Painting to music....

Unfortunately my felt making session at Ardleigh Green College for International Women's Day was cancelled due to sickness which was a shame. However on the positive side I was able to join some silk painters for the day over at Toots Hill in the Essex countryside for a creative play day with music. 

Waassily Kandinsky often used music whilst painting saying that ‘Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations of the soul’

So with 2 tables laid out with blank paper (yes it was a little daunting to see at first) and one table laid out with an array of art materials (thanks to Sue Thomas) off we set with our first song: Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole. We all listened to this before someone took the first brave step to make a mark on that rather large piece of paper. Soon after everyone joined in making their marks creating together....... notice the rainbow and bird influences from the lyrics.....

Next we had a slightly change of atmosphere with Vaughan Williams - Lark Ascending.
Many others found this a delight to paint to and you can see clear meadows and English countryside forming on the paper but for me personally it didn't inspire me to paint but enjoy the music in the quiet idyllic environment.

We then jumped to the energetic Benny Goodman -Sing Sing Sing.

The results are amazing and you can see the energy and movement jumping from the paper......

Lastly we finished with Tonadilla (Enrique Granados) a Spanish guitar song. I love the Spanish influences especially the Latin dancers and Seville oranges. Again the movement and rhythm explode from the pages......

This isn't the best photo but I loved the results below. The technique is to have a really wet background piece and then drop thick but small dabs of paint. The result is a rather beautiful delicate wild flower meadow.....

If anyone hasn't done this yet I would highly recommend it. Not only were the results amazingly creative and representative of the music but it feels really good to lose your inhibitions and paint to the beat and rhythm of the music. Hence there was lots of dancing and laughter!!

Frozen fever continued......

A few years ago I bought a rocking horse from a charity shop, Eloise was just a baby so not very practical for her, but I couldn't resist.....

It sat in our garage for years until this Christmas Bethany got a book with a rocking horse in it. Ooh I want one of those said Eloise and then I remembered the poor lonely horse in the garage. So of we set on a renovation project together with the brief being to make it as 'Frozen' themed and sparkly as possible.

I never thought in a million years I would be using sparkly sequins and sparkly jewels for anything in my house but .....

I can't deny the little cheeky monkey her Essex bling......

This would have made an amazing Christmas present to open on Christmas day but Eloise has just loved getting involved helping to paint it, choose wool and sparkly sequins for his mane, jewels to stick onto him and watching him transform. Kids love the creative process just as much if not more than the final product.

International Women's Day.....

This Saturday pop along to Ardleigh Green College for the celebration 'Wonders of Women' for International Women's Day. Starting at 11.30 until 4pm at the main site on Ardleigh Green Road. I'll be demonstrating some wet felt making on the Havering Adult College's table. There will also be some sugar craft demonstrations from Havering Adult College along with a whole host of activities from other companies. So come along, learn a new skill or just enjoy the atmosphere......

Here's a few new jewellery pieces I've been working on including a bracelet;

and some necklaces;

Can you see a bit of a colour theme taking shape? I think I need to try and experiment with some different colours : )

Frozen fever....

Like many other households with young girls our household has the frozen fever. I took us a little longer than everyone else and it wasn't until early Christmas that her love for Mickey Mouse went out the door and replaced by Frozen (after I had bought her Christmas presents, little ones can be so fickle!!). 

She received a frozen dress for Christmas but it didn't have a sparkly cape like her older cousin's dress so I set to work. After many headaches, a lot of unpicking and frustrated moments I made her a new dress using her old one as a pattern. I would not recommend this for any other novices like myself out there, buying a pattern and basing it on that would have been far easier : )

So I am very proud I finally made one, it kind of fits and most importantly she loves it! Here is the Elsa style dress in full twirly girly fashion.....