2

A doll.

 

 

Meet Flopsy, the Ravenclaw Bunny, my new Blog Mascot! She has blue and white striped tights, and a textured scarf!

 

I found the Pattern in one of the 'Let's Knit' magazines that I had lying around, and fell in love instantly. Wouldn't you? She's so cute! Knitted using Double Knitting wool and 6mm needles, she didn't take me as long as I expected (I was hoping to get her done before Easter, minimum). If anything, the longest it took me was to knit her final ear, as by that point she was fully assembled and my willpower had somewhat disappeared...

 

But I am very pleased with my creation,and she is my second item to strike off of my 50 resolutions, which are lagging somewhat, or at least in write ups... but then, I am swamped with work and revision already for my June exams - expect more over my summer holidays good blog people!

 

I am also in the process of setting up a second blog, with a Wordpress account instead, so that I can record my more cultural thoughts and collate them in one place... so things like ideas from my philosophy club, museum visits, my random historical explorations... please let me know if you would like the address, I'm still working on getting a rota of ideas for it.

 

Currently, Flopsy is wearing a Jedi costume from my sister's 'build-a-bear-workshop' collection. This pleases me more than you can possibly imagine.

 

50 Things to Make



25th: Christmas Card 2

Another in my monthly feature - a dash of Christmas among the rest of the year.

Equipment:

A Concertina card or see here to make one (first three minutes only, it was the best one that I found)

Die cut letters

Image

Foam Pads

1) Make sure all of your die cuts are smooth, and none of those fiddly-paper-teary-things are still attached, as they ruin the effect.
2) On the first flap, attach your image with foam pads.
3) Add a contrasting border line following the slanted edge of the card.
4) On the next flap, position and attach the letters with foam pads so that the message is visible when the front flap is closed.

These are particularly good for using up the odd bits and pieces left over, or from a magazine subscription. They could also be replicated by designing and printing your own versions off of the computer.
These really are simple, but often that's all it takes for a bunch of teenagers to squeal and look excited. You just have to find the right ones. My friends, luckily, are just that.

Similarities and Differences:Final Piece

 

My final piece, I now realise was rather disjointed to all of my previous work. I stuck with my developing theme of windows, and found one of this design in Cambridge, on one of the Churches as you walk into town from the train station. I did not include any references, really from what I had developed previously, and that probably was what put me down to an A rather than an A*.

 

The piece it self is showing the similarities and differences of various media and techniques - coloured pencil, watercolour, acrylics and oil paints. The window design itself was far more complicated, so I simplified it. Even so, it still found me crawling all over the floor with an improvised compass comprising of a piece of string, a drawing pin and a pencil.

 

On reflection, there are some other ideas which probably would have been better, but this has an almost abstract quality, and I'm quite proud of it. It hangs on my wall above my bed.

 

This is one of the pencil sketches I did originally of the window. This page was later filled with various artist research and secondary developments, in order to make it look like I'd thought about it more than just panicked and did the first thing that came into my mind.

 

Oh and it's enormous. It's a metre square.



1

Something handsewn.

 

Inspiration

 

One that I can tick off of my 50 things to make! Woohoo! I've started many more, but this is the first I have finished.

 

It's a hand stitched felt decoration, of an octave on a piano, for my friend Robyn, who is incredibly good at Music. Practically everything I make her is music orientated.

I found the inspiration on Hellocotton a while back, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

 

I used wool for all of my stitching in order to emphasise that this piece is hand stitched, not machined. It gives the piece more character, more of a rustic look, with all of the stitches uneven. It makes me feel a bit disappointed sometimes, but then I think; isn't that the charm of handmade?



Similarities and Differences: Ely Cathedral

I took a visit to Ely Cathedral for my Art. It's a beautiful old building, with towering spires and intricate details, and if you ever get a chance to visit it, I would recommend it. However, what caught my eye were the windows. Beautiful stained glass windows.

I first did two stylised pencil studies of a section of one of the windows, one in colour and one tonally. I very much liked them indeed. The colour one also was a chance to experiment with tone and flat colour and seemed to be able to stand as a piece on its own.

I also did a coloured ink study of a section,but I wasn't best pleased with it. I hate the streaky and uneven colours that occur. However,it did capture the translucence and vibrancy of the glass in a way that other media wouldn't have.

Up next, my final piece!