Time and tide....

In the past couple of weeks I've gone from 'procrastination' to 'brain overload' mode. I know I am not alone. I think there are plenty of kindred spirits out there reading this. You know who you are! One minute you have an idea and the next you've gone off on a tangent before the first idea is fully realised - yet, in your head, you have almost completed it! My Mum used to say I had a 'butterfly mind' always jumping from one thing to another , although I've always described it more like 'lurching' from one idea to the next.

After my last post I gave my friend the bibs I'd made and she was over the moon. I was really pleased that something so quick could give pleasure like that. She knows she is going to have a girl and was so excited by the things she is going to dress her in that it reminded me of this photograph taken of me as a small child. My Mum decided to dress me in my gaberdine mac on a hot sunny day because she liked me in it. It must have been sweltering. No wonder I look like I've had a sense of humour by-pass operation. Don't ask me why I felt the need to print it onto card, cut it out and make a little model of it. I just did and I'm now standing guard on my kitchen shelves. Still ,it was something to do rather than get on with the tasks in hand......

....to put off getting on with my drawing projects from college. So, I also went out to do some shopping. I found these fabulous 50's and 60's knitting patterns. They came with a dress pattern for a child's dress I found in the same charity shop. I'll make it for my friend's baby in the summer and it only cost 10p. These patterns only cost me 40p for the lot of them too. Bargains, and just crying out to be used in some vintage book project or collage ... but I mustn't be sidetracked by new ideas as I have to crack on with my course work.......

First up we had to find a stamp and draw the image using coloured pencils. I did one and it went very well. I even cropped part of the image and made a sheet of them which I perforated on the sewing machine. Hey presto, my own sheet of stamps! Not legal of course but fun to do. The next stamp I chose was the one above.....

.... and this is my version before I added the lettering later. I also took scans of it which I spliced up and collaged with other things. It made me look at stamps in a lot more detail too. I have stacks of them and suddenly realised that they make great drawing practice. There's no excuse for lack of inspiration ever again but no sooner had I done this than I had to get into the life drawing sessions.......

This is definitely not my forte. I've cropped the hands from this page because they sort of disappear.... this is something I need to do much more practice at but it's all down to time. No sooner had this session ended than I was back to the work that has really been taking all my waking hours for the past few weeks.....

The final part of this module, before we move onto working with abstraction, is a self directed project that can be on any theme we like. Mine is spoons. I have been buying lots of unusual shaped spoons in charity shops and I'm caught up in the fact that these mundane things we take for granted have been used my many people before me. There are lots of memories attached to them and once I started to think about the different types of spoons and the variety of ways I could portray them I was hooked. I've been making printing plates, drawing directly in all different mediums and I plan to use screen printing and stitch onto fabric as well. I cannot sleep with ideas buzzing around in my head and I am constantly writing things down in case I forget them. The thoughts are coming thick and fast and I think I've forgotten more than I've remembered. I have ideas for book works and collagraph prints and many more. Now all I need to do is marshal my thoughts, make a plan, and get on with it......