A repeat from the past!

Hello creative friends!

Lots happening in the last few weeks. I have been teaching several evening classes and it has been a really lovely way to end the day.
I generally teach in the daytime but over the last month the twilight time of the day has been popular.

One of these classes has been Face Painting - which used to be my most popular class. Once again it is having a resurgence - isn't it interesting how life does these big wheels and brings you back to where you were.

On the strength of that ,I have reprinted my face painting manual "Fuss Free Faces".

Available at my etsy store now.

On another note I am busy preparing for a school project again which promises to be challenging indeed - 12 framed puppets ( all in the one frame) which the students will design make and then embroider. Although I don't want to wish time away I can hardly wait to see them done!

Hoping everyone is well and that the coming weekend holds something wonderful to do.

Love Elizabeth

XXX

An interview..................

Hi fellow artists,

Hope everyone's week has started with something wonderful! I just wanted to share an interview that a lovely Canadian lady, Delores, did for me last year. It is now online and if you are interested here is the link "Running With Scissors"

Please note that the photo in the interview of me is about 3 - 4 years old and although I have reached the grand age of 43 this one manages to make me look less than half my years. Perhaps felting agrees with me!

I am off to take down more Christmas decorations - we went a bit silly this Christmas and I keep finding swags of twinkly things everywhere.

Chat soon

Love

Elizabeth

XX

Such a fab day!

Dear friends
Well the year has got off to a bang with a class last week and this class here of some wonderful
students yesterday. It is always such fun when friends come together to learn something new. I am certain it adds to the cohesion of friends, enabling them to become even more steadfast.
From left new felters, Joanne, Teresa and Greta.

You are absolutely right - they made some stunning felt!

I am sometimes quite envious of a complete felting novice.

Yes I am content and proud of the knowledge I have gained over many years of felting, still when I think about all that lies ahead for them and the sense of thrill and wonderment which felting does bring, I am just a little envious. They have so many exciting avenues to explore.

This got me thinking about the way we approach our work. All of us - painters, stampers, sculptors, illustrators, quilters, knitters ....................................obviously get into a groove of approaching our projects in a particular way. Should we pause now and then and see what changes we could ignite in our work if approached from a different angle?

This is quite a challenge if you have found a working method that is productive and enjoyable.

And yet, fresh eyes with no preconceived ideas as to the end result, could produce some really remarkable work.

So this is my task this week: to find (albeit small) a different way of looking at the familiar tried and true approach. It may be that I re arrange the studio, work in a new colourway, make something I never have before or tackle a new subject to express.

I will let you know how I go!

Wishing everyone a fun adventure this week as we steer ourselves into the New Year!

Love

Elizabeth

XX

See you in 2011!

Dearest Friends,
Well a final post before 2011 gets into gear. Working hard on new felt amidst eating too much and trying to sort of Spring/Summer clean up. Christmas was very simple and we had a lovely time doing very little. The house has nearly been culled of all mince pies and shortbread although gingerbread biscuits, nougat and chocolates still abound.

As I felt, I watch fibres and fleece enmesh, get tangled and somehow improve as they become a cohesive piece of work. Each element is made more beautiful by combining them with each other.

It is pretty much like life I guess, members of a family made more strong, more wonderful by being a single unit

and I really feel it is the same with the online community. I have to admit that I barely perceived how much I would gain from this little blog.

So thankyou everyone for your beautiful support in 2010, your lovely words that encourage me with every entry to continue with the artistic life. Just knowing that you are all there ready for me to chat to is so ...............magic!

SO Happy New Year everyone, may all your dreams come true in 2011 even the the tiny tentative ones that are still a bit wobbly,

With love and many hugs

Elizabeth

XX

Fifty One Feathered Friends!

Dear friends,
I am starting to get back to the studio where all school work has gone! Phew! It has been such a big term. Here is another work up and as you can see my pet subject was chosen ( without me saying a thing ....truly!) and the results are just fab.

The presentation was last Friday and I think everyone was very pleased. Children already have been gazing at it trying to find the bit that they made. In some instances it was sewing on some wings or making grasses or moulding flowers or creating some tree trunk.

Each prep designed a bird and started making the felt. The grade ones finished the felt off and the grade fours sewed on the wings.

Once again I tried to include every bright colour possible.

For some sections we had the carding machine out to use up all the scrappy bits and these pieces of felt were used for the children to each take some home.

I think the very hardest thing to tell a child is "No sorry we need this felt for the wall hanging"

when they so desperately want to take some home.

For the first time ever I was making up little kits which were being sold on the side! It felt wrong somehow!

All in all though, the school was thrilled and I can't wait to go back again next year. I think we will be tackling a circus theme for the library - so any thoughts you may have on what MUST be included.........then I am all ears!

Hoping everyone is finding a little creative time at the moment, I am busy drying out one wall of my studio as sudden flash flooding happened and water started pouring down the wall! Thankyou to all the ladies in class on Wednesday who helped rush everything out of the way it was most appreciated.

Love

Elizabeth

XX

Book Update............................

Dear Friends,

Life is a strange thing. It gets in the way of plans, it makes you take detours you hadn't anticipated which in turn make you arrive at your original destination a little late.

Well such has been the case with my book. Back in July when Christmas was literally months away, I was certain I would be ready by now.

My artist in residency commitments have absorbed all my time over the last 6 months and unfortunately I am behind in finishing my felt book.

On the plus side, I am really pleased with the way it is going and am more than half way finished.

I just wanted to keep you updated on my progress and hope you will understand,

Lots of Love

Elizabeth

A Parasol Moment...

Dear Friends,
Such a busy couple of months I decided to take some time off and go for walk down the beach.
I live about 20 minutes drive from our local beach and it is so lovely. Here are a few photos from this evening. I mean I really can't pretend and call it a walk - a meander is more like it.

A brisk walk down the beach can only be achieved in one of three ways - 1) you have a dog that simply won't go at any pace but top speed or 2) it is so cold you can only think about a cup of tea back home for the entire outing or 3) you aren't wading through fluffy dry sand that grabs hold of your feet at each step.

But a day as pretty as today - lovely cool breeze and warm sun only requires a meander or stroll, dreaming along as you watch what is beneath your toes.

Due to the rotten fact that I am I prime candidate for skin cancer, I have to carry an umbrella - even though it was after 5.00pm. So there was I muddling along with my camera, and a basket housing shoes, car keys, purse, tissues, sketch book and pencils, when I realized a lady reclining on the beach was speaking me.

After I finished tip toeing through all the shell grit, little jelly fish and some star fish towards her, she just wanted to say - " I'm sorry to interrupt you but I just wanted to say how elegant you look coming along the shore with your parasol."

I was so surprised. I felt a bit of an odd ball wandering along with my flowery umbrella and yet there in a simple sentence a fellow beach lover had changed the complexion on the situation completely. My umbrella had changed into a parasol and I didn't feel quite so odd.

So as I continued on my lovely walk I noticed many starfish had washed up and they were just so beautiful perhaps more so as I peered at them from beneath my parasol!

Coming into shore. It must be exactly the right season for starfish. I have never seen them in such profusion.

After two and a half hours I was ready for that cup of tea. Just a shame I couldn't stop at one of these lovely beach huts!

Hoping you have a "parasol" moment this week!

Love

Elizabeth