Drunken Chalks

Hello
Today my drunken chalks project goes live on The Craft Barn blog. It's a great technique using isopropyl alcohol / rubbing alcohol for soft blended backgrounds.

Do have a look at the other DT posts to see the great effects you get with metallic inks.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend ahead. xx

Autumn Fruits

Hello
I hope you're having the same gloriously sunny day as me. I love this time of year with the soft autumnal colours. I had a great day yesterday with Helen Chilton at The Craft Barn playing around with alcohol inks and Claybord. You can take a look at her sample on her blog.

Needless to say I bought a couple of pieces to play with, so watch this space!

Hope you are having a relaxing weekend with a bit of crafting time thrown in. xxx

Joseph's Coat

Hello
I'm a bit late posting this one. I had a busy day yesterday and spent a great evening at Chertsey Museum doing a bit of crafting with nine lovely ladies making mixed media notebook covers. They must have enjoyed it as they want to do the same technique again on something else. Didn't get to photograph them all but they made an excellent job of it.

This week The Craft Barn has been showcasing the Joseph's Coat technique using different ways of masking to reveal a layer below. I went for a canvas board.

There are quite a few steps for this one so do take a look at the blog for all of the details. The weekend awaits and I am very hopeful for at least one day of crafting! 

Thank you for stopping by. xx

Inspiration on the Street - Lyon and Paris

Hello
And so to the last stage of our big European road trip which saw me on the hunt for street art and craft shops and my husband on the trail of craft beer. This combination worked out really well and I can see us doing it again.

The last stage was back through France where an overnight in Lyon sadly didn't reveal much as the stormy weather was not conducive to wandering around. We did see some dramatic skies though!

This mosaic, completed in 1936, was in Rue de Créqui  just off a square where an outdoor concert was about to begin.

I think this is one of the murals celebrating the work of architect Tony Garnier. There are around 24 murals painted on buildings in a housing project in the east of Lyon.
 

This giant Flower Tree created by Korean pop artist Choi Jeong Hwa was along the bank of the river Rhone.

We will definitely have to visit Lyon again!

Finally to Paris where I was beginning to run out of steam and the weather was very wet at times. I really loved the simplicity of this figure which could have been easily overlooked.

Paris is peppered with mini mosaics by the street artist Invader who bases the images on video games.

We had to keep looking up to catch some of the work.

 

 

This one is a recent 2017 addition and one of my favourites of the whole trip.

 

And so to finish with one of the smaller works but it would be in my top 10 of the trip.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of these works and like me, find some inspiration in them for your own creative journey.

Thank you for stopping by xx

Inspiration on the Street - Venice and Milan

Hello and thanks for stopping by

If you follow this blog regularly you will know that I have been writing about some of the magnificent street art we came across on our summer holiday. So far the tour has taken in Bonn (but no time for street art), Berlin, Krakow and Bratislava. Next stop was to visit family in Pordenone in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of northern Italy but we did manage a scorching afternoon in Venice. As we've visted many times in the past we spent our time trying to stick to the shade and avoiding the main tourist parts. We did pick up a few works on the way.

 

Then on to Milan where we also managed to catch up with family.

Now Milan is huge and the temperatures were around 33^oC so there was less enthusiasm for a lot of walking. Even so it was easy to spot really impressive work. This stunning wall was commissioned around the Basilica di San Lorenzo and is a collaboration of 11 writers or artists. It tells the history of Milan.

 

 

 

 

As well as the Leonardo da Vinci panel on the mural (above) we also found Milan based Mr Blob's handiwork in a back street.

We went on a hunt for a mural by the Italian street artist Blu but sadly after some time walking back and forth we realised it had been painted over. That is, after all, the nautre of street art. We did find lots of other work though.

Milan is a great city and even though we have been there many times we're going back again later this autumn. I will do a bit of homework this time and maybe get out to some of the outskirts for more creative inspiration.

Hopefully you'll stay on the tour...next stop...Lyon...