Ready to Print

I've signed up for Dijanne Cevaal's online linocutting course. I've been wanting to do more with printing and am impressed with Dijanne's work. An online course means I can work at my own pace, in my own time. On the other hand it doesn't have that sense of a fenced-off time to do the work. I need to make sure I protect the time day by day or at least week by week. The first lesson arrived last weekend. Today I'm making time for it.

I picked up these leaves on my walk today--looking forward to my first actual lino cutting exercise.

In fact the first exercise is a sampler of different textures. It looks like a good way to get used to the different cutting tools. The second exercise is a leaf.

Speaking of cutting, I've made myself a rough and ready bench hook. I definitely don't want to cut my fingers rather than the lino. I know I need to keep my hand behind the cutting blade. I'm hoping this will save me from that sudden impulse to reach out for a slipping bit of lino.

Drawing Board

Yesterday morning I got stuck on how to arrange my new furniture in the living room. Thankfully the actual furniture isn't here yet. I took my room layout plans back to the drawing board. I drew up a scale drawing of the room and the furniture and played around with different possibilities. I'm sure my mood didn't help, because I still didn't come out with an ideal arrangement. I'll probably need to decide which compromises I'm willing to live with.

By mid-afternoon I'd had enough of getting stuck in my planning efforts. Instead I took myself off for a walk by the river up at Warrandyte.

I wish I could say that the fresh air and beauty made it all clear, but that's not the case. Still I had a good walk and picked up a few pretty leaves. This morning I have sore feet and a slightly fresher mind to have another go at it.

Daily Challenge

I have a new daily challenge to add to my routine. For the last few weeks of our Drawing subject, we've been asked to do a drawing a day. Here are some leaves I picked up this morning to have a go at. On friday we did an exercise in depicting tonal differences with torn paper. We had 9 shades to choose from. Now to see whether I can see light and shadow more accurately for the practice I've had.

Remember When

I appliqued and embroidered this silk top a dozen or so years ago. When I could no longer wear it--we won't talk about weight gain issues here--I passed it on to a friend. She recently mailed it back to me--again no mention of weight gain. It was years since I'd looked at it and I wondered what I would think. I like it enough to keep it even if I never wear it again. It was one of my early experiences of thinking "outside the box" with my design--literally, as the gum leaf and blossom design spills out over the edges of the background floral cotton square. I'm still fascinated by gum blossoms and leaves, though I think I'd be a bit more adventurous in my colour choices these days.