Dog Request, Painting Request, Garden and More Paintings

Here is the rest of the dog Steve! The other picture I took of him was very blurry so this will have to do. He is a very sweet and chilled out dog.

On Sunday, as well as short walks to the marathon, I had a marathon of my own to complete. The monster plant marathon. At the back of the garden, in front of the pond, there was a huge bush consisting of Buddleia, Dogwood and Honeysuckle, all tangled together. All lovely plants. All monsters. Combined they are almost unstoppable, and would probably have begun to take over the world soon if I hadn't stopped them! Honeysuckle seems to grow from the old wood, but this remains underneath in a scratchy tangle, with the odd twisting stem which twists around anything in its way. The Dogwood is amazing. It sends out long runners to the ground. These root in several places along the stem, and a new plant springs up from each rooted part. I managed to dig out quite a lot, and get it back a bit, and must now remember to stop them before they root. The stems are long and flexible, and when they go red they make great wreaths, but they are hard to pack into the bags I use to go to the recycling centre, as they spring out and whip you in the face. I continued on Monday, which is when the sun came out, so the cats came out too. 

This clearance will help me to find and retrieve the many footballs of nextdoor's two boys. They will stand on top of their slide and direct me to where the ball has lodged itself, a place often unreachable until now!

Here is the rest of the painting Fresca. A bargain for £5 from a charity shop in Greenwich. 

I have included a few more paintings which came from charity shops, and a couple of my paintings too.

A brightly lit and badly lit picture of these pretty daisies.

I scraped together enough of the yellow paint to do the crown in the end! It is not attached, but my Dad will do that. 

A painting from early on in my teaching career. I had just started teaching in Reception (4 and 5 year olds) The toys represent what I felt was really going on in my room while I was trying to teach phonics or any other subject. Fantasy land! They were a great class. The Pikachu is saying an actual quote from a child, said during one of my 'lessons'. I can still hear him saying it. I didn't fill in the other speech bubbles as I didn't have direct quotes. 

All the toys are mine (surprise, surprise!) I found the Pikachu the other day, and he still faintly says his name. 

This lovely portrait is from a shop in Edinburgh. 

This painting is done on the wooden panels backing the frame. The plant is Andy's, then tiny fig tree. He watered a stick we found when we moved into our flat in Deptford, as he felt sorry for it. A little leaf popped out of the top of the twig. It is now a very big plant, about five feet tall. 

 

Weekend Stuff

Yesterday we visited some freinds we have not seen for about ten years. I don't know how that amount of time went by but go it did! It was lovely to see them, and their now virtually grown up children, plus their lovely dog who we had not met before but who has been with them for six years!

Here are his beautiful paws. 

Last time we saw them, they lived in Hastings, where they had moved from London. Now they live in Battle, in the countryside on a smallholding! They only moved a little while ago but have great plans for what they will do there, including an orchard in one of the three fields. It is all very exciting. Because the weather was so bad yesterday, we drove around the fields while they talked about their plans. We had a lovely lunch, then had to rush off to get the train back as I had a cat to feed. We must be better at going to see them!

Today was the London marathon, back to reality but later than normal in the year. We went for a little walk before it started, as the main body of runners (not the elite athletes) run past the top of our street. Where we lived in Deptford years ago also had the marathon at the end of the road.

Plenty of toilets!

The Standard is the area near to us with shops and a pub. I like the 1950s style garden in the middle of it. Standing around were lots of stewards. It was lovely and quiet without traffic. 

This is the A2 with lorries blocking the exit. The elite runners go across the roundabout at the top of this slip road.

Nothing to do with the race, I just like old phoneboxes. 

I rushed up after my breakfast to just take a couple of pictures of the runners. I did have Racer in my bag but she decided not to get out. The two men behind the motorbikes were the first runners to pass by. 

   

                          

You can just about see them here. I had my camera on some weird setting so the pictures are not very clear. 

 I tried running once, unsuccessfully. In fact I hated it. Painful and no fun. So I greatly admire these people! The fastest runners are running at around 12 or 13 mph all the way. Incredible!

Shoe Doll and Frog Crown

Here is my shoe doll, standing against the distressed wall. The idea for her came from a doll made from a shoe in the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood that I saw years ago when we were visiting Andy's parents. It always stayed in my mind as it is such a poignant item. I had not considered making one until recently, when trying to think of what to do with the old shoe soles I have collected from the Thames foreshore. I want to do embroidery on some, but this one was the perfect size and shape for a doll. Her hair is embroidered using some second hand thread. Her face is drawn with Polychromos pencils. 

The top of her dress is made from a piece of fabric I found on Dungeness beach years ago. It is very well preserved, and when I started cutting it, I realised that is because it is some horrible nylon type stuff that would probably last forever. The bird fabric is a recent purchase and is so lovely that I wanted to use it. 

The copper wire supporting her legs was also from the river. I got a whole bundle of it from the foreshore in Woolwich-a great find! She is the third doll I have made from mudlarking finds. Here is the first. And the second.

This is to show the back of her dress where I had to gather it to make it fit her flat body and her arms. I think I originally was going to put a hat on the back of her head, or I would have made a neater job of it. 

This is how I fixed her legs in the end. I halved a cork, embedded the wire in the surface in a groove, then glued them on with silicon glue. It takes a long time to dry, but is pretty strong once it does. 

The thing I have been working on this week is the crown for the second frog. He is the Frog Prince, so needs a crown. My Dad could have made one much more easily than me, but I wanted to do it. Above is my paint experiment area, trying various gold options. I was going to paint it yellow, but my yellow paint has gone lumpy, and a new tin is expensive, so I am trying gold stuff I already had, well, apart from the tiny tin of enamel paint, but that was a few pounds. 

In this photo it is easier to see the effects. The one at the bottom of the rectangle piece of wood is my favourite I think. It is Pebeo Prismé paint. They produce an effect that looks like hammered metal. It is oil based so should be ok outside. My other option is a gold wax, which I would have to varnish, so the little triangle has that on. I will decide in the morning!

Holiday Home

When I saw this  case in one of my favourite charity shops a while ago I knew exactly what it was. A travelling doll bedroom for the Girlettes! It is perfect as it has a luxurious satin fabric inside, pockets and a shelf for extra accomodation. First  though, they all said that they had no pajamas. I can't make pajamas, so they had to put up with nightdresses instead. 

Trying it out for size.

Duvet and pillow in rainbow stripes. Minnie likes it!

But even better with a cup of tea and a good book.

Nightdresses made. Left to right Minnie, Madeline, Hope, Racer and Lorna. 

The mini lamp is meant to be a reading light for humans but is so much better as a bedroom lamp. The lightbulb is also a reading light. I have had both of these for ages and now they have a purpose. 

There is various bedding to choose from. I made a knitted blanket in moss stitch, a knitted blanket from furry yarn which is so soft, a rug, large seaside cushion, duvet and pillow and a quilt. So now if we ever go anywhere we will be ready!
 

Recent Projects

 I have been quite busy making things over the summer. My Dad wanted two more frog signs for the fences either side of his gate. He cut the shapes out and I have painted one, and am nearly finished the second one. I embroidered a frog for Joan for her birthday. I have been doing a little embroidery, after lacking inspiration earlier in the year and finding an online class about visible mending of clothes and otherwise embellishing them. That inspired me to do a few things, only one of which involved clothes! I have also made a doll from an old shoe sole from the foreshore. This is a project I have been meaning to do for ages so I am glad to have finished her. I don't have a good finished photo yet though. Another long in the planning stage project which I have now done, is to make a paintbrush from cat whiskers. This took a long time to get ready, as many whiskers had to be collected. In addition to my cats,  many client cats also contributed! The tricky part with collection is remembering that you have one in your bag wrapped in a piece of tissue or other container. This week I have been experimenting with plaster bandage, but have not decided exactly what I am doing yet! 

Joan's frog, hanging on the frog princess dress, at least I think that would be who should wear it. It was scrunched up with a pile of clothes on a Deptford market stall, and I thought I might use the fabric as it is too small for me. When I looked at it properly though I didn't want to cut it up as I think it is beautiful. I have enjoyed looking at it hanging on the back of the bathroom door ever since! It makes a good background for the frog too. The wall on the right is halfway through being stripped and I suppose could be called 'distressed'. I quite like it!

I appliqued the frog but chose completely the wrong sort of fabric-really easily frayed cotton, so had to stitch it all the way round. I bought the fabric for the colours, not really planning what I would make. I was thinking of  Ce n'est pas une pipe with the this is not a frog wording.

It took ages doing this toadstool, then I found that I didn't like it that much.I think the dome part is too big.  Adding little people made it a bit better but still not as keen as I thought I would be.

This book is very inspiring, and as soon as I saw the idea for a cat whisker brush I was excited to try it. I have had some sticks lying around for a few years, picked up because of the pretty yellow lichen on them. Well, the lichen is no more, as the sticks turned out to be the perfect handles for the two brushes I made. I peeled off the bark, cleaned them up using sand paper and a slight amount of whittling, then carved the end to the right size to fit into the ferrule, made from a piece of a goose quill. (I had some of those in the drawer, also around for years!) The hardest thing to do was to cut the end of the quill to the right size. It has to be scored round and round, rather than cut straight through as it needs to stay in shape. It is a very hard, plastic like material. Actually, that was not the hardest part, it was laying the whiskers, which are nearly all slightly curved, in such a way that they lay in the same direction and form a point. I had got better at it by the second brush but it is fiddly. I used silicon glue inside the ferrule as I thought that would be a good waterproof option. I later wrapped the ferrule in plaster bandage to secure everything a bit more. You have to cut the bristles straight across at the ferule end once they are tied, with a knife/scalpel-most satisfying. I also changed what I did from his advice by making a large open knot before laying down the bristles, as I thought that would mean less movement when tying them! Another thing I did, to make it possible to poke the brush through the ferrule from the top, (once the dab of glue I used to secure the cut bristles was dry), was to use soap on the brush to form a point and let it dry. Otherwise it would be impossible to get through the hole. I was pleased with the result of this project. The brushes are very long and thin, as you would expect, and make a beautiful long thin line when pulled backwards along the paper. 

What to do with the doll's feet took me a while to work out. I wanted her to stand up, and originally planned to use clay with a slot in, and make two feet together. Then I thought I could use a wire armature, and poke the wire through the holes in the sole, and make her stand up. I realised after a bit of experimentation that it would not work. In the end, I kept the wire, with sewn and stuffed feet around it, and card soles in the bottom, and decided to use plaster bandage around them. The string is to shape the feet before the bandage layer.

Here are the finished feet. Then I had the problem of how to attach them. I solved it eventually and will show that another time. 

                   

I used sliced cork for the sole, and was going to paint it but have left it as I like how it looks.

Her face is drawn with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. 

Frog one!

A crystal ball wrapped in cling film. 

Then half covered in bandage. 

And finally, a project involving the girlettes has been completed. They will show and tell soon!

Skully

My brother came up on Saturday evening for dinner and scrabble. He brought his latest carving to  show us.I am calling him Skully. He is a very happy looking skull, despite his open brain.

I didn't deliberately have the crown in the background, it is just Netflix's frozen screen, but it fits!

I thought Skully might like a flowery adornment!

 

Red and Black

This is Julie, my doll from when I was about four. I have a picture somewhere of me walking along holding her hand.She is looking quite scary in this picture but she isn't really. She used to talk, by the magic of little coloured records that went in her back. I can't remember what she said. She also 'walks', with a little manipulation. Her clothes when I brought her back from Mum's, where she lived for a long time, were a white lacy dress and a blue and red stripey poncho. This dress and jumper are from a charity shop. She is just about big enough for small children's clothes. The trunk behind her belonged to one of Andy's relatives, Captain Borland, and makes a good tv stand. 

This is also from a charity shop and was bought for the front cover, rather than the information inside, though it does have lots of photos of great old buses. Just behind is a wooden London bus from a great junk shop in Greenwich. 

The final red and black picture is from a recent trip to the foreshore. This is the oil cap (I think) of a recently deceased boat near the yacht club. At the beginning of the summer the rest of the boat was there, but now only the engine and a buoy remain, too heavy to have been broken and floated away. I would really have liked to take the oil cap, but I thought that if I did then the oil inside would get into the river so I left it. I did find a light with glass still intact, an enamel dish and some cutlery, all of which I took.

This is what it looked like. I wonder who it belonged to and why it ended up there. Just next to the pier is another wreck that has been there all the time I have been going there. So now it has a friend.