My Favourites So Far

I've lost track of how many mandalas I've painted on rocks so far, but of them all these are my favourites.

They are by no means perfect and there isn't much special about the layout so I think maybe it's the colours that are calling to me.

The shiny sealant makes the finished rocks difficult to photograph. I'll have to remember to take photos before adding the sealant that allows the painted rocks to be left outside in the garden. 

Dot Mandalas

I've been rather absorbed lately in a meditative new hobby. I find it so engaging that I lose track of time.

It takes a steady hand, some idea of pleasing colour combinations, and an eye for spatial alignment, 

but luckily it requires no real drawing skill.

These are "dot mandalas", and although I have painted these on ordinary rocks, mandalas can be done on various smooth surfaces. 

These final two photos are of my earliest practice pieces, done on poster board disks purchased in a pack at a dollar store.

I'll have more mandalas to show in the future. I'm not anywhere near finished with this obsession yet!

I've already got four more painted, but they aren't sealed yet.

Joyful Stitching

Turns out painting is not where I will find my JOY, and that's okay as I have plenty of other hobbies that bring me joy and more than fill my available time.

One such hobby is hand embroidery, in particular freeform "Stitch Meditations" like the medallion above. Another hobby I love is weaving in its many forms. The cord for my pendant is a tubular Inkle band I made specifically to use this way. 

Another hobby that I really enjoy is sewing. Yes, this is yet another of the York Pinafores. I think I have six now. I am a woman who not too long ago said I would never wear a dress again. The pinafores are just that easy to make and comfortable to wear and honestly, I don't think of them as a dress, but more of a butt cover when wearing leggings. 

The painting? No, you won't be seeing any more of that. It's a wonderful course, especially for free, but I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday. I don't like painting! I don't like getting dirty. I don't like having to clean up the mess afterwards (and whoooo boy do I make a mess!). All in all, with only one life to live, I'd rather spend my time doing any one of my other numerous hobbies.

Imagery Is Not My Joy

I decided to share this even though I'm not satisfied with it and will eventually scrap it and use the canvas for something else.

I learned something struggling with this. I learned that although I do enjoy playing with paint, actually trying to capture even a vague image of some sort pulls me right out of my joy. And yet, without at least a vague image, my attempts at abstract come out looking like lovely wrapping paper.

I'm not sure now how I will proceed with the remainder of the "Finding Your Joy" course. I am committed to doing all of the assignments. I think there are two or three more. But after that I may abandon paint altogether and go back to my fibre arts corner of the world to lick my wounds.

Painting in a Saori Way

My favourite section of the fun exercise assignment for today in Louise Fletcher's "Find Your Joy Free Taster 2020".

The basic assignment was to choose any 3 colours, along with black and white. The instructions were to use a large piece of paper taped off into smaller sections and for no longer than 30 minutes paint the entire page as a whole, using whatever tools we wished and disregarding the sections. 

The photo above is what I had done in the 30 minutes. I used bubble wrap, two sizes of paint brushes, a scrub brush, a toothbrush, a piece of plastic canvas, a folded piece of card stock, and the end of a large dowel.

We were then instructed to pull off the tape and photograph the work to share in the group. 

Here is a look at the other five sections close up. 

I saw similarities between my Saori weaving and my painting exercise. 

Both show my attraction to colour and texture.

I'd love for you to see what the other (over 6,000!) group members came up with in this assignment but it's a private Facebook group just for those who enrolled. 

Such variety has come from the same basic instructions, and I can see something to admire in everyone's efforts.

Mark Making

As if I don't have enough hobbies to keep me busy. I've joined in on a free online Facebook mini course lasting only 8 days. "Find Your Joy Free Taster 2020", with Louise Fletcher.

The course doesn't start until Monday but we've been invited to play around with paint and other media, just having fun. I'm not much at sketching, have very little success with achieving realism, so today I just played with colour, texture, and mark making.

Pressing Station

While I wait for my sewing room to be completed I am keeping busy with little projects related to the rennos going on in there.

 

Before the room was even started my husband and I got to work on this sturdy new pressing station. My old ironing board was rickety and threatened to toss my irreplaceable iron to the floor. I am very protective of that iron since it very well might be the last of the ones available *without* an automatic shut off. I find turning around, mid project, to use an iron and finding it off and cold to be infuriating! 

My husband and I built a standard 4 x 2 cube KALLAX unit from IKEA then he added sturdy pine boards, cut to size, to the top and the bottom. Another board, with slightly wider and longer dimensions and a bit of an added rim, allows the entire padded surface to be lifted off if a cover change becomes necessary and yet it is very sturdy and doesn't move around.

The top is 3 layers of cotton quilt batting, a layer of heat resistant ironing board cloth, and then the outer fabric which is a heavy cotton decorator fabric. For now, with my sewing room down for renovations, the pressing station is set up in our home office area and has been seeing a fair bit of use. It's a delight to use!

We finished off the pressing station with 2 drawer units (total of 4 drawers) and 2 doored units. Those additions did come with drawer pulls but they just didn't have the personality and crafty look I wanted for a creative space so I got to work and transformed 1 1/4" wooden knobs from Home Depot with paint, a simple decorative flower motif, and several coats of Varathane. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out.

The lower row of cube cubbies is filled with BRANAS baskets and I've been busy making liners for them of boro patchwork and accents of simple, bold stitching.

Speaking of patching -- here's how the progress in the room is going. The closet is out, the drywall is up, and the seams are being mudded and sanded. Next step will be priming the whole room and then spraying texture on the ceiling. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyway, I'm not the one in charge of that so all I can do is pace, peek in now and then, and continue on with my little detail work.

All links in my blog posts are there only for your convenience. I get no reimbursement if you use them.

Left You Behind

I got so busy weaving, and doing other crafty things, that I forgot to update you all on this latest project.

 

A while back I initiated a weave-a-long on the "Saori Weaving for Everyone" group on Ravelry.  We now have 15 weavers participating!

The idea is to choose a painting you love and then use it as inspiration for a Saori style weaving.

The weaving does not have to be a pictorial representation of the painting. The idea is just to attempt to capture the 'mood' of the painting in colour and/or other elements.

So while I was absent from the blog I was busy choosing a painting to use as inspiration and then selecting yarns, winding a warp, and dressing the loom.

The weather here has been hot, hot, HOT, so I dragged a portable table into the only air conditioned room in my house and sat there to do much of the prep work.

The dogs were more than happy to sit in the cool room with me while I worked.

When I finally started weaving I was very surprised to have it take off, almost with a mind of its own, in a mildly tapestry-esk fashion. Not true tapestry, but kind of looking that way as I weave randomly in the colours I see as representing the painting.

I chose Evelyn Kirkaldy's "Kootenay Meadow" as my inspiration.

And here is how it looks now, after the second day of weaving. This particular technique, using a table fork as a 'beater' and weaving organic looking shapes in a wide variety of colours, thicknesses, and textures, is VERY SLOW going. I don't know if I'll be able to hold out for the entire four metres I wound, but I am enjoying myself so far.