The Dodecahedron

Click on the image to enlarge.
Yesterday I dropped this piece into the Fernvale Futures Centre for their craft show.
It really is a gorgeous piece of work! Even if I do say so myself and the photos don't do it justice.
Next time I need to enter something and need something new, I might do another one. The hardest bit will be to decide on the theme: it has to be something that I can do 11 panels for. (Panel # 12 is the base and is just calico with the details written on.

It's french, french, french....

It really is an experiment: I am spending lots of time on the french study. Not only www.frenchpod.com , but there are so many other (free) sites to practice.
Phonetique voyelles is full of hearing exercises, you hear 2 words and you tick whether they are the same or different. You do not need to know what they mean, you just train you ear.
Mission Europe is a kind of game/story and it is set up by the EU, Languages Online is really fun too and importer - Dictionnaire Français-Anglais WordReference.com is a fantastic dictionary except it has an anti-animal-cruelty ad in the banner which I try to avoid having to look at because it upsets me.
RFI - Langue française - apprendre is a french radio station that has "learn french" sections.
I only spend minimal time trying to memorising lists of words or conjugations of verbs, it is all learning things in context. I find french songs: some in kids programs, others on youtube.
The experiment is to see how this kind of study will work out in practice.
My niece said to me: "Oh well, as long as you can understand what they say" but that is a lot harder than reading it, because of the rhythms of the speech and the "liasons" the way words are strung together.
Because there are so many different sites I can use, it does not get boring at all.
Of course, no drawing....

Pastels? Maybe not for me....

Friday's art class was disappointing. We had a choice of 2 still lives and acrylic or pastel. I chose pastel but I found I was totally out of my depth. I don't quite know where to go with pastels from here, what I need is a specific pastel course, like Deb's drawing course. Actually I did do a 3 hour class with Helen and that was good, but there don't seem to be other classes planned.

Ah well, I am busy with french lessons and I am having a go at making a coat for our dog Dorrie. When we are in Noumea, she will have to go into the kennel and sleep outside, right in the middle of winter! She hasn't got a thick coat and is used to sleep inside.

French lessons

Our 45th wedding annniversary is coming up and a reason for celebration! A family party is, at present, out of the question and a week ago hubby said "Why don't we go to Noumea for our wedding anniversary!" So now we've booked to go in a matter of weeks and I am frantically using online French lessons. I am using Frenchpod
Definitely a fun way to learn french and of course, I did french at school, grew up in an environment where I was more exposed to french and french culture than if I had grown up in Australia: living in Holland where we had as many french songs on the hit parade as english ones, seeing french movies ( with dutch subtitles) having a Belgian mother who had lived in Paris, spending holidays in Belgium which is bilingual.
I download the lessons to my MP3 player and wear it while walking, while doing the housework, etc.
Mind you, it may all mean nothing when it comes to understanding spoken French, but hey, I learned how to ask where the toilets are..that just HAS to be useful as long as I can understand the reply! As I said: these lessons are fun!

Tarot

I asked forum members on the tarot site, could anyone suggest a name for my tarots. Next step, I was then going to order some blank, ready-to-print tarot cards and print a couple of sets.
One suggested Hetty's Tarot. Not bad, but I had already thought of that myself and it didn't excite me much! Someone else suggest "Threads of Fate". That I like a lot. I never thought to use the word "threads" , it is so appropriate. But then it becomes the "Threads of Fate Tarot". I thought it was a bit long, but it does have a nice ring to it!

Boots and hat

As I promised: boots and hat. Plus some stuff in the background!

I haven't attempted any more drawing, because I got sidetracked with French lessons. More about that later.

But tomorrow I am going to my Friday art class and, unless Gina has something special she wants us to do, I am having another go at this, using the 2 pictures: one in colour, the other reduced to grey scale. You have to agree: it must be easier to work in pencil from a greyscale picture. I might even use my value scale: a piece of paper that has 10 shades, from white to black through grey. Deb taught us to hold the value scale against a section of the original so you can see how dark or how light you've got to shade it. Anyway, that's the theory of it.

That didn't work

I set up a still life with a pair of hubbies' riding boots and his hat, but I couldn't get it done. I tried different ways: blind contour, blind contour with some looking, contour, creating guidelines, working with angles. I might take a photo tomorrow to put here. The drawings were too large to scan, I'd have to take photos of them.
I might have another go tomorrow.

Tarots and baby quilt

People on the AT forum suggested I could create my own Tarot Deck. I immediately shuddered to think I would have to creat another 56 works! The 22 took over my life for nearly 12 months and I want to do other things.
But they said: "Just do the Majors". For the uninitiated: I did the Major Arcana, 22 of them. Full deck includes the Minor Arcana...another 56.
I am thinking, how do I go about that, find a publisher? But no, you can actually buy blank Tarot cards to print yourself. I can just see that: with a fancy little bag to store them in! Some people on the AT Forum tell them they would buy them!
Anyway, would make lovely gifts and definitely doable.
Traditionally, all Tarot decks have a name. I don't have one. Any suggestions?
Besides Tarots, I did a bit more work on the the first Dutch quilt. Only worked on the design. Did I tell you I have some blocks fused ready to stitch? Kangaroo, platypus and the name of the recipient. I don't want to put the name here, it is very unusual, I don't want the parents even to know i am making that quilt: let's call him Fred. :-)
Won't do much tomorrow: I am having an artist date with Kathy from Koolkat Quilting
We're going to see Deb's (my drawing teacher) exhibition and have lunch together.
An artists day is something suggested in Julia Cameron's The Artists Way book.
Saturday is Toogoolawah Show day, looking at cattle, fine art, craft and cooking entries as well as horticultural and agricultural entries. A small side show alley and catching up with people.

Tarots...again

I finally put a link to my Tarots on the Tarot website
This is THE international website for people interested in the Tarot and it was started and is maintained by a woman living in Brisbane's Coorparoo. It has grown tremendously and an eye opener for anyone who thinks the Tarot is something that not many people would be interested in.
I am now a paid subscriber so I can advertise on this site.
I posted my link on two on the forums and got some lovely reactions and more lovely reactions
Of course, the ultimate compliment would be if someone would actually want to buy one, but meanwhile I am happy with those compliments!
My username there is Antoinette, which is my middle name.

They aren't worms...

After drawing the wisteria stems last week, I played around with some imaginary stems. I wanted to capture form, light and shadow and the relative position of the objects. The drawing was cropped a little to fit on the scanner.
It wasn't difficult to do, although it was a lot of work. I drew the "worms" with a double line, just drawing through them. Then I used an eraser to create the "overs and unders".
After that I did the shading.
I've done a lot of
celtic type designs, so this was not altogether new to me.
Today was the last class of Deb's Beginners II course and I hope she will have enough takers to start an intermediate class in July.