Francophile

I actually managed to get my head together enough to dye today [careful how I spell that], I wanted some kind of dark background and while doggy walking I thought a burnt orange with black line stitches and blue highlights might work.
However once I start dyeing anything can happen.
Too impatient to check instructions I can never remember, i used the direct dyes, salt and hot water, seems to have worked.
The orange is a beautiful glow on the washing line even now, but maybe under burnt. i added some violet as you do, and now the loose weave stuff is brown, so I have draped it over the rusty mattress springs in the garden to see if I can get some rusty circle stains. Added salt and water so it will either mark or disintegrate ere long.
good fun, I don't know why it takes so much effort to get me going, maybe something to do with the results, who knows.
I have installed a new screen saver this week, one of my pics from the Bayeux Tapestry multiplied itself to fill the screen, so now I have lines of excited Franks rampaging across the screen.
Have to take my Dancer pieces to the Stowmarket exhibition and visit the Deadly Virtues at Raveningham this w/e, so feeling productive. Mostly the effect of a holiday and the continues sunshine I expect.

remember to breathe

More going on in my head than in practice.

I had to finish my Awakening Anger for the seven Deadly Virtues exhibition, plus Envy Lurks which I now quite like, tho as ever i doubt I have pushed it far enough.

I guess that is why one is supposed to work in Series, to push and explore the idea instead of a series of One Offs which once I have finished I realise I could have done better tra la.

I think when we get back from getting wet on the South Coast [not in the sea sadly] i will try and get the dyes and paints together and construct a back ground for my figures and machines. I suspect it should be dark so they ...........mmmmmmmmmmerge.

I could maybe use the wheel middle thingies from the Cleo when they wired a new set on, and dared me to knock off. I have done my best. Hub caps!

Maybe I could get circles and bumps from them, maybe spray thru?? dunno. Allison is using plumbers washers and screws sewn on, but she does neater work than moi.

However I am trying to keep in mind Sue's advice to be more kind to myself and not to feel I should rush at everything, usually gritting my teeth.

I am reading a costume drama novel set in the 1870s by Cynthia Harrod Eagles [coo] and including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson as a character so maybe that will inspire moi too. I checked her use of the terms mum and dad, suspecting anachronism but they came into use in the mid C17th so i am more willing to trust her research.

Daughter, whom we will see in November, when she sprogs, wants me to do a stitching based on Tamara de Lempika's Woman with Dove. I started but it all looked too ghastly, pink stitching yuk; i think my daughter would like something more muscular.

However i shall take Dovey Lady with me and see if I can't make something of her.