In Cold Blood - Collage

Number 11 - almost there.

In Cold Blood

The collage has nothing to do with the novel of the same name by Truman Capote, but rather with the necessity to make life changing decisions with your head and not your heart. I have tried to play with the differences between heart (passion, fire) and head (ice, cold logic) in the image. The salamander, who of course is a cold blooded creature none-the-less looks hot, almost like lava, whereas the background is cold and spattered with blood.


I've used various textures and some of my own patterns for this collage: there is a bindweed and a spiral grunge pattern, a grass/moss texture, a wall texture, a bark texture and an icy swirly texture made with my patterns. The textures that aren't mine are:

- Water/Ghostly Textures by Lithium0916
- Khaosdog: Blood Splatter textures
- One Cold Canadian: Abused Floor Textures
- Buzillo Grunge

Here is the fire salamander in detail. I stayed as true to the real thing as I could but emphasised the red/orange patches on its back to make it look more like magma and lava.
The calender is now almost within reach. I started the final picture last night and will hopefully finish it today, so, fingers crossed, there will be a calendar tomorrow. :-) I'll post the news of the calendar when I post the final picture.

Plants and Flowers

Here is a selection of the photos I took yesterday (after I spent ages messing around with them.

Water Lilies

I love water lilies, they are just so beautiful.






Calla Lilly


Passion Flower


Kapok Tree

Doesn't this just look like a dragon's claws growing on a tree?


Jack Fruit

And this looks just like a dragon's scales!



Reed


Bamboo


Weeds

They are so pretty even so they're just weeds. :-)

Progress report: Mermaid Shawl Part 3

Here's the next installment of the mermaid shawl:


And here's a detail image of the anemones:



I took more images but the morning sunlight reflected too much off some of the metallic threads and the photos looked blurred. So more details with the next installment.

The shawl is between a third and half done. As you can see it's wider in some parts than others which means it flows and drapes nicely.

I have so far included:

acetate floss in turquoise
metallic thread in peacock blue
hand dyed bamboo in shades of jade green
Rowan kidsilk in medici blue
handpainted kidsilk in shades of turquoise and blue
opalescent glitter thread
furry thread
hemp in blue and green
lurex in black and turquoise mix
silver white fuzzy novelty yarn
sequins (shells and spirals)
beads (various Magatama and Miyuki beads, seed beads, glass pearls)

The design choices I make are based on the story of the little mermaid by Andersen. I thought that she might be homesick and this shawl should be something that reminds her of the life she left behind. Hence, anemones, starfish, shells and sea snails, blues, greens, waves and nets.

Mermaid Shawl - Progress Report - Part 2

A day and a half have brought me to this:


It is slow going but utterly satisfying. The funny thing is, it looks jolly complicated, but it isn't, really. I use it to try out new patterns - some I make up, others I get from the net or from my stitch library. The good thing about this is that I get to try a pattern I like the look of but don't need to do too much of it if I then find it's too fussy or I just can't remember the stitches... It does happen quite a lot with lace patterns. Some just don't seem to have a 'rhythm' that works with mine.
I am particulalry pleased with this fish tail. I hadn't intended to make a fish tail, but when I tried out that 'little scallop' pattern I thought it looked like scales... so one thing led to another and here's my pretty fish tail. I think I'll embroider it with some sequins at some point.

On the topic of embroidery, it took me all morning to embroider these beads and finish off all the loose threads (which is why it looks a little tidier now). Embroidery or sewing isn't really my thing which is why I try to pick up stitches or crochet on existing edges rather than have to sew on bits...

Here's a little ruffly coral that was knitted separately and incorporated with the rest of the shawl with a bit of creative crochet. :-)



And here's a limpet:


All in all there IS progress, but it will take time...

... mind you, I just ordered some specialist yarns (glitters, snarls, metallics and other fun stuff) in reds and pinks for the next one... this could become an addiction....

Tough Luck

Unfortunately, my hard drive is totally dead. So I won't be able to get any data off it, which is rather annoying as I have no backup of my e-mail or bookmarks. The bookmarks have been collected for months and months so I'll have to try and remember the important ones. I've also lost my collection of online knitting patterns and the ones I downloaded. The worst bit is that this means I cannot paint until I've got a new hard drive which hopefully should arrive today... and then I'll have to re-install the operating system... the software... get the settings sorted out. Sigh. Never mind.

My yarn dying experiment with the beautiful bamboo yarn was a big success yesterday. I managed to get a variety of shades of mermaid (jade) green/blue and it's drying as we speak. Once it's dry I'll take some pictures. This time I didn't forget to take some 'before' pictures.

I am not sure what I'll make with it yet. Part of me is thinking of a mermaid shawl in freeform - combining knitting and crochet to make something that is organic and has a lot of texture and flow. On the other hand the green/blue would be lovely as a top...

Any suggestions?

Computer Troubles

Not a good week for me... my hard drive is trashed, and although I still hold some very small hope that I might recover some of the data on it, the hope is slim.

The good news is that at least all my photographs and paintings are on the external hard drive and therefore safe, but the bad news is that it will take at least till Friday to get my computer back to working order.

Since all my imaging software etc was on the hard drive it will be a few days before I'll be able to post any photographs of current endeavours on here. :-(

So, instead of spending another day moping around I'll be dying some bamboo yarn today for my next project. I am also still working on my silk/linen top which was giving me trouble as I can't follow the pattern with my yarn being so different from the pattern. Never mind, it'll get there.

Fingers crossed everything will be back to normal soon.