The Etsy app

My sister has informed me that she now knows how often I add anything new in my shops... yes she's checking up on me to make sure I do as much work as I say I do.... she's got an app for her phone...

If you want an app to keep an eye on your favourite etsy shops all you have to do to get one is go here

You can read about it here.
I'm still in the dark ages.
I just have a phone to make calls.

Ocean Loving Bookworm...

Did you know that "bookworm" in Finnish is "kirjatoukka"? or that in French it is "rat de biblioteque" ie library rat? Well now you do... It's written here on an old dictionary page that includes the  french/english translation

And did you know "merisielu" in Finnish translates as "ocean soul"... someone who has a deep affinity for the sea & is at home there. The french/english translation for 'ocean' is on this page. I like the idea of there being a word on the printed page that relates to what I may write.

I get led on some fascinating journeys of discovery as I follow clues in the requests I get. As I double checked the definitions I'd been given I found these lyrics... 

Merisielu

Yksi yö lisää

Sietää tämä painajainen

Mitä muuta minun täytyy sanoa

Itku vuokseni ei koskaan ollu kyyneleen arvoinen

Yksinäinen sieluni on ainoastaa pelolla täytetty

Pitkät tunnit yksinäisyyden

Välissä minun ja meren

Tunteen kadotus

Antaumuksen löytäminen

Tulisiko minun puketua valkoiseen ja etsiä merta

Kuten olen aina toivonut - Yhtä aaltojen kanssa

Merisielu

Kulkien vuorovesilinjaa

Kuulen nimesi

Enkelitkö kuiskailevat

Jotain niin kaunista joka satuttaa

Toivoin ainoastaan tulevani joksikin kauniiksi

Lävitse musiikkini, lävitse hiljaisen antaumukseni.

Ocean Soul

One more night

To bear this nightmare

What more do I have to say

Crying for me was never worth a tear

My lonely soul is only filled with fear

Long hours of loneliness

Between me and the sea

Losing emotion

Finding devotion

Should I dress in white and search the sea

As I always wished to be - one with the waves

Ocean Soul

Walking the tideline

I hear your name

Is angels wispering

Something so beautiful it hurts

I only wished to become something beautiful

Through my music, through my silent devotion

One day I will just have to do a full piece with these.... especially after reading more about Tuomas Holopainen who wrote them...

~ tuomas holopainen ~ 

sorry for that little distraction *sigh*

back to book pages...

The first drafts were with watercolour: I like the muted tones with my photograph of old book spines... I think it conjures up the image of an old library or study, walls lined with bookshelves...& the unique scent as you turn ancient pages...

I was just looking back at the title & thought..

 Ocean loving bookworm, gsoh, wltm... 

there's my lonely hearts ad started if I ever need one!

How would your ad go?

What's The Life Of A Man?

What sort of gift do you give to someone recently bereaved? Well, it does depend how well you know them, but after hugs, poetry & songs are high on the list. It takes some thought to know or to find those words that are meaningful to a particular person and I think that it is that thought rather than the means of presentation that can be so much appreciated. Obviously presentation is a part of it, and I can help with that bit, but the sentiment... the feeling... the love, that is behind a gift such as this that really makes it special.

R chose words from a version of a traditional folk song that was both meaningful & a favourite. She had an idea of greens, some leaves and a bit of copper & was happy for me to decide what would look best. 

What's the Life of a Man?

As I was a walking one morning at ease

A viewing the leaves as they fell from the trees

All in slow motion appearing to be

And those that had withered, they fell from the trees

What's the life of a man anymore than the leaves

A man has his season, so why should we grieve

Though all thru this life, we appear fine and gay

Like the leaves we will wither and soon fade away

If you'd seen the leaves just a few days ago

So beautiful and bright they all seemed to grow

A frost came upon them and withered them all

A storm came upon them and down they did fall

If you look in the churchyard, there you will see

Those that have passed like the leaves from the trees

When age and affliction upon us do fall

Like the leaves we must wither and down we must fall

After a few false starts, I eventually decided on muted shades of green watercolour for the calligraphy... various tones reflecting the changing hues we see in nature... with embossed leaves falling down one side & settling across the bottom. One sycamore leaf was covered with copper... almost like a full stop, marking the end of one man's life here on earth.

this piece is available here

I tried another layout too... this time with leaves mainly across the bottom & a few at either side... in this version, 2 of the leaves are enhanced with copper. To me this represents two people... it could be two people who have passed on, or the link between two people, one living, one gone...

The technique I used for the leaves is called 'dry embossing'. Outlines of several different leaf types were drawn on card & cut out with a scalpel... I then used an embossing tool, pressing the paper through from the back of the calligraphy into the cut out shapes. When the paper is turned back over, the leaves are raised, forming a lovely subtle pattern. I love the textures that arose on both pieces...

Embossing is so subtle... minimal... white leaves embossed into white paper.... that seem to shift slightly throughout the day as light plays across the surface.... like i said, subtle.... the translucent tones of the watercolour change almost imperceptibly throughout the lettering.... and the copper leaves catch the light differently as well, so this becomes a living, subtly changing piece of work....

Forever Young Revisited

When I was doing the latest Forever Young canvas (back here) I dug out some old photos of a version I did years ago.... 1999 I think. Rolling back the years or what??!! This was for  21st birthday present and it had to be on black, which is always awkward to photograph.

This was on calico stretched over a wooden frame.... a blend of blues verging towards black with blues & purples for the calligraphy.... patches of gold leaf with lettering scratched into them... I really like working on fabric... the colour blends in a totally different way compared to on the bought ready stretched & sized canvasses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been a while.... a rush of December orders.... dearest beloved at home for a month over Christmas... just got totally out of the habit again!

Captain Corelli in Purple!

This was to be an anniversary scroll, using a reading from the wedding....

You can see from these two photographs how difficult it can be to match a colour from a picture. I had a photograph of a lovely bride wearing what she called 'mauve'.... which was a different tone from what I would call mauve. And so I used a variety of shades in the decoration of this piece... little pastel squares drifting over the page.... 

It is to be framed in a 12 x 12 inch frame, but we weren't sure whether the ribbon would be included inside the frame or not.... so, I left extra space at the top allowing the scroll to be trimmed from either top or bottom (or both) to fit.

If you would like to commission an original version for yourself just get in touch> suziscribbles at yahoo.co.uk, or take a look in my etsy shop where I also have some prints available> here

Cloths of Heaven

 Canvas size: 10 x 12 x 1.75 inches / 25 x 30 x 3 cm

The Cloths of Heaven by WB Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

available to purchase in here the shop

I've used gold gouache for the lettering with splashes of gold & silver powder & paint. Aluminium leaf, 22ct gold leaf, & metal leaf form a textural strip of 'cloth'. The layered dark blues form a midnight blue backdrop.

Dreams... Wishes... Angels

I did these three 8x8 inch canvasses at the same time as the 'Forever Young' canvas...

dreams

chase those dreams, catch that star,

 always believe in who you truly are

wishes

there comes a time to act upon your dreams and

turn those wishes into reality

angels

guide you every day

may they always inspire you in every way

they can be found in my suziscribbles shop on etsy

Forever Young

It's funny, but whenever someone asks for 'Forever Young' by Bob Dylan, 

they always want it on black! Great for a 21st birthday present, but for a new baby? Well... it makes more sense to give something that will grow with them!

Turquoise-y blues & greens stand out wonderfully on the black canvas.... I really liked the shadow cast by the cling film! Scrunched up cling film laid onto wet acrylic randomly daubed across the canvas create amazing patterns. It works with watercolour on paper too... 

and you can manipulate the film & squish it around a bit to help blend the colours. 

Look at the textures! I've even heard of someone 'injecting' colour into the folds 

to add more colour to the veins in the patterns.

Flashes of silver add a little more light & excitement.... hmmm, on this photo the blue looks a bit patchy, but it was more blended in real life!

What a difference a frame makes...

I went to collect a framed piece of work for a customer recently, only to discover it wasn't what I had asked for. It looked ok, but was not something I would choose.... it might fit a certain style of decor, but it was just too heavy for the piece.  Besides which, I wanted to cover the mount & the proportions were just wrong for me.

I know the paper looks a different shade, but this is the same piece in the frame I wanted.... much more suitable for a modern home with a natural look. Picture framers tend to leave a similar amount of space all around, but when the text forms a long, narrow block, I want to preserve that shape. To do so, there needs to be more space left at the sides, with the top & bottom much closer to the mount than expected.... in this way the mounted piece is still long & narrow. The top pic is veering much more towards square.

The colour of the mount (or matt in the US) makes such a difference too & can limit the frame choice. I often use walnut ink and for many people the natural choice is to go for a sepia or dark brown mount... but that doesn't necessarily suit many frames. I much prefer to cover it with the same paper that I have written on.

People often don't know what I mean when I say that a covered mount would be an idea & find it hard to visualise. As well as complimenting the calligraphy, it suits a wider range of frames.

Audacht Morainn ~ in progress

I've attempted this canvas several times & never got very far with it... although things looked great on the prep work I just couldn't make myself proceed further... it just didn't feel right. I was waking up on a morning with ideas of what to do, but still couldn't progress. Usually that's a sign that I'm on the wrong track, but, as I never received a deposit I was thinking it was maybe down to my customer changing his mind. Even so, I decided i wanted to work with these words... if he pays great, if not, I won't add the personalised details.

 Is tre ḟir flathemon rosaig cech dán mochtide mind suíthi.  

It is through the justice of the father that each great man of art 

attains the summit of his knowledge.  

Then one day last week I painted the whole thing out & started again with this dark blue background. There is still a good bit more to add, but it suddenly feels good & I wonder why I never did this to begin with! How many hours of staring & trying different ideas, lol??!!  Isn't it strange how the Muse strikes & the Awen flows...

Toléci dorche do ṡorchi. 
Toléci brón do ḟáilti. 
Toléci borb do ecnu.  
Toléci dóer do ṡóer. 
Toléci dochell do chlothaib.   
Toléci anflaith do ḟírḟlaith. 
Toléci debuith do chóri. 
Toléci gó do ḟír.  

Darkness yields to light, 
Sorrow yields to joy. 
Ignorance yields to wisdom, 
Slavery yields to freedom. 
Selfishness yields to generosity,   
Anarchy yields to order, 
Conflict yields to peace, 
What is false yields to truth.  

The Audacht Morainn is an old Irish text, giving advice to a king, but here it has been adapted to 'father' to suit the recipient. 'Fraid you're not seeing anymore til i'm finished tho!!

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??A leap of consciousness??  i often wipe the tops of paint tubes & frequently use a scalpel to scrape away a build up of dried paint... I've warmed tubes of paint up in hot water when the cap won't undo.... so why have i never thought of just dipping the crusted paint tube into some water to dissolve it when the cap won't go back on properly??  is it because i just like using sharp knives rather than cleaning the tube every time i use it or do i just need help, lol? Why does the obvious seem to be so bloody elusive? Please tell me i'm not he only one that suffers!