Music and Machines

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend has got off to a great start. We've got a bit of 

sunshine today, although it's rather chill, so that's something.

Today I am sharing an A4 a mixed media piece using vintage

music paper sewn onto canvas. I dyed the paper and the canvas

with my home-made vintage brown ink, and kept it to

a sepia /neutrals colour scheme. The lovely quote is from

Picasso. I am linking to Yvonne's 'colour in my world' theme

at Art Journal Journey

Here are the last photos taken in Duisburg at the sandcastle.

I will be visiting again on Tuesday to get a last look before

they start to demolish it at the end of next week. Here you can see

the crane which they worked from:

I love the mix of old industrial buildings:

There is a 'beach' next to the sandcastle where kids can get

inspired to make their own:

 A feeling we all know -no comment necessary!

An old turbine house:

The souvenir shop is in the old fuse room:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

More of the Sandcastle

Hi Everybody!

Another week is flying by really quickly and it's Friday

already, which means it's time for Paint Party Friday.

I am also linking to Yvonne's 'colour in my world' theme

at Art Journal Journey

Today I am sharing an A3 mixed media piece made 2 weeks

 back, using another of my doll faces - I made 3 altogether,

so there's still  another one to come. This time I gave her sewed arms 

and legs, made from pieces cut from an old blouse, and clothes

made from scraps. The background was painted, collaged, stamped

 and stenciled. 

The quote is from Baz Luhrmann:

She started out like this:

And the rest was sewed on:

 Here are some detail shots from the giant sandcastle - if you missed

yesterday's post you can read all about it here

The damage you can see at some spots was caused by some

rowdies who broke into the site at night and tried to climb up

the castle. The sand sometimes seems to be different colours, which 

was caused by the sun shining or hiding behind clouds:

By the way, my Tuesday postcards this week were won by Eileen

and Lisa. Eileen, please contact me with your snail-mail addy!

I will show the rest of the photos tomorrow!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Building sandcastles

Hi Everybody!

Today I have another mixed media piece to share, using an

altered photo of Miriam as a baby. She had been lounging on the
couch, watching me sew.....I digitally altered the photo to make

it grainy, and then added some soft colour to her. Then it was 

sewn onto various substrates, using different textiles. To finish it off

 I added a piece of pink netting to make a nice contrast to

the neutral tones. I am linking to Yvonne's lovely challenge of 'colour 

in my world' at Art Journal Journey 

and to Paint Party Friday hosted by Eva and Kristin:

After visiting Neuss on Sunday we fortified ourselves with

plenty of cake and coffee and then sent off for Duisburg,

another neighbouring town. A group of people there recently made

the Guinness Book of records with a 17 metres high sandcastle.

I had watched it's progress on the news here, but wanted to

see it 'live'. It's in the middle of a wonderful 

industrial park, where you can see the giant machines used in the 

manufacture of iron and steel, and that was an even greater

highlight for me. I will definitely be visiting here again when I

have more time and energy:

The track back to nature:

And then we got out first view of the magnificent pyramid-castle:

Here you can see the progress shots:

More photos to follow next post - watch this space!