A happy accident

Isn't it great when the bit you are going to discard turns out to be the most interesting? I was doing some lino cutting yesterday of a bird and couldn't decide at first if I wanted just the bird or a box around it. Having left the box I did decide I preferred the bird on its own and cut of the extra bits, one of which was a triangle. And that's the bit that has become more interesting and playful.

 Here's the bird, a lovely little thing in itself, standing 4cm tall.

 And here's a card I made with the triangle off-cut that was going to be thrown away. Very happy with these!

Japanese knot bag

I made a Japanese knot bag today! I didn't know that was what it was called before I googled it. My friend has a knitted bag (which she keeps her knitting in) and it has one long handle and one short handle. To close it you thread the long handle through the short one. I wanted to make one for a while although I wasn't too sure how to go about it, but I had the time this afternoon so I googled it. And there it was! Exactly what I wanted. A pretty simple pattern and easy to work out.

The front panel with the buttons was from a dress and that was already constructed so it was pretty easy to put together. 

This is the back fabric which is some very cute retro thread bobbins. And you can just see the inside pocket peeping out in the spotty fabric.

Printed cards

With my recently purchased printing set of letters I have been having a lot of fun. Today I printed out quotations from some of my poems which will decorate cards. And here's what happened. Still struggling to get the letters evenly spaced as some of them are not central to their wooden handles, but I like the quirkiness of them, almost childlike. The full versions of the poems are on my other blog, Mindful Living http://lauribower.blogspot.co.uk/

calligraphy poems

In Plum Village in June I wrote a lot of poems. The Family group that I was with had the job of looking after and replenishing the tea table. When everyone from the other 2 hamlets came to us for the Dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh we had to make lots of extra teas to provide for them. My friend suggested I write out some of the poems and she would decorate them, so here are the results.

I've been away

I'm aware I've not had time to post on here for a while. I was away for 3 weeks of June on a retreat at Plum Village in France, which was absolutely amazing and wonderful! I wrote a lot of poetry then (see my other blog Mindful Living http://lauribower.blogspot.co.uk/)
but haven't done anything creative for a while as my Ph.D. and its completion is forefront at the moment. Tomorrow I'm off to Glos to co-lead a Mindfulness and Poetry retreat which will be great fun and then the next few weeks will be Ph.D. focussed but after that ... free time for some fun and creativity!!
So I'll share this with you for now, a little boat I made out of a magnolia petal and leaf, and the poem that accompanies it.

I made a sailboat for you
from a beautiful cupped petal
large enough to be the whole hull.
I formed the sail and mast
from a leaf and a stick,
the passengers were pebbles,
a coin and screwed-up silver foil.
My skills in sailboat making
are limited to say the least.
Attaching the mast to the hull
created a hole through which
water quickly floods.
I made a beautiful sailboat for you
to sail off in your imagination
far across the lotus pond
towards the sunset
to discover new, unchartered lands.
But this sailboat is for dry dock only.
© 4 June 2014

more lino printing

Over this bank holiday weekend the family (mainly my sister, daughter and niece) and I have had another play at lino printing. It started with a birdy birthday card idea and all took off from there. 

 here are several different leaves

 and a collection of the lino cuts we have been making this weekend.

 

I think this feather is my personal favourite so far, especially using 2 different colours for printing.

 my sister has done quite a bit of printing onto book pages. I find it difficult to take pages out of books (even ones bought from a charity shop for that purpose) so I photocopied the page for this print.

 it was a very opportune moment that my daughter was sorting out her room and wanted to throw away some sheet music paper, which gave me the idea for this print.

and finally my favourite quote, from my favourite person, Thich Nhat Hanh.

So now we're all ready for lots of lovely card-making. And having the letters to print as well makes me very happy. Great fun!

Why not fail joyfully?

Thought for the day - we talk about failing miserably, but why not fail joyfully? Why not rejoice in the mistakes that we make, that we learn from? Life would be dull indeed if occasionally we didn't have the opportunity to laugh uncontrollably at our own foolishness, short-comings, and falling flat on our faces! Let's celebrate those 'mistakes' that make us who we are :)