Canal Concertina Sketchbook

I had started a concertina sketchbook way back in 2018 which was based on views of Venice - except lots of people thought it was Morocco.  I didn't get any further with it than the photos in this post: Karen Stamper workshop.

I did another workshop with Karen in 2019 and was more pleased with this sketchbook.

Anyway, back to my original sketchbook.  I loved the zigzag book I made from an Everything Art online workshop.

I thought I would make a bigger version using the old concertina sketchbook.  I cut out the main Venice pages leaving the ones I had started.  I knew I could cover up the stamped architectural images.

I won't show you all the pages, just the development of a few. This first double page spread was totally blank when I started.

As you can see this page had gothic window shapes stamped on and some Italian dictionary.

I used gesso and acrylic paint to cover the stamping.

This spread also had Venice related stamping.

I added washi tape and part of a photo.

I added acrylic paint and stencilling.

I'm still working on the pages.  I work on one and then go back to another.  I'm adding photos, text, stencilling, paint, gesso.

Here are a couple of pages that are next to be worked on.

I'll do another post later this month with some more finished (or almost finished) pages.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Nature photography

I was invited to share a nature photo each day for 7 days on Facebook.  I trawled the archives and here is my selection. The first 3 were taken in the UK and the rest whilst in Florida.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Saturday School Stories

Schools have featured heavily in my life from the age of 4 when I started school to 2005 when Andy left school.  That's 51 years of school related life.

When I started school, my mother went back to teaching.  In the same school!  In reception I was taught by mother's best friend.  In middle infants I was in my mother's class.  In top infants I was in the class of another of my mother's friends.  In later years we occasionally went on holiday with her.  And my parents almost bought a house next door to this lady and her husband.  Coincidentally about 350 yards from where I live now.

School 50 year celebration 2003:  My reception teacher, the headteacher and my mother.

The reception class teacher?  She was my Guide Captain.  And before that I was in the Brownies and Brown Owl was my Godmother.  As you might imagine, I never got away with anything!

And just to add to all this when I was in my last year in the Junior School, my Dad was doing his special needs diploma teaching practice with one of the classes in my school.

The Infant School was connected to the Junior School by the school kitchen.  When I was in the top juniors my mother couldn't understand why every now and again I would have greasy marks on the left sleeve of my blouse.  Of course the cook told her!  My friend and I were on a rota for collecting the headteacher's lunch on a tray.  If there were roast potatoes, the cook would give us an extra one which we wrapped in our hankies and pushed up our sleeves!

After primary school I went to a Grammar School.  I mentioned some of my experiences in my post on qualifications.  After school I went to Teacher Training College and then I became a teacher.  I did feel that I was rather institutionalised!

I taught in various schools from 1970 until 1987.  Some experiences were better than others.  It really depended on who was the headteacher rather than where the school was.

I had intended staying at home with Andy until he went to school but I wasn't really suited to not working.  I went back part-time and then full time until I took ill-health retirement in 1992.

By this time Andy was at school so my life was still bound by term times.   It has taken years to realise that 3.30pm or 4pm isn't a significant time in each day.

What memories do you have of school?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice