UFO's : minus one

I took one of my UFO’s and decided to finish it.
I’m not used to work with those ‘soft candy ‘ colours, although I dyed the fabric some years ago.
I was inspired by a work I made some months ago (Marseill - Frioel) :

And this is what I made so far :

I appliquéd free-hand cut circles with a free-motion stitch.
I still miss ‘that’ little detail that makes a work, a better work.
Any one, any idea ?
You’re most welcome !
I still have to add a border, nothing complicated…

“The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.”
Barbara Hall

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Nathalie

New toy

Last day, when I went on hunting for well defined colours in the neosoluble caran d’ache II, I found and came home (or what do you think ?) with this box :
The shop where I went didn’t bought the pastels neo color II a piece, only in a box and since I wanted some beiges to make faces.
In the museum box, I have several ‘skin’ colours. I was going to buy only the colours I needed, but when I calculated the amough I had to buy, I came to the conclusion that it was more interesting to buy the box.

These crayons are ‘greasier’ than the pencils but ‘dryer’ that the neo colors II.
The mechanical pencils lays good in the hand and the colours are wonderful when used dry or watered.
I started to sketch a flower to test my new toy :

And ended up with this :

I used different kinds of caran d’ache, the blue background are the watered museum pencils, the leaves are also the museum pencils but then used dry. The tip is staying sharp for a longer time than a normal pencil. In some circumstances this is important.

The next drawing is - a flower again – a sketch I made for DH who was coming home very late because of a business meeting.

I wrote a “girly quote” : ‘I love you, a little, much, still, always, in black and white and the most in colour.’

I felt the kiss when he came sleeping.

I had the honour to met Marie Claire Saint Maux ( her blog ) who came visiting me Monday.
We first ‘met’ online in the yahoo group from Dena Crain the ‘Darned quilt group’.
Marie-Claire asked if someone was living in Belgium thus…
After some e-mails we took a rendez-vous at my place.
Marie-Claire, her partner and me talked a bit about the difficulties to find same minded (art) souls.

I hope we will have the opportunity to realize some great things together.


‘One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.’

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Nathalie

Working on ‘The Flower’ again..

After an intermezzo, I started to work again on my flower.
I added the borders on my ‘Flower’ :
I chose red because I intend to paint the wall where she will be hung, grey.

The ‘green’ garden will also be in sight of this work. That’s the reason I added a little green accent in the small border.
I don’t know what you think of ‘the flower’ but it’s turning to be a powerful work.
I didn’t want to use the word ‘overwhelming’ but it’s nearby…
Here she is ready to be quilted :

I enrolled for a workshop given by Pam Carriker named ‘Shades of grey’.
This workshop is ‘an open ended workshop’, this means : you can enroll whenever you want, it stays online.

This is what I have done so far :

I added some quotes from Ernest Hemmingway – when using a moleskine sketchbook, you can’t do otherwise – I was a bit influenced by G. Klimt and I started to play with the words : shades of grey and ombre (meaning shadow).
In fact : I could have used any colour beside the grey. Surprisingly working with white was the hardest. Not used to work with a ‘non-colour’ .

One could ask : ‘Why do you start to work on paper ?’
My answer is : storing journals takes less place than quilts and fibre art !
My following answer is : I have a better vision of what I’m creating in fibre. It’s better thought and prepared. At least, I hope so.
As result : I have the some joy in creating and a better feeling when my fibre work is finished. I also have a written remembrance on how, why and when.

‘There is no rule on how to write’
Ernest Hemmingway

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Nathalie

New Sketchbooks

I had to buy a new sketchbook, in fact two...
The old one is so full I couldn’t add more in it :
This was my painted frontcover :

And this is the last doodle page :
I couldn’t end otherwise than with butterflies :

I have 2 new great sketchbooks now.
A handbag version, I spoiled myself with a moleskine (8 x 5 inch) :
The first thing I did was making a watercolour from ‘my sea’ :

I coloured a second page with different colours and stamped gesso.
Then I copied a part of a poem from E. Verhaeren : Les Vergers de Mai,

talking about the Flanders :

The third page has been coloured but is blank from written impressions :

The other sketchbook is larger (10 x 12.5 inch) and has watercolourpaper pages :
This one hasn’t any drawing in it, yet…

But that won’t take long before the watercolour drawing is on the page !

Taking possession of a ‘large ‘sketchbook is ….
Intimidating.

"Books to the ceiling,

Books to the sky,

My pile of books is a mile high.

How I love them! How I need them!

I'll have a long beard by the time I read them. "

Arnold Lobel

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Nathalie

Junk Art

A very little post this time.

This is my challenge piece so far :
Since past week, I didn’t have the time to do much. I hope this will change soon.

On Sarah Withmire ‘s blog, there is another challenge available and this is what I have done :
I even used a rose scent as ‘something beginning with the letter R’.

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Nathalie

Without my camera !

I miss my camera !

My youngest took my camera with her to Istanbul and I used my old one to take my pictures but now – stupid me : I forgot to reload the batteries – I’m without camera.
Thus I can’t show you a thing of what I did.

For instance :
I made some more painted pages ;
and
I started with the challenge 2 from Shelagh.
I also cleaned my studio, again…
that’s what I do when I’m searching for inspiration when I want to continue a work, in this case : ‘the flower”.
I also had to work more in our shop since one of the employees is on holiday.
A chance I love what I do.

Next time the pictures will be back.

"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. "
Henry Kissinger


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Nathalie

Blank Pages

I started to paint several pages from my sketchbook to make them more pleasant to write and add my ideas and thoughts on that paper.
It was such a fun that I painted more pages than I had in mind.
I also made a collage from what we did on mother’s day, this was yesterday.

From my 2 youngest I receive a letter saying that I could spend money in a craft store.
They realized – after all the years telling them that if they want to give a present, I wanted thread or craft material - that nothing was doing me more pleasure !
In fact, it was my son giving the present because my youngest daughter left for Istanbul for a week school trip. She promised to shoot a lot of pictures.

We also went on a ‘Start to golf’-day. It was super. The weather was all sunshine and the golf was splendid. We were looking for a sport we could do together and this was a sport that DH was willing to try. And he enjoyed ! I’m so glad because he has to move more.
The club members were very open to talk to us about the whereabouts from their club. I was surprised to see as many adolescents playing golf.

Next week we will take a lesson and we’ll see…

“Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
Mark Twain

Write you later
Nathalie

Module 4

I played a bit doing the fourth module from the creative sketchbooks course.

I punched pages, then cut them and reassembled them using the punched holes and ribbon.
I “see” some possibilities in using this technique in my fibre work..

I tried to have ‘correct’ colours for the exercise above, but you can’t recognize the picture - taken during a visit in the “Ten Duinen” museum near my home - from behind the punching. But I could use – in my fibre work - some sheer upper layer so that the layer beneath is only guessed.

Soo…

Don’t look at the colours below : I just intended to have a big contrast and just took some paints.

Then I pierced a page using a metal pin.
The view from the back is more interesting than the front.

I don’t see any application – for the moment – using piercing in my fibre work.

This I certainly will take in fibre work :

I sprayed two different colours, the orange was sprayed first, the brown second.
Once done, I discovered I sprayed a shadow from my giraffe, I just sprayed the colours in the wrong order.
But this is really fun.
I first tried this (I looked for the correct name, but didn’t found it, so I call it ‘this’) :

Without great success,
then I used this bottle :

There was still some hair product in it but I emptied the bottle and rinsed it out.
When you don’t have the time to shop…
You have to take a look in your house, starting in the bathroom and in the kitchen.
Still have to find some skeleton leaves,
This will be shopping, unless a good soul buys me flowers and the skeleton leaves are used as wrap decoration. I have the same pleasure with the flowers as with the wrap since the cellophane can be painted and melted with nice results.

My dog has had surgery today. She had some little tumors again and before they grow too big, we found it more advised to let them cut away. Female dogs are more ‘fragile’ to have that kind of tumors apparently.
She’s back at home, trying to sleep but when she walks, it’s like a ‘drunken person’: she doesn’t seem to find her stability !


"What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions."
Walter Pater

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Nathalie

Auditioning

I looked for some greens that could be add as border for the flower :

I first had in mind to add two different borders : a light and a dark half but I changed my mind. The light greens weren’t a happy match in reality.

Thus I only added the dark green :

This is the first border, it will be a small line between the centre and a larger border.

Since the weather is too nice, I will spent some time outside and enjoy the singing of the birds.

“The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have.”
Leonard Nimoy

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Nathalie