The eyes have it ...

Perhaps not the correct use of 'eyes' but not to worry.  I had to go for an eye test yesterday so made the most of my visit to Worcester by popping into The Hive to see the exhibition of illustrations which are part of the International Lemniscaat Illustration Competition.  It was worth the visit and I also took one or two photographs outside the building.

Had to try to tilt this picture to make any sense of it.  The gardeners had been strimming the surface of the raised areas in the lawns and they were looking better than usual with a more distinct outline.

This is The Hive which houses the library amongst other things.  I am not very taken with the outside of it, but everyone to their own taste.

 An inspirational view with perhaps some design potential.

 After playing in Photoshop with it and adding a filter.

The raised walkway also has potential as a design source, particularly after our use of horizontal and vertical lines with Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell.

 After adding a patchwork filter to it in Photoshop

More playing in Photoshop.  You can see why nothing ever gets done.  I spend far too much time messing around when I should be working.

Serendipity

Lesley Brankin

One or two more pictures from the "Working Together" workshop earlier this week with Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell. The picture above very much reminded me of work several years ago by Sarah Burgess.  These are all by other people on the course.

Life is strange ...  I came across a photograph with very similar colouring to one of the squares I had produced and when I followed it up discovered Gina Ferrari had been on a course too and used the same colours as I started out with.  Follow the link to see the pictures on her blog.   (Fan My Flame)

Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell Workshop

This was my inital core board of squares and a piece of abaca tissue all painted with just two colours of procion dye.  Magenta and Turquoise.

We then went on to chop them up and reassemble them on a piece of cartridge paper the same size as the original square.

There was meant to be a theme linking the squares together.  I managed these four.

This was one of my squares which I did not want to cut up, but afterwards was pleased with the combination of two squares and a bit of the abaca tissue.

This one was several squares and gesso.

Gesso with various marks and tissue paper, then holes were added and finally a rubbing of graphite powder.

This final one was on black paper and has all the above things plus some coloured shavings rubbed in from a pastel crayon.

Inspiration

As I have not been doing anything too exciting over the past few days I thought I would look in my folder of inspirational pictures I have taken at various times.

 I think this one was taken at Bryan's Ground some years ago.  A fantastic garden to visit if you get the chance. (Bryan's Ground)

However, it could also be at Chris Rowlatt's (the bookbinder, now retired) in Presteigne as he has odd things hanging up in his garden.

These are the leaded windows at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire.  You would wonder how they managed to stay in place!

Finally a picture of a potting shed at a walled garden.  A friend I met recently had been to The Lost Gardens of Heligan and taken a photograph very similar.  I think this one was somewhere near Hull in a garden owned by the local council - could be Normanby Hall.

Racing Whippet

This little chap is one of the things I am working on at the moment.  He represents 'Whippet's Brook'.  I have lots of scraping and sanding to do before I can apply the leather cover to this book and he may get a line of grass to run along.

The other leather book I have got prepared will have an indented image of the path of the stream through our garden .... if I ever get it finished.  I seem to be awfully busy again at the moment with no time for the things I want to do.

Wightwick Manor

On Wednesday we went to Wightwick Manor to meet up with a friend who was on her way back up to Yorkshire, but staying over with her daughter in Wolverhampton for a few days.  The day started off dryish and sunny but by the afternoon we had torrential downpours.  Not to worry though as there is lots to see in the house and the tearoom serves delightful food.

There was a massive, and I mean MASSIVE pumpkin patch..  I think they have an Halloween Weekend coming up.  The pumpkins were gianormous!!

These little fabric chappies were perched on one of the scarecrows located in the vegetable garden.  We had to take cover in the large greenhouse just before this as we had the first of the many downpours.

Everywhere you look at Wightwick there are sources of inspiration for design ....

We had a fabulous day out despite the weather.  The only downside was that when I got home I had got another speeding fine for doing 35 mph in a 30 mph zone and this time will have to pay the fine and have some points put on my licence.  I was caught on a mobile camera in a van whilst out on Sunday visiting the Ledbury Quilters exhibition.  It was most unusual for me to be speeding as, since I got caught last time, I have been dawdling about everywhere.  Could have had something to do with the constant nagging about my pathetic driving by DH.  He reckons the Speed Awareness Course I had to do last time has turned me into a dreadful driver.  I personally think it is his influence on my driving!!  He makes me into a dithering wreck by the time I get home.

Tacket Binding (3)

This is the second book we made this term at the bookbinding class.  It is a type of tacket binding, however, I am going to have to undo the stitching because I have not got it tight enough.  The cover is a piece of heavy watercolour paper that has been coloured with acrylic paint applied through a stencil and then given a wash of procion dye.  The inside is just procion dye with clingfilm applied to it to create a pattern.  I have sealed the outside cover with acrylic wax.