One of the things to do at the British Ceramic biennial was to have fun making clay tiles that will grow in a wildflower meadow next spring. We made unfired tiles made to look a bit like Minton floor tiles. The clays were chosen to be different acidities so that they suited wild flower seeds. The clay was mixed with hay and pushed into moulds, then we had to make holes and push the seeds into them. Finally we pressed a shape into the top of the tile and fill the resultant spaces with different coloured slips.
My favourite websites are art ones. A lot of them don’t have much in the way of tools. Often the drawing is already there and you just use a fill tool. They are boring. But I found a free app called Artrage oils which I used for several years till I got a new phone. Then I upgraded to Artrage which has a lot more tools, sketchbook app which has different tools and a few other ones that are good for editing, like photodirector. I now use them all in combination. It’s fun!
When you make a collage of a photo you never know what you are going to get. This one seems to have animal faces at the centre, but it’s only fallen leaves on pavement. The effect of seeing things that are made up like this, or animals in clouds, faces in buildings, is called Pareidolia.
Today was the last day of the biennial exhibition. We only managed to get to the one venue at All Saints church on Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery and ceramics on display were remarkable. From abstract to classical, but all with a modern twist. I wish I’d managed to get round the other venues, but I didn’t feel up to it. Anyway I bumped into a couple of friends. I will probably post a few more photos later.
To the #bandofsketchers prompt blue. A blue made up face using Artrage app. Its not very exciting, I wasn’t sure what to do. Anyway it’s good to start catching up with the prompts, digital drawing,
I added the sprinkles onto this photo of a tree, as if all the leaves were falling off at once. I can’t remember how I did it, but I think I used photodirector. The image is from about four years ago, and the app has changed since then, so some of the different tools have changed and I’m not sure I could do this again. X
Just looked at my Barometer, it’s dropped to 957 millibars which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The pointer has dropped all the way down to “stormy”. And yet fireworks are going off all around us. It will be bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night in the UK tomorrow. (Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot). This was in the reign of James 1st when Guy Fawkes and fellow plotters tried to blow up the houses of Parliament by getting gunpowder into it’s cellars. The British people celebrated the failure of the plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off fireworks.
So the weather isn’t good for it tonight. I doubt there will be many bonfires because of all the rain we have been having. But the fireworks are crackling and banging all over the place, and it’s not even the 5th yet!
He’s on the edge of the settee and looks like he might slide off! Fast asleep, taking up all the space. I’d like to sit there but I’ve been ousted from the space by this cat! I went to make a coffee and he snuck up. I have a seat on an armchair. And as if on cue, my girl cat just came up and tried to sharpen her claws on my leg. She’s taken over my footstool. Cats rule in this house!
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
Leaving home was a big shock. I was miles from home and very nervous. But now all these years later I would go back in an instant.
I met fantastic people, some of whom I have stayed friends with for years. I met my partner, I learned to manage my life and become a grown up. I realised my wish to be an artist, and that has never left me. I started to understand other people’s perspectives on life and how they did, and didn’t, manage.
To be honest, my whole understanding of life and politics changed completely when I left home. I had been protected and had a good life, with enough to eat, a safe place to live, and a caring family. Leaving the nest was hard, but as I moved into a shared flat, the resulting change wasn’t too drastic.
Meeting new people, with different ideas to mine was an eye opener. I don’t think I really appreciated how strange and mad the world was till then. I feel like I didn’t really exist till I moved out of home.
Travelling home was not easy, being away from family was hard. But I made a success of it. I wish I could go back though, just for the enjoyment and knowledge I absorbed. I would not want to be me now, all those years ago. I would want to experience it all fresh and new. But then yes, I’d come back to my current life, renewed.
Mallaband-Brown 