91热爆

first post in a new year and I am already thinking about the coming tourist season, it is now I start to take stock and think about what to take down to the Co-Chomunn na Hearadh at Leverburgh, Harris, I have some lavender left and quite like the blue pigs, they made a change from the hearts so I thought I鈥檇 make some unblue ones, here鈥檚 the first quartet鈥�.


(spell check wants to change 鈥榰nblue鈥� to 鈥榰nglue鈥� well I guess you have to be a bit unglued to make lavender scented pigs鈥�..))))

I have finally visited the Islands Open Exhibition of art and craft, I was going with a friend last month we met for lunch and were so comfy blethering that we stayed in the County and didn鈥檛 see the exhibition, I know my friend lurks and sometimes reads my blog so if you see this I can happily go again when you have time, it is on until the 26th January so there is still time, I took only a few photos, the gallery is well lit but..there鈥檚 always a but鈥�.the lights reflect off the glass and you cannot see the picture/photo properly, so even less photos to share with you,


Loosely Tied by Vega
I really like this but cannot afford it, sorry about the angle of the shot but it was so high on the wall which was another thing I found irritating,


Seamus by Margaret Agnes MacLean,
I don鈥檛 usually like sheep purely because there are so many (sheep and paintings/photos of them) but I like this one I think it is the going in close and plain black background,


Sleepy Blue Waters by Kim Park
I like the unphoto quality of this, it has a wide mount and frame but I had to cut them out due to reflection,


Just Thistles by Kim Park
I love this, I like black and white photography, there are 3 photos in a single long frame like Sleepy Blue Waters only horizontal instead of vertical but the other 2 had reflected light so I had to crop them out,

earlier I that I had signed up to a group that will be making a work a month to a , last week I looked at the first and it is not what I had in mind when I signed up, as it is a follow on from last years stitch work I thought it was going to expand stitch/technique but it is not, the first one is to make a work about someone you admire, now as I am not even doing people this would send me somewhere I am not currently interested in going, there is a second option, a colour scheme, I thought oh good I鈥檒l work with that because trying new colour ideas is something I wish to explore鈥︹�ut鈥︹�ig but, when I saw the colour scheme with the thoughts of people I admire still in my mind I immediately thought 鈥榮uffragettes鈥� as the colour scheme is primarily the suffrage colours of green and mauve,


now at first I thought well I could do a work that would use both as I admire the suffragettes immensely but all I seemed to think of was railings, chains, ladies dressed in Edwardian clothes being dragged down the road by dome helmeted police officers and worst of all I then started to see women strapped to tables with think rubber tubes being thrust down their throats till they vomited and bleed鈥︹��.and I just want to escape from this, I do not want to do a work about all this horror, I am deeply indebted to these people but I am not the person to create a work of art about it, yet it won鈥檛 leave me,

so I am thinking of not continuing with the group but as we do not have to have a work finished until the end of the month I think I will leave it for a couple of weeks and perhaps I will be able to see the colours afresh, I am feeling a bit better from having written it down, the problem I and some other people have it seeing pictures in our heads too clearly, yes I know sometimes it is a blessing, opposites, the highs and lows,

I made 2 linocuts of a pot and added lines to one of them, I have printed them a few times, these are the first I printed on fabric, I did show them on my blogger island threads but they are gone now so I thought I would start by showing the print on fabric before stitching,


I then layered them with wadding and a backing and stitched the background as I wanted to make the pot stand slightly forward of the background, I then bound and mounted them, I did 5 altogether small like these and although satisfied with 3 of them I kept feeling that these 2 were鈥�..well鈥�..flat,


the other 3 had been over printed 2 or 3 times which gives them depth, I had thought of over printing these then a few weeks ago I was thinking about them and remembering the workshop I went too with and I thought why not give them the , so I did and I think they look much better for it, now they have depth,



I am feeling much better about the tif challenge now and will 鈥榟opefully鈥� do some work over the weekend, have a nice weekend everyone,

I have twice left comments on the post and they have not shown I have left a third but thought I would also put it in my post, now all three will probably show up!!!!
I knew it! I just knew it! NOW the missing comments show up, well I guess it proves I wasn't telling stories, perhaps from now on I will just reply to comments in the post it is much easier and quicker,

Rayna thanks, it鈥檚 Esterita鈥檚 technique I couldn鈥檛 have done it otherwise, Tws and Fc thanks for your nice comments, Fc did you notice I answered your request about links in the sidebar, Liz nice to see you here welcome to island blogging and thanks for the nice comment,

I have made the decision to not do the tif challenge, after I publish this post I will go to SharonB鈥檚 blog and leave a message, no I am not chickening out but making decisions about what I want to do and where I want to go and the topics in the challenge do not fit this, as I said before I thought the challenge was going to be technique lead and yes I know I can make it about technique but, big but, when I read 鈥榓dmiration鈥� as the concept I immediately thought of the QuiltArt challenge 鈥楽he made her mark鈥� I had joined this challenge and had several ideas, I did quite a lot of work on it but when it came to creating a quilt I didn鈥檛 want to, no special reason I just knew I didn鈥檛 want to do this, so that was why I quickly decided Admiration was not a concept I wanted to explore, now the colour scheme, I was going to go with this and have done some try outs but started to feel it is a bit like using a pattern and I prefere not to use other peoples patterns because then it won鈥檛 be My work and I have realised this is the same if you work to someone else鈥檚 colour scheme,

No after a lot of thought I am going to do KareyB style journal quilts, Karey鈥檚 idea was that journal size quilts should be made in a technique that is new 鈥榯o you鈥� and that is what I did and I really enjoyed trying new techniques, I bought Gwen Hedley鈥檚 book Surfaces to Stitch about 18 months ago and so I am going to start with that by trying a new technique from the book each month, I want to explore the island landscape and get back to doing some work on the prehistoric symbols from the cave on the Isle of Mull, so will relate the journal quilts to that which means I have decided to stick with the journal quilt size but in the landscape orientation as well as portrait,

I started another blog, as auntie beeb only allows us one blog it is not here, some friends and myself are posting a photo a day, as I am surrounded by 鈥榦ut doors鈥� I am taking most of my photos outside,
here鈥檚 the link


there is also a link in my sidebar,

five and a half years ago I ordered some new bathroom furniture from a well known saleroom on the island and I bought a new shower to be fitted (this is a shower over a bath), I had chosen a basin and loo that were built into cabinets, this proved to be very challenging to most local plumbers who kept telling me 鈥測ou need a chippy for them鈥� eventually I found a man who could fit them but he 鈥榝orgot鈥� the shower and the Heritage cupboard doors didn鈥檛 fit and yes you have guessed it neither Heritage or the well known showroom in Stornoway were interested, why should they be they had my money, I did try a few more plumbers to get the shower in but no luck so 3 years ago after 2.5 years of trying and a burst pipe in the bedroom I gave up. Spent most of the next year on North Uist, doing the Lews Castle College Art Dip.

well last summer I decided to have another go at finding a plumber but again no dice but I am not a giver in so I decided to try again this year, a friend gave me the name of a plumber she had used, I phoned Wednesday evening 16th Jan, he called in to 鈥榣ook at it鈥� before giving a quote Friday morning 18th, e mailed the quote that evening, I reply that it was fine Sat 19th, he rang Mon 21st to say he could do it tomorrow!!!!!!!!! Tuesday the 22nd LESS than a week after I phoned, I couldn鈥檛 believe it, thought I was dreaming, then worried (I can be the worrying kind) why was he free to do it so soon, why hasn鈥檛 he got other work!!!! He came and put the shower in Tuesday and he had more common sense than any of the other plumbers that had looked at it because he took the water from behind the loo where as the others were all going to mess about under the bath, I am thrilled but you have not heard the best bit yet,

the best is that as I had no tiles on the wall the plumber gave me the name of a man that does tiles and joinery, the floor needed to be tiled as well as the walls, as he was already working in the Ness area he called in Friday afternoon and his quote came with the plumbers Friday evening, he started Monday by levelling the floor and looked at the cupboards with non fitting doors without my even asking him too :o) over the next few days he did the bath surround (I chose board not tiles), tiled the floor, fixed the cupboard doors and finished all the trims etc. that turn a good job into a perfect job, I found an electrician and bingo I have a 鈥榥ew鈥� bathroom with shower by Wednesday 23rd Jan. a week after I first phoned, I still can hardly believe it is all done, just took five and a half years to get there,
the shower,

doors that fit,

tiled floor,

trims,

closed gap

(there was a gap here were you could see the piping and exposed stone wall behind)

I went to my first meeting of the Ness Art club today, I have seen/heard mention of a group in Ness but never knew, who they were or where they met or even if they took new members, I enjoyed it, just a couple of hours in the morning but I did draw, if I had stayed home I would not have, I would have side tracked into something else,
I took my pastels and had no idea what I was going to do until I saw the plants there and as this one was near where I sat I gave it a go,

I took some photos so I might try finishing it at home, don鈥檛 you just love these reds鈥︹��

I learnt about where the group meets and when, at a class with Simon Rivett last Saturday, if I can get decent photos I will post the drawings done at Simon鈥檚 class, Simon鈥檚 a very good tutor, if anyone can offer any tips I would appreciate it as I have problems taking photos of white sketching paper, it comes out blue or grey and as the sketches are on A2 paper and my scanner is A4 (journal size) I can鈥檛 scan them,
here's the best I could manage, we did 2 quick 15 min. sketches to 'warm up' then 2 longer poses about 50mins. during which we stopped for short breaks so the model could move and relax,
this one has a face but no tone or depth,

this one has tone and depth but no head or hands, I just can't do it all in 50 mins.

for those in Ness who missed it and others elsewhere who haven鈥檛 seen much of it recently I grabbed the camera and took some photos just to prove to my self it was real for a few seconds,


raining cats and dogs now ;o(