130. Yellow Freesias

Pilot G-Tec C4 and Neocolour II in

Handbook Travelogue Journal, 5" x 5"

129. Oliver's Card

Neocolour II Watersoluble Wax Pastels,

 Staedtler Fineliner and UniPin Waterproof Pens

on Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper

(with an 80gsm paper insert for the greeting)

My godson celebrated his 16th birthday a few weeks ago. I wanted to design a card that was specific to him and spent quite a few weeks thinking about it. This year, he is into maths and the sciences, particularly physics and biochemistry; previously he wanted to be a vet. Anyway, two of my husband's degrees are in biochemistry so he was (again) a very valuable resource. I'd spent too much time trying to work out how to write his name when I suddenly hit upon the idea of spelling it out using the Periodic Table! I did enjoy doing it - all that measuring fed the OCD(!) - and, as I was off, I had plenty of time to think about it. He sent me a lovely message after he received it so I'm completely happy.

A view of some of my sketchbook ideas

(On the back is hand-written "Designed for Oliver….." but I blurred it out of this photograph as it contains his full name and birthday.)

128. Yummy Fruit

Pilot G-Tec C4 Watersoluble pen

on Arches watercolour paper, 4" x 4"

We had a bereavement at Easter and we've been travelling up and down the motorway, preparing photographs and the order of service, etc. It's been a sad time which is why I've not posted for so long - please accept my apologies.  After I came out of hospital recently, a dear colleague and friend visited, bringing along this yummy fruit - pineapple, mango, pomegranate, dates and brazil nuts. The colours were great so I couldn't resist rearranging a few and taking a few photographs as I knew I'd want at least to sketch them later on down the line; I'm glad I did. Needless to say, although the nuts and dates lasted a little longer than the soft fruit, we polished them off long ago!

Drum Leaf Binding

A while ago I discovered 'drum leaf binding' which is a great way of putting illustrated or photographed pages together - you end up with completely flat spreads (actually they open backwards) so you don't lose anything into the gutter of the page. You also end up with double-thick pages so wet applications of paint, markers, etc, are unlikely to bleed through to the neighbouring page. (It's also good for doing panoramic images.) I was curious to give it a try so bought a few large sheets of different types of watercolour paper. It's tricky but I was so pleased with the result that I made a little case for it using fabric-covered greyboard. I then cut out some coloured endpapers and bound it all into a proper sketchbook.  I wish you all a happy, healthy and hopefully arty weekend. 

127. Tote/Sketching Bag - Finished

Tote Bag/Sketching Bag (reversible)
made with three types of heavyweight 100% cotton

Hi All, it's finished and everything fits in it including my pens and baby sketchbook - yippee!! I really enjoyed hand-stitching the whole thing; I used backstitch for strength and the top-stitching is actually 'running stitch' sewn in one direction then sewn in the opposite direction to make it look as though a machine did it - I think that's called 'cross running stitch'.

Other views:

(reversed)

Peeping pens

Snug baby sketchbook