Hi there

Thanks for popping in. Yesterday I made a plan in my head to do pottery today. All day. This morning I spent an hour deciding what I actually want to make. Tiles, bowls, another element of Dad’s totem pole, a wall hanging for the kitchen – so many ideas! Got dressed up warm, all set to weather the elements outside and in the not so toasty garage. Cleaned both bathrooms while I was whizzing around upstairs, aired the bedroom, made the bed, still headed out to the garage in my head.

And then Erik the cat rocked up, and wanted a cuddle. So I went with it, sat down, relaxed, gazed out of the window, and synchronised my breathing with his purring…just like a meditation. The head stopped whirring with ideas, the shoulders relaxed, the washing machine head slowed down. I hadn’t even reliased I was in spin cycle until I stopped.

Half an hour later…now ask me if I want to go out into the freezing garage and wedge a huge lump of cold mud!! Mmmm… kettle’s on. Maybe later…

It’s ok to change your mind, you know. So I’m chatting to you, with the cat in my lap, going with the flow. No pressure here. I’ll wait for Dave to come back from work (he had to repair something, and it’s best done when there’s nobody around on a Sunday). Then we’ll have a cuppa, and rethink our Sunday.

On the way down the stairs I stopped to look at an old piece of artwork I did years ago, using a Gelpress and acrylic paint, some texture paste and one of our stencils. It’s hanging on the hallway wall. I like it.

When you look closely, you can see how the washing on the line has real creases in it. Look…

I remember how I did that too. You drag the texture paste through the stencil, then let it start to dry. Once it forms a skin, you start to manipulate the card, twisting it, bending it over, curling it inwards. The paste stretches and sags too – just like real laundry! Then you let it dry completely. Once completely set, use one of our stencil brushes to lightly brush black archival ink over the laundry. The ink catches in the folds – very cool effect.

If you want to give this a go – and I can tell you, it is so much fun – here is the washing line stencil: CLICK HERE

And here is the Gelpress: CLICK HERE

The Relief Paste is the gear. CLICK HERE. It’s got that elastic stretchability when it starts to set. There‘s another one called Grunge Paste which works too. We don’t stock it though.

The wind is certainly picking up outside! Maybe I should do the bedding laundry…told ya. It’s official. She’s gone bonkers!!

Quote for today:

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Wayne Dyer

Love always

Barb x x x