One Little Word: February

It was suggested that we pick a daily practice for the month of February. I chose to get dressed straight after breakfast everyday.  As I said in my previous OLW post my choice might not seem much to you but it's quite a biggie for me.  When I was working I could get up at 6.55am and be out of the house an hour later.  These days it can be as late as 11 o'clock before I get dressed and much of the hours after breakfast are spent in PJs and dressing gown sitting at the computer.  Sometimes I work but mostly it's Facebook and Pinterest.

And I achieved it everyday for 28 days!  Yeah!

For various reasons I didn't add any extra exercise to my hour on a Monday at the gym but I am being kind to myself and not worrying about it.

I signed up for Ali's Story Kit 'Bond' because I felt it fitted with my word {Connect}.  However it took quite a while to arrive and I haven't done anything with apart from taking the together card out of it and using it in my February page.  I listed the things where Roger & I had intentionally gone out and spent time together.


Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Call to Adventure #8

The challenge for the week was to spend time in or near water, to watch how it flows around obstacles, and to photograph it in different guises.

Roger & I went to Charlecote Park on a rather blustery day.  We walked through the parkland past the lake and down to the river.  It was a dull day apart from the odd break in the clouds so the photos are fairly monochrome.

 The sun's reflection in the reed bed.

 The wind was making waves on the lake

 Tree reflections in a muddy puddle

  The river

 Water falling down a steep weir

Flood water draining away

 The foam in the river

A shallow weir with much more water flowing over it

The wind playing with the water

Looking down onto the weir

The water in this stream was flowing left to right but the wind was rippling the water right to left.

Looking down on the water from a bridge

Despite the wind and the lack of sunshine this was an enjoyable exercise in looking at water differently from the way I normally photograph it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bernice

ExTex: Penultimate Post

I hadn't realised it was such a long time since I have written about ExTex.  The last time was Session 4 and next week is the final session - Session 9.

Session 5 was about experimenting with weaving, knitting, needlefelting and wet felting.

The homework was to use one (or more) of these techniques to produce a 3D something.  I made this wet felted vase.

At Session 6 we used Transfer Paints.  I really wasn't enamoured with these but I'm quite pleased with this homework that used the dyed fabric and felt.

Session 7 was a mix of things.  Firstly we dyed fabrics.  At home after I had washed and dried the fabrics I made this colour wheel.

I also tried out the different colours on a dyed background with coloured stitching in the hope it would show how colours react with one another.

We also played with Tyvek and Lutradur.

At our penultimate session we played with Kim's technique of 'Backgrounds & Pretties' made with dyed or painted newspaper.  I backed one of my 'pretties' with painted Lutradur.

And we made beads with different synthetic materials including cellophane and crisp packets.

I've spent the time since trying to complete all the rest of the samples I need for my workbook and which maybe chosen for the exhibition at the NEC in a couple of weeks.

This sample is made from a baby wipe that I had used to clean one of the stamps I made.  It is stitched on to some fabric I had painted on a different course and some bits of painted Tyvek was added.

At session 8 Kim talked about different ways to raise the surface on a piece of work.  I stamped a piece of Lutradur with modeling paste using one of the stamps I made.  Then I painted it with Seth Apter Paper Artsy paints.  I also used some copper paint.  I stitched into it with seed stitch.

A close up

After the NEC show I'll share some photos of the exhibition and my finished piece which is still in the making and I have only 5 days left to finish it!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice