Winter Blessings and the best to all in the New Year

 The colors of winter sparkle on a sunlit day.

Young Snowy Owl and a fly-by shooting. Not bad for hanging my head out the window at 100km. Beautiful isn't he. 

Busy as ever I'm still taking on-line learning courses through the Edmonton Public Library and loving it though I'd gotten too far behind on one course and it deleted before I could complete it. I must hustle to complete the Non-fiction Book Writing course and the second Photoshop Elements course I began as they end Jan 31. I may have to ask for an extension for them as I'm also in process of photographing and documenting about 85 hand made nests. 

Its a lot documenting 3+ years of work in a few weeks. Yesterday I was able to document 9 but need to re-photograph one of them. 

The process I decided on to make headway is to photograph about ten pieces each day and download the images onto the computer, assess them, then go make corrections of camera settings and re-photograph. Download once again and compare images with the first batch. Yesterday most of the first batch was deleted due lack of depth. I don't mind images fading back into blur but I find there must be enough clarity to pull off an image even if it is an artistic type shot, and these being structural, need  clarity.

Next step is documentation which entails measuring each piece by height width and depth, making note of types of media used in the piece as well as the decision of a title, and lastly the date completed. Good luck on that one, I can safely remember which ones were recently completed but to know what year all the rest were done, ya, I'll will be winging it on that point. Personally dates don't mean much to me but Galleries showing work tend to want that detail.

I am taking the Non-fiction Book Writing course as I intend on writing a book about my experience with building these nests, hence also the desire to take excellent photographs of the pieces. Many of the nests have a short story to go with them as to why they were conceived and I believe its worth documenting.

The Art Gallery of St Albert is where the pieces are making their debut in March and April of this year. Yes its coming up fast. 

I wish you well and all the blessing of happiness to share with others.

Hugs!

In the midst of winter

Well, looks like we are in the midst of winter here in Alberta. The snows have come and intend on staying I'm sure. So instead of posting whats out my wintery window I shall post a mid-summers dream landscape taken this previous summer.

Enjoy!

Crochet delightful hats

 Two of four hats recently made, I'm feeling lazy and not going to repeat what I posted on  http://tesstextiles.blogspot.ca so if you wish to view the other hats and read the story just click the link.

Serendipity at its best.

Have you ever had those circumstances that just seem to "open up" to new possibilities serendipitously?
Well thats whats happened. While perusing kiji I came across an add for quilt batting for  $10- a batt and as I'd been considering making a few quilts in the near future knowing that the last one I made cost about $80 to fill with commercial polyester filling I kindly asked hubby to take me to check it out. Well it was wool batting, wow big score. I bought 6 batts figuring that it would take about 2 and a half batts min to fill a "light" queen size quilt. I also noticed colored felt batts for wool felting crafts, clothes, dolls, whatever, so I enquired finding them to also be $10 per batt. Wonderful woman shows me a doll she was needle felting so I get to thinking maybe I should try some felting, after all I'm game to try new media. I buy 4 color batts, whereupon a few days later I get to thinking that I only bought 4 bright colors, what would I use for contrast? So I call up wonderful lady and ask if she had any left, and she did. She also had a few more quilt batts that I took off her hands as she is moving overseas and needed to rid her excess.

Well the story continues cause now I see an add on kiji for a "trade" of wool that was felted as from a washed quilt and some loose. Once again I ponder that if I make sculptures with wool what better to stuff it with than matted wool. Once again hubby is unknowingly chauffeuring me towards a new adventure. I now meet #2 wonderful lady who kindly enquires what I intend to do with the wool. I proceed to tell her about my projects and next thing I know we are leaving with fabric, colored wool roving and... felting needles, what did I say, serendipity. Oh ya. So for trade I am crocheting her a hat as she liked the one I was wearing and I have needle felted her a hanging "bird nest pod" with the supplies she gave me.

Is that the end of my tale? Oh no tis not. This weekend we go to a reuse sale where I notice that balls of   yarn are 50 cents apiece. There am I digging through bins and bins of yarn looking for funky stuff to add to hats and as notes of funk on intended future sculptures when along comes hubby who was off looking for a small iron for me, he found two but both were kinda iffy condition so we passed on them. Upon returning the irons he finds me with two bags full of oddball yarn yet he also starts digging and finds about 6 skeins of real natural light color merino wool. Wow, so cool, I do so love this man, a true trooper and help mate, besides he says my craftiness keeps me busy and happy and that he likes. About $40 dollars lighter we are headed home.

Next day I decide we shall drop in on another fundraiser sale, this one is just fabric and yarn. Well what do my amazed eyes spy, raw wool, and wool roving, whoohoo, I am on a role and $40 later we head home. Last weekend I sold a painting for $80- and this weekend I reinvested the whole amount on a new venture. Serendipitous!

Needle felted "bird pod"

33 inches from top pointy tip to end of tails. Of course I am never one to start small and easy, no my second project was tiny but as its for the exhibition I cannot post it yet, stay tuned, more fun stuff to come. Ah life is exciting and life with artistic adventures is ecstatic!

So have some fun and create a bit of life's art today.

finished first online course

It was a fun learning curve and though the 24 hours of training took far longer to learn than that, but hey, I greatly enjoyed the task and can now edit my photos and I also learned how to make a slide show. So far only did the examples with the school training photos but am excited to try it with my own photos and art work in the near future. 

So what new thing have you learned lately?

Learning Lightroom 4

I found out that one can take free on-line education courses through the Edmonton Public Library so I signed up. Presently I am learning Lightroom 4 which I purchased last winter and never got around to understanding how it worked. Well I must say I am well on my way to learning it though with the  finger dislocation (twice) which still gives me problems though the swelling has receded, then our thanksgiving feast as well as an art exhibition last weekend I got a bit behind; two weeks in fact, just enough so that If I am stuck on a problem I cannot get help for it as one must request within 2 weeks for each module. I still have 4 classes to go though the final exam is posted already. I was having trouble with today's module and finally gave up and will have to skip to the next module later today to at least try and catch up enough to get in questions if I so need. It's difficult when one gets behind as there is a lot to learn. On top of it all I had signed up for another course which started last week so now I'm 2 weeks behind in it as well as modules are posted each wednesday and friday, sheesh. I really do love it and even if I don't "get" it all I am learning a lot about how to edit and fix photos. I have some photos that my husband took this summer of my nephews wedding that I am editing which I will  further manipulate in photoshop to make a small album for my sister. I take good bird shots but lousy people shots hence hubby having to shoot the family gatherings.

Well blogger is doing weird things to me once again; telling me I am signed out from another location and making it difficult to continue so shall say adios for today.

"Roses from my sweetie"

3 year project coming to a close

I have been working for three years on an undisclosed project which has been accepted into an Exhibition at the Gallery of St Albert for march-april of 1014. I am pretty excited as it has an ecological theme around birds, or lack thereof. Anyhow I am going to keep you all in suspense till the unveiling in the new year. What I will say is its sculptural rather than paintings and I will post images once the show is up, so stay tuned. Presently I am working on handmade plinths for some of the pieces as there is a certain way I wish some to be viewed rather than on gallery style stands.

So with that being said I am also in the thinking and planning stage of a new possibly three year project, this one though will not be so secretive and as I may well be venturing into totally new to me media that I believe it may be fun to document my progress and or frustrations through the blog. So once again stay tuned as there is more to come...

Enjoy your weekend. These two are safe as its turkey time again. 

Happy thanksgiving one and all.