Ring out, wild bells

Hi Everybody!

Happy New Year  2017.

We are starting a new challenge for the new year at

Art Journal Journey

and this month the wonderful

ERIKA

is our host. She has chosen the theme

'Every Journal page tells a story', and writes:

*My AJJ theme is a twist on a phrase that we say in the US (not sure about other places, so whether this is a universal phrase or not, I don't know). The saying is "Every picture tells a story" and I am switching it up to  "Every journal page tells a story".  I think we  tell stories all the time, whether we talk about books we've read, movies we've watched, or told someone about an adventure we've had during our day, Our stories come from our past and things we find interesting in our present. Sometimes we even tell stories about our dreams for the future. We describe people we know, those we wish we could meet  or maybe  have just met.  Our stories are often non-fiction, but they can be fiction too. So this month I want to "see" your stories and hopefully get to read a little bit about them too.*

My first page for this theme is a hybrid page, using  a part of

Tennyson's wonderful poem

'Ring out wild bells', which is about the new year:

And now for the story. Last week I actually dusted off some of my 

books - I say some, as I have a lot, too many to dust at 

one time. As I picked up this one  I thought about

my Auntie Clara, a wonderful old lady,

who gave it to me in 1964, more than fifty years ago.

It opened at this page, and thus the idea

for my journal page was born. There is even a little

Bible verse in it, which she probably got

at Sunday school  as a child.

She was an educated, kind and caring lady, and  also my God-mother,

and sent presents every single birthday as 

long as she lived. She had no children of her own,

but a huge family of  God-children.

I spent a week every summer at her house in the country, 

which I much enjoyed. She wrote a dedication in each 

and every book she gave me, and several of my 

glass treasures were also from her.

This was evidently a prize she got at school in 1914,

and is one of my special treasures:

These ducks/geese were given to me by an ex neighbour,

I do not much like them, and they sit on top of the

bookcase in the hall, and look down on people:

I just hope they don't fall on my head one of these days!

These vases are all blown  glass from Bohemia crystal

in the Czech Republic.  They are all etched with pictures of birds, plants or fish.

These lilac ones change colour and look blue in electric light, 

they have a certain mineral in them, 

but I've forgotten what it is! And they are very heavy.

Ha! I just had a light bulb moment and remembered

that it's Alexandrite glass!

!

This is another piece from the 70s:

The glasses from the 1930s belonged to my great 

Auntie Fanny, another very dear person:

These are from the beginning of the 20th century:

 1930's again. This colour was evidently much liked!

These are more space age pieces:

I will put more photos up when I have taken them!

Have a great day - week - month - year!

Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Last page for light and darkness

Hi everybody!

This is my last post for this year, so I hope you all enjoy 

New Year's Eve and have a great

2017.

For Art Journal Journey, light and darkness,

and Paint Party Friday

I have another hybrid piece. Thanks to Eva and Kristin for 

hosting the party every week. I used some designer paper for the background, which I panted over with splodges and dabs. Then I melded it digitally, using a mask (Serif) with a photo of a decaying tree stump 

covered in spiders' webs. I added the photo of the statue, 

and a face drawing I made, I just altered the colours.

I have not made my usual collage of all the pieces I made in 

the month, as this month was a very hard one for me, and I don't want

to think about it again:

Today I am sharing some glass from the glass museum, 

they have such a treasure trove of antique glass there:

Have a great day, and a good start in the New Year.

Thanks a lot for coming by!

The sky disc of Nebra

Hi Everybody!

Our challenge, light and darkness, at 

Art Journal Journey is drawing to an end - thanks 

to all who entered in spite of holiday preparations

and general stress.

I have a hybrid piece today, showing the Nebra sky disc - 

an ancient disc made of bronze and gold, and the oldest depiction
of the cosmos, dating back to 1600 BC.

It was found in Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, by treasure

hunters, and after being illegally sold several times

for astronomical prices  it was brought into state property after

a night time raid on dealers who were about to sell it again.

You can read more details here

The background was painted with black gesso, the stars are from 

Mischief circus and the image courtesy of Wikipedia. I am
also linking to Paint Party Friday:

This morning we had a wonderful sky with the pale yellow

sun rising through the clouds:

Ad now for some more of my glass, hope you  

 are not all bored to tears by now.

First some small pieces; the largest one at the back is about 3" high.

I made these,  too, at the glass blowing course, 

and as you can see I did not get them straight:

This is an antique jug that my husband bought for me many years ago -

I love the patina:

This little flask is made of glass which is made to look like

stone, and is called stone glass:

This vase is very tiny, less than 2 inches tall and made of very thin 

speckled glass, and was also a present from my husband:

One of my visitors asked if I still had my first bird -

yes, here it is:

These are elegant cut glass vases, but not really my faves:

This speckled and very thick glass vase is from the

1970s, they made a lot of cool stuff:

This was another wedding present, and again, not really a fave:

More wedding presents, and we got 24 of each sort.

Also not my faves! 

These tea glasses were a present from a Turkish student,

and I love the colour:

More small pieces:

And more vases from the 70s again, rather huge, and standing on

the top of the book shelf, which explains the strange angle:

This is a fun piece with nice colours:

There's still more to come, but not today!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!