Saturday 29 December 2012

The inventor and his companion



I was rummaging around in my little store room today, and I pulled out a half-finished painting I had forgotten about and lifted it onto my easel.  It's about 60-70% done..........maybe I should finish it. 

I like paintings with meanings or narratives (that is not to say that I don't enjoy art without these things).  I like characters and something to build a story around.  

In my head I conjured up an image of man with a little mechanic bird resting on his hand..............


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 There was once an inventor who lived alone, up in a home amidst the rooftops of Paris.   He was used to being by himself, but eventually he felt the pangs of loneliness, and it drove him to create a little mechanical friend.......a little bird which wouldn't fly away like the rest, a companion that would stay with him..........

The little bird was kept in a golden cage, and woke up the inventor every morning with its song so he could start work.......  
but after a while, he saw that his little friend looked on to its natural counterparts with envy.  Without room to fly, its wings became harder to move and the little bird became sad, and so it stopped singing in the mornings.......


....then one day, the inventor decided to do what was best for his little companion's happiness, even though he would miss him.   He went to the window, and opened the cage............

.......the little bird hopped on to the inventor's hand and looked up at to him .  The inventor bid fairwell to his companion, and let it fly away.......



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Back home



I've been away for about a week........and the train journey there wasn't exactly pleasant!  The constant rain has played havoc with many train routes in the U.K.  Some rail tracks have been mangled by the force of the overflowing rivers, as if they were just toy sets. Usually my journey to my parents house takes around 5 hours 15 mins, but this time it took 6 hrs 20mins, which means I was lucky I suppose as many people had to wait much longer than that.  1 taxi tide, a packed coach, 2 trains, and a car journey later and I arrived at my destination. 



 Never mind.........a cozy house and chocolates made up for it............and there were many,  many chocolate bars - dark chocolate with mint, dark chocolate with orange, dark chocolate assortments.....so I think I'll be stocked up for a while.  :D 

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Old room


 One day I'd like to move out of my city, and move somewhere greener so I can look out of my window and see what I used to see out of my old room.  You can just about see Tremadog Bay, a part of the Irish Sea
 in the distance.




Waiting........

Can't wait until my silver leaf arrives this week (fingers crossed) - then I'll be able to work on some of my pieces.  













These ones in the bottom picture are quite festive I think (maybe not the spiral one)!  I wanted to make something festive and whimsical, and that's how I came up with the candy cane idea.

I really want to finish that candy cane one actually.......the one with the mica flakes centre......but I can't finish them properly until I have that silver leaf.  I'll have to post photos of these again, in daylight, because at the moment it's dark so much of the time that it's really difficult to get some good light.  Apparently some new light bulbs will be available to buy in 2013 that are better than LEDs, and even better than full spectrum light bulbs since they won't contain any nasty mercury (I've had to massive light-saving ones shatter on me recently, and as it's not the best thing for your health, I'm a bit scared to handle them now)!!









Thursday 13 December 2012

Jester - Part 9 & 10







Art nouveau pendant


Hmmm......I think this is going to be quite a difficult one......



Tins


I don't usually do this, but I couldn't resist!  Today I saw a beautiful biscuit tin in a supermarket.  They were on sale with 50% off the original price - they were £5 down from £10 (I wouldn't have bought it for £10, though).  I liked them so much I bought two as Christmas gifts.........and one for myself. 

The chocolate biscuits inside are nice (made with butter, no vegetable oils) , and I love the design on the tins.  Very Parisian art nouveau I thought.  It reminds me a little bit of some of Alphonse Mucha's work.  I went to their website, and it turns out they have more collectible tins! 

http://www.biscuiterie-mere-poulard.fr/boutique/fr/14-coffrets-collector

Maybe it's a good thing I can't buy them as well....lol.





Monday 10 December 2012

Pink flower macros


I've bought myself a new camera :D, because the old one was a bit pathetic and wasn't working proper;y anymore.  Even though the old point & shoot was prone to taking blurry shots, the one good thing that it did manage to do was macros. 

I'm looking forward to testing out my new camera over Christmas.  Sadly, there probably won't be any pretty frosty shots this year because it's simply not cold enough yet.

Anyway, here are some pink flower macros I took with my previous Canon A1000 (a nice colour to have around when the weather is dull and miserable).



 

Saturday 8 December 2012

Pendant gifts

Today I've been working on two pendants that are meant to be a gift for a relative of mine (shhh!).  I know she likes small, delicate pendants, so that's what I'm making for her.

One is going to be a treble clef, and the other is a tiny celtic knotwork pendant. They're both going to be plated with silver.  I'll post more pictures soon!

Celtic knotwork

Celtic knotwork pendant



 This one is a larger version of the same pendant, and it's going to go into my Etsy collection. 



Language articles

Some interested language related articles I found this week -

http://news.discovery.com/human/brain-language-learning-120319.html

http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-scotland-written-language.html
 



The Discovery article at the top suggests that people who are good at learning languages may have brains that are more efficient in certain areas.  Even though I'm not surprised at this, I'm sure that many people will use articles like this to explain why they're just not good at languages.  They'll somehow think their mind is somehow inadequate compared to those who find it easier to learn.  Motivation, attitude, time, patience and enjoyment are very important factors when it comes to learning a foreign language.  Yes, age can influence language learning as well, but isn't this true with everything?  Should this mean that we should just give up on learning any new skill, just because we're over the age of 20? 

Friday 7 December 2012

Celtic Horse Pendant


This pendant is almost finished :) Just got to add some finishing touches.

When I've made enough of these pendants, I'll open my Etsy shop.  At the moment I'm thinking of calling it 'Ceridwen's Trinkets', 'Ceridwen Designs', or 'Ceridwen's Trove'


Celtic Horse Knotwork
Celtic Horse Pendant

Celtic Horse knotwork
Celtic Horse Pendant

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Carl Warner - Amazing Foodscapes

I present to you Carl Warner - a creator of foodscapes, an art where he makes landscapes out of food and photographs them.  His work is fun, imaginative, and interesting to look at, so take a peek at this photo set that was published in a newspaper a while back.  I tried to get his permission to show his photos on her, but I haven't had a reply yet :(  As I'm reluctant to include photographers' work in my blog without their permission, you just have to click the link to enter his world of whimsical foodscapes. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkpicturegalleries/9664001/A-World-of-Food-amazing-foodscapes-by-Carl-Warner.html?frame=2392485

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Pendants

Nearly there!
I'm making pendants to sell at a Christmas fair, and finding the time to finish them has been difficult.  So far I have 17 pendants, but I'd like to make a few more. 
The mica is lovely, but I think I'll only use it for a few pieces (and some of my designs have changed).



Mica for pendants


Working with the clay has been a bit more difficult than I thought.  It takes a really long time to get the pendants the exact shape that I want (so they fit the image that I put on them later), but with time I think I'll become faster at doing it. 
My gold and silver leaf have arrived, and I've also bought a beautiful dark chocolate colour cord to hang the pendants on, and I've ordered more (hopefully they'll get here in time).
Here is a picture of them before they get painted this week (I'll post more photos when they are finished).

Polymer Clay Pendants

Friday 16 November 2012

Super Mario Style - LOL of the day



I find the prevalence of this tune everywhere to be a tad bit annoying, but this is brilliant, and made me LOL!!  The one in Luigi's costumer seems to be the best dancer - especially from 2 mins in.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Jester - Part 3 & 4




At the beginning, a painting is very fun to paint when there isn't too much pressure, and when you don't have to worry about texture and small details to much!

Monday 12 November 2012

Jester - Part 1 & 2

 

From now on, I'll start posting pictures of my painting, from beginning to end (click the photos to enlarge them).

Sunday 11 November 2012

Remembrance Sunday

Today is Remembrance Sunday in Britain.

This is a poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye, 1932


Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.


Saturday 10 November 2012

Language Courses

My recent little obsession (recent by about a year ½), is languages.

What I don't understand, is why so many courses focus on extremely tourist-based formulaic lessons. Most of the courses I've seen focus on travel, going to the doctor, ordering food, souvenir vocabulary and buying tickets.

I'm guessing that most people, when they go on holiday, maybe get a phrasebook to help them when they are in that foreign country, but not much else. In fact, I think a lot of people don't bother to learn anything more than 'hello' 'thank you' 'goodbye', 'help', and 'Do you speak.....'. Therefore, I don't think many people would sign up for a 8 – 12 week language course if they're just going on holiday for a week, unless they're particularly interested in that culture.

Most of my local courses are extremely formulaic, so when you're out of those formulaic situations, you might feel a bit lost. I wish there were more courses which focused on actual conversation. For me, that's what real language learning is about. The ability to ask someone how their day went, being able to express an opinion about films, books, or the news. Telling someone what you're going be doing next week, not just 'May I buy a return ticket to …...'.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Beddgelert gate



This is a photo I took of a gate that's in north Wales, in Eryri  (Snowdonia) national park, although it looks like it could be from Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings!

  It's the start of a route that follows a river, and gets wilder as it goes on. 

Sticky date pudding

It's one of the best puddings I've ever made.  The taste is just wonderful!



Date Pudding

I got the recipe (as always), from BBC Goodfood -

Sticky toffee pudding recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

I've made some changes / additions -

 I used redbush tea instead of black tea, and it tasted great. First, I added the tea bag to the boiling water in a Pyrex jug, making sure it was as strong as possible (because Redbush is a bit more subtle than normal black tea).

Next, I poured the tea infusion into a saucepan with the dates, and then let it simmer gently for 2 - 3 minutes. 

 I used around 280 - 300ml of water because after the water's turned into steam, you'll be left with 250ml.

 I wouldn't recommended adding your teabag in with the dates and then bringing it to the boil, because the bag could tear against the dates leaving you with a mess!

Instead of using mixed spice, I used 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

If you have plain flour (like me), add 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.  

I reduced the temperature to gas mark 3 1/2, and baked it for around 50mins.

You can make an interesting sauce by mixing a little golden syrup into creme fraiche. This gave a slightly tart, but sweet lemony flavor to the richness of the dates. I may add a little vanilla pod next time.

Old photo



Love this photo.  I wish I knew who took it.  

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