Tuesday 22 October 2013

Autumn days

I've been busy again, so I thought I would share. First of all I've been doing some sketchbook work.

 The rooks were inspired by photographs in this quarter's BTO magazine "Bird Table" which is a great source of pictures. There is definitely a touch of Linda Kemshall there too.  The background is a collage of printed papers from my stash.

Next I gathered a few samples from the garden. I am interested in moving from an accurate drawing to a more graphic representation. Above are aquilegia seed heads.

These Iris foetidissima berries were crying out for the paintbrush.  I used Golden Acrylics to paint the left hand page.  

This is a branch of Japanese honeysuckle which is rampant in my garden. I drew a simplified representation on the left and used printed papers for the collage.

On Saturday I went to my Embroiders' Guild workshop run by Gina on making books.
Here's a montage of the groups results.


 This is my one


The paper I chose was very thick.

On Sunday I thought I'd have a go at making another one, so that hopefully the method would stick.
 This time I used some of those printed papers again mixed in with plain papers.


The binding is a little loose, but generally pretty successful.

Today I thought I would commit myself to starting to quilt the poppy print fabric I had made of my paintings.  I selected suitable threads from my stash but realised that there are a few gaps in the paler range and the blue/greens.
I had the enough suitable threads to make a start. So far so good, the quilting is adding a luxurious 3D effect.


Thank you to all of you who wished Marvin well.  A visit to the vet yesterday for his flu jab confirmed he is fine, even if he is on borrowed time. We concluded that the arrival of extra cats in the neighbourhood would account for him converting to being an indoor cat, although he does still like a brief walk round the 'estate', especially if Mr T or I are out there with him ... aaah!


Another exciting bit of news is that I have been asked to take part in a pop-up shop in Dunstable in November. More news about that later. I must say it is all happening at the moment.
Hope things are going well your way too.
Jill




8 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

You really have got into your stride now haven't you and it's all really lovely - I just wish I could draw and/or paint too. Love the books I seem to remember Lesley making some a bit like that ages ago. Glkad Marvin is going on OK. We had a bit of a scare with Tom this weekend but a visit to the vet and a couple of injections and he is much improved and that dreaded day is postponed again! Like Marvin he prefers to make his circuits of the estate when we are about but I guess that's wise as he is deaf and doesn't see too well now and there are rather a lot of other cats waiting to take over his territory nowadays!!

Gina said...

Gosh you have been busy... and everything is wonderful!

ju-north said...

You are such a talented artist as well as everything else you do well!

LAC EMP 2020 said...

You are such a talented woman! Is there nothing you can't do? I'm a great fan of corvids of any description so I love the sketchbook pages and how can I not love the books too. Is that Khadi paper in the first one? I start my bookmaking workshops tomorrow and if any of them 'get' it about using different papers and pages like your prints I shall be dead pleased. Good luck with the pop up shop and keep us informed.

The Crafty Mugwump said...

Wow - what fabulous work!

Clare Wassermann said...

Wow Jill you really have your mojo at the moment. Hello Marvin. You are a fine example of orange ness. I like your aquilegia seed head interpretations very much ly!!!

Maggi said...

Beautiful sketchbook work and the poppy quilting.

Glad that Marvin is doing well

Linda Vincent said...

Jill, you are so talented...you never fail to amaze me. Your sketchbook work is awesome and I love those little books.

Love the photo of Marvin btw.....there's such character in that face :-) Hope he's doing ok. X