Ho Ho Xmas

wishing everyone a very merry snowy xmas and productive new year! thank you all for the wonderful comments you have left over the past year too they are really appreciated.

I am a Scavenger - Sketchbook Project

at last i have finished my sketchbook! the title i chose was 'i am a scavenger' which i thought was quite suitable for me as i'm always scavenging and collecting things. the idea behind the book was to see what i could scavenge from the pavement on my usual route to work from home on a few random days. the idea being that the objects have a past history and now a future. after much deliberation i took all the pages out of the sketchbook as the paper was!!!!!! i will use it for something else. so the first page is a map of my route. i then enlarged the route into a fold out map numbering my finds. i wanted to actually include the objects in the book rather than photographing or drawing them they are enclosed in windows so you can see both sides
all the pages have been scavenged from other things. as well as scavenging objects i also scavenged 'sound graffiti' along the way which i have added to the pages. so here are the pages




i now seem to see glass lenses a lot!



the final entry was collected outside the registry office near my place of work. i hope it was a happy occasion! when and if the sketchbook is borrowed i would like people to add their comments to the pages!!

and yet more! Resolved knitting

resolved knitted piece with clear perspex rods inserted.
i was recently given the above frames as a present from my very considerate husband, who i think wants to try them out himself! we had seen them in the Argos catalogue not realising when he got them that the largest was 27cm across!!! an ideal excuse to do something large.
so for my resolved knitted piece i chose to work from the above photograph of an obscured shop window but if you look closely you can still see various reflections. i thought the brush strokes lent themselves well to rows of knitting and french knitting in particular.
i chose a basic range of 3 colours, white, black and pink. the 'white' is fishing line in two weights (8lb and 17lb), black was coated wire and a textured cotton yarn and the pink more fishing line (17lb). details were worked with sequins, small rubber rings (row counters) and strips of metal coke can. finally selected areas were dipped in paper pulp. i used the largest frame but fishing line relaxes and doesn't stay put which is why i like using it (it has a life of its own)! the piece measures 23cm long. i found this extremely difficult to photograph and i have to apologise for the erratic numbering system!
#5 shows the tube sitting upright
#2 looking from the top down
#3,6 and 4 are all details. above also looking through the centre
#6 shows the pulp, wire, fishing line and the black cotton
#4 shows the 'tangled' end. i am not 100% sure about this piece although i am very pleased with the technique and materials i used. at the end i inserted some perspex rods to 'tie' it all together although i was wondering what else i could have added like bits of glass or mirror but perhaps that would be too much. will wait and hear!!!