My impatience got the better of me today and I washed off the crisps from the copper tags to find these lovely patterns. There were traces of "verdigris" in as much as the crisps had gone green (very appetising!) but this washed off. I found that the tags at the bottom of the pile had apparently not been in touch with the wet crisps and had only changed on one side so I've put those back and rewetted them to see if they will now get this lovely patterning. I've also put a few tags outside in with my rusty pieces to see what effect the natural processes have on them. I think it may be possible to roll the long tags to make beads, especially if I incorporate threads and/or fibres. I intend to attack one or two with a flame to see how that affects the surface.

I started to paint the canvas I covered earlier in the week, as you can see below. I started with pale colours reminiscent of a rock surface but then decided I wanted to use stronger colours. I quite like the change from the red to the bluer area at the bottom but I intend to work more on the main area tomorrow. It's very unusual for me to work in such strong reds. I am much more of a turqoise/gold person normally. So now I'm outside my comfort zone.(Eek!)


Talking of tomorrow I am getting together with some friends for a "play" session. We usually meet with a teacher from September to May and this year decided to carry on meeting up once a month through the summer. We all work in different ways with mixed media and get a great buzz out of sharing new ideas and interpretations. It is great to be able to see how even a small group of people approach the same subject.

We are in for a busy weekend. Art for me tomorrow while DH dogsits for our friends so that my DF can come to art and then visit her husband in hospital having his third joint replacement operation. It won't end there, he is down to have his shoulder repaired next. Talk about the bionic man! Then, on Sunday, we are going to Nottingham to see DH's youngest son. There is a big riverside festival going on over there this weekend so we may see some of the events on Sunday. I just hope my stamina holds up. I have been struggling quite badly this week with fatigue and combined with the forecast heat I think I may find things a bit difficult. Oh well, I shall just have to rest after the weekend.

I have been having a go with washers over the last couple of days. The method came from an article in Cloth Paper Scissors (May/June 2007) but I think I need a bit more practice! I was a bit heavy handed with the embossing powder so that not much of the painted surface shows so I will change that another time. I did find too that where I had painted both sides of the washer the underside softened and smudged as a result of being heated. I will probably keep these in my stash and attach them flat on a surface but one or two of them are ok enough maybe to hang in the right situation.

I quite like the blue washer that I managed to coat only partially with embossing enamel.

I had a great time this afternoon taking a leaf out of Lynda's book and have covered a block canvas with scrim and gesso (picture tomorrow). Hopefully tomorrow I will find some time to stitch into it and then decide what else it needs. Thank you Lynda for sharing the idea.

We went out to a village in the Vale of Belvoir yesterday to check out the church for a fete where DH will be selling his cards in September and I found some lovely rust to photograph for later inspiration. The rust on the left was at an old engineering works in the village of Stathern and on the right is a lovely rusty barbecue in a pub garden. Unfortunately some of my pix were blurred so we will have to go back to the pub again! Oh dear! What a hardship! Hope they won't throw out the BBQ.