One of the reasons I have been quiet the last few days is that I have been finishing off the last lesson in my Xara Extreme course. I made this collage as one of the excercises. It is based on the events of the night of Nov 14th 1940 in Coventry where I then lived.
My own account of this is now archived at:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/26/a2044126.shtml
I wrote this, (which some of you have already seen) for the BBC's People's War series.
The collage is based on a page from my Dad's diary which I was recently given to look after and to extract anything useful for the family history.
Dad set out from work at his usual time but didn't get back to us till the following morning because of the severity of the raids that night. The collage attempts to show an event that occurred in the City while he was trying to get back to us and while we were being bombed out.
In the top right is a picture of the new cathedral which was built attached to the remains of the old old one, kept as a war memorial.
I had my degree ceremony in there when I gained my PhD. Splendid place for such an event.

I have a few more ideas for pages from this diary and other bits and pieces that are in the package.

Been a bit busy with things the last few days, but I have been thinking about what I might do with this piece of dyed silk. I did it in a Lesley Morgan class some time ago and here it is drying at Urchfont. It is quite a bit brighter than this in reality.
Anyone any ideas about how I could use it? Funnily enough, I can see better how to use those bits around the edges than I can the main piece! There are some lovely mixtures of colours in there.

I haven't posted for a few days but I have been busy working at various things (mainly my Xara Extreme coursework (poor sample above) and watching videos and DVD's. I recently got Jean Draper's video (thanks to Carol for telling me where to get it) and I have really enjoyed that. The work described is from her jaunts to the American Southwest and I love the colours she used, the tecniques and the distressed look she gave to some of the pieces. I have enjoyed listening to the way she works and seeing her working space.
I have also re-run the two DVD's I have, one of which deals mainly with Golden products and their uses for collage (Carrie Burnes-Brown). I loved most of the work that she did with hers.
The other is about making the most of the art materials we already have. She goes through the products first and then uses them to make various end products. I didn't like eveything she did but I did enjoy watching the process in every case.
Now I want to find the Jane Dunnwold one. Anyone know where to get that?

I have been watching a fascinating programme on the BBC1 this morning about the 'plague village' of Eyam in Derbyshire. Someone in the village received a bolt of cloth from London in 1666 at the time of the plague there. This resulted in about 220 deaths in Eyam over the next 14 months. The village took an oath to cut itslef off to prevent the spread of the disease. This act of sacrifice was retold in a musical version of the story by the Oldham Theatre Workshop and renacted in the Church at Eyam. It was very moving and beautifully done by this group of young people. Many of those in the audience were direct descendants of those who died.

Here is another of my scanned photos for you. Taken at West Dean some years ago on my medium format film camera and scanned with my flat bed scanner.

This was scan of soap bubbles, I then made a square selection and used the polar cordinates filter on it twice, rotating the image between the two applications.

I think I have decided how to finish my Celtic frescoe fragment now. It is worked on top of a piece of felt so I will apply that to a background fabric and do the hand stitching through both layers. Then the background fabric will be laced onto the mounting board. I want it to look like a fragment of painted wall in the end. I think this might do it.

Hi There,

I wanted some buttons and couldn't find what I wanted so I made some in Xara Extreme.
Thought you might like to see them.
Today I plan to do some handstitching on a frescoe fragment I have started. I will post a picture of that when it is finished. I might need some advice on how to finish this piece when I have completed the stitching... so watch this space folks.
I have several things waiting in the wings to be finished in time for our EG branch exhibition in July.

I was jealous of all those folks who got to see the recent total eclipse so I decided to make my own! What do you think?
I made this in Xara Extreme but took it into PSP9 to add the sunburst.

OK, so now I will try to send you a picture. This is the early morning view from my window at Ashpole Barn Studio a couple of weeks ago when I went there for a day class. Great place.

Well here it is... my embryonic Blog. Of course, I was never going to start one of my own... but there you go, I just had to do it.