Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that we are at last up and running with a shiny new laptop and modem! I've really missed my keyboard ....

I had to resort to plastic bags for fun places to hang out!

Being without her beloved computer has meant that 'She' hasn't been very friendly either . She even yelled at me and then wouldn't speak to me for a whole day!! What's that all about? You may well ask, though I believe it had something to do with me testing my teeth on one of the new modem wires and chewing right through - I mean, what's another day without internet access? So I hid in this bag waiting to swipe her ankles MOL!

Ok, enough of our computer woes - I'm handing this back to Mum again to tell you about all the lovely things that have been dropping into her mail box over the last couple of weeks.



First off - my travelling book arrived safely back home! This photo shows all eight pages (best to click it to enlarge) and what a treat it was to finally see all the lovely work my Arty SoulSisters have made for me - thanks so much girls, I'll treasure all the colourful paintings, textiles, collages and folded paper you've created for my colour and shape-themed book!! Now just got to work out how I'm going to bind the whole thing together with my cover and first page.



I was totally surprised by this wonderful stitched textile which arrived from Dolores Sedore in Canada - this was a piece from the art exchange I took part in before Xmas! If you're reading this Dolores, I'm sending you a BIG thank you - I truly appreciate how much work went into its making. Unfortunately, I don't know where your blog is - does anyone else out there know?






Also from the same art exchange came these adorable pieces from Paola Zakimi - all the way from Argentina! I think they've been on their travels for a long while (posted before Xmas!) but they eventually made it here safe and sound. Aren't they super? Thanks Paola!



Next up is this lovely little painting from Silke - we agreed a private exchange a while back and she sent me this pretty lady with the most gorgeous green eyes - thanks so much Silke, it was fun to exchange with you!

Finally, a delightful Egret postcard from Suki from our Global Greetings Mail Art group - please hop over to visit our blog to read more about it and all the other great cards that are being exchanged - there's lots going on over there. Thanks Suki!

And last, but not least, many thanks to all of you who left such supportive comments during my enforced blogging absence! I've missed you all !

Another Travelling Books Page

This one is for Marianne whose book is all about her little black cat Sjimmie who is travelling the world. He arrived here in KL a few days ago and has been having a great time sightseeing and learning all about life in Malaysia. He sent a postcard back home and put his photos in an album - they're all attached with photo hinges - the postcard has a message for Marianne on the reverse. I used watercolour pencils, ink, paper and batik fabric to create this page.



This is the front and back of the postcard - click to enlarge if you want to read the text.

Travelling Books page

Here's another page for one of the ArtySoulSisters Travelling Books . This one if for Soulbrush - hope you like it Joss! The book has taken on a 'flying' theme and my contribution features a collage created from a relief print of an owl I made from a linocut, on handmade paper which was then applied to coloured japanese papers. The second half of the page is similar paper stamped with a feather I carved from an eraser, plus other papers from my stash!

Week word -' Lesson' and Mim's travelling art book page

I'm going to kill two birds with one stone in this post. First off is this week's word - Lesson. Which was your favourite lesson at school? I didn't much enjoy the maths and science side, nor were sports my thing - I'm an arty gal and always have been judging by the above which I found yesterday in one of my first school exercise books - I was around six years old when I wrote that - note the star! Unfortunately, there are no paintings from that time but there are lots of little crayoned pictures that I made to illustrate my news in primary school.



Take a look at the left hand pic! A Dutch girl and boy, windmill and tulips!! Who was to know then that I'd marry a Dutchman!!

Early attempts at journaling?

See? Told you I was no good at sports!! Making pictures with wax crayons was definitely much more fun! These days I use mostly watercolour, coloured pencils and inks, but I've have recently bought some inexpensive oil pastels and started experimenting with these grown ups' wax crayons! I am used to achieving detail with fine points so these stubby little pastels are quite a challenge and have been ideal for' loosening up 'a little!

Women and birds
Oil pastels, cropped image

Today, I completed a picture with these waxy oil pastels for one of the travelling art books. This one is for Mim's book - her theme is Women around the World, so I decided to do an international crowd of girls and popped a few birds in there for good measure. Whilst I was at it I thought it might be fun to turn this into a weekword 'lesson' , so I took a few photos of the process so that I could let you see how I created this picture in oil pastels using the sgraffito technique. I quite like the end result of this process as it looks a little like a wood block print. Basically you create a design using oil pastels which is then covered with a layer of another colour and etched into. It's very exciting to reveal the underlying colours when you scrape into the top layer. I don't have a lot of patience, so am always eager to see the vibrant colours emerging with each scrape of the knife, so those of you with more patience will probably be able to plan and achieve much more detail with your scraping and scratching!





First I drew and then traced my design onto heavy cartridge paper - it's important to choose a reasonably heavy weight paper for this process as you will be scratching into it with a sharp implement to create your picture.



Next, I added small details likes eyes, mouths and beaks with coloured pencil as I knew I wouldn't be able to do that with the chunky sticks of oil pastel. I then blocked in the main colours of the design. You need to use a thick layer of colour, worked well into the paper as you have to scratch into this later.



Now you really have to be brave and rub black oil pastel all over your design!! Not too thick, just enough to cover. This shows the picture half covered - at this stage you will be having serious doubts!!



Here's the whole picture covered in black oil pastel! If you've not completely lost your nerve by now you need to retrieve the lines of your original design. Not so easy!! To help, I taped my tracing (lining up registration marks I'd made earlier) and traced over as accurately as I was able again with a stylus.

Here I am using a scalpel to gently scrape away the black pastel to reveal the design below. You can use any sharp implement at this stage - needle, pen nib, nail file, skewer, whatever! As you work do remember to clear the scrapings from your scalpel and surrounding areas frequently!!! Cover your working hand with a piece of scrap paper to protect the image - things smudge so easily!! Believe me, it is also pretty easy to overdo this scraping stage and end up with a grey mess. Should this happen, take heart, for fortunately, all is not lost! It is possible (with care) to retrieve overworked areas. Remove as much of the pastel as you can without destroying the surface (also very easily done and hence the need for a sturdy substrate!!) and paint over with a layer of gesso. Reapply your pastel base, cover again with black and try again!! If you obliterate an eye or beak try repainting with acrylic paint.

The final piece.


I liked the precision of my original design but am quite pleased with how my sgraffito oil pastel picture has turned out.

This week's word was chosen by Alexandra Hedberg. She has a list of all the other participants so do pop in to her blog to get more lessons!

Have a good weekend!

Everything's coming up roses!

'Gather ye rosebuds'

This is a mixed media collage that I've been working on this week for Lynn's little travelling book. There's a whole post about the techniques I used over at the artysoulsisters blog, in case you'd like to find out what went into the making of this one, or click to enlarge and guess!

Another page for a travelling book

Blackbird feeding on berries

click to enlarge

I've been working on the travelling books pages again this week. They seem to be arriving all at once and now that I have three to do, I've got to get my skates on!! This painting is for Katie Jane's nature themed book. I tried another new technique this time; it's a watercolour painting with a difference! If you're interested - you can read about this on the Artysoulsisters blog.

Another travelling book page

Click to enlarge

'Ocean Bed'

Here's what I've been working on these last couple of days - a page for Suki's travelling art book. I had a lot of fun with this one - you can find out how I made it by visiting the artysoulsisters blog!

Arty soul sisters - travelling books!

Arty Soul Sisters

artwork by Joss Ross (Soulbrush)

I've recently joined a group of like minded arty girls in a new project -the artysoulsisters! We're creating travelling art books and sending them across the miles to each other. We're 9 in total so that means 9 different creative visions in each book - thanks to Joss aka Soulbrush for gathering us all together!

'Purple Haze'
First page of my travelling art book

Front cover image

I've been working on my own book this week. Pop in to the artysoulsisters blog if you'd like to check out how I made these pages and see what everyone is up to!