Planet Ruby Starrs

hare in watercolour and ink on tracing paper Great day at college last week putting together design ideas for a Liberty style scarf.  We spent the day doing large scale drawings using wet media to use with Photoshop this coming week. I'm really looking forward to how the designs might work. I did several different pieces using  large brushes with ink and watercolour paint and  and on some I did some ink over lays on tracing paper which once put onto the computer may ( or possibly not) look very effective. I also did some collage on to the top of some watercolours - I always happiest sticking and glueing.... various large scale watercolour and collage  smaller detail promarker and fine liner 

This is a surefire way to keep your house tidy - its not really clutter free but putting everything in boxes is the best clutter clearing solution I can come up with but tidying is easier.... Simply start a textiles degree and take on a module that relies heavily on digital design work... sit down turn on computer.. bring up Adobe Illustrator.. go do the washing up.. sit back down and bring up pinterest for ideas, wash floor... sit down work out how to bring up right size blank art board.. go upstairs to find print out help sheets.. clean bathroom.. change beds ..put washing on .. hoover Some people call it procrastination, eventually I run out of chores and have to apply myself to the task in hand, so armed with help sheets, you tube tutorials phone numbers for the ultimate panic moment I reluctantly address my technophobia! And surprisingly once I do actually get stuck its not too bad.  I have decided to treat the whole affair like a game - I must produce 16 boards using Ad...

Collecting drawings for next project -potential hare sketches, all quick graphite, pencil and fine liner taken from photographs... most impressive thing a bout this is I used photoshop to cut, paste and group them.

The sea at high tide down by Amble pier this afternoon... the waves were amazing and the paths around the little shore and the pier were all - quite sensibly closed. The picture is taken from the side of the gates to Cliff House so we were quite high up. This wasn't the biggest wave we saw - some waves battered the bedroom window you can see.  It was wild and very cold but very impressive.  I do hope no one had to be out at sea today. We've been down the harbour a few times when the sea has been wild but this is the highest and wildest I've ever seen it.  The waves were crashing over the breakwater and the wrecks in the harbour were practically submerged.  One or two waves were so high we got wet where we were standing, at that point it seemed a good idea to come home and get warm. Was good to come back to a roaring fire and a warm cuppa.

Slowly (very slowly)I am coming to terms with the technology world...but its simple things like putting the blog on my tablet and then being able to find it again and then even simpler stuff like making the space bar work every time so all the words arent joined up...... Why does the app on my tablet have to be different to my computer..I cant edit this so well and putting photos on is a nightmare... any suggestions or help much appreciated. This is test blog from my tablet (If you want havent guessed already) now to try and add a picture ... I think this about sums it up my whole trial by tablet. I have now managed to disable the app and load up the computer version which has made the whole thing a lot easier. Goodness me I'm quite brilliant!!! Every thing I try to do is only working by trial and error and when it is sucsessful I've no idea why it happened or how to repeat it.  I'm much better at interpretive dance even dressed as a squirrel.  I've just ad...

Well we all love little boxes and that's one of the best side effects of christmas.. that wonderful opportunity to amass more lovely sweetie tins and biscuit tins.  Sometimes there are so many I feel I can be quite blase about the less attractive ones.. cheaper versions having housed inferior sweets or lower quality biscuits and pop them in the shed to be used in an emergency.  We once used one to bury a dead mouse in!!! Once the choice tins are assembled then its great fun to find interesting things to go in them.  Occasionally I discard lesser boxes and transfer contents to an upgraded affair but usually I look for a new collection or split an existing collection into smaller categories. This year I had a bonanza box extravaganza... an absolute delight - not only the usual obligatory biscuit tins but giftie type boxes as well.  First the lovely gift of a fabulous map festooned travel keepsake box.. perfect proportions for all those bits and pieces, souve...

A week of tieing up the loose ends of the Skills for Making project.  Mounting the final pieces takes for ever, sewing them onto card and trying to get them in the right place, straight and looking professional, I've never been a good finisher!!  The annotations take quite a bit of sorting out too - how not to ramble but make sure relevant material is included... I think this project has been the most challenging I've done so far as it took me so long to find my way with it.  Nothing really flowed and it was beset with various problems from the start. I expected to be pleased to see the back of it but in fact I'm just starting to see its potential - opportunities which will be applied to the next module hopefully.  I do wish I had a couple more prints though as I'd quite like to try some applique and a few ideas that have popped up! C'est la vie... next time maybe. Four boards mounted, a technical folder stuffed full of experiments and ideas, and accompa...

One year on I mark the anniversary of David bowies demise ....  So many faces, so much talent.... Apparently Bowie just wanted to be remembered for his hair cuts!!!!

pink with silver foil and beaded detail on cotton Its my hand day for the Skills for Making module next week, and as usual I am just starting to feel the love for it and ideas are starting to emerge for making it work!!! Its been quite a 'problem solving' module with all sorts of different challenges throw up. To start with I didn't quite get the drawing selection right - but nothing ventured nothing gained - this time it didn't quite work - I loved all the drawings independently but  not so much together.  But.... having selected them I persevered and then found the scanner wouldn't scan them 'squarely' for want of a term - next time I'll just use photoshop from the outset but I really wanted this to be a more 'organic ' experience ( not that I'm scared of photoshop haha ). This little hiccup meant the layers didn't sit properly and while it was frustrating it did give me the chance to experiment with different placings and  I did le...

Bring on 2017... new adventures, new challenges - We saw the new year in with a couple of friends, fizzy wine, tunes, laser disco lights and aliens stuck to the ceiling - yep one of those nights!  New years day brought a slower day watching Hitchcock films and Sherlock and finishing up Christmas chocolate and today a long walk by the sea, which was quite wild with enormous waves breaking right out to sea.  I was disappointed to see Amble pier had been set on fire - hardly a Brighton Pier experience but a shame to see that some was either daft enough or wanton enough to cause such sorry damage!  I hope the culprits are brought to justice. The festive season is over, the tree is down and cards packed away - and life is returning to normal. I've got some college work to catch up on we start back this week and this module is to hand in in a couple of weeks and I'm not quite sure where is going.  I've not quite got to grips with it, something just hasn't gelled from the...