Hello friends,
This post is later than planned as I was not able to finish my page last night for reasons which I will explain. Today is cold – ZERO DEGREES – and white with frost! Where did that come from? Worse news is that the heating broke down again and we have fumes and carbon monoxide again so all the windows are open to air out the house and get rid of the fumes! Fun times! Today is also Day 4 of Art Every Day Month and I am glad that I have been able to finish this piece before my fingers dropped off from cold lol. Not sure what will happen tomorrow after another day and night of no heating and frosty weather but hopefully I will be able to think of something, meanwhile…
today’s journal page . . .
Today’s journal page is the result of me thinking about a couple of different challenges and then realising last night that the elements on the page could possibly work for all of them! The maple leaves around the page are from my tree in the garden, I picked them the other day before the wind blew them all away.
This is an idealised version of my art table and what I see in front of me when I sit at it in the studio. The reality is of course a lot messier, but everything in the photo exists, just tweaked slightly, or relocated to squeeze them into view. The walls are not pink, in fact the wallpaper is half ripped off the walls as we are redecorating. The curtains are really that colour and the window is right in front of my table, and yes there is usually a cat sitting there. There is not a big I <3 Mixed Media poster on the wall, but I have a sticker on my table that looks just like that, so a little artistic license has been applied here. There is a white board with weekly markings but it’s behind me instead of in front, but it adds interest to the wall here.
In this photo, left to right, you can see my Stazon ink pad and date stamp, a vase of faux lavender, a bamboo stationery organiser with rulers, t-ruler, scissors, a big blue brush, a bunch of folders, a mug with purple thistles on it containing my tea, a Pritt stick, a big handmade candle in a glass jar, a shoe box lid that I throw pens, pencils, paintbrushes etc into, to stop them rolling off the table, my wooden desk calendar, my jewellery anvils, more paintbrushes, a yin yang ceramic paint palette, and my green cutting mat.
Following on from the photo above, a red container full of Pitt artist pens, a blue ceramic bowl full of bulldog clips, some washi tape rolls, a pen, some Liquitex gold acrylic ink in a bottle, and a pewter clock at the back, next to the lamp. The clock, the desk calendar and the quote are for the current challenge over on Try it on Tuesday where the theme is It’s all about Time. The text on the photo is a little blurry, shaky hands I guess. The quote reads…
Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new ~ Paracelcus
At the far end of my table, there is another bottle of Liquitex ink, a white one next to the gold bottle, some jewellery pliers, a vignette box where I keep my Neocolour IIs, and a big antique canteen of cutlery box that I use to store my calligraphy supplies – it has a lid on the top and a drawer at the bottom. Over on the shelves is my beloved sewing machine, though in reality it doesn’t live there, but I wanted it on the page – it’s an antique too lol. There are also shelves of various things, books, magazines, paper etc.
I used watercolour pencils, paint pens and Pitt artist brush pens to create this page.
As the window is directly in front of my table I get to see all kinds of weather happening, and the cats like to sit there and look out over the garden. At this time of the year, there’s a lot of wind and rain usually, and so I drew (badly) my maple tree with its leaves blowing in the wind – those grey swirly lines are supposed to represent wind lol. This windswept window view and the quote are for Chris’s theme of All Kinds of Weather, over on Art Journal Journey.
This particular maple is called Bloodgood, and for most of the year the leaves are a dark purpley brown, but at this time of the year they turn a bright scarlet red – but not for long due to all the strong winds. I had to run outside the other day and quickly take a photo before the wind blew all the leaves off the tree.
As you can see, there are already a lot more leaves on the ground than there are left on the tree.
thursday art date with rain . . .
The theme of today’s Art Date is The Workshop, and I really thought I would have to give this one a miss, until I came up with my drawing page above. Then today I remembered something I did at school a looonng time ago and have kept all this time, so I pulled that out of storage and took some photos, because it too is a workshop…
This was my idea of a perfect room as I used to love sewing and knitting and making things even back then in the dark ages. It’s very mixed media before mixed media was invented lol – fabrics, yarn, paper, magazines, ribbons, felt, pins, plant materials (I think, dried lavender, tea leaves and crushed rose petals), fridge magnet with a cat in a basket, glass perfume bottle, silk flowers, glue of course. The Laura Ashley type wallpaper is a piece of fabric (even then I was glueing fabric to cardboard!) fancy lace for the fancy cornicing and the carpet is made from wool felt. (I prefer glueing over gluing btw)
A sewing table made from matchboxes, drawer knobs made from pins, a sewing machine cut from a magazine,
A felt rug, a basket full of fabrics and ribbons,
Dried herbs and tea representing bushes seen through the window, a wicker chair cut from a magazine,
Faux flowers inside a tiny glass perfume bottle, sitting on a faux bookshelf,
Wicker chair from magazine with real stuffed cushion, the yarn on the floor is even wrapped around the paper chair leg!
More yarn and pins as knitting needles, a fridge magnet of a basket containing a kitten and a teddy bear,
So there we have it, two projects for TAD, one new, one very old lol.
Before I go, I just noticed that I won a Top 5 spot over on Try it on Tuesday for their Halloween challenge – thank you so much! I don’t have a sidebar but I do have a page where I record these things instead so my badge will go on there.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, watercolour pencils, Pitt artist brush pens, paint pens, black waterproof pen, white card, glue,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – All Kinds of Weather November Challenge
Try it on Tuesday – Time – 26th October Challenge
Art Every Day Month – Day 4 
Rain’s Thursday Art Date – November 4th – The Workshop
You might also like . . .
Hi Elle!!! How I adore your mixed media workshop…isn’t that the cutest thing!!! So much detail and thought, it’s so lovely!! And your sketch of your current workshop…rings so familiar to what I see except add a laptop to it and a few dogs by my feet lol!! One of these days I will draw my workshop…something I’m trying to teach myself is attention to detail lately. You definitely got that right!!! Oh, I hope by the time this comment reaches you that your heating is all sorted out. That’s one thing that worries me each winter, losing power and having no heat…I do have a wood stove though thankfully. And having to open windows too! eegad! Your Maple tree’s leaves are just gorgeous!!! ??
Congratulations on your “Top Five” place … I can understand why you would be selected as you always create beauty in many different ways. Always love your cats and yes in the window is the perfect spot for them. Your workshops are a work of art … Lovely post, Elle …
Andrea @ From the Sol
Love all the little details on your journal page.
I love how you moved tings around in your craft room for your drawing – the leaves on your table look as though they could have blown right in! I took lots of photos yesterday of leaves blown from the trees. This is a fabulous page for my theme at AJJ – Thank you! I love the sewn workshop too – I haven’t done much sewing for a while – just didn’t feel like it during lockdown, but got some things out the other day and will start next week – after my craft class here for the ladies who have been asking for ages when the next class is!!! I love Acers and you have one of my favourites.
Have a great weekend, Chrisx
Oh, boy, hope by now all is warm, cozy and fumes-free.
Love your drawing, especially the cat (of course) and the scissors.
The red leaves are soooo beautiful. And the sewing page, cute. So much love to detail.
Fabulous details on your art pages and I am so happy you have been able to join us at TioT’s as well as AJJ. Your desk looks so neat and tidy and I loved how you had the cat looking out onto the blowing leaves.
Have a good weekend.
Yvonne xx
I love the drawing of your amazing work shop and I love the fun school project you created which is a fabulous 3-D work shop. You and I love to sew, but I am not a seamstress like you. Your win at TioT is well deserved, dear.
Sweet workshop piece!
First of all (I’m going backwards) what a fun school project. You have so many details Elle. And it works so well in the same post as your journal drawing. I like the wind and the leaves and your studio space too. Thanks to linking to both AJJ and Try It On Tuesday. Have a great rest of your week. Hugs-Erika
This is a lovely post, I really like the workroom you created, its fun.