Saturday, December 28, 2013

Procrastination is a Pain!

I should be posting about many things.
 
But I am going to procrastinate.
 
I had an amazing trip to Tanzania. But it seems so long ago (the month of October) and it will be painful to revive all the memories (not that the memories themselves are painful, just the effort to revive them).
 
The experience of the Ice Storm, with all its woes and blessings, is so recent. I think we are all still experiencing a little PTD (post traumatic disorder), not that it was anywhere near as traumatic as it could have been. But the sensitivity to all that happened right at Christmastime is still a little painful.
 
So, instead, I will correct some procrastination by posting some tangle art that has been completed for a long time, but never been posted.
 
The first two templates I tangled are from the Facebook page: Ornation Creation,
courtesy of Ben Kwok. Anyone can join and then print off his templates. He posts a new one each week and I am enjoying tangling them. I think I have only posted one completed template on his page...I have procrastinated there, too. Must get to it!
 
The rest of the templates I found free, elsewhere on line.
 
Rhino





Tangled Circle - colour
Loved using my Copic markers for this!
 
 
 
Not so thrilled with my colour choices for this one
 
 
Black and white tangled circle
 
Cardinal
That's it for now. Hoping to work on many more over the next month!


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Intersecting Circles

Had lots of fun with these!

They've been finished for a while, but I forgot to post them.

Found them when I was tidying up all my art stuff (which is a fun job, all by itself. I end up finding all sorts of things I didn't remember that I had).
 



Monday, September 9, 2013

In Absentia

I may not have been here for a while, but I have not been inactive!
 
In fact, far from it.
 
 
But these only tell a little of the story...and they were squeezed into much busier days, when I really just needed something to take my mind off the busyness!
 
So here they are, six delicate and pretty little cards - size approx. 4.5" x 4.5".
 
I have named the set 'crochet' for hopefully obvious reasons:





 
Not sure what to do with them...they are almost too pretty to use.
 
Any suggestions?

Thursday, July 11, 2013

An Almost True Story

Fright Night at the Mall

You could call it a premonition. Whatever it was, I had always known that to get my ears pierced would be courting disaster. Maybe that’s why I kept putting it off all those years. Now I was almost 50, and hovering on the brink of a decision. It seemed everyone was always commenting on my ‘petite’ ears, and how pleased I would be with them if I got them pierced.

In the beginning, it was the fear of pain that held me back. I’d seen those poor little screaming kids at the mall, caught in a stranglehold by their mothers and a white-jacketed ‘surgeon.’

But now it was my pride, too. The fear of someone seeing me getting it done – at my age.

“What! You’re 50, and having your ears pierced for the first time? Where have you been – on another planet or something?”

No, it had to be done secretly, or not at all.

So, the decision was made. I carefully planned my strategy. What nights were the malls the most deserted?  I scouted them all, during the day, evenings, weekends, and public holidays, and came up with the perfect time. Between 7:30pm and 9:30pm on October 31st – Halloween!  All the kids would be out trick or treating, and the parents would either be with them, or at home shelling out the goodies.

So, next Halloween night, before the first little ghosties and ghoulies hit the streets, I skulked out of my darkened front door, feeling not too guilty about the sign tacked on it: Sorry, all shelled-out. It was for a good cause. I’d be sure to shell-out double next year.

As I suspected, the mall was deserted. The store clerks, dressed in costumes for the occasion, stood wearily at their posts, filing nails, chatting or reading a book, just counting the minutes until closing time.

I’d chosen my ‘operating room’ carefully; a little boutique set back from the mall’s main thoroughfare, sporting the sign, Ear-piercing. Only $12.00. Hygienic, safe and speedy!  I guess it was too much to expect pain-free as well. Boldly I entered and approached the pseudo Godzilla behind the counter.

“I’d like to have my ears pierced, please,” said I, trying to act nonchalantly.

“You?” said Godzilla, rising on its haunches to glance through glassy eyes at my now reddened ears. “You’ve never had it done before?”

I rather testily explained that, yes, it was my first time – and could we please get on with it?

Lumbering off towards the back of the store, Godzilla eventually returned with the one who was to perform the operation. For a split second I panicked and almost ran, but I forced myself to stand my ground. It was now or never.

A black-caped Dracula, with very effective dental work and shiny red blood streaming down her chin, rested her coal-blackened eyes on my ears, and then leered in my face.

“Honest?”  You’ve never had them done before? Where’ve you been, anyways?”

I chose to ignore the question and insisted on being seated, please, at the ear-piercing counter.

The tools of the trade were duly sterilized and readied for the task, albeit precariously, by hands sporting curled, glossy, three-inch long, scarlet nails – which did nothing to instill confidence in me. The dastardly deed was about to be completed.

As Dracula leaned over my right ear with the ‘gun,’ a high pitched yell shattered my eardrum.

“Oh, my gawd,” she cried, “You don’t have any earlobes. How’m I supposed to get holes in those ears? Hey, Nancy, she yelled to Godzilla, “Come and see this. You won’t believe it!”

Now ape and monster were on either side of me, gaping at and fingering my petite but lobe-less ears.

Says Godzilla, “I never saw anything like this!  Hey, Jackie, come and see!”

From the shoe store across the way came a witch, with black robe flying, holding on to her conical hat, to peer wickedly at the malformed projection on the side of my head.

In a matter of moments, an entourage of masked bandits, robots, demons and elves, now alert and dancing around me, were fighting for their turn to inspect my ears, each making  appropriate clucking noises or excitable comments about my weirdness.

So much for anonymity.
I should have just invited my whole neighbourhood, for heaven’s sake.

When the excitement died away, Dracula was adamant.

“No way, lady, am I going to do those ears. You think I want a lawsuit against me if the gun slips? Forget it!”

I can’t say I was sorry to forget it. The only redeeming factor was the suggestion that I should send a photo of my ears to the Guinness Book of World Records.

And next time I have a premonition, I’m going to listen to it.

copyrighted

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Pretty Pansies

I really do love pansies, and thankfully for me, they really don't seem to need a lot of care and attention.

Son and Grandson bought me this beautiful pot of pansies for Mothers' Day back in May, and they are just now beginning to fade away.



So I have had it in my head to try and draw some flowers. Tangles are one thing -- flowers are another!  But I found this flower design on line, with step by step drawing instructions, and decided to give it a go. These are the finished product.  I am still fooling around with colour...this was good practice!



I have been looking for some good coloured pencils. I have a set of Prismacolours but the colours don't seem brilliant enough for me. I had heard that Laurentian coloured pencils are the best, but of course they don't make them anymore. Oh how great are Thrift Shops!  I have been scouring a number of them for Laurentian pencils and now have a box full of beautiful bright colours! The colours (on my computer anyway) are very accurate.




Friday, June 21, 2013

My Latest Tangles

All of these go back a few weeks, except the first one.
 
I've just completed this, and I am quite pleased with it:
 
 
Untitled...about 6.5" x 4.5"
 
 
Captured Heart
 
Fascinator!

 

and two that could be called "playing with colour"


 


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Ambitious....ME??


Not normally could I be considered an ambitious person. So when I embarked on this project, it was with fear and trembling -- well, not exactly; but definitely with a fear of failure.

'They' say that when you are 'tangling' (which is what this art form is called, by me anyway), there really are no mistakes. The patterns are very forgiving and because this is your own design, you can take great liberty in turning a mistake into a new pattern...and no one but you would be any the wiser!  And I have done that many times...but I have also made horrible messes that could not be redeemed and resulted in my effort going in the garbage. That's not so bad, if you are working on a small design. But I ambitiously decided to work on an 8.5 x 11 page for the first time ever. Early mistakes can be redeemed by beginning again, if necessary, but as the design progresses and begins to fill the page -- well, let's just say that it would be heartbreaking to make an unredeemable mistake.

(there is a sermon here: how grateful I am that there are no unredeemable mistakes in God's eyes - He is all-forgiving!)

So, being the cautious creature I am, at certain points in the design I took photocopies, so if I did make a horrendous mess, I could continue to work using the photocopy. Amazing!  I really didn't need to do that...no unredeemable mistakes!  But the photocopies did come in handy for practising new or more complicated tangles.

This actually only took me a few hours spread over two days, and having the photocopies completely relieved any anxiety and made it such  pleasant pastime.

For those who might wonder where I find the time for this, if we calculate how much time many people spend watching TV, this comes in way under the radar! It doesn't deaden the mind and has something beautiful to show for all its efforts. Perhaps it even helps to stave off Alzheimers...we'll see!

click on the picture to enlarge

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Tangled Circles and Christmas in May!

I've been much too busy to post these, so have been saving them up to post at once.

Lots of work here...but lots of fun, too!!








(above and below)   Practising for Christmas




Practising some different tangles

Finally, dedicated to to the one my cousin loves!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Catching Up!

Hi friends and family!

Just wanted to let you know you can find me over at


where I am catching up on the posting of some art..

not inchies tho...taking a sabbatical from them!


Monday, January 14, 2013

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY - JANUARY 14, 2013



Phew...made it just in time!

This Monday's inchie theme is:



girl

I loved puppets when I was little, and I do remember getting one for Christmas. But I also remember that it was really difficult for me to manipulate...and everyone else had fun playing with it except me!

This year we have lots of  new, very talented Inchie-ers, as my sister ChrisJ has named us. You can find links to all of them here, and you can also find us side by side, here.

And it's not too late for YOU to join us, too!


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY 2013

It's a good job I didn't a make a new years' resolution about posting my inchies on time every week!

Still, only a day late.

I looked over the 2013 theme list and some of them look really tough, but I remember thinking that at the beginning of last year, too -- but managed to complete them all!

So here is the first of the year:


Star


It's exciting to have some new contributors with us... you can find all the great star inchies  here and here

And it's never too late to join us!  Let me tell you it is quite exciting to look back over the last 52 inchies -- gives a great feeling of accomplishment!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY TO CLOSE 2012!

Happy New Year, Inchie Friends and Fellow Bloggers!

This is the end of Every Inchie Monday for another year:

I'm not too proud of these two, but Every Inchie Monday 2013 now beckons, so I needed to get caught up quickly. 


Angel


She is on our Christmas tree this year; a gift from a friend. She is quite beautiful - pewter with lovely scroll work in her 'dress.'  I really haven't done her justice. The banner around her middle says, "Friendship is a gift" -- I agree!




night



I wanted to draw in a wolf/hyena baying at the moon, but just couldn't get it right.

Ah, well, it's been a fun year -- looking forward to 2013's inchie challenges.

My challenge to YOU is....why not join us?  It's so much fun and not too time-consuming...and by the end of the year you will have a beautiful collection of inchies to be proud of!

You can go here, to see lots of night and angel inchies - much better than mine!