Advent Calendars and Doll Clothes.

Hi, I haven't written for ages. I am back at work teaching watercolour painting and have made lots of items for very fast approaching Christmas fairs. I have made advent calendars, embroidered cards and  knitted dresses for dolls. Lots still to be made. I have cut out felt to make gingerbread men and rudolph the red nosed reindeers. Here are a few pictures of some of the items I have been making.

The doll dresses are knitted from a pattern by Jacqueline Gibb for Jacknitss Design. The patterns are really excellent and are very easy to follow.

Gardening, painting and fashion doll dresses.

Hi, does'nt time fly. I have spent a couple of weekends working on my garden with my husband. It had become so overgrown it needed a big clear out with some replanting. Its only a small garden but it took a lot of hard work and I have replaced some shrubs with hardy perennials. I hope that
when they establish themselves I will have some lovely flowers for painting.
        I had a lovely surprise this week. I went to buy the Artist and Illustrator magazine and found my painting of an orchid printed in the portfolio section. It was great to see it in print. The only problem with photographing botanical paintings is that the white paper often looks blue or grey.
        I have also been stitching some dresses to fit 11.5" fashion dolls. I found a lovely mushroom/toadstool print fabric that made up into a two lovely dresses. Thats all for now folks.

The background paper is white. Orchid splendour.

Painting on holiday

Hi, I have just got back from my holiday in Cornwall. The weather was great and we had a lovely time. I enjoyed making a few pen and watercolour sketches of some lovely coastal scenery. I sketched the view in pen first and then added some simple watercolour washes finding this to be a much more successful approach than drawing and then painting in more detail. I found that on a family holiday you don't want to spend a long time painting but just create the essence of the places you visit quickly. I have taken lots of photographs so that, with the sketches I have made, I can now paint the lovely scenery of Cornwall at home.

Lanic Bay

Porthluney Beach

St Michaels Mount

Talland Bay

Bedruthen Steps

Painting Orchids

I have just finished my painting of an orchid. I loved the colours of this Orchid and thought it would make a lovely painting. Because Orchids have long stems I decided to approach the flower stem and the leaves seperately and overlay the leaves with the flowers. The masking fluid worked well and enabled me to achieve balanced washes across the leaves. I thoroughly enjoyed painting the markings on the petals. Very nice painting project to do.

Watercolour painting of Gorran Haven Cornwall.

Have been painting and sewing this week. I have finished the watercolour of Gorran Haven Cornwall and am now painting an Orchid. I had drawn up the plant as part of a short course and thought it needed to be finished. I still have a lot to do but it is painting up well. I had to use masking fluid on this painting as the orchid flowers lay over the leaves and I needed broad strokes to paint the leaves. I don't like using masking fluid as I find it difficult to get smooth edges but this worked well and thankfully did'nt damage the paper when removed. I have also made some 11.5" fashion doll dresses and they look really cute and summery.

Gorran Haven

Photographs of the Orchid painting will follow.

Painting and sewing

A lovely week. I finished work for the summer on Tuesday and spent Wednesday cleaning the house.Thank goodness I did it yesterday, its too hot today.I have been making apple pin cushions from a pattern I found on Etsy by Nap Kitten. I am very pleased with the pattern and the apples were straight forward to make, if a little fiddly.

I have been wanting to paint a coastal or harbour scene in watercolour for some time.  I have a lovely photograph from my holiday last year of Gorran Haven in Cornwall. Just the thing. Since it is so warm I thought I would paint today in spite of the fact that the paint might dry very quickly. Actually it was fine. I think it must be humid which does help. I am using Khadi paper which I have not used before. I learnt one thing you cannot use the rubber on this paper as when you apply the paint it acts as blotting paper. I am painting in stages because, at the moment, the sunlight is directly across my painting and is very bright. I am waiting for the sun to move round a bit then I can do some more.

Textile art

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. My son was home from uni, another year completed. He has gone back to uni for a month to gain more experience. It was lovely having him home. I have been knitting dresses for Barbie and framing up some of my embroidery pieces produced during my City and Guilds course. I have also put three of my framed paintings and four portfolio pieces into the local exhibition run by the Brentwood and Billericay Wild life trust. The open exhibition begins on the 12th July. It was lovely to be selecting paintings to enter and to paint a new painting. Have a look at the framed embroidery pieces. The three smaller works are now for sale on my Folksy shop.

C&G Embroidery course

Hi, Just received from SST a you tube of my embroidery course. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRbVHtKaaGw&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

Embroidery course City & Guilds final update.

Hi, Just a very quick blog today. I have just received news that I have passed the City & Guilds level 3 embroidery course. I am so pleased. A few photos of the main assessments.

Patchings day out.

Hi, I had a fantastic time on Saturday. I went to the Patchings art and craft festival near Nottingham. I had an afternoon painting with Hazel Soan. I was so excited to attend a painting session with Hazel. I love her style of painting and her use of vibrant colours is amazing. Hazel had brought along photographs of oranges growing (not in a bowl) and showed us how to paint them wet in wet. I am mainly a botanical/floral painter and this very loose free way of painting is so different for me. First stage was to quickly sketch the oranges and then cover the painting with a thin wash of Indian Yellow, into this, whilst still wet, we painted in the oranges using different tones of a mix made from Indian yellow and Permanent Rose. These two transparent colours make a beautiful range of oranges. Whilst the painting was still wet we went around the oranges emphasising their shape using a mix of Prussian blue ond indian yellow. Once this had dried we picked some of the leaves around the fruit by first laying down more Indian yellow and then Prussian blue. The paints combined on the paper to make different shades of green.

Some of my leaves look a little heavy, but overall I am pleased with the results and it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Embroidery course finished.

Hi, I havent posted for a while because I have been so busy finishing my City & Guilds embroidery course. I posted the CD off this morning. Hopefully it will arrive on time and be OK. Fingers crossed. The final pieces made for the course includes a shell shaped bag, Hardanger, cutwork, pulled fabric and drawn thread work. I really enjoyed sewing these pieces and playing around with silk dyes to create some lovely effects.Have a look at the pieces I have sewn.

Embroidery course update

Hi, Just a short note today as time is flying by and I am working hard to complete the City & Guilds course. The fan I have designed is complete and I have submitted the module. The next module for the course involves making the bag and stitching several pieces of pulled thread work, drawn thread work and cut work. Lots to do.

Embroidery course update

Hi, I have nearly finished module ten of the City & Guilds course. I am waiting for the glue to dry on the fan I have made and then I can finish and photograph it. I have made lace style roses and butterflies, machine stitched on soluble fabric and machine embroidered roses on hand dyed fabric. I wanted to create the effect of a climbing rose. I have hand embroidered the stems using cable chain and stem stitch. I used perle 12 variegated thread and it produced a lovely effect. I combined the machine made roses and butterflies with lace flowers I had dyed pink. I stitched the pink lace flowers to the back to give a soft finish. The leaves were a combination of those cut from hand dyed silk fabrics and those made by machine embroidery. I will show more photos when the fan is completed.

Embroidery course contd.

The sun is out and it looks lovely in the garden, perhaps we can have our lunch outside. I have had a lovely Easter weekend. Saturday we dropped our son at Gatwick airport. He was off to Scotland for a geology field trip. We then decided, since we were in the area, to visit Wisley gardens. They looked beautiful in the spring sunshine. The Rhododendrons were absolutely stunning and I took lots of photographs. I hope that some will be good enough to paint from. Last week I finished designing the accessory for the embroidery course. I have designed a handbag based on shells. The next module for the course involves making cords, braids, buttons and tassels so its back to work.