It's Perfect here

I have painted two seascapes which I will weave over. One of them will hang at Cunnamore. Terri has been trying this one out for size but this will need to find another home as she has chosen the one with more blue/greens in it. What I love about doing these is that even though I start with the same colours I never know how they are going to turn out. I also love the thought of one of my paintings hanging in this very special place.  

Finished!

My largest work to date is finally finished and hanging. The dining room will be painted in the spring to match the painting! I do like working the two mediums together and plan to do at least two more of these (but smaller ones for now).

The elf has found a home

This little fella was determined to live with us. We had no art classes at the end of term as Paul was on paternity leave. Instead we did two weeks felting. I started off making a small Xmas tree. It was very wobbly when I finished it so I decided to make a big ball to sit it on. The ball turned out too small so with some hair, a beard, eyes and  nose all of a sudden Finn the elf from Finland came into being. He is very happy sitting on a lovely piece of bog oak which came from the land of my ancestors. Kevin wanted to know why he had a green face- too much blackberry vodka last night.    

Work in Progress

I have started the weaving to go over my big painting of the sea and I am very pleased with the way the colours have worked out. After the weaving course I blended more colours this time. It should have been a straight piece but I have not mastered the tension yet so I have gone in rather a lot. I will tell people that it is deliberate!

I did another (!) painting of the sea and I may weave over that too.

Will it be a boy?

There are three babies due between now and next May so I am getting ahead with the knitting. I think I much prefer knitting girlie things but I will have to do some boys things too just in case.

Where Solid meets Void

I did a wonderful 2 day weaving course with Joan Baxter. I did not realise what a gift this was until I saw some of her work. Joan worked for seven years on the Henry Moore tapestries. We wove a sample piece where we mixed threads which Joan had dyed. We had to choose two colours and mix those until we got the colour we were thinking of. I learnt  a lot about adding colours and dropping them from the mix. Up until now I have only woven lines so it was great to try rectangles and slopes. My seas will now be able to go up and down.

My sample

Frances at work. You can see more of her work at  www.francescrowe.com 

Joan's samples

Heather weaving her sample based on the colours of a lake out on The Sheeps Head

Joan's work

Joan used twigs in this snowscape

We worked in Pascales' gorgeous studio and the company of other weavers was very welcome. It was great to see the work that people had done. Thank you to Kathryn for the yummy chocolate cake.    

A New Toy

Justine kindly lent me her table loom. It looked far too complicated for me so I asked my technical expert to take a look. He read the books, had a good look and said it would take us years to learn. This is from a man whose ancestors were weavers so I think I will stick with my tapestry loom for now.  

Purple for Pascale

Pascale loves purple too so I made her a necklace. The large beads are striped agate and the smaller ones are dragon vein agate. I had enough large beads to make another necklace and this time I used small amethyst beads. These were paler and created a more summery necklace.  

A Study in Purple

Jenny, Julie and I did a half day workshop with Phil O'Grady. We used oils and a very fine palette knife to do a flower study. It was good to use the knife in different ways and to learn how to create texture. I also learned how to use highlight colours like orange to make it sing. Would you know that we started with an oval shape for the flowers?     

Inspiration at Liss Ard

Our art group had a wonderful private tour of the house and estate at Liss Ard. Great scones too. There was so much inspiration there for our Spring exhibition that I do not know where to start. I will leave it to settle for now.

 I loved

• the simple shapes of the doors and windows in the house
• the details on things like the fireside tiles
• the absence of sound in the Sky Garden and the feeling of peace
• the beautiful autumn tones
• the FUNGI, what amazing colours and shapes  

The dust is piling up

I am in a creative mood so I am ignoring the dust. I have taken over the house as you can see. Knitting being done in the living room - I have four babies due between next week and May. My big oil painting is drying in the dining room then I have to do a strip of weaving for it. Lots of necklaces to make in the conservatory and then I have to master my new spinning wheel. I can either do the footwork or the finger work but at the moment I can't do both together. Thank God for a lovely husband who ignores it all and admires the latest efforts.    

Willow China

The colours in these beads remind me of willow pattern china. Katie loves this colour so this one is for her.

Gobstoppers

I bought a necklace in England because I liked the colours in the acrylic beads. It was too chunky round the back of the neck so I used 8mm black onyx agate beads and had enough to make two necklaces. One for me and one for my Sis.  

Sea Greens

I loved the colour of this jade. It is so perfect that I only had to use tiny amazonite beads in between to make this necklace.  

Treasure from Tynemouth

Joan arrived in Somerset with some gorgeous new beads for me. She is getting so good at choosing. Thank you Joan x x.

Weave & Spin

A new departure for me with this mixed media piece. I was inspired to do some more weaving after I went through my fibre stash and found such gorgeous colours. I also wanted to use some of the silk I had spun using a spindle and as it was only single ply it would not be great to knit with.

Lessons Learned

• Pay attention to proportions, I should have had less sky.
• Weave more for the top and bottom as it gives more flexibility when you are placing the finished piece
• Mix the yarn more so that you do not get blocks of colour
• Oops! watch the weaving, I have missed some threads

All in all though I am happy with the finished piece and my framer has done a brilliant job as usual, this time sitting the piece in a box frame. I now want to do a HUGE one and need to find a large rectangular canvas or talk to the great carpenter I know about making me one. It's a perfect excuse too to look for more yarn.
 

A_Thousand_Thanks

Great news today. The Sherkin Island exhibition raised over 2,000 euros for the degree course. All the artists involved received a lovely thank you but the best thing is knowing that the course will continue.

Work in Progress

I was brave and got out the new oil paints again. I do like working with oils and a knife and fingers! The plan is that I will add a strip of weaving in the same colours on the left hand side.

Wrap up Warm

Our lovely Katie is off to become a student in the colder heart of the country. I have made her a scarf in Kaffe Fassett Kidssilk Haze to keep her warm. I used the fan and feather pattern 3 x 18sts. I love the way the blues and pinks move into each other. My sister will need comfort too when Katie goes away so I made her one in purples and greens. Hope they like them.  

The Pull of the Moon

After Kevin decorated the living room I thought that my painting was too purple, I know, difficult to understand but .....

While I was wondering if I should change it to blues I started reading this book and thought grey should be the colour. I stripped off the varnish and mixed up some Mars black with white. I think it works well and the touch of silver catches the light. Kevin completed the look by changing the frame from purple to black.  

Summer Fizz

It looks like this is going to go down as the worst summer in history but no one has told the flowers. The montbretia is standing up to the rain and winds and flowering its head off. To celebrate I used some fizzy orange cracked agate and some red striped agate beads to create a necklace that will hopefully be worn during the Indian Summer we are hoping for.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Maybe not quite fifty but these lovely Botswana agate beads have greys, browns, creams and purples. I used 16mm beads for the double strand at the front and 12mm beads at the back with grey freshwater pearls in between. All set now for winter.

Hunks of Quartz

My lovely friend Joan has been buying me some more beads so I decided that I would use up these gorgeous chunks of quartz from my stash. They just called out to be made into a long necklace.

One for Me

I kept this one for myself as I just love the colours in the porcelain jasper beads. I did have a few beads left over, just enough to make a necklace for my lovely Sis for her birthday.

Ahead of the Trend

I hear that grey is THE colour this winter. I was already ahead of the trend as I had bought lots of grey and black beads, just because I liked them! Here is a selection of the finished work. I used map jasper, druzy agate, grey agate, onyx, spider web quartz, botswana agate, moonstone and lots of freshwater pearls to add some lightness to the grey.    

Summer Sunset over a Stormy Sea

I finally finished the socks made with the wool I dyed at our workshop. Very pleased with the results. In the sock blank you get 400mtrs enough to make the leg of the sock 20cm on a size 11.

Stash busting

I had fun using up some of my beads and made lots of necklaces. Must buy some more now!

Wexford workshop

I went to Art in the Open in Wexford and did a workshop with the Russian trained artist Nicola Dik. We were painting a portrait using a model of a young girl. Nicola gave us some basic theory on light, shadows and half shadows and about the colour of shadows and away we went. It was my first time using oil paints and I bought a beginners set which can be mixed with water. I loved using them so much that at lunchtime I went out and bought four more tubes. Nicola used her finger covered with a cloth for her demonstration and I thought I would try the same technique. I am very pleased with the end result even though the nose is too big! I learnt such a lot on the day and can't wait to work with oils again. One of the participants on the course said my work was very like that of the late John Bratby.    

Rough with the Smooth

I had three chunks of Fluerite left and wanted to use them so I mixed them with some quartz and some iridescent  seed beads. Wanted to keep this for me but how many purple necklaces does a girl need!

Once a Librarian

I keep getting confused  over my beads and when I want to buy more I am not always sure what type of quartz it is. So just like a good librarian I am going to label them all and then I will have a reference tool. Sad but useful!

Dyed in the wool

I had my first experience of dyeing wool with the spinners at Gwen's gorgeous home. I chose to use a sock blank and put one end in the cobalt blue dye and the other in the orange dye. Where the two colours met there is a greeny shade. I have now ripped the blank and I have two identical balls of wool to knit two socks. Where there were two strands together the inside of the strands have not taken so much dye so I got a speckled effect. I am going to call the socks my "Summer Sunset over a Stormy Sea Socks".

Postcards

I was asked to contribute an A5 postcard sized painting to an exhibition to raise funds. I wonder what I will paint?