Birthday card

Yesterday Peter and I went to Linköping to celebrate his big sister's 70th birthday. Heidi had made a plant arrangement with a Christmas Rose and so I made a card to go with it...

Can you see the little felted "stone" which Heidi had made in the same colours? I brought home a felting needle from the Knitting and Stitching show in Stockholm last week and we've all been having a go at making felt stones... /Jacqui

minus six celsius and a beautiful effect

After Syfestivalen, I've been watching my DVDs and reading my books and now I'm seeing inspiration everywhere!!! Got up early and watched one of the DVDs - then I noticed as it was getting light outside how incredibly beautiful the trees were in the frost! So had to take some pictures - now I want to paint!!! /Jacqui

syfestivalen

I'd completely forgotten that it was Syfestivalen (Knitting and Stitching Show) this weekend up in Stockholm, until I met my neighbouring shop owner across the street as we were locking up on Friday evening. She reminded me and encouraged me to go. So on Saturday morning I persuaded Peter to take a day out and off we belted to Älvsjö. There's an indescribable feeling of excitement and joy flowing through your veins when you are faced with colour in all its forms. I met a wonderful lady called Ingrid who owns a shop called Canvas in Göteborg, and whose stand I could have easily emptied if my credit card had allowed it! Wonderful books on every subject of textiles, dying, painting, embroidering, you name it. I ended up bying dyes, books, dvds and a very interesting papery fabric called Lutradur which I'm going to paint on and shrink with heat from a heat gun - can't wait!! Here are some of the fabulous colours I spotted there.... / Jacqui

weddings....

All last week I worked on projects for the Wedding Fair where Gredelin was going to be exhibiting this past Sunday in Bankkyrkan on Drottninggatan here in Norrköping. I'd already decided to have a colour scheme of white, off-white, oyster and dark burghundy, and the style was going to be vintage. We started on Monday when Heidi (my daughter, who is a florist) and I sat and produced invitations and little gift boxes, the kind you use beside every place setting at the reception table. Heidi is so brilliant at design - so I made the boxes and she decorated them. They looked like little cakes so I displayed them on this cake stand.

Then I worked on two scrapbooking layouts, using photos from my parents' wedding in northern England, during the war, and from my big sister's wedding in southern England in 1965 when I was a bridesmaid (aged 8). I used our Sizzix Big Shot machine which cuts out leaves and flowers, and dies from Tim Holtz and Magnolia (who have beautiful old fashioned dies, laces, doilies, flowers, leaves and so on) - distressed the edges of everything with Distress inks in colours: Old Paper and Pumice Stone. The large and medium sized roses I made using the Tim Holtz die Tattered Florals and then painted them with Gesso and sprayed them with inks diluted with water in a spray Mini Mister. Haven't had so much fun for ages - took the whole of Friday to do them both but it was heaven! My youngest daughter Gabbie was a model for a hairdressing salon who were also exhibiting and she was made up as an Ice Princess with white make-up and amazing curls and chandelier hair decor and necklace/Jacqui

private lessons

It's happened again, hasn't it? That resolution to blogg every day has already fallen by the wayside...

My excuse is that last week was packed with stuff. Lots to do at work, courses, things to prepare for Saturday when I spoke at a Womens' breakfast in the Missionshuset chapel in Krokek, and so on..

Amongst other things I had a visit from Lena and Kerstin, two sisters who are wonderful artists and who came to my home for private lessons in oil-painting. Lena came all the way from Stockholm and Kerstin lives here in Norrköping. I took some photos of their work which I was given permission to put up here on my blog. Lena's picture is painted from an old black and white photo of herself when she was dressed as a wood anenome (vitsippa in Swedish) for a dance class. Her daddy took a photo of her in the corner of the garden where the flowers were growing - isn't it precious? I've never met anyone as careful a painter as Lena - but then she used to be a dentist so maybe that helps!

Kerstin has a completely different style, just as lovely but less detailed. She's painting a picture of herself standing on a little bridge over a stream - gorgeous colours! Thanks for a lovely couple of days, dear friends! / Jacqui

more autumnal colours

Last weekend Heidi and I were on a course in Falkenberg with one of our scrapbooking distributors, and we brought back a couple of Sizzix Big Shot machines and some Alteration dies by Tim Holtz. I've been making "grunge roses", and tattered flowers all week in different colours and papers - I'm addicted! Love trying out different materials like newspaper for example. I made this card for Gabbie's fiancée's grandparents who they are visiting this weekend and the colours made me think of the colours out in the forest again...just love this season, I know I keep going on about it....I went for a walk with Peter and King earlier and just had to take my camera/ Jacqui

watercolour on a new surface

During the very hot summer, I sat in my cool basement and painted, trying out some new techniques.

I'd watched a film on internet with a fantastic artist called Carla O'Connor who worked with watermedia - mostly gouache, on a gesso surface. She painted gesso (which is an acrylic and chalk mixture) onto hot-pressed watercolour paper to give herself a water resistant surface to paint on. The advantage of this was that she could easily wipe off, and even lift out, areas of her watercolour painting. The paint just sat on the surface and dried, it didn't soak in like on ordinary watercolour paper. I was intrigued and tried it out, and even tried some other grounds - like matte gel medium. This was my favourite. I painted a sheet of hot-pressed Saunders Waterford watercolour paper and then started sketching up a picture of a woman with water-soluble pencils. Then I began painting. At first I was a bit frustrated as the watercolour lifts off if you work too hard over it, the friction of the brush causes it to dissolve, so layering different glazes has to be done quite carefully - but then I got used to working in this way and even tried stamping onto the surface with some of my own stamps (florals) using watercolour paint. It was fun!!! I decided to draw the face in with watercolour pencils. Here's the result - can you notice in the detail pictures how I could lift out highlights along the left side of her sleeve and socks? Am definitely going to try more of these techniques! /Jacqui

autumn

When I was a little girl, Christmas 1965 (I was 8) I received a big illustrated book of poems and rhymes from my daddy's Cousin Joe. I loved that book, and every time I was home from school and ill in bed, I used to gather a pile of books around me to read through and this one was one of my favourites. Just looking at it now gives me a warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feeling. My favourite page was a double page spread with pictures from the four seasons and rhymes to go with them. I loved autumn's picture because the sky was a yellowy, greeny grey - just the right colour for an autumn sky.
Here's the picture with the poems and rhymes. It makes me think back to coming home from school having kicked through the fallen leaves (they were thick along College Road in Epsom where I lived because of the chestnut trees that lined the road), to a warm fire where we actually toasted crumpets on a toasting fork. The evenings got darker and in the mornings when we went off to school it was often foggy and a little bit exciting because the world seemed like a different place. I love autumn. / Jacqui

I'm back...

I 've finally taken the time to sit down and do a blogpost. After suggestions from all of my two followers, to update the blog, I felt I really should make the effort. Actually I love my blog, it's just that time FLIES...and there are more important things in the pipeline THE WHOLETIME. But I'm going to try and blog everyday now (please don't hold me to it...).
Yesterday evening, after my drawing class, I stopped outside the shop window where I work as I left to go to the car, and took some photos of my latest window displays. I love doing the windows at Gredelin, Especially when I have a theme, whether it be colour, style, season or technique.
One window is Autumn. I chose colours appropriately and some apples, checked and striped "country" fabrics, and lots of real leaves and rose-hips which I picked from the little wood opposite my house.

The other window is in stone colours and navy blue. The inspiration came from a little photo sent to me by my niece in England - it's a picture of her husband collecting shells on the beach with their two little girls, Ceski and Alyx. I did a scrapbooking page using one of the new papers we have in the shop with a map on, the colours went really well with the girls' pale pink fleeces. Then I distressed around the outside, mounted the map paper on a navy blue cardstock, and started to decorate it. I still have shells which my kiddies collected during our many English seaside holidays when they were little. Beautiful blue mussel shells and little pieces of broken china, washed overboard from ships and bufferted by the sea to be made smooth and shabby. Perfect for glueing onto the layout. Then I stamped into some pieces of Cernite clay which I had flattened to look like pebbles and cloured them with watercolour paint once they were baked.
Cut out the letters "Shell collectors" in Swedish and glued them on.
The rest of the window is full of powdered pigments, tissue paper and scrapbooking papers from Bo Bunny in wonderful grungey patterns...

a new project started

Last July, Peter and I went to Venice for a few days. I've never been before and it was the most incredible experience - I'd no idea that such a place existed in real life! don't get me wrong, I've seen Venice in films like Casanova, The Italian Job, The Merchant of Venice, and so on but I suppose I imagined that it was all a bit Hollywoodised in the films. As we stept off the bus from the airport and walked over the bridge and I saw the colours, I was absolutely enchanted - the deep turquoise of the water, the mellow shades of terracotta, sage, saffron and warm grey stone in the buildings, and the beautiful skies which turned colour depending what time of day it was. Needless to say I took 879 pictures...which I'm now going to put together in a scrapbooking album, some watercolour paintings and some inks...watch this space... /jacqui

This month's window...

One of the jobs I love doing the most in the shop where I work is the window dressing. Here's this month's window which I'm going to be changing again soon as Easter is over... /jacqui

Sunday morning.....

Tomorrow morning I'm going to a little church in Nykil to talk about my paintings. I'll be showing 15 paintings from my exhibition "Ett Liv". It's out in the countryside so I've borrowed Gabbie's boyfriend's GPS so I get there on time.Here are a couple of the paintings from the series..."You are forgiven" (Du är förlåten) and "Adopted - who am I?" (Adopterad - vem är jag?)The church is called Smacka Betlehem if you fancy coming! / jacqui

a bit of scenography...

Had great fun yesterday morning painting some backdrops for the Pentacostal church here in Norrköping where I'm a member. Tomorrow they are starting a series on the book of Ephesians, so Henrik, the children's pastor, and I decided to create Ephesus as a "stage" for them to teach from. So using some thick corrigated cardboard sheets, lots of acrylic paint and water, I painted these pillars and ruins. We looked out of Henrik's office window and saw that the gardeners in the park opposite were cutting down all the dried grasses, so we ran over there and got bundles of the stuff! Also the hard winter has cause part of the fascade of the church to fall off so we are able to use some of the bigger chunks of rubble to position around these panels to make them look "real". Sad about the fascade but useful for our artistic creation. I'm not quite finished yet, have 3 pillars and a fountain to do around the pulpit, but that will have to wait till next week. Here's a sneak preview.../ jacqui

Is it too late to plant tomatoes?

One of the things I love about spring is planting stuff. Mostly vegetables but also a few favourite flowers, like nasturtiums and asters - bright coloured, happy things that look after themselves once I've lost interest and then multiply madly at the end of August. This year winter has dragged on and on and so I haven't even felt the tiniest spark of inspiration to start sowing seeds. I have a greenhouse so there's absolutely no excuse apart from the fact that I'm so lazy that I haven't cleared out all the dead stuff in the greenhouse yet, ready for planting. But these last few sunny days have got me thinking - I think I'll start with some lettuce and ruccola seeds at the weekend and I'll buy a tomato plant. Here's a tomato plant I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, which I subsequently painted in watercolour - love the orangey red (Schmincke's Permanent/Translucent Orange + Brown Madder) and the sludgey quality of Winsor and Newton's Green Gold. And can't keep my hands off the water-soluble crayons and pencils to add a bit of texture...try grating them onto wet watercolour and watch them melt! /jacqui

My girls

Well now I've finished the mini-book for tomorrow night's course. the back page was empty and I couldn't find a picture that was suitable until I went through some old photos and found this one from 1997, when Heidi was 10 and Gabbie was 6 - they were picking raspberries in my brother's garden in England. Scanned it in, played around with a photo-editing programme and this was the result. Back page complete. Here's the rest of the book I showed yesterday.

/jacqui

Scrapbooking Course

This Wednesday night I'm having a Scrapbooking course

at Gredelin and we're going to do a mini-book. I've chosen two different colourways - one a little more feminine and one with more masculine colouring.I've done one for everyone to see so they know what to do. Have used my own daughters (they're such an inspiration!!) and have played around a bit - here are the few pages I've finished so far... / jacqui