Tulips

Somebody - who shall remain nameless, decided to pick all the tulips from the container outside my kitchen door. She then left them - with their very short stems propped back in the container - probably because she realised that she had done wrong and was trying to cover it up. So I stuck them into this crystal rose bowl. To quote the culprit who was trying to look on the bright side - "They look very pretty though!" - and they do. How could I be cross?

PS. Don't forget to enter my 100th post giveaway.

Pot Project

As if I haven't got anything else to do with my time, I decided to revamp an old plantpot. It was one I had picked up at my local auction and had peeling blue paint on it. Sorry - I forgot to photograph the "before".
I gave it a rub with a wire brush to remove the old paint, and then a scrub, and about 4 coats of cream masonry paint, and it was ready for a bit of stencilling. This is something you could do to jazz up any plain plant pot. It's really quick and easy.

I rummaged through my stencil collection - I didn't want to go cutting a new stencil this time.
My stencils have been used for many projects over the years. Walls, furniture, fabric, home accessories etc. Some are made from the kind of acetate that you use for overhead projectors and others are recycled out of shiny card used for the cover of sales brochures and other similar types of card. I simply draw my design and cut out with a sharp scalpel. Mind your fingers!

Here are my tools. I have a number of stencil brushes, but also sometimes improvise a little sponge pad out of a six inch nail and a bit of foam. I wrap the foam around the head of the nail and fix either with a sandwich tie, or a an elastic band.

There are various methods to stencilling, but I prefer the repeated stabbing motion method. I place a little paint in a tub - I reuse milk bottle lids for small amounts of paint (and mixing glues and all sorts of other uses). I load my brush, and then on a spare bit of card or paper - or in this case a scrap of wood, I pounce my brush to remove most of the paint, and then I do the same pouncing motion over the stencil, reloading my brush when needed, until the whole area is covered. Then I remove my stencil and tada, a lovely crisp pattern is left (or nearly crisp as it was a bit of a rush job). I use masking tape to hold my stencil to the pot. Low tack masking tape is best, but if you take a bit of high tack stuff and stick it o your clothing a few times first, it loses some of it's tack and then you have just made your own low tack version!

I will post it again once it is planted up.
I hope this inspires you to give some new life to an old pot.

100th Post Giveaway !

Well, here it is as promised is my blog giveaway. Sorry I am a bit slow with the posts these days. I've been very busy getting my studio ready for my parents to come and sleep in for the week. I've been making curtains, and painting and clearing out all the junk I collect.

To be in with a chance of winning my 100th post giveaway, please leave a comment on this post. If you want to be in with 2 chances of winning, then please post about this giveaway on your blog and then come back here and leave a second comment on this post.

And now without further ado...the winner will get...

This hand illustrated scented sachet filled with Provence lavender. It would look really sweet hanging from a door or a hanger - or you could place it in your drawer to sweetly scent the contents.

These lovely translucent glass bead earrings which will come in a pretty little handmade box. I hope you like them!

I look forward to seeing who enters. Perhaps I will discover your blog for the first time.

The drawing will be in one week from now - May 15th at 12 noon. (UK time)

Eggs and Biscuits

My friend Annie brought round some lovely fresh eggs the other day. I thought about using them to bake with , but in the end decided to boil them so we could really enjoy the taste. Two of them were pretty blue eggs, and there were also two duck eggs which I have never had before - they were very tasty.

So I used a shop bought free range egg to make my biscuits with in the end. Here are some of my orange crunch biscuits wrapped to take to a friend as a hostess gift. I used a large size cellophane bag (from my cardmaking stash) and some curling ribbon and a label I printed on the PC.

Recipe for Orange Crunch Biscuits

Rind of two oranges
1 teaspoon of orange essence
350g flour
1 egg
150g caster sugar
150g softened butter
(If you want you could add some grated ginger root or ground ginger to make orange and ginger crunch biscuits. Yum!)

I love this recipe because I use my food processor and it is so easy to make.
First I blend the sugar and softened butter and orange essence and rind and then I add one spoonful of the flour and the egg, and blend again. Finally, I add the rest of the flour bit by bit until the dough starts to ball up in the machine. I then add a touch of fresh orange juice if it is too dry - and if it was a big egg and it is too wet, then I add a touch more flour. It's that whole guessipe thing again. Then I place the dough in a plastic bag and chill for an hour or so. Then roll out the dough quite thin and cut into shapes and bake for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Cool on a rack, and then enjoy or package up prettily and share with a friend.

P.S. - LOOK OUT FOR MY NEXT POST

My next post is going to be my 100th and I will be doing the traditional 100th post giveaway.

I'm just getting it together now.

The last pyramid...

This is all that is left from a batch of about 200 coconut pyramids I made for a Passover Seder Celebration. They always go down well. Here is the very simple recipe.

200g packet of desicated coconut
2 eggs
 100g sugar

All you have to do is combine the ingredients. It might seem a bit dry, but you have to work it all together by mixing and pressing with the spoon. It is hard work! Eventually when it is well mixed I cover and leave it for an hour or so. Then with wet hands I form pyramid shapes and I bake at around 170 until they are golden on top (about 10 minutes)

I hope you can figure out how to convert my UK measurements and oven temperature to US standards if you want to make some. They are yummy at any time of year.

This is one of my painted and stencilled Seder plates I made a few years ago. It started life as the same kind of wooden platter that the coconut pyramid is sitting on.

A fleeting visit

We've actually been having some lovely sunshine this spring. So much so there have been moments I could have believed it was summer except for the lack of leaves on the trees. Still, the buds are bursting and all is looking beautiful, and that is my excuse for not being a bountiful blogger! That and all the spring cleaning I have been doing. So, I apologise for the lack of posts. Hopefully I shall get on with some creative projects soon!

Hope the sun is shining where you are!

Exhibition Invitation

This Green Art has been created by a very dear friend of mine, Shirah Miriam Aumann. If you live anywhere near here, please do visit as I know this will be a wonderful experience.

Here is her press release...

“Power for the People-Sustainability”

Environmental Art Exhibit – Mixed Media ARTIST: Shirah Miriam “Mimi” Aumann, Paper Sculpture Artist

WHERE: Driskill Art Gallery in the Jester Learning and Performance Center SBU Campus, Bolivar, MO

WHEN: April 3-24, 2009

“Power for the People-Sustainability” is a 40-piece show, with an installation of a grove of five trees – “Tree Whispers” – portraying the deforestation of Planet Earth for paper. The opening reception will be April 3, 6-7:30 pm, in the Driskill Gallery on the SBU Campus. The artist will be present to open the show with a walk-about lecture to introduce the message of the pieces and the fibres and process used in their creation.

The works in this exhibit reflect conceptual messages, social awareness, craftsmanship and unique attitudes in response to contemporary issues—using technical approaches in mixed media.

The exhibit focuses on EARTH DAY and its goals and purpose, with the overall goal of the exhibit being to educate and inform through the art.

The artist, Shirah Miriam “Mimi” Aumann, is a hand papermaker working with native plant fibres in the ancient process before we turned to the trees for paper.

All Mimi’s papers and sculpture are handmade and tree free – 100% plant fibres…

Hemp and switchgrass are the main two fibres being showcased in this exhibit, however, you will also find other botanicals used in some of the pieces as described in the catalogue listing.

Portions of the exhibit convey a very serious message of the concerns and issues being faced across our world today. You will also find some of the exhibit to be provocative and playful as the hemp fibre is employed in most of the pieces.

Switchgrass is a very important fibre in the future energy concerns of our nation. It is proving to be valuable as a bio-fuel and as a replacement for other formerly petroleum-based usages. It is also a unique fibre for papermaking, as you will see in this exhibit.

The exhibit offers various mediums using these fibres: handmade papers from raw fibres are used in a variety of artistic approaches incorporating and overlapping various techniques of spinning, weaving, stitching, basketry, ceramic, casting, encaustic, collage and illumination. Hemp rope and twines and fabrics of hemp are also incorporated in the various pieces. Most of the frames are made from a composite of hemp Hurds, a part of the hemp stalk where most of the cellulose of the plant is found.

This exhibit is a wonderful opportunity to introduce the viewer to the strength and beauty of these natural fibres and get the Earth Day message across in a powerful and visual way.

For more information about this exhibit, please contact Shirah Miriam “Mimi” Aumann at 417-739-9124 or email thewatermill@centurytel.net