Just a random extra post:
And don’t forget, you can leave your link multiple times!!
Gordon Pembridge
An avid outdoorsman, artist Gordon Pembridge has had the good fortune to be surrounded for most of his life by the very best of nature. After spending the first ten years of his life in Kenya, he and his family transplanted to New Zealand, and the abundant life found in those two countries have served as his inspiration ever since. Pembridge begins with a block of wood taken from a storm-felled tree. The block is turned on a lathe until he’s achieved the right shape. Once the vessel is finished and dried, he draws his designs directly onto the wood, then hand carves and meticulously paints the vessels until they seem to be teeming with life. You can see photos of his process here.
Pembridge has an incredible talent for layering plants and creatures, and I’m hopelessly in love his with lush-looking vessels. This is one artist I’m definitely going to be checking in with regularly. Can’t wait to see what he does next!
Now, here’s a little music to listen to while you ogle Pembridge’s amazing work. Enjoy!
All images property of Gordon Pembridge.
I like the lines in these works. Click on “Beck Tait” to see what else this artist creates.
Illustrator, designer, maker
![symbols invert[1]](https://becktait.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/symbols-invert1.jpg?w=840)
a half truth is a whole lie.
I love the look on the cat’s face. The pattern for the catnip balls is on Cilla Stitches blog. Just click on “Crochet Catnip Balls”. Your cat will thank you.
This my most popular creation yet. Well, in a cat’s opinion. I can’t even finish these toys before my cat is trying to play with it. I have to hide the balls that I make to sell because my cat would try to play with all of them. Every cat I give them to goes crazy for these. The instructions are so simple, and quick to memorize. The balls themselves are very fast to make.
I’ve been following this blog for a while. I really like this artist’s paintings. This one in particular is just stunning.
Happy
I love the idea of making mermaid tails! Wonder if I could find and adult size pattern….
It’s been a while since I did a WIP Wednesday but thought I’d share what I’m working on as even though they aren’t for me they aren’t finished yet either so it shouldn’t ruin any surprises (and the chances of the recipients seeing them are very slim, the chances of them actually knowing what they are is even smaller!
A friend asked me to make mermaid tails for her girls, the spec was ‘pink, purple and sparkly’. Ice Yarns magic glitz was the yarn of choice as it comes in both pink and purple. One tail is going to be purple with pink tail and the other will be the reverse, taking advantage of the fact the yarn comes in 400g packs and each tail uses around 350g. The only problem with it is that the metallic thread is a little rough on the tensioning finger, which can begin to feel uncomfortable after an extended period of crocheting.
This is the first mermaid tail, before sewing. I wanted to check the colours were OK together before going ahead, because when I sew the tail on I really mean it-it is never meant to be removed! Luckily my friend really liked it, so all I have to do is located my favourite sewing needle. (I know that sounds odd but it is gold plated and the eye is the perfect size for double knit yarn. I have a feeling I might need to go shopping for a new set!)
Here is the start of the second mermaid tail which I began working on last night. I’m having a little rest from crochet for a while this evening as I had the flu jab and my arm is a bit sore and uncomfortable. Normal service will resume tomorrow, I’m sure.
What are you working on right now? Knitting, crochet, any other craft at all, I’d love to know.
I am linking this post to Wool on Sundays with the lovely Janine at Rainbow Hare.
Home is where our dogs are. Well, in my case, it’s where my dogs and cat are.
Once again it’s time for Linda Hill’s #SoCS challenge
The word for today is “yes.”
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“Yes, I have 5 dogs,” I said to the woman laughing at the faces peering out at her from the partly rolled-down windows of my 24 year old station wagon.
“Your car needs a paint job,” she said.
“You didn’t ask me the right question,” I said with a wry smile.
She gave me a smirk, asking, “…and what would that question be?”
“Do I care,” I said. “The answer is no.”
She huffed out her disapproval and scurried away.
“The more I ‘m around people, the more I like my dogs,” I said to the Rottie Mutt.
“Hey, lady!” A man wider than he was tall yelled. “Are you a crazy cat lady, too?”
“Only if you call being owned by 2 cats a herd,” I said. “I’ll introduce you to my husband when he comes out of the store. He had 40 cats when he moved in with me. Why don’t you ask him if he’s a crazy cat man.”
“Is that him, the guy with the white beard and hat?”
“The one scowling at you?” I asked with a chuckle. “Yes.”
“Damned uneducated rednecks,” He mumbled.
“If you call a woman with a a B.S. in psychology and a retired chiropractor uneducated, I want to know what you consider an education.”
“Are you s#!ting me!”
“My laxative is about to work. Lay down on the ground and I’ll do just that.”
“You’re disgusting!” He yelled. “Did you take a bath this week?”
“You’re fat,” I said. “It’s going to take more than a bath to solve your problem.”
He stomped away, or should I say “waddled”, unwilling to ask my husband if he was a crazy cat man. Hubby handed me 4 dozen eggs he’d just purchased from Dollar General and asked, “Problem?”
“No,” I said. “You?”
“Yes. I saw two of my former patients. If there’s one thing I hate it’s being stuck in line and having to listen to people ask for advice I can’t legally give them.”
“I don’t have that problem with my former clients,” I said. “They generally don’t ask me for advice while we’re standing in line.”
We drove the few miles to our concrete block house in the country, watching our dogs climb out of the car once we’d parked inside the fence. Tails high, they rushed through the dog door to jockey for position on my bed.
“I don’t care if we have an old car and live in a dog house,” I said to my husband. “Home is where our dogs are.”
“Yes,” he said, as content to be home as I.
I think Yana says it very well here. The last paragraph just says it all.
In the majority of scientific techniques, the word “background” has a very negative connotation. It usually implies that your detection method picked up something else besides the specific signal you were looking for. People even go as far as calling their images “dirty”. In microscopy, that non-specific “noise” usually appears in the form of either randomly scattered bright pixels, or as a general haze of autofluorescence all around your cells. In contrast, high quality images usually have a very clean, black background, that when printed has a glossy feel to it. To capture this quality, I use shiny black satin as the backdrop for NeuroBead renderings. It gives the piece a clean and crisp look that allows the cells to really pop forward.
In my daily life there is also a lot of background noise. I have two daughters who have an unlimited amount of energy. It does not take much for them to put me out of focus and make me feel scatterbrained. But when I find some time to sit down a make my artwork, I can zoom in with a laser like focus and find myself in a state of “flow” as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Last night, I was talking to someone on the phone, and the topic of NeuroBead came up. The conversation suddenly took a sharp turn and a series of questions was fired at me.
“Why do you want/need to do this?”
“Don’t you have enough on your plate already?”
“As it is you barely find any free time. How will you manage?”
I think there is a logical order to these well-meaning questions. First comes the “why” and if the reason is good enough, the “hows” will fall into place. For me, it is because the creative process allows me to concentrate on my inner world and at least temporarily drown out the background noise. It brings my life into focus.
Check out this growth cone here!
Karen Lynne Creates 