Present For Daddy

Something which cost me little money, lots of effort, love and patience: portraits of my three children..

...and I'm rather pleased with how they turned out!

It's Getting Closer..

Been very busy back and forth to the post office to send jewellery to their future homes. One very nice lady from the USA bought a ring which I had to send to a loved one in England. It was very weird writng a card to someone I didn't know saying 'I Love You', I felt quite privilieged and I thought it was a really ingenious way of doing your shopping for those in other countries. So the shop is emptying, I have a few bits I can list but I think the rush is over for a while. Found time to ice the cake tonight:

Not quite the work of art I had in mind but little pixie face insisted on helping and as I have a feeling she will fast grow into a replica of her recalcitrant 16 year sister, I'm enjoying these moments whilst they last.

Christmas is Coming

Tree decorated...

Christmas cards made...

...and cake marzipanned..

To paraphrase Rolf: can you tell what it's gonna be yet?

Also still listing new items in the shop to replace those flying off the shelves, well shelf actually:

                                                          and much more available here

Plenty of Time to Buy Before Christmas

Had a hectic couple of weeks making and selling. Some things newly added to shop

And the weather's turnes wintery- yippeeee!

Where Have I Been

Difficult times, blogging about trivia seemed incongruent with how I was feeling. Blogging about it seemed too depressing, so I did what I do best to soothe my soul- got into bed with nature.

The 'babies' didn't realise they would get on so well, having forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the daily grind that they actually liked as well as loved each other

Night time on the campsite..

..daytime too

..meeting up with old friends and working together to solve a problem..

Helping out at harvest time - victorian style!

Trying to find those elusive mermaids..

Still looking..

No mermaids, just a playful Pablo in the surf.

Here's to putting troubles to bed

Does Anyone Know What This Is?

This was found in my parents' loft:

It looks like a wasps' nest in terms of its papery consistency, but is only the size of an average hen's egg.

Answers on a postcard...

Once More the Magic of Camelot Has Struck At My Heart (to paraphrase Uther Pendragon)

I've just returned from a fantastic week in France. It was made even better by the fantastic weather we've all been spoilt with. But the highlight of the holiday had to be our trip to Pierrefonds castle:

For those of you who may not know, this is where the BBC film their series of Merlin. As you may gather from some of my jewellery, I'm a tad besotted with this series and the artistic inspiration it provides- not to mention eye candy in the lovely form of Prince Arthur ( and Lancelot if I'm slumming it).

It really is a magical, fairytale type castle with lots of fantastic stone carvings:

Gargoyles,

And bits of walkway that we could identify from different scenes in the TV series:

It was just as fantastic inside, look- Uther's throne up close:

And what made it even more exciting... they were actually filming!!!

We quickly turned stalker, snapping familiar faces:

We walked around exclaiming "Sorcery!" and hoped that our cries of "For the Love of Camelot!" might be heard in the background. I can't wait for the next series to come out in the autumn.

Have you ever seen one of the Knights of Camelot like this?

Anyone Off to the Beach?

If so, I've listed a new ring to help you get into the swim:

My Low Tide Ring made from pure silver imprinted with flotsam and jetsam, perfect for those mermaids amongst you listed here.

Also a pair of seaglass earrings, with more colours to follow, a bargain at £6:

And on the sea theme, the finished gansey:

And Pixie Face's very first finished object- she's very pleased with herself as you might be able to tell!

Enjoy your Easter whether by the sea or not.

Restoration Project

As a favour for my good friend Felted House who's having a really difficult year, I agreed to try and restore a pastel picture. This was a picture of her father at some point in his youth, probably dating back 60 years. Unfortunately it had been stored rolled up which had then been crushed and subject to the dreaded mould. Now I'm not a professional restorer, and let's be honest who could afford to have work done by a professional, but generally if you take the least invasive/damaging approach first then hopefully you can effect more good than harm. Artists among you will know that to remove creases, you need to stretch the paper, which involves soaking it and then taping it down to a flat surface and leaving to dry. Because the portrait was done in pastels, this wasn't an option. I decided to gently mist the reverse of the paper with water to dampen it and then taped it down to the table. I did this a couple of times over a few days and it worked quite well. I also covered it over with a sheet of large paper, but this was more to stop my 6 year old 'helping' with the addition of her crayons.
I then had original-looking paper but still the dreaded mould:

It was a bit difficult to make out some of the features due to the spread of fungus and I didn't really want to add any pastel for fear of masking the original artist's style. So very gingerly, I set about with a stiff bristle paint brush ( artist's, that is, not decorator's!) and worked away at the mould.

Here you can see where I've tackled it and which bit is still infected:

        I simply redistributed some of the pastel and it's almost as good as new. Ta da!

There are still some cracks visible, but I don't think that's a bad thing and I even managed to preserve the artist's signature.