 2" tall, and the same diameter, and I think it's cute! Useless, but cute.

There was the Contemporary Textiles Workshop, wherein we did things with lace. We made collagraph plates to use with pasta machines (as you do) and printed them...

and some of us made book covers. You can see what a good collection I have of not very nice lace. 

The cover looks a bit better painted, but is a bit bright for my taste. I think Markals might be called for.

And some book of the week making. Not, as you might expect, using the book cover I made in CTW (I'm waiting for the paint to dry.) Not using the Visual Marks challenge cover, which is still awaiting assembly. Instead I came across these, and adapted them slightly to use up an old file envelope and some of the lined paper we seem to have infinite supplies of. (Can you spot the deliberate mistake?) The photographs are a bit misleading, it is more mauve than purple.

It has become my 'to do' list. I'm already onto the third page.

That all may not look much, but I feel knackered (I suspect I am going down with a cold). 

I also made an unexpected discovery. About 25 years ago, when we moved into this house, long before I started using computers, I bought some printed address labels.  And then they disappeared. After a desultory search, I assumed I'd thrown the envelope away by mistake and hand wrote everything.

This week the drawer under the envelope drawer, in which I'd put them, stopped closing properly. Eventually I got the grabber - a sort of opposable thumb and finger on a stick - in order to poke around behind it. (The drawers are difficult to take out and require girding of loins, stiffening of sinews and summoning of blood.) 

There were a lot of envelopes down there, some greetings cards, an application form for a car licence - and my address labels.

We have been talking about downsizing, so they were bound to reappear. Mind you, we have been talking about downsizing for years...

An easy week?

We thought we were going to have an easy week, because we had the day off from child care on Monday. We took the opportunity to go down to Stourhead, walk round the garden, and buy some cheese. (If you got to Stourhead, do go into the farm shop - 30+ varieties of West Country cheese and lots of other goodies.)

The weather wasn't brilliant, but the spring flowers made up for it, although it was sad to see the effects the storms had had on some of the trees.

Tuesday was errands, Wednesday and Thursday were child care (we didn't really have a day off, it just moved - though it was shorter than usual) so it was Friday before I got down to anything serious in the workroom.

Like book making. Five 'books of the week' plus last week's. I used my drawings from Dionne Swift's course, and every variation of the boustrephodon book I could find - some of them twice.  Some of those pages are quite inspiring!

Yesterday I hauled out the screen and tried screen printing from the long neglected bit of net with lace and stitch on it. With very little success, as you can see. The right side resolutely refused to print. The best one was when I printed with nothing under the screen, to use up the paint.

I meant to try using the net with the Gelli plate today, but my arthritis is playing up at the moment, so I decided to spend the afternoon on the sofa with my knitting. But then, when I tried to sort out the photos for this post, iPhoto, on what the VHC calls the high-pad, kept crashing, which meant I had to bite the bullet and deal with the excess of photos I have had on it. Which meant facing up to iPhoto on Big Mac, a far greater challenge. In theory, I save my photos on Big Mac, which has a much bigger memory, and then delete them from the high-pad. In theory I do it every week. In practice - I don't. And because I haven't done it for ages, I couldn't remember what I'd saved and what I hadn't.

But, after an hour or two of muttering and cursing, I have a whole 4.8GB available. Luxury!

Despite this trauma, the accursed fraternal socks have been completed, with only a small striping error, easily corrected, on the second one, and I have started a second pair, same basic idea, just finer yarn and more stitches. (But why do I keep picking colours which are difficult to distinguish in artifial light?)

I have also done a little more on 'Full Fathom Five' for Visual Marks. 

Next week is the Easter holidays, which means we get to spend more time with the VHC and Babybel.  Trips to Mottisfont and 'Spin Tower' are planned, after which more sofa recovery time will be necessary, assuming the technology will let me...

Treading the Primrose Path of Dalliance.

Well, it is Valentine's Day. Although this primrose path is completely indoors, given that we have 50 kph winds blowing outside and it's raining heavily. Again.

I've been dallying with book making again. The book of the week was going to be an experiment, to see if I could make this technology work with my own covers. Just quick paper-covered card covers, a hole punch, some of the 'rings', which are actually discs, and a few pages.

Then I remembered that, ages ago, I bought  'Artists' Books Ideation Cards', from Julie Chen, but had done nothing with them. You select cards at random and then make a book that fits.  Category cards outline the methodology to use, adjective cards describe the mood of the book.

It seemed like a good idea to try them out.

My Category cards were 'multiple openings' (i.e. not just a straightforward start at the beginning and keep on to the end book), 'multiple colours', 'based on a grid', 'no images', 'favourite colour', 'found text', and 'hand drawn or painted'.

Mmm - immediately I could see some potential problems - er, challenges. 

Multiple openings?  The cards suggested, amongst other things, split pages, which seemed like a good idea. I didn't want to make a dos-a-dos ring binder!

Favourite colour and multiple colours? Purple is my favourite colour, but I was definitely not in the mood for a purple book. I often work in black and white plus one colour -but what colour? Amd are three colours 'multiple'?

Based on a grid? I'm not sure what this means, but I found some pre-painted papers with sort-of-grids on them, which covered 'hand drawn or painted' as well.

No images? This seemed to conflict with the above, but I decided it meant representational images, which I was very happy to omit.

Found text? No problem, though I haven't decided what I'm going to find, yet.

I wasn't going to bother with adjective cards but then I thought 'Why not?' That's where my quick and dirty experiment began to go off the rails.

My five adjective cards were 'formal', 'sequential', 'loud', 'historical' and 'sculptural'. 

Formal? The sort-of-ring-binder I'd been planning was definitely not formal. It would have to be a proper book.  

Sequential? I'm still working on this one. In a sense all books are sequential, but I think it implies a narrative structure to the contents, of some sort, which seems to conflict with using found text.

Loud? And formal? Can something be both? My first thought was to use some red cheong-sam type fabric which is bright, if not loud, but quite formal. However I know from bitter experience that it does not like being ironed, and I Bondaweb fabric to my book covers. (I have a hate-hate relationship with glue.) Plus it was too thick to work with what I had planned for 'sculptural'.

Historical? I'd decided to use a simplified case binding, which is quite traditional, so that would do for hysterical historical.

Sculptural? I really didn't want to get into complex book forms. So I decided to try a little embossing on the cover (perhaps a grid?) which is something I hadn't done before. But it would need a fairly flexible covering material, which is why the cheong-sam fabric (no idea what it is really called, but I suspect it's rayon) was too thick. It seemed like a job for handmade paper, so I found my stock and selected a nice bright, middle of a primrose yellow-orange. (That's where the primroses come in!) It was pretty loud, but I hoped the book structure itself would provide the formality.

The book is still awaiting its found text sequence, and I may cut some holes in the pages, but the bulk of it is finished, and I'm pleased with it. Perhaps I'll get round to the experimental sort-of-ring-binder next week. Just so long as I keep away from the cards...

When I wasn't doing that, I did another bit of mad weaving with one of my Gelli printed stitch explorations. That lumpy white stuff is some knitting cotton I've had for years, which seems to have found its role in life at last. This will not be becoming a mad book, however.

Sock knitting has continued, although the last couple of pairs didn't get photographed.

And here's something I made earlier, but which was delivered today, photographed at an odd angle so you can see there are hearts in there.

Hope you've had a good Valentine's Day, without too much wind and water spoiling the party!

The weekend after the week before...

has been very productive, I'm glad to say.

Although I have officially finished the last Visual Marks challenge, I can't stop exploring ideas inspired by the session. Lots of ideas! I don't think they will lead into anything in the long run, but it's fun seeing where they take me.

My first idea was to do more automatic stitching, but with some variations - like not on felt, and trying  different colour combinations, and not having anyone else to add their bit - as Wenseydale doesn't do machine sewing. I started just after the Visual Marks session, but it got shelved when I realised I'd have to make four. But this afternoon I fired up the Bernina and got cracking.

This is the result. I used net, backed with Solufleece, which I had not used before and was impressed with - although I found out the hard way that ironing it is not  a good idea. I added some bits of lace as well as the stitching. 

My favourite is the black lace on white, bottom left, which has a floaty look I like. No idea what to do with any of them, though! 

I suppose if, by any unfortunate chance, I was asked to provide a bridal veil for the upcoming wedding, the white on white version might lead to something, but I don't think it's going to be that sort of wedding, somehow. I hope.

As an alternative to machine stitching, I decided to up the scale a bit, and try to reproduce the machine stitches by hand. I suppose, if I had really copied the machining I'd have used couching, but instead I worked on canvas. I'm quite pleased with this, although there are problems with the layout - and as you can see, it's not quite finished.

The next step is rug canvas - I kid you not!

I realised as I slaved over a hot sewing machine this afternoon that my experiments are of two types - stitches, and stitch-like marks. (I'd like to pretend this was deliberate, but it just happened.) I had lashed out and bought myself a big Gelli plate as a late Christmas present, so yesterday I made some simple monoprints of marks inspired by the machine stitches. Some were better than others, but there are a couple I really like - I'm thinking book covers.

This is the first time I've used the Gelli plate when it wasn't red hot in the conservatory, and it is much easier when the paint doesn't dry instantaneously. Which may be why I realised what I hadn't realised before - it is very easy to get too much paint on a Gelli plate, but impossible to get too little. Even if all you have is a few smears left over from a previous print, a spritz of water will often give you a second print, which can be more interesting than the first!

The next step in mark making will probably involve the Embellisher - watch this space.

The last time...

I forgot to show you this - my first handspun in place. The change of colour is where I changed from spinning Leicester to spinning merino. Having no taste, I preferred the Leicester - and not just because of the romantic associations of that county, which is where I was proposed to - and accepted.

I had hoped to show you these, finished too, but the fates decreed otherwise. (Those are not tacking stitches on the grapes. I found an image of some 3d-ish grapes supposedly worked by Mary Queen of Scots, where she had stitched pentagons and hexagons round the grapes - so I did too.)

Together with their partners they have been applied to a Vilene backing and then removed, to be reapplied using my walking foot. And the method of hingeing (sp?) the pages together is - er - under consideration. 

In between those bits, I have started two more - I do like to have plenty too much to do. There is some very experimental stuff inspired by the last Visual Marks session, which is so experimental it may be consigned to a sketch book - or the bin - and some quilting on a bit of this, inspired by CTW, which is intended to become a completely non-functional bag.

And finally - if you can get to this, and you are interested in textiles, Kate Plumtree's bird inspired ballgowns are stunning. I'd like 'Magpie 1’ in a slightly bigger size and with sleeves, please - although I have no idea where I'd wear it...

There are work books to look at, and fabric samples to feel, and the displays in the gardens and in the rest of the house are pretty good too! We are hoping to go back with our cygnet princess and caterpiller prince soon.

Where did the last two weeks go?

I won't bore you by telling you, but we have been a little busy. 

'Visual Marks' was all about drawing. We all brought items which, for us, symbolised 'connections', which were used to assemble a still life. We then drew it from different positions. Now, as you may have gathered, I am not a confident drawer, and it took me quite a while to settle in to this exercise, so my efforts will not receive widespread publicity. However, inspired by some of the things our chair, E had done with the previous session's group graffiti, I did play around with them in a couple of apps.

These were produced using Mirrorgram, Flipomatic and Kaleidoscope apps for the iPad. (It was Mirrogram which produced all the helmeted warriors!) I learned that the effects work best if you zoom in to very small details.

I also tried the low tech approach of using tracing paper and picking out interesting shapes from two blind contour drawings, one in chalk, one in oil pastel, on top of each other.

More little figures emerged.

I'm not sure how these will develop into stitch, if at all, as I have ideas for a couple of the drawings I did direct onto cloth, and which have been ripped up to be reassembled in a new improved format. Maybe.

You have no workshops for a while and then two come along at once. Last  Friday was Contemporary Textile Workshop day. We took in images of 'landmarks' - in my case, photos of organic and inorganic things on the ground, like twigs, leaves, puddles and gratings - which we used to inspire hand made stamps.

Like these - a mixture of eraser and fun foam stamps, plus a new idea I found here. I modified the idea slightly, because I forgot the suggestion to use a paint roller to hold the pipe insulation, until now... 

I made a miniature rolling pin by inserting a smaller tube into the pipe lagging - in this case, the inner tube from some ready rolled icing. (Or it may have been marzipan - in either case, I knew it would come in useful one day.) The inner tube was slightly too small, but wrapping it in duck tape solved that problem.

I used a Fiskars craft knife to slice and dig the foam out - the sharper the better! And as my friend A. suggested, instead of cutting away, you could apply or wrap things on the surface of the foam, like string, lace, rubber bands, self adhesive fun foam etc. 

The gold and turquoise sections above were done at home, printing on to black fabric, including stretch velvet. My current plan is to make a bag with it, once I've finished the plant images for VM - three down, one to go.

This week should be a bit quieter than last, so I hope to have the time and the energy to pick uo a needle!

Circuits and Bumps.

You may remember that at the conclusion of my last post I said I was going to play with Grilon, and similar threads, which shrink when exposed to heat.

Let's not talk about that, shall we? I spent the whole day trying to get one which worked. Three went in the bin, the fourth went in my sketchbook as an example of what not to to do. I'm sure it was me, not the threads, but I shall not be trying again.

Thursday was much better.

Wensleydale, Babybel and I (the VHC was in nursery) went to the North Pole. Must be true, here's a sign to prove it.

(Actually it is Mottisfont's 'Pooh trail', but don't tell Wensleydale.) 

So on Friday I turned my attention to a new challenge - trying out every method of adding colour to fabric I could think of. (Bar dyeing, I've done a lot of that.)

These are the results, apart from the transfer crayons which were too anaemic to be used and are hidden under the Bondaweb.

The Bondawebbed one - plus a bit of the Shisha one.

I challenged myself using this fabric - it's a shiny synthetic curtain fabric I bought when I thought my C&G 'goldwork' was going to be copper. 

It, and the accompanying resolved sample, turned out to be gold - and I still love them.

But I digress.

I started with the Gelli plate, freezer paper stencils and Colourcraft Aztec. 

Lesson 1

See that mottled effect? Aztec reacts to the Gelli like watercolour, it beads. Quite a nice effect but not what I was after. It also runs under the stencil, contributing to lesson 3.

Yes, those are holes.

Lesson 2

For machine cutwork, use two layers of tearaway stabilizer, one isn't enough. And choose a thread which   doesn't break every five minutes.

Lesson 3

Freezer paper stencils detach themselves from the fabric and cling to the Gelli plate with a vice-like grip, perhaps because I hadn't ironed them enough - this fabric does not like a hot iron. (See lesson 11.)

You don't need freezer paper stencils anyway, you can just use ordinary paper on the plate. Doh.

Lesson 4

Acrylic paint worked much better, but I overdid the textile medium. It does help to keep the paint from drying too quickly in a hot studio conservatory, but if it's too runny it runs under the stencils.

Lesson 5

Don't do monoprinting in 35 degrees C.

Lesson 6

The splodgy dots were done traditionally, with a stencil and brush at room temperature, but they still ran. I used Opalite which is lovely but I still haven't worked out the best way to use it. 

Lesson 7

Sometimes foil can be too bright. I added Hotspots and foil to the three circles next to the splodgy ones to try and make them more interesting, but now they are OTT. Not sure what I'm going to do with these. Emulsion paint?

Lessons 8, 9, 10 and 11

Markals (right hand end of the top row) and spray paints (underneath it), on this fabric, come out very pale but sunprinting with silk paints works well (left in the middle row). 

And Markal rubbed onto a nappy liner, ironed onto fabric, covered with another nappy liner rubbed with Chromacoal, stitched down and zapped is - er - interesting, but all that heat shrank the fabric

Lesson 12

Don't buy cheap Shisha rings.

All those lessons! No wonder I'm tired. Just hope I remember them.

After seven or more years...

of attendance, it seems that I just can't keep away from Eastleigh College. So I signed up for the twice termly 'Contemporary Textiles Workshop', which I used to attend in the hiatus between C&G and the degree. Yesterday was the first meeting for this academic year.

I was not my usual cheerful smiling self, having been given a lovely cold by the VHC, or his sister, or his father, and that may be why, to begin with, I was a bit underwhelmed. Monoprints (never my favourite), emulsion paint, stick and ink drawing, waxing - a touch of déjà vu here. I'm never sure what to do with this sort of open-ended design session, but I decided to go with the weaving and do lots of cross-crossing lines - and in the end I enjoyed myself and made some little bits I quite like.

A string stamp dipped in wax, painted with Koh-i-Noor and ironed.

Wax,  scratched, Koh-i-Noored and ironed.

Emulsion paint monoprint on tissue with Quink on the back.

Emulsion paint and ink-drawn-with-a-stick lines.

You may notice a square theme here, although some pieces refused to comply.

Ink-drawn-with-a-stick, scraped with a credit card, then waxed, etc.

Labels, ink-with-a-sticked, cut up, stuck on calico and emulsioned. I like the look of the ink under emulsion, but the labels are reluctant to stay stuck.

In the afternoon, after one of those exercises I hate and so will say no more about, we used some of what we'd made to construct a 3D something no more than 6" wide. So I made a book. But I can't find it to photograph it, not that it was that wonderful.

However I am going to add stitch to some of the others, and make a book for them, perhaps with some Karen Ruane type design exploration work - which I think was the point of the exercise, although my head was so fugged up I may well be wrong.

Well, that's my excuse.

Tomorrow to fresh fields and pastures not so new - W. and I are going to drawing lessons at Walford Mill. Just hope I doesn't rain like it did today.

Did you know I was trendy?

 

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/S2012RTW-MKORS?iphoto=10#slide=10

No, neither did I. [I'm sure no one says ‘trendy’ any more, proving irrefutable that I‘m not.] Can’t work out if it’s a wrap, a top or a dress, but I like it – although I would undoubtedly wear rather more underneath.

Coincidentally, I tacked up the hems on this lot yesterday – though as I was watching a bike race at the time, I was a bit distracted. Well – a lot distracted at the end.

250 metres out I was sure he was going to lose.

But he didn’t. And by the end my heart was going nearly as fast as his must have been. [Well, perhaps not quite.]

Several good things have come out of Copenhagen this year.

That was the highlight of my week. College was catching up and finding out what we’re doing this term [‘student directed learning’ mostly]. However next week is ‘print and stitch’ which meant that most of my free time has been spent assembling this lot.

I want to experiment with printing on collaged backgrounds – which meant collaging some backgrounds, both fabric and paper. Then getting things to print with – paint, gesso, gels, Inkaid, stencils, leaves, feathers, collagraph plates, plastic bags, crisp packets – yes, that is a Guinness can  on top.

Then things to stitch with sewing kit, threads – that bit was easy. Plus the stuff I’ve worked on over the summer for a tutorial.

Getting it all out took far longer than the lesson will – and then it will have to be put back.

I took this in to do during lulls in college, and got so much done I was inspired to finish it – though it still needs blocking. I like it, and I enjoyed doing it, but I’m not sure it says anything about litter. So it’s into the box for the tutorial.

 

Tomorrow I need to go through all the other UFOs and decide what to work on next. The partly embroidered photo? The disgusting plastic bag that never got finished? Some more fake cans? Or the adaptation of a Japanese basket using a plastic bottle and plastic bag cord? Decisions, decisions…

Leaving my prints everywhere

As I mentioned, Wednesday was printmaking at College. Monoprints, lino cuts, eraser carving, and Pressprint [the expensive version of that polystyrene you get under pizzas].

We did monoprinting in the morning, after a show and tell from the tutor, Susan Chapman, which included this – Judges’ Choice at this years FOQ.

Monoprinting is beginning to grow on me – or maybe I’m just beginning to learn what you can do with it. So I'm quite pleased with this – print plate dabbed with a scrumpled plastic bag -

 

and this – which strictly speaking is a roller print – apart from the circles, which were the top and bottom of a little plastic container which came with my iron -

 

and these – which are bubble wrap, pressed onto the plate. The one on the left is printed from the bubble wrap, the one on the right from the plate. I love the variations in the bubbles on the left – I feel the need to draw some of them coming on!

But best of all I like this  -printed with the scrumpled plastic bag, with some added credit card printing. I didn’t intend to print a fish - not sure if it’s a cave painting or a fossil.

 

I glued it to some monoprinted fabric with black misty fuse which made it more stone like – it’s printed on tissue paper so is semi-translucent.

Now I need to decide how to embroider it.

In the afternoon we made printing blocks. My dislike of linocutting was confirmed – I don’t dislike the end result [in other people’s hands] – I just don’t have the patience for the process. I can’t show the result as Picasa seems to have eaten my photo, and I’m too lazy to get up and take another one!

I much prefer Softcut and the other lino substitutes. This was inspired by one of the pieces at the Peter Eugene Ball exhibition we went to at Salisbury Cathedral.  Someone suggested Christmas cards.

 

 

This version is on a suitably coloured Colour Catcher – I need to think about stitch for this one too.

 

I didn’t initially like the  Pressprint piece – but overprinting improved it a bit. However Picasa seems to have eaten that image as well.

Fortunately the CT images are still there. These are Picnik manipulated versions of the picture of the window on the left. I love the shapes in the middle one.

Some days I wake up …

and feel like stitching. Not often  these days, but this morning it happened. I had some ideas to explore my Banksy-inspired interest in lettering.

Like this. [Sorry about the reflection.] It’s my favourite technique of sewing things into plastic pockets. Not very challenging, I admit!

 

 

While I was at it I made a couple of wonky samples of lettering ideas – the plastic pocket one and some couching. These are on recycled Colour Catchers, but after my previous experience I backed them with iron-on Vilene. There are bits of pages which fell out of an altered book under the letters, and recycled card to stiffen them. I’m feeling virtuously green.

In due course they will get grommets and strings, but I couldn’t be bothered getting out the hole punch, the grommets, the grommet setter, the hammer and the string.

I didn’t entirely neglect the printed papers I did yesterday – the blue-greeny-yellowy ones got a wash of Koh-i-Noor. I think these will become – guess what? - book  pages - but I’m not sure about the black ones. There are rather a lot of them. And  there are still 9 chapters of Peot’s book to go, and I haven’t finished the chapter on prints yet.

I hope to get back to Peot later, depending on whether the embroidery muse goes to sleep on me again. She’ll have to wake up in a couple of weeks though. Actually she’ll have to be awake tomorrow but I’ll tell you about that later.

Yesterday I showed you one of the two types of flowers we have in the garden [apart from daisies, dandelions etc., that is.] Here’s the other one. A sedum. Green, I may be, but definitely not green fingered.

Another instalment …

from Margaret Peot’s book. This involved a dozen paint rollers and several other ingredients. [I know what they look like – but they are much too big.]

You may have come across the technique which involves printing with a brayer wrapped with elastic bands. I’ve never done it because I don’t have the right sort of brayer.

 

Peot substitutes foam paint rollers for the brayer – and elastic bands do not figure in her instructions – but I tried them out anyway. Of course you get a different effect because the foam roller is distorted by the elastic bands – see bottom left, above. I think.

Or it might be bottom centre, on the right. Peot tells you to make test pieces and note which roller you used. Did I? No. Should I have done? Yes.

Other things I learned.

1. Read the instructions first.
2. The techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
3. You can’t rely on your husband to have every DIY material mentioned in every craft book you own.
4. PVA does not make a satisfactory substitute for tile adhesive. And it drips a lot.
5. The techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
6. Rubber gloves do help to keep your hands clean.
7. Not all the techniques are as easy as you think but they work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
8. Using stencils over a previously applied light rolling works well.
9. The stencils I thoughtht were made of plastic weren't - so …
10. it was not a good idea to soak them in a bucket of water.
11. Other colours apart from black can look good, especially with a leafy effect.
12. Oh – the techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.

 

Some time ago I boasted that I thought that our display of cyclamen was better than that at the Hillier Gardens. Well – I’ve just been out to take some photos – and I think I was a bit vainglorious.

But its not bad.

 

I think I also once mentioned that we always knew when our figs were ripe because the blackbirds ate them. 

Here’s the evidence.

Looks like a shot from ‘Silent Witness’ doesn’t it?

Of course, it might have been a squirrel.