Daily Practice Update

Day 10 in my self-imposed 3D line challenge and it's going well so I thought I'd share a few with you.

This could be my favourite so far, buttonhole stitch on florists wire, coiled round a knitting needle.

Developing the knitted idea from last week, this time over art straws.

Kebab sticks wrapped in a variety of perle and gold threads.

Daily Practice

Something of a cross-roads has been reached.  I've completed all the courses needed for my Visual Arts Diploma and I've come to the end of all the modules I want to do with the Open University.

Where now?


'Finding your own style' seems to be the recommended next step.  However one of the points in my tutor's report was that she found my work "refreshingly original", so maybe I'm part way along the style-finding route already.

Having been nominated for the Art Challenge on Twitter, I found I quite liked the discipline of having to post some work everyday, so I'm going to try a sort of 'daily practice' idea. 
Around this time last year I was working on a theme of 3D lines which I very much enjoyed so I'm resurrecting and extending that.

Today is Day 3, and these are what I've done so far.  We'll see how long I manage to keep it up!

Doll Time

Today being Palm Sunday, I thought I'd show you my palm dolls - so called because they fit neatly into the palm of your hand.  They are very small!
Both are made from calico.  For the sitting one I stamped the calico with a script stamp before cutting out the pieces.  For the standing one I lightly spray painted the calico after sewing up the pieces but before stuffing.
The sitting doll has a skirt and scarf made from scraps of fabric left over after cutting out the stamped calico.
The standing doll has a hat and bag which I knitted on 2mm needles.  They are worked in bramble stitch.  Her bag holds a few tiny balls of wool and cocktail stick knitting needles.

Balloon Bowl

My work bench gets itself into a real muddle sometimes, so I've spent part of the day un-muddling it.  In so doing I unearthed my 'balloon bowl', made some years ago now, in which I store all sorts of small soft things. The base is calico over papier mache and the surface decoration is partly raised stitches in various shades of cotton perle and partly lace knitting in cotton yarn.  Wrapped cords edge the embroidered sections. 

New Month New Skill

Knitting has always been a great pleasure, but I've never yet managed to conquer crochet.
A book on 'granny squares' arrived today so I searched out some suitable wool from my stash, found a couple of hooks in an old drawer and set to.
I had planned to sort out some shelves in our dining room today, but learning a new skill trumps housework.  The shelves can wait. 
After several hours and a few false starts I'm quite proud to have ended up with a recognisable classic square.  As the book shows seventy-five possible variations I may need more wool!

I've reached the end of the introductory chapter of Y180.  No word from my new tutor yet though.  Do I wait for contact, or do I plough on into the main body of the course?