Asthma life expectancy

Good to know that the life expectancy of a mild asthma sufferer is the same as that of someone without asthma!: http://www.healthcentral.com/asthma/c/52325/70734/interesting-asthma/

More Art Journals - Work in progress

Art Journals

Instead of cleaning my brayer on a scrap piece of paper after applying it to the Gelli plate, I've started rolling it onto sketchbooks. The resulting colours make a perfect background for journal pages.

On this one, I simply added doodles and writing with a white pen and a few lines with a black marker. A great way to unwind at the end of the day or if you're in a conference call that goes on for too long!

My baby

He's the sweetest dog! And he currently weighs over 27 kg!

Gelli print journal

What happens when you have lots and lots of gelli prints and you don't know what to do with them? You start looking for inspiration. My search led me to this lovely page. I didn't feel like I had the energy to go the whole way to assembling a proper bound book, but I found some sites that show the steps for binding pages together using a simple stitching method. Stitching I can do. And that was definitely worth a try. All I needed was an awl. Well, I didn't even know the word in English until three days ago! But our local DIY store sold them and it was only €3.99 (it's "poinçon" in French in case you're wondering)

I still have a lot to figure out - like maybe binding the pages together before I print on them, so that the patterns work across the spine. And maybe I will go to the next stage where you glue booklets together and even make a proper hard cover. I'm not good with glue.So it's baby steps for now.

Over the weekend, I made a couple of booklets that I will be using for art journaling and collages, all set with pretty gelli-printed backgrounds. So let's focus on that.

The next step for me is to figure out a way to photographs these booklets in a way that shows them at their best. Maybe a little video will do the trick?

Here is the cover of the one I stitched at the weekend. That alone was worth my while, I think.




And the centre-page, which shows the stitches nicely:

And a few other pages:

And some that maybe are not so good, but once I've journalled into them will probably work out ok:

And the final page, which I think is particularly lovely:

Timber

He does keep us busy!

Dolce & Gabbana

I know I don't do much fashion, but I have come across these via a customer of mine, and I love the dresses in Dolce&Gabbana's show!

Texture landscapes

I'm continuing my love story with bubble wrap, it would seem. I did this one a few weeks back, but forgot to post it.

Gilbert Bécaud : Et maintenant (« Champs-Elysée » 1987)

Classic Gilbert Bécaud! Part of my childhood. Polka-dot ties were his trademark.

Eugene Onegin

I wasn't exactly in the humour for opera last Saturday. We've been busy lately and, let's face it, a dog takes a lot of what used to be free time. I find that I make lists for weekends now. And I struggle to complete them. So I felt like I needed a night out like a hole in the head - hey maybe that's why I'm getting dizzy spells!

And I'm not good with new environments - Car parks in particular are a cause of anxiety. So I gave myself plenty of time to get to Dun Laoghaire. I took the company van - it's easier to park than the car. And of course I found a good spot in the multi-story car park with no problem. And enough time for a stroll on the main street - not the most exciting shopping experience - I ended up buying jelly babies in Dealz! But the sun was shining, it was mild and I enjoyed the buzz, with a good half hour to spare to read the synopsis before the start of Eugene Onegin at the Met HD.

The plot isn't too taxing: young girl from a good family down the country falls in love with Eugene Onegin, who is visiting their neighbour, his friend Lenski, who is also the young girl's sister's beau. She declares her love. He rejects her. At a ball for the young girl's name day, Eugene flirts with the sister, upsets the beau. There is a duel. The beau dies. A few years later, Eugene comes back to St Petersburg from his travels and meets the young girl, who is now a sophisticated married young woman. He falls in love (a bit late!!). She tells him she still loves him but she rejects him all the same. The end. Yes, Eugene Onegin has confirmed my impression that Russian operas are on the heavy side.

Beautiful music though, particularly in Acts II and III. I struggled to stay awake during Act I, I am ashamed to say.

I am a fan of Anna Netrebko since I saw her in Anna Bolena. She didn't disappoint. (but oh dear those photos from NY Fashion Week??) And the two male singers, Mariusz Kwiecien and Piotr Beczala, were excellent too.

So, overall, a good evening. And so much for avoiding Russian operas - my next one is The Nose by Shostakovich.

Les feuilles mortes à gogo

Here are more autumn leaves Gelli prints I did last week (or the week before? It's all a blur). All done in one session - When you start gelli-printing, you can't stop.

PS: does anybody know how to import a nice teal colour from reality to the computer? I've tried scanning, photographing, Picasa, Photoshop, and I can't get the beautiful vibrant teal of my prints onto the screen. It all reverts to a dull blue, and none of the tools at my disposal manage to correct that tint.

And now, the matching Zazzle card

Shamelessly promoting my Zazzle cards! I buy them all the time. Very handy to always have a few, ready to send to a friend.

Autumn Leaf by _MHBD_
Shop for a card with zazzle.com

Perfecting the art of the autumn leaf

It's a while since I did my last Gelli print. It's been a few busy weeks. But I did get to experiment further with my leaf printing (steps here)! Here is my favourite so far: