Monday, February 28, 2005
The Amaryllis survived the journey to West Kirby, and is obviously thriving!
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Friday, February 25, 2005
My first try at bookbinding
My first home made book
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Last week my printer threw a hissy fit, and printed out pages and pages with odd looking characters in red, yellow and cyan. Usually I just hand anything like that over to John to use for shopping lists. But this time I decided that I'd make a book out of it. I must be mad!!!
I found some nice clear instructions to make a simple book on the web. It looked easy enough, and I've just bought a cutting map (note to self - must get one twice the size as it will exactly cover my coffee table then) and cheap 45/90 cutter. I'd have liked a de-luxe one, but given the small number of pictures I'm likely to frame it didn't really seem worth it. Besides, I'm broke!
I managed to fold the signatures OK and punch holes through them for the stitching. I laid the opened signatures across two video tapes, with the fold along the gap between them, and pushed through with the narrow needle of a bow compass. The sewing up was rather more difficult, and I had to redo it several times.
My choice of paper for the cover was not (with hindsight!) ideal. We bought a roll of bright shocking pinky purply textured paper for Christmas wrapping, and I had some smallish pieces left over. Just the job I thought. But it proved a nightmare. Turned out that the colour is only a printed layer on top of a silver foil, so with all the pressing and handling the colour began to wear off, especially at the edges. And the texture of the paper made it kinda hard to glue down properly.
I'm afraid I made a mess of trimming the paper cover - I took too much off before turning it to glue down on the inside. One of those cases of measure first, then cut, rather than the guess wildly and hope! I will be more careful next time!
But I did finally present John with the book on Saturday, after it had been pressed overnight under a large pile of heavy books - always knew those psychology textbooks would come in useful some day!
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Belated Christmas (!) gift to my Mum
Wrapped Amaryllis
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I bought an Amaryllis bulb for Mum for Christmas, but with Dad being in hospital I didn't get time to plant it. So finally I did, and it's been growing so fast I thought we'd better get it to her! It's very cold at the moment (a lot of UK has had a lot of snow, here we've had a few little flurries, but isn't sticking at all so far). So to ensure the plant survived the journey from car to parents' flat I wrapped it as best I could in bubble wrap, supported by canes to keep wrap off the buds and stems as much as possible. John (hubby) is delivering it this evening.
Spring comes on apace in our living room. We bought a load of Tete-a-tete daffodils at the weekend, I have lined them along the windowsills, and the flowers have opened up really fast in the warmth. Outside it's a different story. While we don't have the snow that much of the UK has been subjected to, it's still very cold. But the sun has been shining most of the day, just a little flurry of the white stuff this morning.
Tiny drawing of tiny daffodil
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Monday, February 21, 2005
Yellow Sheep Banana
The yellow sheep banana
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Liverpool is in chaos at the moment. Large areas close to the river are being rebuilt, partly in readiness for being the European Capital of Culture in 2008. The sheep banana has been here for a while now, but the rather nice chandler's building behind it has gone. And I don't think I even got a photo of it while it was still there.
I should try get out there and record what I can while it's still there. The upside is that some buildings that were hard to photograph are now much more exposed from a distance following demolition of close by buildings. The downside is that I am too exhausted most of the time to actually get there to take pictures. I am not driving at all at the mo, so weekends are my only chance, when John can drive me.
But with other commitments it's difficult. I need a personal chaffeur more often!
While lots is happening in the centre of town, I wish that the corpy would repair a few more roads - the potholes round Sefton Park are painful! John drives a totally zig-zag course around the park, must look as if he is drunk, but it's the only way to drive if you have a passenger with a bad back. And also if you want to avoid loss of hub caps!
Today's tiny drawing
West Kirby Marine Lake
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We visited my parents in West Kirby today. Afterwards we went to a local nursery and purchased some Tete-a-tete daffodils and some blue hyacinths. The Christmas hyacinths are over now, and I am craving that heady perfume.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Today's tiny drawing
I got up for about an hour, but felt so rotten I came back to bed. But I brought my drawing grid up with me, and worked on a picture of my dear friend Ginger Biscuit, who I miss very much. I worked from a photo from 2002 of him sitting in his favourite corner of the caravan. I'm not enormously happy with the result, but at least I tried! Will try a bigger picture another day maybe - found the grid square was just a bit too small, not helped by misplacing my first lines as well!
But I enjoyed the process of drawing, and that's what counts. And next time I draw him maybe I'll have learnt enough to do a bit better. I used cheap artists colouring pencils bought in Pwllheli Market. I will have to print the grid on heavier paper sometime so that I can use water or other solvents, currently it's on ordinary copier paper so won't take much re-working.
Tiny Drawings
Tiny drawings
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I have set myself a challenge to do at least one drawing a day. The grid I am using has squares that are just 1 3/8", so I think this is do-able. Here's my first two efforts. I was surprised to see how textured the little pictures look in the photo.
There's a huge stash of fabric in the next room, I think I need to get weaving again. If I can't find my small tapestry frame I shall make a tomato box loom. I hoped to find instructions on the web to add a link here, but I can't find any! So there's another project - take photos of how I construct the loom. I'm sure Robin, our friendly local greengrocer will find me a suitable box.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
This funky picnic basket was a Valentine's Day gift from John. It matches a basket that I sometimes use on the boat (though it's full of yarn at the moment!).
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Here is a drawing of the lamp by my computer. Draw a lamp.I decided that I'd go for it even though it's a long time since I did any drawing. Blue biro in my page a day diary... I wish the colour didn't bleed through from page to page.
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