Sea glass and pottery cards

This morning was spent making cards - except I ran out of the cards themselves - all the glass and pottery is collected from Parton in West Cumbria - the beach just keeps giving and it's a very good excuse for a dog walk!

...Christmas begins - textile trees....

Oh it had happen! There isn't much time so I need to think how to make my stalls look Christmassy.... I may mount these in cards so people have a homemade card that doubles as a decoration and/or make bunting ....and of course just have them as individual pieces to hang on the tree.....I have also got a robin design and am awaiting the delivery of materials. ....then I may just do baubles too!

Mumbles Head

A quick walk along the sea front to Mumbles head before setting off from Swansea to Cumbria. Very pleasant - 3 contrasting lifeboat stations and a lighthouse - it must be lovely in the summer sunshine.

Oxwich Burrows NNR

Walking back through Oxwich Burrows NNR was a real treat in the late summer sunshine - plenty to see and good to hear choughs too.

Hundreds of small solitary bees ....

Spindle; round-leaved wintergreen; rockrose; carline thistle and autumn gentian ....lots of bloody crane's-bill, milkwort and eyebright out too. 

Devil's coach horse with prey and a couple of grasshoppers. 

Wax cap; plenty of parasol mushrooms and a lovely turkey tail.

Nicholaston Woods and Threecliff Bay.

After dropping Tom off at Swansea Uni a walk down from our campsite at Nicholaston farm (to be recommended as a cracking campsite), down through the woods and onto the beach and east along to Threecliff Bay. We then walked back west to Oxwich and then back through the Oxwich Burrows and the NNR, but that'll have to be another blog!

Nicholaston Woods - growing on practically pure sand. 

Bees enjoying the late summer ivy nectar.

Spectacular bedding in the cliffs at Threecliff Bay. 

Snake's head fritillary cards.

As promised a range of the snake's head fritillary cards - it's always enjoyable to play with different colour combinations of materials!

Pomegranite printing

A dull morning, so some vibrant prints. Monoprints on a gelli plate background. 

Purple hairstreak butterfly - printing

When we went to Fingland Rigg - see the 30th August blog - we saw a rather pecked purple hairstreak. Apparently it was the first record of the year for the site. I spent this afternoon teaching Tom how to use a gelli plate and to rather good effect! The hairstreak was printed on from a 'soft-sculpt' block using water-based lino ink and hand-coloured with acrylic.

The leaves and printing block

Trial run butterflies

The uncoloured prints ...

The final coloured piece.

Burgh by Sands allotments

I always enjoy a visit to the folk's allotment ...frustratingly so much more productive than our garden!

The allotments 

My folk's produce 

..and other people's ...

Rudbeckia inspired cards

It's rather hectic at home, so the only art work I can do has to be done in dribs and drabs - which suits making and designing cards ....although I do have an idea that may take a while once I get some time! So here are variations on a rudbeckia theme.

Snake's head fritillary textile card

Tonight's idea for a card - it needs a bit of tweaking to get more vibrancy, so I'll have a look at a couple of brighter fabrics tomorrow and see what it looks like in daylight!

More hedgerow monoprinting fun!

Today I found some time to print - dipping paper in water, but not soaking it, for about 2 mins, and then using oil-based lino ink onto pressed hedgerow plants.

Top  - too much ink, bottom - getting there and right nice detail.

Not the best of lights for photographing this but the final piece - overlaying seed heads.

The Pines - Silloth.

We decided that we just had to get out between the showers and went down to Silloth to the Victorian pine woods, in search of fungi. Despite an initial impression of it still being summer - the weather was warm and the grass long, on a closer look, there were quite a few fungi, including in the order of 15 clumps of the upright coral fungus (Ramaria stricta).

Turnstone and redshank at Silloth....and a shrimp boat.

Lovely to get so close to a flock of turnstone and redshank on the promenade at Silloth today.

Monoprinting with the Xcut Xpress

...a mixture of gelli printing using acrylic and then printing an overlay using oil-based ink using the Xcut ...I can't wait for a wet day to do more!

Experimenting dyeing wool - part 2

Adding some red today.....I just love the textures and tones.

Experimenting with dyeing wool.

Tom has been experimenting with dying some of his hand spun wools green - there may well be more photos to come tomorrow and I can't wait for the weekend to try it myself!

Allium cards - new textile designs.

Time to start topping up the card stocks and time to think of some new designs - so here they are!

Elephant hawk moth caterpillars ...

Found this elephant hawk moth caterpillar meandering across the road, so put him back safely on his food plant.

Art work - by Tom - using alcohol markers. 

Hesket Newmarket - Industrial tent sweep 2017

Not a bad contribution from the Garners!

Hesket Newmarket Show 2017

Another fabulous show - the weather was superb and there was a good turn out.

Autumnal moths

After a long spell of unpredictable weather we finally had a night where we could put the moth trap out. Seventeen species the highlights were the canary-shouldered thorn, a large number of centre-barred sallows and the wide range of yellow underwing species.

Canary-shouldered thorn 

Centre-barred sallows

Lempke's gold spot

Rosy rustics