Penbryn Church, Wales

    Graphite, ink and gouache.

Penbryn Church, Wales

Graphite on paper

21st Birthday Card

Wren and astrantia, watercolour

Today's experiment in blue, with a wren and drawings of last summer's astrantia (pincushion flower).

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day every one!



From a drawing imported to Sketch Book and finished on Samsung Galaxy Note.

Willow Pattern Mosaic

Here is a small selection of my twenty year old crockery collection! All found in gardens and rivers. When the collection was still quite new, I could remember where each piece was from, but five jars-full later, it has become impossible!

As so much of the blue and white china is 'Willow Pattern', I decided to base the mosaic on the famous design, choosing the two love birds as part of the visual story I would be happy to have on my wall! The birds symbolise a happy ending where the two young lovers can finally be together. I made a charcoal drawing to scale, taking time to get the curves of the birds flowing and balanced.

   
Before I could begin to attach the garden crocks, I had to tidy up the edges, using excellent 'glass mosaic wheeled nippers', which made light work of the task. Many pieces were discoloured or too badly chipped. I aimed to give each piece four edges to make them simpler to use. I also used vitreous glass tiles.

Guidelines were very necessary in order to keep the circles of mosaic in the background circular! And to make sure each concentric ring was complete, despite it being occasionally obscured by birds! A blend of two whites was used and a scattering of fancy pearlescents, the right amount I hope!

Speeding towards the centre now! Still lots of cutting to do between the 'garden crocks' and the outer edge of the white background. Putting it off a bit! But also loving every minute of it!

So near now!

This was a momentous occasion! The pieces were numbered to keep them in the right order, using a Chinagraph pencil, which writes on hard surfaces and can be removed.

Here it is, on the wall! The silver grey grout knocked back the brightness of the blues and some definition was lost on the odd edge of the wings. I also learned a very important lesson...I was so eager to start cutting and sticking, that I didn't cut out the plywood circle before starting. A keyhole type blade was used in a stanley knife handle, which was able to get all the way round! It is just under one metre diameter.

Overall I'm pleased with it and I no longer have to store five jars of broken crockery!