Yours Artfully

And as another week comes to a close, I realised that the weeks seem to by flying by at a much faster rate of knots than usual. Since I started my City & Guilds course, it feels like I have to make the most of every single minute. I didn't realise just how much time I would need to spend on my homework.....it doesn't feel like homework as I am loving every minute of it but it is homework none the less. I dabbled with Silk painting at college last night for the first time. It proved a little tricky but it was a lot of fun and I now know that I certainly need to practise my skills in laying out my design in Gutta (that's the outlining stuff) as my first attempt is more than a tad wobbly and my lines are definitely not consistent in width!!!

Here's a peek at last weeks task.

We had to carve our own stamp. Again, this was new to me and also not as easy as I thought it was going to be, keeping an even pressure seems to be my problem with most of the tasks so far. Now while it is looking like my homework just consists of making pretty things, I can assure you that there is quite a bit of research and theory notation going on as well. I can't wait for next week when I get to make a silk painted piece that will go towards the final submission.....tis a tad nerve racking, I can tell you!!!

So what else have I been up to this week??? I spent my Wednesday morning with my Wednesday play buddy Seb. We played PlayDoh for the first time this week. Not a first for him but a first for us. I now know that I really have to make sure that Toto, the tiny Yorkshire Terrier that belongs to my daughter Sarah, is not in the room when the PlayDoh is around........big mistake on my part!!! He eats absolutely anything. Of course, I was so busy playing with Seb that I didn't notice Toto come in and steal a giant chunk of blue PlayDoh that had fallen on the floor. Imagine my horror when I looked down and he's at my ankles with a blue beard. Not just a hint of blue.......great big globules of the stuff hanging out of his mouth and caked into his normally very pretty coat. I nearly had heart failure. I had to stand him in the kitchen sink and scrub his tiny little face for what felt like hours. Bless him, he was sooooo good, he let me clean him up. I guess he was so uncomfortable that he figured it would be in his best interests to let me do it. Thankfully, I managed to get it all out but he looked like he'd had a blue rinse!!!! Sadly, in my panic, I didn't take a picture and luckily, Sarah saw the funny side of this very sorry tale.

I have managed a few minutes to myself here and there this week, I wanted to make something a bit more substantial with the Luscious Leaf thingy that I shared with you here earlier in the month. Leandra has some great new box canvases that are a very reasonable price so I thought I would have a little dabble on one of those.

The background technique is just the same as on the tags and my Lynne Perrella image is coloured with my Prismacolor pencils. I know that you are all going to ask me about the oval frame and I am really sorry, I got it in Paris!! They do have a website though, www.scrapdesirs.com www.scrapdesirs.com . 

Here's a couple of closer shots so that you can see the embellishments better.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, I'm off to the library this evening in search of books on silk painting!