21 words finale

The third week of the challenge had some particularly difficult words.  We use WhatsApp to share our sentences and autocorrect doesn't make life any easier.  Sapid kept being corrected to Sapir!  Turns out that Edward Sapir was a linguist - very suitable.

15. Perilous
The ascent of Kilimanjaro was long and exhausting with rests to be able to adapt to the lessening amount of oxygen as the climbers got nearer to the peak. It was a perilous journey not knowing whether the climbers would succumb to acute mountain sickness and the possibility of death

16. Perturbed
The food critic was perturbed that instead of the restaurant being closed down, he was being trolled on social media for his criticisms. The trolls comments included death threats to himself and violence to his family.

17. Amoral & 18. Immoral
As part of a nature v nurture scientific experiment, the Moral twins were separated after birth and sent to different parents to be raised. ‘A’ grew up unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. Whilst ‘Im’ grew up knowing right and wrong but developed a violent streak which was at odds with the moral upbringing.

19. Sapid
The food critic was delighted to be a guest judge on Masterchef, where he ate the most delectable and sapid plates of food.

20. Engulfed
The arsonist smirked as he carefully laid the trail of fuel through the building. He reached the exit. He put down the almost empty can and tossed a lighted match into a pool of petrol. As he opened the door he threw the rest of the petrol towards the fire. Unfortunately for him the petrol splashed back over him and he was quickly engulfed in flames.

21. Ridiculous
At the start it felt totally ridiculous to challenge ourselves to write a sentence or two every day from a new word for each of 21 days. However it has been really enjoyable. I have loved seeing the various different contributions. 21 days is a ridiculous amount of time. When we do it again perhaps we should only have 10 words and 10 days.

I hope you have enjoyed my sentences over the past three weeks.  It has been a very enjoyable and brain stretching activity.

Glad it's over though!  For now!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Reflections

Our Snapshot Girls theme for this month was Reflections.  Yet again I have not been out to take new photos.  Consequently I raided my archives.

Firstly, a few canal reflections

And next reflections in buildings when we visited Chicago in 2017.

 Our next theme is Spring.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

21 word challenge 15-21

My sentences for last week in the 21 word challenge.

8. Prodigious
Mozart showed a prodigious talent from an early age. He was already a proficient player of the violin and the piano when he started to compose pieces aged five.

9. Insipid
The man looked in disgust at the insipid bowl of liquid the waiter had put before him insisting that it was the consommé the customer had ordered. There was no pleasing aroma rising nor any flavour when the man tasted it. It looked like dishwater and judging by the soapy taste left in his mouth the food critic thought it probably was dishwater.

10. Unpalatable
Geraint Thomas’s book, How a Welshman won the Tour de France, describes some of the more unpalatable issues of long distance cycling including what happens to your insides when you’re living on protein gels.

11. Resonance
I find the percussive resonance of a drumkit, especially from the snare drum, difficult to listen to. It is something to do with the frequency of the sound and my tinnitus.

12. Inaudible
The voices of so many women have not been heard and now not only are those voices inaudible but they are being cancelled.

13. Camouflage
In the Where’s Wally puzzle books, rather than wearing a traditional camouflage outfit, Wally is actually hiding in plain sight.

14. Clenched
At the 1968 Olympic Games Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and silver in the 200m final. At the medal ceremony they shared a pair of black gloves. Each raised a clenched black-gloved fist as a protest to highlight racism and prejudice against African-Americans in the U.S.A.

And now!

Words for week 3

15. Perilous 

16. Perturbed 

17. Amoral 

18. Immoral 

19. Sapid 

20. Engulfed 

21. Ridiculous 

Thank you for joining me today.  If you have tried writing sentences for any of the words, do post them in the comments below.

Thanks
Bernice

Batik experiments

At the Art Textiles group on Thursday, Liske had lots of ideas that we could try.  Sadly I had arrived without any oomph!  It seemed to leak out of the car during the 25 minute journey from home!!!

However, one of the ideas roused a little bit of curiosity.  I'm so glad it did because I really love some of the results I got.

Liske had a hot wax pot - actually an electic grill - and various tools including a cork, brushes, and a large cookie cutter.

This piece was originally splattered with acrylic paint.  I think it was probably newsprint that I had put under another piece of work I was doing.  I put the hot wax on and when that was set I put watercolour paint over it.  When that was dry I repeated the exercise.  With each of the pieces once everything was dry I ironed it between newspaper to remove the wax.

This piece was a part of a map with tissue paper glued on top.  I scratched into the blobs of wax to reveal the layer below but the scatches were not significant enough for the paint to bleed through.

On this paper I collaged some text and some music and tissue paper before adding the wax and the yellow paint.  Another layer of wax was added and then the turquoise paint.

This was an acrylic paint monoprint to which I added the wax.  I used black acrylic ink over the top.

This is a piece of thin white cotton material.

And this was the paper underneath the fabric where the wax and some of the paint went through.  I then added some more paint as there was quite a lot of white.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

21 word challenge 8-14

Have you been joining in with the 21 words challenge this week?

Here are my sentences:

1. Saffron
Saffron smiled at her reflection as she tossed her long, newly dyed ahir.  At last her goldn-orange almost crimson tresses matched her name.

2. Jaundiced
Twitter seems to be a place where some embittered people tweet prejudiced, some might say jaundiced, viewpoints.

3. Writhed
The people took a step back as the wooden staff Moses had thrown down writhed along the ground and reared its head.  Moses grabbed the snakes's tail and the staff resumed its original form.

4. Pummelled
The potter pummelled the block of solid clay until it was sufficiently pliable to make a beautiful pot.

5. Crestfallen
Standing in the start gate, the World, European and 5 time Olympic champion, began his visualisation of his race. As he began his slide down the mountain a smile appeared as he visualised the next day’s headlines. GOAT – Greatest of All Time. Distracted by this thought Albert Crest entered a turn late and overshot the blue line. Attempting to correct his course the edge of his ski slipped and he fell, sliding into the safety netting. His race was over. A rueful smile as he made his way slowly down the mountain. Already he knew what the headline would be: Crestfallen

6. Benevolence or benevolent
7. Rigorous
In order for UK charities to use money donated to them in a benevolent manner to the less fortunate, the charity must have a rigorous accounting system.

As you can see I amalgamated the day 6 & 7 words into one sentence.

And here are the words for this week:

8. Prodigious 

9. Insipid 

10. Unpalatable 

11. Resonance 

12. Inaudible 

13. Camouflage 

14. Clenched

If you have written any sentences using these words this week, do share them in the comments.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

31 days of Art Journalling

I signed up to do Laura Kemshall's workshop: 31 days of art journalling.   I am up to date with watching the videos but not so with the actual pages.

I chose a small square Seawhite sketchbook for this project.  Before I started I took out the centre pages of each signature.  I learned from the class I did with Laura before that the binding doesn't like all the extras pasted in.  It also means there are less pages to complete.

Laura introduces a different idea or technique each day so none of the pages I am going to show you are anywhere near finished.

Some previously painted papers ready to put into the book.

Machine and hand stitching

Letters cut from a newspaper and a magazine

Laura suggested a variety of themes to choose from but I retreated to one of my favourites- canals.  I cut some photos from the Towpath newspaper that we get.  And this Roundhouse from the National Trust magazine.

I had a go at a Ransom Note headline

And I've glued in a couple of my own photos.

 

The workshop is a third of the way through and I'm intrigued to see what Laura comes up with next.  I am a bit behind but not to worry there's plenty of time.

Why not come and join me.  You can find all the details here: DMTV

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

21 word challenge

I am part of a Writers Group at church - similar to the photography group - only writing!  I have set the members a challenge which starts today and I thought my readers might like to join in.

Each day for 21 days I am going to give them a word to use for writing creatively.  Only one or maybe two sentences are needed for each word.

If you can't find a way to use the chosen word, why not look up synonyms to use.

Rather than give you a word each day I'm putting all the words for this week.  Next week I'll issue the next 7 words.

Use one word a day in a sentence (Maximum of 2 sentences).

1. Saffron 

2. Jaundiced 

3. Writhed 

4. Pummelled 

5. Crestfallen 

6. Benevolence or benevolent 

7. Rigorous 

It would be great if you shared your sentences in the comments next Tuesday.  See you there.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A new challenge coming

Thursday was my first meeting with the ladies of Eclectica as a member.  The group has been invited to exhibit at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec.  These are the pieces I have submitted for the exhibition

Walk 1
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Design inspired by Paul Klee’s oil painting ‘Highway and Byways’.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 19.5” (w) x 35.75” (l) 

Walk 2
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabric. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 14.5” (w) x 15.5” (l)

Beyond Square
Purchased text-based hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Bought plain fabric for line inserts and binding Max size: 26” (w) x 25” (l)

The exhibition is from Wednesday April 6th to Wednesday April 20th.

In the meantime, next Tuesday I'm going to launch a creative writing challenge.  I do hope some of you will join in.   It's called: 21 words

The idea is to take one word each day and write one sentence to use the word creatively.  More information next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Frosty!

On January 17th in the photography group, we chose Frosty as our theme for January/February.  It's cold in these months.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it was frosty on January 18th but I didn't bother to take photos as I knew there would be plenty of days in the next 28 to go out in the cold!  How wrong could I be?

No photography-worthy frost for the rest of the time.  So, I searched my archives and came up with these:

Did you manage to take any wintery photos in the last two months?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice