Saturday 29 June 2019

Confetti Fields

I found out about the confetti fields last year but if you remember I tripped over and broke my fingers - so we didn't go.   I planned that we would go this year instead.   And then it rained!  And rained!  The fields only open to the public for 10 days in the year and because it rained, the fields were closed for two days this week.

But the rain stopped.  Hooray.

And so we were able to visit.   The white flowers hadn't opened but there was plenty of colour.



 





 



  

 



 
 

The poppies were an added extra and won't be picked to be used as confetti.  However as you can tell I rather liked having the splash of colour.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice


Tuesday 25 June 2019

M is for Motivation

In our Living Your Word of the Year group we are using a fortnightly (bi-weekly) A-Z challenge throughout the year to help us focus on our word and live it out.

Because of the way I have made my journal it's a case of going with the flow of what background the pages have when I turn to them.  This was a double spread of starred paper with some gesso wiped over it.  There's also some smaller pages sewn in between.

Ironically, this page has been really difficult.  I couldn't find any motivation for starting it.  In the end I put pieces of some new washi tape on the left hand side.  I know!  I'm supposed to be using up what I have already, but I could resist these new ones from London Gifties.  The small rectangular card came as part of the parcel.

I stuck down the letter stickers to make the word MOVE because that's what I was going to do the page about - the motivation to move.

However, when I searched on Bible Gateway, I found these two verses and decided I would use these instead.

I moved MOVE to the other side of the page and asked myself: What can I do to motivate myself to move?

I don't have an answer for that.  At the beginning of the year I said that I was committed to losing weight and to getting fit but I have done nothing towards it.  I set myself two goals of walking or exercising 4 times per week and to lose 3" off my waist by December 31st.  Unless something changes - it's not happening!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice



Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year
Join Mary Brack, Valerie Sjodin and I in our Facebook group where we are giving participants the opportunity to live out an A-Z of their own word throughout 2019.  Mary explains what we are doing in her blog post.  We don't like a lot of rules, so we will have suggestions and options to spark creativity, and to help in recording and exploring our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We will each blog about our experiences and our art.

Hashtags on Instagram:  #livingyourword2019

Check out the other blogs:
Mary: www.foundonbrighton.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

To ensure you get updates from Valerie, Mary & I why not subscribe to our blogs.

Saturday 22 June 2019

Inkjet Printing

Last weekend I spent a day at Caroline Merrell's studio learning how to nuno felt photographs.

I had sent Caroline some black & white photos to print.

For some reason, this printed with a blue tinge on the silk.  And much of the black that had been there, washed away.  However I like it as a background.

Caroline had warned us all that this printing method was not always successful - it depends on the ink cartiridges, how long you leave the ink to cure etc.

Some washed away more than others!  This one was printed onto to hand dyed silk and the image disappeared completely.

However, before I started felting I had taken a photo of the printed silk.

Caroline had printed this one for me which also had the blue tinge.

And this is the same photo printed on silk at home.

This one was printed on cotton and looked great whilst it was wet.  However, now it's dry it's lost a lot of definition.

 This was the original photo.

 I also came home with two printed pieces of silk that I hadn't felted.


The whole point of the workshop was to experiment.  Now I have some pieces of felt to experiment on further.  I shall cut some up and stitch on them.  I may put another layer of silk organza with a print on top.

I'll let you know if I get any further.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice



Tuesday 18 June 2019

Chartwell

When I drove down to the workshop at Committed to Cloth, I went earlier in the morning than I needed to so that I could visit Chartwell - the home of Sir Winston Churchill.

The weather was horrible and Chartwell was overcrowded.  Going round the inside of the house was really difficult - there were so many people and it was hard to see what was on display.  However I still managed to get some reasonable photos.




 
 
 




I moved on from the crowds at Chartwell to a nearby gardens - Emmetts Garden - where I had the garden to myself.  I also had a fabulous cream tea.

 
 


This was the view of the South Downs!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice