Saved from a skip beret WOYWW 356

Just finishing off a beret today made from wool cops rescued from a skip at college when they got rid of machine knitting classes. I remember at the time seeing knitting machines being thrown away - criminal. The wool is too fine to hand knit as is so I used 4 strands together and knitted a large rectangle that I then felted and cut up for the beret - the shapes are applied with free-machining. Now what to do with the rest? I just need to apply the binding to the edge - in this case some tape which was a handle on an upmarket carrier bag and luckily the right colour. Should be finished before I go to CRUNCH at lunchtime. Have a good Wednesday - if you want to check out other workdesks follow the link to Julia's page

Jackie

Paper Flowers - WOYWW 355

Missed the last couple of weeks on the blog but glad to be back. Today I have been rustling up some flowers to take to CRUNCH later on - Craft and lunch in the Courtyard Gallery at the Core, Solihull. This idea started as something to take to the arts and craft group at Marie Curie Hospice in April. The papers I have used for all but one of the flowers are recycled - left to right - old book, interiors magazine page (rose and carnation), orange shiny paper, pink emulsion on newspaper and over-painted dirty cartridge paper.

I am always aware that people may want to have a go when they get home and this way they don't have to go out and buy anything except maybe a glue stick. If you want the instructions for the back 3 roses click here. Time to go now so will check out other WOYWW desks when I get back later. Anyone in Solihull pop along and join us at 12 - 2 every Wednesday it's free to all. Have a good day - 

Jackie

Work in Progress WOYWW 352

As most of you know I do not have a workdesk and I work on the table most appropriate to what I am doing at that moment. The closest thing I have to a permanent one is my easel which is what I work on most of the time. For the past couple of weeks I have been working on 3 large paintings - this is 90x75cm - all based around forgotten members of my husband's family that I have very old photos for  c1880s/90s. This one will have to come off its stretcher before I finish it because it's a bit skewed. The painting is done in oils with pencil drawing on top of the wet oils to try and give the look of the original photo. No doubt a lot of the paint on this will be rubbed back and reworked several times more but I have to let this dry for the moment so I can re stretch it.

This is an album I have put together with enlargements of the original photos. No one is left to put names to these faces which is a real shame.

My mate Steph is coming round in a bit for a sketching day on our joint 'seeds' project for the local artists fair in May and I am off now to get bread for lunch so I will check on other folks workdesks later. For anyone else who would like to join in check it out by hitting the WOYWW button.

Jackie