It´s been a busy week

Ceiba speciosa, formerly Chorisia speciosa

This lovely tree is the subject we have chosen to use as inspiration for a piece of work in the small design group I am part of along with Yvonne, Jenny, Maureen and Irene, who are also members of my much larger stitching group.  It´s common name is the Silk Floss Tree because it´s seed pods contain a kapok-like floss inside the pod protecting the seeeds.  We didn´t know the name of the tree, we just loved the huge thorns on the trunk and branches, along with the pretty pink speckled flowers, but we think it´s quite apropriate that we should have chosen this tree for a textile group to study!

I´ve been working on a couple of cards using silk carrier rods with embroidery and beads as embellishments.   The one shown here has been named Blue Eagle by Frank, who I made it for. 

Our combi-microwave caught fire this week too, no damage other than smoke thankfully, but this has meant hours of trawling the internet to find a replacement, then wasted trips to the shops to find one that fits our requirements.  There´s very little choice so I´ve now decided to manage with a small microwave for re-heating foods only, and will go back to using the big oven for other cooking until I find exactly what I want.  The whole exercise has been very frustrating and eaten into precious creative time!

I´ve had a couple of days cutting out all the squares and circles for a heavy duty curtain I´m making in tans, browns and cream leather.  I always enjoy working with leather; the leather smell brings back happy memories of my teenage years living at home where Mum and Dad were busy designing and making leather clothes for very posh ladies from Knightsbridge.

These are the colours of large squares of leather ready to pieced together

The circles ready to be appliqued onto some of the squares.

No rain but productive day

The rain didn´t arrive yesterday, but I still had a fun day finishing off one piece and working on another.

This is a textured paper with molding paste through a daisy stencil.  I plan on adding lots and lots of hand embroidery to this piece after backing it with felt.  I have a photo of a gnarled bare branched tree which I plan on using as inspiration.  I love the colours which have emerged from using pastels then waxing over to seal them.  The daisies were painted individually then waxed again.

I´m not sure how I´m going to finish this piece of silk rod paper, but will probably mount it on a mount board.  The next lesson in this workshop is experimenting with gummy silk cocoons fibres and deep etched wooden stamp blocks.

Happy Birthday today to my nephew Simon!



Rain Clouds??

It´s very black over the mountains this morning, and the clouds are moving this way!  After a really hot windy day yesterday it would be lovely if we got some much needed rain here.  Fingers cossed, and of course it will mean I will be confined to my studio!  I´m eager to get going this morning, I have a mixed media piece of work I am keen to continue working on.  In my fruitless search to find lining paper over here, I eventually found a roll of textured wallpaper with lining paper on the reverse.  The textured side is just perfect for mixed media and yesterday I covered it with pastels in greens, blues and yellows, covered this with a coat of wax medium and when dry pasted on some light molding paste through a daisy stencil.  Now I want to paint the daisies then I´ll back the piece with felt and embroider heavily into it with threads of various different weights.

I finished my current lesson in the Ratty Tatty Papers workshop, but changed the end piece from a tiny folding book to a hanging.  My first attempts at silk paper making were mixed, with some pieces having the silk fibres not completely attached.  They stubbornly refused to behave despite being worked over twice with more medium.  Instead of consigning the gorgeuos fibres to the bin, I used them in this exercise, backed with another piece of silk paper making them more stable.  Definitely a process to try again.

The next lesson explores silk rods.  I have split these down and pressed them to a piece of burgundy silk ready to be stitched into.  Another new technique for me!  My thanks to Dale Rollerson of the Thread Studio in Australia for sharing her ideas and running this internet workshop,  showing me how to use all these lovely fibres I´ve been collecting over the years.  Isn´t the internet an amazing tool.... from Australia to Spain without all the travel hassle too!!

Cooler days at last

The temperature is dropping very slightly at last, and with heavy cloud most of yesterday I was able to sit on the garden swing and stitch outside comfortably for a change.  My new new-found enjoyment of hand embroidery continues with another seam treatment on the crazy quilt block.

It´s so satisfying using up fabrics and threads that have been collected over years and years in some cases, together with beads donated by my sister.  Stitching, relaxing with happy memories.  I can´t think of anything I´d rather be doing.!   Never having done much handwork before, I was finding it very awkward doing some of the stitches, but a friend in my stitching group showed me how I should be working, and it´s much easier when you know how!

This is the view that greeted me when I drove around the corner on our track on my way to the stitching group this week.  Breathtaking.  There is a huge mountain shrouded behind this early morning mist and clouds.  What inspiration for an artist, Dad would love this.



Dreaded beetle arrives in Los Gavilanes!!

I´m so upset about this I´ve had to blog twice today to show you.  Well, here it is, I´d love to think this is the only one, but I fear it won´t be.  I found it in the garden this morning, it was dead but still alarming to find. About an inch and a half long and half inch across you wouldn´t believe it could cause so much devastation across the countryside.

          

We´ve been watching palm tree after majestic palm tree succomb to this terrible plague getting ever nearer and nearer our mountainside.  There will be a very close inspection now of all the palms, but it´s going to be a losing battle I think as these large beetles eat from the middle of the palm trunk out and you don´t know they are there until the leaves all start dying and that´s too late.  It will be a sad day if it comes to that.  After almost seven years the palms are looking glorious

Long Tuesday!!

What a long day yesterday turned out to be.  No tables in the meeting hall, and I´ve had to cancel my workshop on Friday because of yet another fiesta in the village.... 12 disappointed students.  Now I´m having difficulty re-scheduling as all the Fridays are booked up for the next 5 weeks!!

Had great fun going through our Design Group assignment, my sketchbook is almost up to date now.  Just a few photos to be printed and added.  It´s amazing how much we´ve achieved in the year we have been working on the exercises.  Other VSS group members looked at the sketchbook and were very impressed!!  I´m quite proud of myself, it´s the first time I have done anything like this and followed it through from start to finish.  Only five more exercises, hope to finish by the end of the year.

                        

                     

Aren´t these autumn leaves amazing.  I spotted them a couple of weeks ago early one morning in the garden, and was fascinated by the colours and how evenly the leaflets are all marked .  Within a day they had changed again.   At the time I was looking for inspiration for a homework assignment in our design course.  Unfortunately these leaves didn´t meet the homework criteria but  I must be able to do something creative with this inspiration at another time!

Today I aim to stretch some lining paper, which should dry ultra-quick in this heat.  Then to see what I remember about watercolour washes which I learned from my wonderfully talented artist Dad and Mum during my recent UK trip!

My First Blog!

Welcome to my first ever blog!!  The aim of the blog is for family and friends to have a peak at my life here in Spain with Frank, in our lovely home which we share with two crazy rescue kitties, Mishka and Ginger .



Sunset at Los Gavilanes in August

 This is the view from our porch where we sit most evenings looking back on our day.  At the moment it´s lovely and cool after a very hot sunny day, with the sound of crickets everywhere.

I made the little card shown below earlier today for my friend Jan´s birthday.  Turquoise is one of her favourite colours.  It´s made from a "colour catcher" (used to catch colour running from dark coloured clothes in the washing machine) which I use to wipe up excess paint from my brush and paint palette when I  work on a project.  This is backed with felt and a motif has been worked on a separate piece of felt, then attached to the background.  Further embellishment finishes the little card off, using sequins and machine embroidery.


Jan´s birthday card