Support democracy in Iran

If like me you have been following the brave demonstrations for true democracy in Iran - head on over to this site and 'light a candle' to show your support

Water, water, everywhere...

My F page is finally finished for my Alphabet Discovery Journal - the theme for this page was foam, and I wanted to try out a technique I had read about in a stamping technique book. First of all the background was painted with a wash of acrylic in pale green, I then stamped the word Foam with white gesso, applied a collage of newspaper (the financial pages of course) at the top half of the page, and wrinkled the paper to give the effect of water. Then more acrylic paint was used in shades of blue and green for the water, and brown and yellow for the sand. The paint was wiped off where the letters had been stamped - the gesso acting as a resist.

I then applied a little more gesso to the tops of the 'waves' and the shoreline. The foam at the water's edge was created by sticking some fusible fibre (the no-sew hemming tape), heating it gently with a heat gun, then while it is still warm sprinkling on some white embossing powder and heating it again. It gives quite a good effect, although it is difficult to see in the photo. The finishing touch was to add some fibres to represent seaweed.

Sing for Water West - The Big Sing. 600 singers raising money for Water Aid
Still on the subject of water - today was the 'Big Sing' at Bristol harbour side - 600 singers from various community choirs around the West of England raising sponsorship for Water Aid.


All the singers have been learning the same 7 songs for the past few weeks, and came together to sing them this afternoon, with only one joint rehearsal in the morning (which I was unable to get to!) Fortunately, the forecast thunderstorms did not materialise, and we were, if anything, too hot. I can be seen in the photo above 2nd from the left in the back row - singing along with the Tenors. Click on the video below for an extract of our first song Iqude - a traditional Zulu song (filming courtesy of my son, age 11).

Did you know that -

• At least 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.


• 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.


• 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.


• WaterAid projects providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education cost just £15 per head.

Our aim is to raise a total of £24,000 from The Big Sing - I will keep you posted when the total comes in. Click here to read more about the wonderful work that Water Aid do, and if you would like to make a donation to this great cause you can do so here

Alphabet Journal - Z

The latest letter for our Alphabet Discovery Journal is Z - so what else than Zebra's, Zentangles and Zetti?

Haven't yet decided if I want to add some colour to this page

Drawn with Pitt Pen on multi-medium paper

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Inspired by Eliece's blog By My Hand I decided to start a reading journal to keep a record of some of the books I have read. I have decided not to keep it chronologically, but paint pages in advance and find a page that suits the mood of the book (as does Eliece). That will also give me some flexibility in going back to cover books that I have read in the past.

Having said that I started with a book that I have just finished reading - the wonderfully named "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. This is a very easy book to read as it's epistolary style makes it easy to pick up and put down, but I whizzed through this charming story in a couple of days.

For this journal spread I chose some pages that I had previously painted with shades of blue acrylic, then as the book is partially set in Guernsey, I printed out a map of the island and cut it out to use as a mask. I also used images from the book cover, both collaged and painted on.

Another challenge...

Well, I've signed up for yet another workshop... I have just discovered the Artists of The Round Table yahoo group (A.R.T. for short) - they have study groups, where you can sign up to work on exercises based on published books. I have always liked Gwen Diehn's books on journaling, so I was delighted to see that they were just starting a study group on her book 'The Decorated Page'. Again, it's free to sign up, so this is my favourite kind of group :)

Week 1's assignment was to alter some pages in your journal. I purchased a really cheap (but functional) Seawhite journal - just 20 A4 pages, which will be just right as I will be treating this as a 'technique' journal. Here is a compilation of my altered pages (click the image for a larger view) -

If you want to join in, here is a link to Workshop joining instructions

Alphabet Workshop -T

My T page. This hasn't been one of Trish's prompts yet, but as I will be sticking this page to the back of the S page I decided to finish it now. I cut out the 'see-through' star from the previous page which on this page represents 'transparent' :) and hung a star shaped tag below it. I also added a few more tags on the page, one of them is tucked into a pocket with a stamp of a Tower on it. There are representations of trees, travel, truth and time, and there is some Turkish text mounted on some tissue.

The background is painted with Teal and Turquoise acrylic paint.

Alphabet Workshop - S-Stars

My S page for the Alphabet Discovery Workshop. The background was dark blue acrylic craft paint - great for journaling as it is matte and doesn't stick to the opposite page when the book is closed.

I cut out the star shapes, then used the smallest cut out as a negative stencil to create the shaded stars. The cut outs have different surfaces behind them. The top one has acetate (see through), the large star has Sheer Heaven behind it - painted with watercolour washes then with rubbing alcohol dropped on the surface to create the white areas (this was supposed to be a sky effect, but didn't quite work!). The smallest star has aluminium duct tape behind it to create a shiny effect. The last star is awaiting some sandpaper which will be pained black then silver. Eventually this will all be sandwiched together with sticky tape :)

The word South is from a clothing label. The page is finished off with silver swirls, stamping and silver embossing.

Alphabet Workshop - N-NegativeNumbers

Trish Bee has started a new Yahoo Group - Alphabet Discovery Workshop, it's FREE and you can start at any time, so you can't get much better than that!

Trish is selecting letters in a random order, so it doesn't matter if you are late starting - head on over to the Yahoo Group and join the fun

This is my spread for the first letter - N - done simply with black acrylic, white gesso, and black and white Staz-On ink.

I am using a multi-purpose paper (for acrylics and watercolour) and will be binding the pages into a book later.