Warning: This is a very long post! Click on the links to take you to the relevant posts for more details.
Quite an eventful year, one way and another. On the artistic front I have embarked on some new ventures, I’ve acquired quite a bit of new stash, some lovely books… Several gorgeous gifts, some great outings with my hubby and various other matters. Read on.
The most significant event of the year
The most significant event of the past year has to be the death of our beloved Queen Elizabeth II in September, after reigning 70 years, the longest of any monarch in our history. Many of us believe that her death marks the beginning of big changes. We were able to watch the ancient rituals of the succession, and the entire day given over to Her Majesty’s state funeral. It has been a moving and emotional time and she will be greatly missed. This is how I like to think of her – a picture taken when one of her horses won a race!
There have been many successes and failures throughout the year, both national and personal. We rejoice in the successes, and hope to learn from the failures, growing and moving on. I wrote a piece on Wabi sabi – celebrating the imperfections, back in June.
There’s a lot to cover in this post so I might as well begin with the biggest topic, which is my art and creativity throughout the year. I shall take it topic by topic, but there will be some overlaps and referrals to other sections.
Art
It seems logical to begin with new stash that I have acquired, because this sets the stage, and many of the activities sprang from these items.
New stash
In January I got my Derwent Coloursoft coloured pencils and Stabilo Woodies.
In March I got a new Rhodia drawing book with a gorgeous soft black cover and beautiful smooth white pages with rounded corners. I am dedicating this book to black ink drawings (more later).
I also got a set of grey fineliner marker pens. Often, black is too harsh.
Also in March I got some new blender pens (more on this later), circle templates, some Golden satin glazing liquid and a set of metallic gouache paints.
Ink pad storage system: At the end of March I discovered a new system for storing my numerous ink pads – something I had been wrestling with for years, and the solution is absolutely brilliant!
I bought several of these sets of trays and assembled them into a tower on a revolving base. Subsequently, I added storage for my spray stains. My first plan was a failure. I gave this a lot of thought and eventually used short lengths of plastic pipe glued onto the sides.
This is the final result. It has been an absolute life-saver (at least, a sanity-saver!) in the studio as it has saved me loads of time messing about searching through boxes for the colour I want.
I downloaded some printable templates from the Internet, to create colour swatches for all the Distress and Distress Oxide colours.
In April, I added to my rather small stash of napkins – I got several lovely new ones that can be cut up, and also some printed rice paper.
I only had a few Distress Spray Stains, so in April I ordered quite a few more. They are all now in my wonderful new storage unit.
Later in the year I also invested in some Seth Apter Izinks which are fabulous.
In May I got some more bits and pieces – banner dies and Tim Holtz text stamps, and some new gilding flakes.
I made a deckle ruler for myself by filing random notches in an old plastic ruler – makes great edges if you tear paper along it!
For our wedding anniversary in May, my hubby gave me a gorgeous little hand-made book he’d found at a jumble, which I call my “Organic Journal.” In its original state it looked like this:
I didn’t like the yin-yang design on the front so I designed a new one, and I also took the book apart and rebound it so that the pages would lie flat.
My very first washi tapes arrived at the end of May.
My most exciting new purchase this year has to be my gel plate. In anticipation of its arrival, I made a drying rack from some mesh panels which I had stored – they used to be assembled into a cube unit for paper storage in our old house.
Eventually I removed alternate shelves because it was too difficult to slide the wet papers in.
Gel printing set-up, beside the sink in the “wet” area of my studio.
In July bought some cheap bath and sink mats from Ebay for creating texture on the gel plate.
To cope with the increase in “wet” papers that I would now be creating, I covered an old estate agent’s board with black plastic to serve as a “wet board” which is now permanently out on the two pull-out units in the centre of the studio.
Paints – I bought quite a few new acrylics for use with the gel plate during the year.
I got some cheap mail art stamps Ali Express in August.
Mesh paper stuff (actually made of plastic, I think) from Dryad, and I also got some from Ali Express.
Stash from the art materials sale at The Works in August.
Peacock design papers and other papers from Smith’s when we went shopping in November. Lots of great collage material here.
One of the most exciting stash purchases I made this year was a selection from Taperlogy. Simply gorgeous papers, stickers and more.
I was given a lot of redundant stash by a friend who is cutting down on her crafting activities as she gets older. I love this sort of gift because it’s always so eclectic and it gives one the opportunity to use one’s imagination!
Paper mesh. Not sure if you can really call this stash, as it’s packing material that most people throw away! To me, though, it’s fabulous art material. Great for spraying, collaging, stencilling. Gorgeous texture!
Another “trash” thing for art is the texture plate I made for the gel plate, out of the empty blister packs from medication.
Organisation for my collage papers. I’ve got so many bits and pieces now that I filed them in polywallets, which just fit in a Really Useful Box.
Tim Holtz media grip. This stuff is awesome for holding things in place while you work on them. I’ve cut it up into several pieces which are stored on either side of a laminated card.
Plastic table runners for coffee staining (more later). I have several more of these as well.
DIY papers
During the year I have nade several “DIY papers” for collage.
Faux rice paper – this wasn’t desperately successful. The pieces ended up very sticky even after being left to dry for several weeks.Here are the final results. I probably won’t bother with this again.
DIY specialist papers – amongst other things, I tried to replicate the amazing Japanese Ogura lace paper, without a great deal of success, but it was fun to try. A different method I tried. (I now have a couple of sheets of the real thing, from Taperlogy.)
I had great success with the stamped white acrylic circles.
I made some collage papers from torn up scraps and gilding flakes, creating a skin with acrylic polymer and tissue paper.
Pierced paper. A really fun discovery was when I saw someone accordion-folding paper and then punching holes in it. It occurred to me that I have a ready supply of paper already folded in such a manner, in every pack of medication I get! You can do so much with it – use it on the gel plate, stencil with it, spray it… It tears beautifully along the perforations, leaving a nice irregular line. I am using this a lot.
I also punched different sized holes, and in a pattern.
I discovered a way of making paper translucent with the addition of baby oil, well rubbed in.
Collage strips. A great way to use up those huge numbers of strips of card and paper we all have from trimming things down to size. Just glue random scraps onto them and voila! More here.
Painting book pages with watercolours, to create papers for making embellishments (more later).
Splat box papers. These pieces of kitchen paper had been lurking in my splat box for ages, building up colour as I sprayed things in the protection of the cardboard box. Lots of shimmer and shine on this one (not visible on the photo unfortunately).
Fabric scraps from a cushion cover I took apart – they will be great for collage.
Furnishing fabric samples I picked up free from a local shop. Ditto.
DIY foam stamps
Easy-peasy to make foam stamps from self-adhesive fun foam. I backed mine onto a thick yoga mat that I cut up.
Gel plate
Not enough space to show everything I have achieved with this amazing piece of kit! It is so much fun.
Something I struggled with for a long time was replicating what Robyn McClendon had achieved with a combination of matte acrylic paint and spray inks, to create the effect of old Venetian plaster. I got there in the end, and with some further experimentation in the absence of the magic ingredient she used, which is unobtainable in the UK, by adding glycerine, I got even better results. Such a cool effect!
Gel prints using iridescent paints. Unfortunately the shimmer doesn’t show up too well on the photos.
Gel prints using pierced paper.
I attempted using a graining tool on the gel plate. I haven’t tried since, but will definitely perfect the technique!
A selection of gel prints using a balloon whisk for texture (top left), stencils, cheap bathmat (2nd from top right), my own intuitive Oriental script stencils etc.
Stencils and masks, and stencilling in general
This year I made a whole collection of stencils and masks, designing them in Inkscape and cutting them from Tyvek on my electronic cutting machine. You can see some examples of the work produced in the photo just above.
Stencilling over iridescent paints:
Mark making and scripting
This follows on quite nicely from the gel printing section as the two overlap sometimes.
Various ink spatters and marks made with a silicone pastry brush.
Mark making and stencilling, using packaging paper, coffee-staining. Amazon brown packaging paper is brilliant for playing because there’s no fear of things going wrong as it’s free! I also have a large roll of newsprint left behind by the removal men once and this is also a pretty-much infinite supply of large pieces of paper.
Mark making with coffee staining.
Coffee staining with ink blots. I love using this thin paper which creates natural peaks and valleys that any staining will flow into.
Ink dipping – not too successful! Definitely need more practice.
This is the sort of thing the Japanese achieve with this art, which is known as Orizomegami.
Coffee staining
I have had a huge amount of fun with this. I have made up two solutions, one stronger than the other, and added some alcohol to stop it turning bad, and used a spray bottle. I find this more successful than bulk-staining tons of paper at once. The most fun technique is using coffee staining with plastic lace table runners and doilies. My first efforts were not successful, but later I got amazing results.
I tried some bulk dyeing using fruit tea but it oxidised and turned the paper grey. I had better success with the teabag stains which I was able to use – more later.
Printables
I have created quite a lot of my own printables which are available for free download on my One Drive, along with other free stuff.
Here are some examples, taken from my own photos over the years.
Drawing
At the beginning of the year I tried my hand at neurographic art and produced a few drawings. These are my early efforts.
My first tree, and other drawings.
My Brazilian friend commissioned me to do a drawing to paste into the art book she is creating, and I made “Chi Ro Tree of Life” for her.
I did quite a lot of doodles at that time, too.
Using my large Rhodia drawing book, I started a doodle pattern library – useful to refer to for ideas. (Subsequent posts as well.)
Highlighting
In the new stash section I mentioned the blender pens I bought. I marked these according to the colours I would use with them, for highlighting drawings or adding text in white, gold etc., dipping the blender pen into gouache paint. This gives excellent results – much better than any of the usual white ink pens.
Rhodia drawing book
As mentioned before, all drawings done with black permanent fineliner marker pens.
Black Botanicals Album
This was one of the blank albums I bought at The Works. I am filling it with paintings of botanical subjects, using a variety of media, including Perfect Pearls and iridescent paints. I haven’t done many pages yet.
Teabag art
I mentioned above that I did some fruit tea staining which turned from pink to grey as it dried. The drying teabags left grey stains. When I’ve done teabag stain doodles before, I have done the doodles with a sepia pen, but this time I used a black pen and was very pleased with the results on the grey background.
Teabag mini-albums
I made two of these, one for myself and one for a friend. The pages were inked with Distress Oxides with added doodles, and most of the pages featured either whole, or part teabags, and/or doodled teabag stains cut out and applied. The covers were made from card with layered teabags with stencilling.
(Click on links for March onwards in the Blog Archive for full details of these – too many pages to link individually here.)
Organic Journal
This is the book my hubby gave me, made of natural materials. I began by making a mixed media page which I wasn’t terribly happy with. I did a revamp which was slightly better. The style then began to change, with a teabag sampler page, and the rest of the book is collage in various forms.
A selection of the collage pages. On this first one, the sunflower page, the sunflower is made from melted and painted Tyvek.
One of two pages based on the Voynich manuscript.
The other Voynich page can be seen here.
One of several intuitive collage pages. You will notice several of the papers I have mentioned above, incorporated into this spread.
Intuitive collage pages 1 and 2 can be seen here and here respectively.
“Wings.”
“Pressed flowers.” This is the final page of the book, incorporating pressed flowers from the garden.
Other pages are “Pierced Ovals,” “Pierced Ovals 2” and “Tigers.”
Altered book: “The Journey”
The first of a series of altered books which I am going to make. The book is a large-format hardback book my hubby gave me, and it is a combination of travel and mail-art themes, using collage.
The first of two pages with a French theme. (Completed here.)
Southern Spain and Morocco. This is as far as I have got by the end of the year.
Paper embellishments
This is what I made from the watercoloured book pages mentioned above. Other links here and here.
More collage strips. The scraps were made from torn up recycled Christmas cards given to me by our neighbour with the rest of the stash she gave me.
She gave me so many bits and pieces, and I was so grateful that I made her a little mixed media hanging, beginning here, made entirely from things she had given me. You can see the conclusion here. I made a hand-stamped envelope to put it in for her.
Paper beads
In November I tried my hand at making paper beads. I found instructions for making a little bead winder online so I made three in different sizes.
Beads from magazine pages. Next time I shall double or triple up the layers as they are very thin, and they aren’t very evenly wound – but not too bad for a first effort!
Beads made from some horrible old scrapbooking paper I’ve had hanging around for years. Much better as beads!
All the beads, once glazed with some glitter added, and the ends painted gold, look much better.
My first attempt at Tyvek beads. I love these! Next time I shall double up the layers to get more separation and bubbling.
Collage fragments
This is my final project of the year, making a series of small pieces with layered collage, which can be used on book covers, or on album pages, or made into greetings cards.
Now for some other stuff.
Clothes
I got some new slippers back in April, in anticipation of going into hospital (which didn’t happen – more later). Got them on Ebay, second hand (or foot?!). Very pretty, vry ethnic, very me!
I got some new winter woollies when we had our shopping trip to Newton Abbot in November. A couple of nice cardigans and a fluffy jumper.
Outings
Two major outings this year, one to Castle Drogo in August:
and then the following week to Coleton Fishacre. Both of these are National Trust properties.
I took loads of photos at both places, both indoors and in the gardens which are magnificent. So many beautiful things to look at, and so much inspiration!
Books
This leads me nicely on to the new books I have bought this year. The “Botanicum” one came from Castle Drogo. Masses of beautiful botanical illustrations to inspire me in this gorgeous big book.
At Coleton Fishacre, which is full of art deco furniture, ornaments and lighting, I bought the second gorgeous book, full of illustrations by Erte, known as the “king of art deco.” Again, a fabulous source book for design.
Gifts
More books, this time gifts from my hubby. Firstly, he gave me a lovely boxed set of the complete Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, in hardback format.
For Christmas he gave me two books which I read many years ago, both being reminiscences through a child’s eyes of life in the late Victorian and First World War eras, “Period Piece” by Gwen Raverat, and “People who Say Goodbye” by P.Y. Betts, bought as a pair, second-hand, from Ebay. I love second-hand books as they have a slightly worn and much loved feel about them, and the pages stay open better!
He also gave me a little glass teapot, to go with the beautiful cup and spoon which my Brazilian friend sent me in November.
For Valentine’s he gave me this beautiful china plate.
Kitchen
A new microwave in September, to replace our old one which broke down.
I eventually received the replacement jug for my Vitamix – I had been waiting for months for these to be available, to replace the original which was leaking.
I’ve been cooking more or less the same things throughout the year as I now have a comprehensive menu to draw upon, but I did make a new recipe in January – my own version of Bircher Muesli, which is a combination of several other recipes with my own additions. I make this regularly and we have it for dessert, and I sometimes have a small bowl before bed if I am late and hungry. Lovely served with yoghurt and a topping of home-made granola.
Garden
First spring flowers, back in February.
Tulips in April. We had a lovely display, with many different varieties. I had some fun with some photo manipulation of these.
Apple blossom in May, promising a good crop.
A couple of moths, both photographed in July. First, a Jersey tiger moth on the kitchen window.
Second, a swallowtail moth, found in the car by my hubby.
The apple crop began in mid-August, and turned into the expected bumper crop! Our little tree is brilliant every year.
Computer
I had a bit of trouble with the computer this year, first with Norton deciding that my blog was “dangerous” and I had a lot of hassle sorting this out. In October my back-up external hard drive started to fail, so I bought a new one and was able to copy everything across, so all is well on both counts.
I had one or two other problems and decided it was time for a complete reformat of my hard drive, which I did in October, creating a clean slate, and I soon had everything up and running again.
Kitties
Both are thriving, and unbelievably are now 5 1/2 years old! Loads of pictures throughout the year on my blog. Here are a few favourites.
Ruby in a box much too small for her.
Ruby watching herself on TV.
Cuddled up together.
Coming in for tea.
Lily in “shameless hussy” mode showing off all her bits.
Lily, unusually for her, in a box. Usually Ruby’s domain.
Health
Parastomal hernia repair
It is now nearly four years since my initial referral to the surgeon in Exeter. I was due to have the operation in April, and had another CT scan and my pre-assessment, but it was postponed and I am still waiting. I am coping with it OK and nothing to worry about, but I do wonder if it will ever happen!
Palpitations
In May, after seriously overdoing things making my ink storage tower, I suffered severe palpitations and saw the doctor. He thought my heart was beating irregularly and booked me in for an ECG. By the time that happened, everything had calmed down again and I was fine.
UTI
In July I got a UTI and was on antibiotics which cleared it up – temporarily. It came back with a vengeance and I was in a lot of pain for the whole weekend, but a second dose of antibiotics cleared it up.
Covid
In September my hubby got Covid, and passed it on to me. He got it worse than me, despite all his jabs. I didn’t have to take to my bed but felt pretty lousy for a week or so, and had a fainting spell which was a bit alarming, and then suffered much more severe fatigue than is normal for me for two or three weeks, and then I was back to normal again, and now full of nice natural antibodies!!
Eye test
In November I had my eyes tested again and didn’t need new glasses. I was hoping they’d tell me my cataracts were now ready to be done as they are causing me quite significant problems, but no – I’ve got to wait at least another year! Ho hum.
Hair
For the past month and a bit, I have been using a radically new method of caring for my now hip-length hair. Over the past few years it had become very thin and my scalp was showing through which alarmed me. I’ve had chemo and also many years of colouring it, and also had no idea that maintaining long hair actually takes work if it is going to remain in good health.
I am now using historical hair care methods, with minimal washing and not using any commercial hair care products at all. Clay washing, finger detangling and frequent brushing with natural bristles, and using scalp and hair oils, and scalp massage. My hair grew a whole inch in a week (average growth rate 1.5 inches per month)! The thin patches seem to have disappeared after only a month of this treatment and my scalp is no longer visible through the new growth. It doesn’t feel dirty, and is easy to manage, and is shiny. It is just great. More news in the new year as I progress with this.
Links here, here, here and here.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a medal. It’s been quite a year, and very productive creative-wise
With all that’s going on in the world as it goes from bad to worse and to wrack and ruin, I should be scared, but I am not. I continue to trust in the soon coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to take His people home before the worse period in history is released on the world. If you want to avoid this, it is simple – just admit you are a sinner like all the rest of humanity, and put your faith in Jesus who died on the cross and rose again on the third day to pay the penalty for your sin. For further details see my page “New Life in Christ” – link at the top of the blog. Time is very short. All the signs Jesus told us would happen before He comes are happening now, with ever greater frequency and convergence.
Whatever 2023 brings, remember that God is in control. I wish you all a happy New Year.
