Finishing

 I managed to finish my last pin through the week.

I oftentimes find that how I see something being worn, isn't always the way that others do; so I felt I should probably make one for myself, so that I could wear it and let people see how it might work. And so it came to pass that I made another pebble pin/brooch.

I don't tend to wear brooches/pins up on my lapels so much. Rather I tend to wear them along my hem line. Like this. Apologies for the background lighting - who knew it would be so sunny! Plus I took the shot using my watch connected to my phone which is a first for me, so I got what I got!

Barry also took a photo of me wearing one of the long thing bar ones - which I think looks best vertically, so I might have to wear one like that too. I am however wearing this one on a lapel type thing on a great winter cardigan.

Enough of the modelling. I also finished off a final pice of calligraphy using the five lovely S words. This one is purple on black, and I now have five pieces that can be popped into frames. I trimmed them all yesterday, signed them and put them in a bag for transporting. Finishing, finishing.

So I think that has brought me to the end of production and making for the Pop Up in Scotland. The job now is to inventory, price and pack. Always so many associated tasks.

Including writing some explanatory notes about my Conversations with Women Friends and the Glimpses book-ets. I sometimes think my work and its purpose can be a bit obtuse or opaque, yet I find people grasp it if I tell them a story about it. Of course, I can't speak to everybody all the time, so I thought maybe a few notes here and there might allow people to pause and read and understand a bit of where I am coming from. Maybe.

And then to inventorying and packing. I put out all the jewellery in my stash and worked out which pieces I would take. I decided on 10 pairs of earrings, 7 pendants and 4 brooches/pins. Fingers are crossed.

Two of these will stay in Maleny

Two pairs of earrings will stay in Maleny.

As you can imagine, our suitcases will be full of arty things! Fortunately we keep most of the clothes we need in Scotland the cottage. We are edging closer...

Winning and losing and playing the game

 I have had some success completing some pieces of jewellery for the Pop Up in Scotland, followed by what can only be described, and re-framed, as a morning of 'learnings' (not failures!).

In a funny turn  of events, a friend popped by before heading overseas for a couple of months, looking for a pair of earrings to take on her travels. Out of the pile I had ready, she selected the only pair of the trio of stacked pebbles I had. Which was lovely, except I had chosen them to feature on the postcard we had recently had printed for the Pop Up and now I wouldn't have any of my advertised wares to sell!

As they say,  back to the workbench I went, and produced two pairs this time so I can't be foiled. I remain fond of their wobbliness.

After pondering three piece or five piece joined necklaces through the week, I decided to make two five piece ones and am pleased with them both. Different chains, but they are both lovely to wear.

And so to yesterday's morning of learning...

I had this idea for a brooch to incorporate flat silver with a pebble. I had designed it in my head, and thought my way through the way to attach the pebble and to then add the brooch clasp on the back.  I slowly and methodically went about things, and had Barry teach me how to drill holes in stones (using a 1mm diamond bit and water).

Which was excellent fun and not as scary as I had anticipated. You just have to go very slowly and keep adding water.

I got a bit carried away and tried to drill more than one hole in a couple and that was also excellent fun! So the morning did hold several successes.

Until it didn't.

I was trying to put a silver pin with a bauble head through the drilled pebble, and through the drilled silver, and then use flame to seal it on the underside. For love nor money it wouldn't 'drip' and seal the bottom - and I kept the flame on it for ages as you can tell by the colour of the silver off cut I was testing on.

Sharp eyes might also note that pebble I was using looks a bit damaged. And it was. I had drilled two holes in it and in the first one we tried we couldn't get the wire pin to drip and seal so to speak, so we trimmed it and attempted to gently hammer it like if you were riveting it - ever so gently flattening the wire so it creates a circle which would seal the attachment point. And of course, the pebble broke.

We worked out that stone was drawing all the heat and not enough heat remained on the pin for it to run/melt/drip. And clearly the heat then made the stone brittle and this was the result. Sigh. This was a couple of hours of testing this that and the other.

So an alternative is now being explored, because I still really like the idea!

And so to playing the game. A list of things I have been doing to keep me calm and happy and relaxed.

My first attempt at laminated cheese scones. We tried these in Scotland the last time we were there and I loved them so much I really wanted to know how to make them. These were good, but I think they can be lighter and puffier. But delicious nonetheless!

I spent a quiet relaxing time addressing envelopes for a Christmas in July event this week.

And then one of my favourite things to relax is a jigsaw, which I usually don't get to do except at holiday times, but I thought it would be a good plan this week.  And as soon as I began I wondered what on earth had I been thinking with all these multiple bright colours and patterns and repeats??? Still as I conquer small parts of it there is a sense of achievement for sure.

Win some, lose some and keep on playing...

Calligraphy and doodling

 There comes a time in every studio space where you need to go - Stop. Just stop. Clean up and tidy up before you do another thing. And I recently met that moment.

My desk space had pretty much NO space left on it as I had supplies for teaching out, samplers of Kilian Caps, some small pieces of calligraphy I was working on, my watercolour set and my watercolour doodles all fighting for dominance alongside my finished poetry books and my Conversations with Women Friends cards.

And so 'Time' was called, I cleaned up, cleared up and began again. I sent this photo to Barry showing him that I had done some calligraphy, chuffed that I had completed two small works that I thought I could use, only to discover as I sent it that I hadn't finished the pink one at all! It still needed the word Serenity added in.

So back I went. And you can see I gave up on the blue one as that S for Silence went way too wild (the lower bowl was too loosely curved, it needed a much sharper return) and was unretrievable in my book. 

I have now completed four I think including one blue pencil on black card which has proven almost impossible to successfully photograph.

Practising all those S s has been good for me I am sure!

I have continued with my daily doodle, most days, and am starting on my third one now.

And in amongst it all there have been flowers and local wildlife. 

A platypus in our creek.

There is a wallaby in this photograph, and a clue to where you can find it! Laugh.

There have been some lovely winter days, and we are grateful.

Doodling, lettering, colouring

 I am keeping pretty busy on return and have lots of arty things on the go.

The other morning at Biblio I started playing around with ideas about how to write the 5 'S' words starting with Stillness, that I blogged about on Sunday.  I am thinking of making maybe five small pieces that would fit in a frame similar to the black one I tested them in when in Scotland.

I wrote the word love out by hand in green; then used pencil to create perhaps nicer letters; and went over it with red. However, and no real surprises, the pencil stayed under the red even when I rubbed it out, and it looked a bit iffy (photo 2). And for comparison I wrote direct with red and the colour stayed much brighter, even tho the photos barely show it!

I then gave myself a little task of creating a small sampler of the pens I thought I could use to do these small works.

And it worked out well.

And then for the first time in days the sun came out as it set, and caught the page and looked beautiful!

And for no good reason other than I am doing so many small things towards bigger things I thought I might try a doodle a day kind of thing. It was more about doing a small thing each day if I can. And by small I mean really small, like simply filling in a square or a few colours on a mixed up kind of grid. Who knows if I even do it; but it was meditative to draw things up.

I tested the idea out in my journal.

Decided the X was too distracting and added a few more of this and that, here and there.

And then went and had a play on a piece of watercolour paper 10 x 15cm. And inked in the lines. 

Now...to colour them in!

I am trying to stay away from over thinking it...but I doubt I will.! I will select  series of colours to use and try to stick with them.

Practising stillness

In the last couple of days before leaving the cottage I got to play around with some words. I had previously written out the words Stillness, Silence and Simplicity and the wonderful Robyn Gordon had commented that she also loved Solitude and Serenity. I thought to myself they would be delightful additions and set about seeing if I could bring together a composition of sorts.

Using Kilian Capitals, it looks like it could be possible. 

I then returned to another form of handwriting I had used many many moons ago, and thought the simplicity of its form might also work with these words.

I picked up some tracing paper I had to hand, and wrote with a white gel pen.

There are things to think about with the layout; and much muscle memory that needs to be returned and reminders of which letter forms do what, but it has potential as well.

I placed the tracing paper over white paper and over black paper.

And greyish paper...

And then I popped all the tests into a black frame, to see if they worked.

I think there might be some places to take this...

Kilian Capitals

 There have not been too many moments to play and make and create, but I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with Kilian Capitals!!!

My photos are not transferring properly for some reason so I am frustrated by that; will do my best to make things look reasonable, but that is the best I can hope for I think.

I had drafted three words and practiced a few different layouts here - the missing word is stillness.

I transferred the single line version of the words onto black - looks grey here but is really a nice black.

And gradually filled them out in pencil as I went. I have mentioned my issues with writing the letter S - and boy what a delight it was for me to have all these opportunities to practice!

The finished 'piece'.

I continued on my merry way wth another short piece of one of my favourite quotes, but along the way I caught sight of a folded 'book-et' I had sitting alongside me and wondered if I might be able to bring things together somehow.

And so here it is!

I thought it would make a two-way sample book. I had loved this series of folds (inspired by Annwyn) and I enjoyed finding proportions I liked. I had written the lengths on the back of it, planning to use it as  resource. And then I realised that in fact, some of my Kilian sample pieces would fit within the folds. how excitement! and so then it could be my fold sample as well as my Kilian sample!

It incorporates black on white vertical writing, vertical writing white on black, pencil on white, pencil on black and white on black.

I got an extraordinary sense of satisfaction and achievement doing this small, play piece. Funny isn't it how you just play around and make something for yourself and it is joyous!