Messing around... or... displacement activity

 I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been making a glass panel which had gone a bit wrong. I think there was an element of me rushing it, especially the soldering, wanting to do the good bits and speeding over some of the necessary things, but the lead came I had came rolled up and I had the devil's own job trying to straighten it. I was a bit despondent but I'm doing an advanced course with Christian this weekend and I know it is all about the practice so I have been working on a few design ideas this week that will incorporate both painting and coloured glass. Under Chris's watchful eye I hope to post better results after the weekend.

 I used up as many of my original painted samples as I could on the panel and I was quite pleased with the design, so much so that I started to play around with it in Photoshop for something else. Why is it so easy to get distracted and not keep to the main focus? I might crop some of my digital images, layer them and then print them as I like the collage impression they give me.

I've been making the CMYK separations this week for some more four colour gum arabic trials but I've yet to get them photocopied. In the meantime I just have to mess about with some of the photocopies I already have of course. This cat's photo was in an old book I picked up in a charity shop and I loved his quirky expression so he's been adorning all sorts this week from fabric to old pages to feathers. I had seen the wonderful etching prints on feathers of Rebecca Jewell so I just had to see if gum arabic would work too. As you can see I need a larger feather for my cat so I'm now on the lookout for some goose feathers. Of course, I could make Mr Mestophiles smaller but that would be sensible and I don't always do the sensible thing.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the call of a print exchange. There are currently 8 of us having a go. I cannot get hold of everyone who expressed an interest via e mail - Carol and Patricia I mean you! - so do contact me if you're still interested. As for me, I've got as far as cutting 12cm square bits of lino, mat board and aluminium sheet before deciding what medium to use. I also have some perspex cut to size and a visit to my dentist yesterday resulted in the gift of about 15 different old dental tools to try to make marks with for a drypoint print. The only stipulation she gave me was not to try my hand at my own dentistry but whilst I'll have a go at most things I'm not inclined in that direction. There's too much fun to be had elsewhere!