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.