Picture for Photo Art Friday

I'm feeling a bit miserable today because I have a cold so thought I would submit a picture to Photo Art Friday before going back to bed...

Making Jewellery with Polymer Clay

I'm still busy with my online jewellery course and I have some pink beads that I wanted to use but no focal bead to use with them so I got out the old polymer clay to see if I could make something suitable.  I liked the hearts and beads that I made but they didn't really suit the beads I had - or maybe I'm too fussy.  I find it hard to put together the right beads to make a necklace look stunning.  Maybe I will just make a plain necklace with my pink beads with a couple of silver beads and findings around them.  Here are the polymer clay hearts I made:

A Busy Week

I've been enjoying giving a training course this week but I do find it difficult to find time to fit in anything else and I am looking forward to spending some time this weekend doing something crafty.

I had a very distressing moment yesterday morning when I was taking my husband to the station.  It was 6.30am and still dark and I was concentrating on the road I was driving along which is flanked both sides by forest.  The next minute a small deer leapt out in front of the car.  It was that quick I hadn't even braked by the time it hit the bumper.  My husband said that he saw the deer standing just a little back from the road a split second before it jumped:  it must have been spooked by the car.  I killed it instantly.  I still have this image in my mind of this beautiful creature leaping into the headlights.  It was good that I was giving a course because it didn't give me time to mull it over.  Of course the whole bumper was taken out but I was lucky that it was quite localised.  I haven't seen deer in this part of the forest before because it isn't very dense but maybe they frequent this area at night.

So when the course was finished today I just felt like doing something calming and relaxing.  Here are the some pictures I manipulated before going off to pick my husband up from the station in his car...

Sunday at the Show

It was back to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace (affectionately known as Ally Pally) in North London where I did a quick workshop with Bobby Britnell.  I suppose I already knew most of the mixed media techniques she taught us but it was still fun.

Looking around the exhibitions a young designer whose work I thought was quite delightful was Alice Wolfe.  She totally modernises machine knitting and her latest project is this wonderful collection of birds:

The Knitting and Stitching Show

I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show on Friday and I'm going again tomorrow to attend a workshop by Bobby Britnell which I am really looking forward to.

There were some really interesting texile artists showing their work.  Unfortunately many of them don't permit photography so I couldn't show it here.  However, one artist that I really liked was Barbara Jepson.  Her pictures are so well designed, bright but natural.  She reminds me of the fabric version of Angie Lewin, a printmaker.  She does a batik background and then appliques the flowers on top.  Just lovely.

Here are two of her appliqued pictures:

Doing an Online Jewellery Course

Is it really almost a whole week since I posted last?!  I am giving quite a few courses this month and needed to refresh some of the content.  And yet what have I done, signed up for yet ANOTHER online course in ANOTHER craft.  All those people who say that they wouldn't know what to do if they gave up work - I would have no problem!  I would just create stuff all day.

SO, I have signed up for a jewellery course given by Deryn Mentock called The Build Zone:

I love different, striking or vintage type jewellery and so looking foward to putting something special together.