MORE FROM SKETCHBOOK 38

 

Sketchbook 38 is still in progress since Inktober just not as frequently.  This sketch shows a handful of vegetables from my shopping one day.

 

I've seen these colourful fruit in the shops but never tried one so when I finally tasted it I was amazed at the delicious flavour.

 

Bob has a passion for single malt whisky and we treat ourselves occasionally to a small glass when the weather is depressing.

 I bought a parallel pen recently and I've been practising gothic script and drawing with it and although the ink runs when it's wetted, it has quite a nice effect.

 

This lovely mushroom was growing on the roadside so I picked one to bring home to draw.  I added the background later after catching a glimpse of the supermoon as it rose in the east on the 14th November.

A friend, Rose Jones, is a wonderful photographer who regularly posts her pictures on Facebook.

She gave me permission to use her pictures and this one caught my imagination.  I drew it first in the triplus pens and scanned it.

Then I washed the colour with water to give the misty effect.

Which do you prefer?

 

 

My granddaughter Sarah loves to take selfies to post on Facebook but I think she had some help with this one taken when she was sleeping on the sofa with her favourite cat!

MUSHROOMS IN THE FOREST

 

It's been another wet and windy week in Perros so I've been busy again with my sewing machine making a needlepainting from a photo I took while I was in England. Above is the finished piece before I stitched it into a cushion cover.

 

 

Here is the photo so you can see what I was inspired by, a fallen silver birch with a family of pale mushrooms growing in the crevices.

 

I thought you might like to see how I put it together so I took photos as I went along.  I started with a plain piece of cream linen and collected together a handful of scraps from my collection; mostly supplied by Luba from her fashion designing days.

 

I added pieces of string and cord to depict branches and some green patchwork fabrics for the leaves and mosses.  I had bought a pack of many different coloured threads recently so I was able to do lots of fancy stitching on top but unfortunately as they were a bit thinner than usual I had to go very slowly to stop the thread breaking every few minutes!

 

I built up the picture, layer by layer, decorating the mushrooms before I added them, my favourite is the lying down one just above the main group.

 

A couple of close ups so you can see the detail of the stitching.

 

I added some more leaves and crinkled voile for the bark under the mushrooms and decided that it was done.

 

I had some fabric left over from our living room curtains that I used to frame and back the picture and now it's a lovely cushion.

 

Here it is on the sofa with it's sister picture of Roussillon I made a few months ago.  Luckily the sofa is the one opposite me in the lounge so I won't be sitting on the cushion anytime soon but I can admire it from across the rug!

MORE SEWING THIS WEEK

 

It's been a wet and windy week here in France so I've been very happy staying indoors playing with my sewing machine.  I realised at the garden party last year that I needed to come up with some new products to sell as the hand bound books have slowed down in sales.

 

I have a lovely collection of printed fabrics that I use to cover the books and the idea of pencil cases or cosmetic bags came up.  They are so easy to make and only require the purchase of a matching 20 cm zip to complete.

 

I already had some iron-on stiffening to give the fabrics some body and by the end of the day I had made this lovely collection to put on sale next April at Justine's charity garden party.

 

I had a lot of fun photographing them too as I've only recently discovered, quite by accident, the 'creative shots' button on my camera.  It takes several views at a time, zooming in and cropping and changing the angle of the view.  I really love this last one, especially as it features the poppy bag, perfect for yesterday, November the 11th.

 

 

Here is the latest collection of sketchbooks I made and already some of the match the bags so I might be able to sell them as a set....

 

And finally here is a pretty summer top I made for my friend Carolyn after we bought some fabric while we were on holiday together in September.  We were at Rochefort-en -Terre and found a delightful craft shop selling handmade items as well as the fabrics and findings to make them yourself.  We had a wonderful time browsing while our husbands waited patiently outside on a bench, thankfully not worried about how long we were and how much money we were spending!

I couldn't resist making another little bag for her too as you can see in the background.

JUSTINE'S FANCY DRESS PARTY

 

I've just returned from my annual autumn visit to England to see my family and fortunately for the first time it coincided with Justine and Kevin's firework party.  They hold this every year with a different theme and this year it was Game of Thrones.  I had never seen the programme so I researched the costumes on the internet and discovered a wealth of beautiful mediaeval dresses with pointy sleeves and wrap over fronts. 

 

 

I had a search through my fabric box and came across Bob's old Japanese kimono with a dragon on the back.  He hadn't worn it for over 30 years, preferring something with less encumbering sleeves.

I completely dismantled it, keeping the red lining with each piece as the outer black fabric was very thin and slippery, and recut a long wrap over jacket using a dress pattern I converted.

 

The dragon just fitted on the front as the main feature and I used the front corners of the dressing gown to make those fabulous pointy sleeves.

I edged the neck and sleeves with some gold lycra from the stash and had a lovely couple of days sewing and fitting my new design.

 

The collar of the gown was lined in the red and long enough to be used as the ties which wrap across the front and pass through a hole in the right side seam so they can be tied at the back.

 

To finish off my outfit I decided to make a necklace using a bit of snake printed leather and the rest of the lycra.  I used a piece of Bob's electrical wire to stiffen it and make the spiral, then added some extra glitter paste to make it sparkle.

 

Justine said "wow!" when she saw my costume as I emerged on Saturday evening ready to party and I said the same to her in her amazing warrior costume and blonde wig.  Kirsty had also made a beautiful dress and here we three are waiting for the guests to arrive.  Everyone had made a special effort to dress up and after watching a few episodes of Game of Thrones on Sunday afternoon I could recognise a lot of the characters who had been represented.  By the way that's a dragon on my shoulder that was lent to me in my role as the "Dragon mother-in-law"

We had a fabulous evening with a very professional display of fireworks by Kevin and I was able to catch up with all of Justine's friends I've got to know over the years.

INKTOBER WEEK 3

 

I've been working away on this project every day but sometimes the pictures get put together on one page, like this collection of fruit, mushrooms and an oyster shell from last weekend.  The Triplus pens are so versatile, I've only used the 6 colours in the nature set and an extra pale green to draw all these different items.

 

One morning during the week I looked out of the window just in time to see this sight of a magnificent magpie lit by the sun with the rain clouds looming in the background.  Within a few moments he flew off for shelter as the rain storm began.

 

Our walnut tree is laden with nuts this year and I've started to harvest them as soon as the husks start to crack.  If I leave them on the tree too long the birds will make a feast of them or they will fall to the ground and rot.  I drew this one with a dip pen and ink in sepia and raw sienna colours.

 

Another multi-day page, autumn leaves this time collected on a walk down our lane on a sunny afternoon.

 

I had high hopes of this one using the runny acrylic inks again although I'm not really happy with it but I'm sharing it anyway in the spirit of inktober.  I think the drawing paper in my sketchbook isn't quite absorbent enough for the watercolour effect I was aiming for.

Well, that's it for my Inktober this year, I've just got back from a week in England with my family and haven't had time to do any sketching apart from a few scribbles in my tiny handbag moleskine.