Silver Pendant and Garden Landscapes

 Happy New Year!  We've avoided the snow thankfully but it's been windy and cold so I've been staying warm indoors and getting a little bit of crafting done. 

Before Christmas I made a silver pendant as a Christmas present and also another one as a commission from a friend of a friend, so as the kiln needed to be fired up it seemed a good idea to make a couple of pieces for myself too!

I forgot to photograph the first two pieces what with so much going on - I was just relieved to get them finished in time and boxed up! However, I've just finished polishing this one for myself and I'm pleased with how it came out.  I would have preferred a slightly different stone to the white Moonstone on the left but that is all I had in my stash that toned with the Labradorite and Hematite.  It was taken from a mould of a rough concrete surface and is chunky at about 4cm wide.

And for something completely different I've been playing around in my sketchbook with little landscape collages.  I started with watercolour bases and am just adding bits as and when I feel like it!  I have no idea how they will end up but it's all about the process - they are relaxing and enjoyable and are feeding in to my current obsession with garden landscapes! 

I'm linking up with Sarah over at WOYWW. 

Little Landscape Collages

 I have finished (I think!) the little collages I was making in my last post.  They are part of the garden landscape collages I've been working on in my sketchbook and I really like the colours in these.  They are loosely taped into the book and can be removed easily if I want to work on them again - which I'm undecided about at the moment.  

Christmas is nearly upon us and I'm all done - cards made, decorations up and presents wrapped, not a lot else to do now except sit back and relax!  

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, crafty New Year.

I'm joining Sarah over at WOYWW

Little Foggy Garden Embroideries and WOYWW

 I've finally got round to finishing the little 'foggy garden' embroideries that I was making in my last post and I've attached them loosely to my sketchbook - I'm not yet sure if they will stay there or if I will do something with them. 

Not a desk shot but this is a corner of my studio that just had the late evening sun hit it while I was up there - it made the glass jars sparkle so I grabbed a photo before the sun went down completely.

 I'm joining in with Sarah over at WOYWW this week. 

Embroidery Mat and WOYWW

A few years ago I picked up a wool ironing mat from a crafting/quilting fair -it's been brilliant and I use it all the time when I'm sewing - among other things it's a pin cushion and a place to pin little scraps that I'm working with.  The downside is that I often pick up fibres from it while sewing and end up picking them out of the embroideries with tweezers!  So this week I decided to cover one side of the mat with some smooth cotton fabric.  I blanket stitched it all around the sides - this means the covered side can be used for sewing and I can flip it over for ironing - the embroidery doesn't get flattened when ironed face down on the wool side.

 I'm sewing my way through some more little garden themed collages - we get a lot of sea mists in the mornings living so close to the water and I love the way the garden peeps through in such lovely soft muted colours.  

 

The corners of the mat were a bit hit and miss and are all different, giving it a very individual look!! 

I'm linking up with Sarah over at WOYWW this week.

 

 

Garden Shadows

 I've been working on a few mini collages based on shadows and shapes around my garden at dusk - always one of my favourite times of the day in the summer.  My garden is on two levels and has steps to the top garden but also lots of smaller steps from one area to another, little walls, and lots of paths - a great variety of shapes and textures to work with! These little collages are approximately 2 inches square, and after staining the backgrounds I added hand embroidery and collage papers, finishing off with gold leaf which I discovered is very tricky to attach to fabric!  

 

I'm linking up with Sarah for WOYWW this week.

Winter Snowdrop Collage

 This week I finished a sketchbook page in celebration of these pretty little winter flowers that are blooming my garden at the moment.

I have one small group of Snowdrops and I'm hoping they'll spread - they originally came from a friend who has sadly passed on but I have so enjoyed making this page and thinking happy thoughts of her.

I'm also getting stuck in to another wintery page - I'm being drawn to that soft sage colour lately  - not a go to colour for me usually but I'm enjoying it and will be using it until I've worked it out of my system!  

  

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Frosty Seedlings Collage

 I surprised myself by finishing the page I started last week in my sketchbook.  Still working on the winter garden theme and loving it!

    Some detailed shots... 

   ... the photo on the left shows 'Frosted Crystal' Distress embossing powder - I just love it's matte texture - so frosty!

I've also done some little ink doodles with a view to using them in collages.   These are currently on my desk, along with stencil brushes to be put away and the sketch book that should be back on it's shelf!

Some photo collages with the doodles for my velvet moth photography blog - the MakroTex challenge theme this week is 'collage'.   

I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW this week, a great place for seeing what other people have on their desks at the moment.

Silver Clay and the New Kiln!

    I was incredibly lucky to be given a small jewellery kiln for Christmas by the Hubs.  What a wonderful man - and he let me use it in the couple of weeks before Christmas so I didn't have to wait for it - he knows me so well!!

This little pendant is a Christmas gift I made for my sister, using silver clay and the new kiln - it's based on a beachcombing theme, using a cuttlefish bone impression for the 'waves' and silver frit for the sand, I topped it off with a piece of pale amethyst 'treasure'.  It's quite small, about 2.5cm across, as my sister does delicate - if it was for me it would be at least twice that size!!

Also pre-Christmas I made little boxes for my nephews for money and gift cards (which they seem to prefer!), and that's the sum total of my Christmas crafting...

... however, shoulder and elbow seem to be improving and I've felt enthused enough to start a page in my sketch book - I don't know where it's going but hopefully it will have changed by next week!  I'm thinking winter garden - a recurring and well loved theme!

 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week. 

 

Cyanotype printing

 I have been busy collecting the last of the summer blooms and foliage from the garden, and preserving them for cyanotype printing by pressing them.  In contrast to my husband who is head vegetable gardener I am particularly thrilled with the leaves that have been half eaten by pests or struck with disease - the little holes and nibbled and curled bits add so much more to the print in my opinion!

These prints show Brambles, Raspberry leaves, weeds and Tamarisk, and the last two photos show the Tamarisk print before and after rinsing out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gardening Card and WOYWW

 I made a birthday card for the Hubs this week and decided on a gardening theme.  He's spent most of the week outside preparing the vegetable tubs, making bases for them to stand on, sowing seeds and generally tidying the patio ready for vegetable growing.  I thought the card was quite apt!

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Winter Garden Collage and WOYWW

This little winter collage is sitting on my work table at the moment, and I've been wondering what else needs to be done to it - something does but I'm not sure what!  It was inspired by my garden which has little houses in it to help the wild life through the winter - a couple of hedgehog houses and several bee and insect houses.  I was keeping the nest image for a more Spring-like collage but decided to use it as we've had lots of birds gathering twigs and nesting materials for the last few weeks, and a couple of Magpies have been fussing around a large half built nest in our Hawthorn tree this week.

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Gardening Mini Journal

Over the Easter break I made a little gardening journal in which to keep all the notes about the garden this year -  with my husband's foray into the world of growing vegetables and his constant quest for knowledge about it on the internet I decided that rather than have piles of little notes and scraps of paper lying around I would make him a journal to collate all his valuable information!

I took the idea from a birthday card I made him recently, which can be found here.

I used Eileen Hull's Wrapped Journal die and decorated it with stenciling using Distress Micro glaze as a resist.  I added real seeds and Glossy Accents for 'water drops' to the front cover and little miniature die cut vegetables to the inner cover. For closure the twig (which is actually a shawl pin) is slotted through two loops of leather held in place with brads.  The signatures are loose but held in place with brown elastic thread so that pages can be moved around or replaced.

The inside front cover has a small envelope which closes with natural twine and I made a page marker out of thick linen thread with a bead and a little pea pod on the end - this is simply looped through some of the elastic binding inside the journal.

I so enjoyed making this and I really could have gone to town decorating it but I was pleased that I managed to keep it fairly understated and simple - the hubs definitely wouldn't want dangly decorations and fiddly bits that might fall off or get in the way!

I am sharing this over at Julia's WOYWW and the 
Mini Album Makers Challenge.

 

Gardening Birthday Card and WOYWW

It was the Hub's birthday this week and I made him a gardening themed card as he has decided to throw himself wholeheartedly into growing vegetables this year - life is revolving around seedlings and grow-bags at the moment!

I used real seeds glued in little rows and also a larger seed glued into each texture paste circle, just as if they are in their own little pots.  Glossy Accents was used for the moisture drops on the vellum and also on the circles. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

  

My Outdoor Studio and WOYWW

While some health issues have been causing big changes in my life lately, I've been turning to the things I feel familiar with - more than ever my garden has been a huge source of comfort and inspiration to me and in some ways is an extended part of my studio.
 My garden is full of memories and full of plans for the future.

 It's where I feel closest to my mum - she would have been such a strong and loving support to me through this rather trying time and she is deeply missed.

When my mum was living with Alzheimers the garden was our favourite place to be - I turned her little herb garden into a sensory garden where we could enjoy the flavours, smells and textures of the plants.  Wild strawberries were scattered throughout and Pineapple Broom gave off a beautiful fruity scent.  Chocolate Cosmos really did smell deliciously of real chocolate (that was one of our favourites!) and we'd crush and smell the leaves of Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Thyme and Lavender.  Heliotrope had a smell very much like cherry pie (which is also it's nickname) and Stachys Lanata had the softest, furriest leaves to stroke.

Some of the plants have disappeared during bouts of neglect due to many different reasons throughout the years, but there is still an abundance of  favourite plants that have survived through both the good and bad times - Thalictrum with it's especially beautiful fern like foliage, Geums and Rock Roses, and blue Geraniums. I've been gently working on the garden when I can so that it continues to be a place of inspiration, comfort, peace and tranquility, and where new memories will be made. 

Here are some older photos of the herb garden - the house and lower lawn are behind the bench, hidden by the hedge so I'm working on opening it all up so I can see this part of the garden from the house.   

  I'm joining up with Julia over at WOYWW and I apologise for the length of this post - I seem to have rambled on for an unusually long time today!