Finishing, Tidying and ...

It has been a relatively busy start to 2022; with two books due and another book to stitch.  And another commission for the angel pegs!

This one needed 7 angels; and we decided to go with an additional angel in orange, so before Christmas I checked that I had enough leftover thread and found I was able to use a couple of new ones as well. I need 15m for each peg, so its not like I always have that much left on a roll, so always best to check.  I ordered more easels, after the dramas of the last ones, I checked I had enough pegs and all was well, as I had until the second week in January to deliver. Until I didn't.

On Friday morning I learnt that the pegs had to be done by yesterday (Saturday) morning due to a re-jigged flight schedule. Luckily I had planned to work on them on Friday and I sent this image off halfway through Friday to show we were on track.

And they were delivered on Friday afternoon at 4pm. Phew. I am so grateful I keep good notes and document the process so I could check if I was doing this one the same as the others.

So today in the studio was about getting things back to normal; tidying, cleaning, putting back etc after a busy time where things just get dumped or moved.

I was moving some of my scrolls around and putting the cement pieces back (all had been cleared away for a some photos last week) and I thought - what if I tried to combine them?  I like the look of this now.

Then it was off to tidy my desk - quite the challenge.  I slowly worked my way through it and of course got distracted at different points along the way. As I was tidying up scraps and offcuts of paper I thought I should make some notelets to write on and include when we pack up and post out internet sales.  So that was fun!

And I started my reading pile - some of it more focused than others. That Sketchbook Exploration book could well guide my play and experimenting this year...

I emptied boxes and put things away!

Having found a beautiful piece of waxed goyu paper underneath something else, I pondered what to do with it and wondered what if I tried to put Letraset on the beeswax paper? So yet another distraction.

Only to be further distracted as I pulled apart a trial binding for the cover and first page of Hear Me Roar.

This is the proper first page, but on the practice piece the print had not worked well at all. The letters were very light in places.

I started stippling with a black pen; then thought why not try out a time-lapse video of me fixing up this poster??? 

Why not indeed! and oh my goodness I had the fun of Cork as they say and love what it did.  Heaven help us all now - I have a lovely magnetic tripod, and this app so my slow, slow work might now all be recorded! Laugh.

I had one of those delightful days where the chores of cleaning, tidying, sorting and putting away were made so much more enjoyable by the distractions and play.