Another Busy Day for the New Kittens, and Video Editing

Lily and Ruby are getting much bolder and more adventurous with each passing day. They play so vigorously and then quite suddenly get overcome by tiredness and their little heads and eyelids droop, and they drop off into a deep sleep, usually one draped across the top of the other.

Lily seems better today and we think she is managing to pee OK. The vet said to minimise stress and she should settle down quickly and get over her initial mild cystitis. It certainly hasn’t stopped her from being extremely busy and active today with her sister! I did add to her stress briefly though, at lunch time when I was preparing their food, and stepped back onto her tiny paw – what a yell she gave out, and how terribly guilty I felt!! Kitties are so good though, and don’t bear a grudge, and it was soon forgotten (by her, at least!).

They are both eating very well, and drinking plenty of water, too – this is something we’ve never managed to persuade our previous kitties to do. They would all turn their noses up at a dish of water, preferring to drink rainwater and from other sources outside, whose cleanliness could not be guaranteed!

Lily has purred today. They are both sweet little purrers and the sound is quite delicious! Today we have also noticed the emergence of the most attractive little chirrups and squeaks they make when they are excited by their play. They have the sweetest little voices!

Fortunately they seem to be very much together as far as active and sleepy phases go, as they both enjoy playing together, and then sleeping together – they seem to tire at about the same rate. So we aren’t having one clamouring to play, while the other says “Leave me alone! I want to go to sleep!”

After their first night in the TV cabinet, last night they slept in the chair, and have had their daytime sleeps there, too. We bought them a snug little kitten bed with a cowl roof but they haven’t slept in there yet – my hubby suggested putting one of the incontinence pads in there, that we’d put in the cat carrier for their long drive from their previous home, which would have a recognisable smell, but so far all that has achieved is to give them something else to tug at and play with! I think it will end up in shreds all over the floor eventually!

Here’s a video from today, called “Wrestling Match.” Self-explanatory!

Video Editing

I have just acquired a truly brilliant app for the iPad – LumaFusion. As apps go, this was pretty expensive at £19.99 but a comparable video editor for the computer would cost considerably more. I already have Final Cut Pro X on the iMac and the MacBook (doesn’t run on Windows unfortunately) but for some reason this runs very slowly on the MacBook and I don’t want to spend hours sitting at the iMac in the studio as it’s very tiring. Discovering a video editing app for the iPad was great. It doesn’t have all the features of FCP by any means, but it’s pretty impressive.

I also discovered an excellent tutorial course called “The Epic Guide to LumaFusion” in the form of an e-book with video clips, by Eliot Fitzroy. This was a free download and I can’t imagine why because it’s chock full of useful information and a pretty comprehensive guide to the software.

I am gradually familiarising myself with it and producing some reasonable videos now. What’s so brilliant is that the iPad is both video camera and video editor all in one. My normal dedicated video camera will not transfer footage direct to the Mac and I have to download it to the Windows computer via a cable, and then convert the footage to a format FCP will recognise, which adds considerably to the work and the time involved, but with the iPad the footage is already on the device, and anything I want to add in the form of still photos or additional music/sound effects etc., can be acquired wirelessly. The iPad is so portable and easy, and I can work on it anywhere.

LumaFusion is still quite new, and additional features will be added a time goes on. I can’t find a way yet of capturing still images from the video footage or creating rolling titles, but these features could be in the pipeline. The choice of transitions is very limited but since I normally use simple cross-fades and dips (more fancy transitions can easily distract one from the footage itself) this isn’t a problem. Many of the features normally found on high-end video editors are present, such as key-framing, Ken Burns effect, colour correction, multiple video and audio tracks, picture-in-picture, titles, J&L cuts, etc. etc. There is a choice of destinations for sharing completed videos including Youtube, cloud storage and social media.

I am very happy to have discovered all this just in time for capturing the all-too short period of our kittens’ development. They are so much fun, and so desperately cute and adorable that I want to be filming every single moment of the day!!

I have recently bought a bracket to hold the iPad, with a standard tripod screw on it, and I am hoping to be able to rig this up in my studio over my main work area, but I am not sure yet if this will be feasible and how well it would work. If I want to edit the footage in Final Cut Pro, it will be a simple matter to transfer it wirelessly to the iMac.

Technology is definitely moving on!

Teabag Art–Preparing the Teabags

Some time ago, I watched a Colouricious video on Youtube (I subscribe to their channel) – one of a series on making things from recycled stuff and rubbish.

I was really intrigued by this, and especially that they managed to achieve a look that was exactly like leather, and the end result certainly didn’t look like used teabags!

Recently I decided to have another look at this, and googled “teabag art” and was astounded at the amazing things people were making with these humble little objects that most people throw away without a second thought.

I started saving my teabags, and asked my hubby to do the same. We drink Lapsang Souchong or Earl Grey tea, both of which are quite pale, so we are not getting the darker staining on the bags that you’d get with regular “builders’ tea” – how I wish I’d saved the mountain of used teabags produced by our builders during the months they were working on our house!! Anyway, they are still stained, but more subtly, and being lighter, lend themselves to further colouring with distress inks etc.

My hubby also started saving his herb “teabags” – I don’t think they should call this stuff tea because it’s never seen a tea bush in its life, and bears no resemblance to that most majestic and restorative of beverages!! His bags were made of different stuff (not much texture), were a different shape, and the stuff inside went rather solid when dry, and was quite revolting when taken out – especially the ginger “tea” which produced some stuff like cement!! I told him not to bother keeping them any longer, but just to save real teabags.

To start with, I was drying them on the corner of my ARTHaven sink, until I discovered online that if you dry them on a piece of paper (preferably watercolour paper which is substantial enough not to fall apart when wet), you get some very interesting stains, and these papers can then be used subsequently in art projects.

This is what my piece of watercolour paper looks like now, after several weeks of drying teabags on it:

I have discovered that you can, to a certain extent, control the shape of the marks left by the wet bags by how you place them down on the paper. The most interesting ones are created by screwing the teabag up so that its creases make contact with the paper. Many of these initial patterns are reminiscent of roses, and I am planning to make a piece using this paper as a background, entitled “Tea Rose” and embellished with 3-D paper roses made from tea-stained papers, and keeping the colours brown and sepia.

I am also planning to create a more organised background sheet by laying the teabags flat in a patchwork design. This should give a chequer-board effect which will be suitable for embellishing in a different way.

With teabag art, you certainly get the opportunity to make art out of every stage of the procedure!!

Once the teabags are dry, they need to be emptied. In order not to destroy the bag, I made a little slit, close to the edge, with a pair of very sharp, fine scissors, and tipped out the dry tea onto a piece of newspaper. While I was working on the bags, I had time to consider to what use I might put all this tea – with such a frugal and recycling project as teabag art, it would be most pleasing to be able to use the tea as well, so meanwhile, I stored it in a jar while I thought about how I could use it.

The empty teabags are quite creased. Before using them, the Colouricious team ironed them flat, but I thought that for certain effects, I could make use of these creases, so up till now, I haven’t ironed any of them.

Here is the video I made of the preparation of the teabags for making teabag art.

I shall be uploading subsequent videos in due course, so watch this space to see where this train of inspiration takes me! I am finding it fascinating that you can make art out of anything, with a bit of imagination! – and a lot of help from the Internet – all those hours languishing on the recliner because I haven’t got the energy to do anything else are not wasted, as during those times, Youtube and a Pinterest have become my dear friends!!

A final note on my videos. Just before we moved, I purchased a new video camera (a Samsung) on the recommendation of Lindsay the Frugal Crafter who had recently upgraded her camera to this model. I have set up a rig attached to the shelf above the main work zone in my new ARTHaven and my technique is gradually improving! In order to produce HD videos I have had to upgrade my computer – my two Windows 7 laptops are not powerful enough, and for some time I’d been considering moving over to Mac, but was held back by the fact that I am heavily invested in Windows and have a lot of excellent third-party software for which there is no Mac version. However, with the discovery of the Parallels software, I have gone ahead and can run Windows 7 alongside the Mac OS on my new iMac, and can benefit from the ease of the Mac interface and the speed and power of an up-to-date setup. There was no way I was going to “upgrade” my laptops to that most horrible of inventions, Windows 8, and anyway, the hardware was not up to the job.

I have upgraded my Pinnacle Studio video editing software from version 12, which I have been using for years but is now becoming rather limited, to version 17, which has a radically redesigned interface and a much more professional approach, can deal with many more video formats, and from which one can upload direct to Youtube! It’s a sharp learning curve, not helped by the fact that the user manual is absolutely hopeless, but there is lots of help online, and I am now mastering such techniques as keyframing which are helping to develop my skills. I do love learning new things on the computer!

None of this would have been possible before we moved, where our “broadband” speed was a joke. We are now operating at sensible and usable speeds with fibre-optic broadband, which means that uploading even a SD video does not take all night!

So from now on, my video uploads will be in full HD. With the new setup, the brilliant new user-friendly camera and my growing familiarity and expertise with the new software and hardware, you can look forward to seeing more of Shoshi’s videos!

My New ARTHaven–Tidying Up and Getting Organised at Last

My cousin came to visit us today. She is a keen crafter, and I was looking forward to showing her around our new house and showing her the renovations, but most of all, taking her into my new ARTHaven and watching her turn a bright shade of green with envy! In advance of today, I knew I had to tidy up and try and get somewhat organised in there, so that she would get a proper impression of it as a working space, and not merely a dumping ground. Although there is still a lot of organising and sorting to do, it is all definitely taking shape now.

The office section probably needs more organising than the ARTHaven proper, but at least it is workable. After my latest tidying, this is how it looks now.

On the right, you can see the magnificent bronze casting of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, created as an apprentice piece in my grandfather’s foundry works in the post-WWII years. It is one of my most treasured possessions and I have not been able to display it until now.

When we were clearing my parents’ house prior to selling it, I saved a lot of Dad’s things, many of which are going to feature in the album I am making about his life. I have collected together some of the objects that he made, and things that were precious to him, or which were of particular interest to him, and I have created a little gallery of “Dad’s Treasures” on top of one of my book cases. Some of these objects look very strange!

There is a story behind each one, which I cannot go into here because it would make this post much too long! One day I may detail some of the items if anyone is interested. Suffice it to say that every one of these items has become precious to me, and reminds me of a different facet of Dad’s character, life and interests.

Moving through into the ARTHaven proper, here is how the main papercrafting area looks now, with Sheba (my Cougar cutting machine) on the left, and the display area to the right of the picture..

I have now set up my video camera, and the two clip-on lamps which I had in my old ARTHaven – the lighting in the new room is extremely good, with LED spots all around, but I thought I would add these two PureLite lamps to help with filming and photography. Not having tried this setup in real life yet, I am not sure if it will be OK, or whether it will need some tweaking.

Here are some detail shots.

The video clamp with the flexible gooseneck came from Maplins (very cheap!) and I bought two right-angle brackets with camera fixing screws from the USA on Ebay. I have used one of the bases of the old video rig to clamp this arrangement to, to bring it slightly further out over the work area, and have had to add a bit of wood packing to correct the angle of the clamp. We will have to see how it works! The camera is a new one, which I chose on the recommendation of Lindsay the Frugal Crafter – she has this camera and gets excellent results from it. All I have done with mine so far is try it out, and I haven’t done any serious filming with it yet – it was bought for the new room, as a replacement for the old camera which was a nightmare to use because it kept making my computer crash. The new camera has an SD card instead of tapes, which is an improvement, and it will film in HD.

Moving on around the room, I have now set up my display area around the old fireplace. After fixing up the shabby chic shelf unit that I got on Ebay, I began to have second thoughts about 3 shelves instead of 2, because they are so close together that you can’t really use them for many items to display, but the unit is so attractive that I couldn’t bear to replace it! Instead, I have put some antique china pieces on the top shelf, some jars of paper flowers that I’ve made on the second shelf, and on the bottom shelf are some boxes and other small items. On the drawer handles I have hung various items received from online friends, and there are more on the mantelpiece below – those of you who have sent me things may recognise some of them if you look closely!

Mixed in among these treasured gifts are some items I have made myself, including the binder on the right which I created for a craft show I took part in several months ago, detailing some of my past work. You can also see my small leather art journal with the “Tyger Tyger” page displayed, and pages from my Fine Art album (both works in progress).

This zone will be in a state of flux, with new work being added as time goes on, and the display changed. I have too many ATCs to display them all at once, so these are something which will get changed periodically. I am so thrilled to have an area where I can put out works where I can see and enjoy them.

Further on around the room are the sewing, textile and drawing zones. Yesterday I spent a long time starting to sort the cardboard boxes containing all my fabrics, embroidery materials and equipment, sewing supplies, crochet, etc. etc. There is still a lot to do. Some of this is now stored in the storage zone, and I am hoping to get some more Really Useful Boxes to house a lot of it – these look much nicer than cardboard boxes, and being transparent, you can readily identify the contents, and they are more durable.

On the work surface below the wall unit you can see a stack of three small vintage suitcases. These came from my parents’ house and I intend to store supplies in them – embroidery threads etc. They are all in need of repair, but I love the shabby vintage look of them.

To the left of them I have put my two German wooden buckets – I was originally going to display these in my new bathroom but found that I had more than enough stuff for in there, and thought I could use them as decorative containers in my ARTHaven. Here I have used them to contain some fancy yarns which are far too beautiful to keep hidden away in a box! To the left are two vintage boxes from Mum. The large one now contains all my decorative braids, and the one on top is a Chinese camphorwood box which at present contains some small family mementoes that Mum had collected over the years.

I decided that the whole final section of work top was probably more than enough for sewing and textile work, so I have designated the final zone as the drawing zone. Here I have put out my Zentangle album and sketchbook. On the shelf above are my pens and Inktense pencils and various other drawing bits and pieces, with the larger items like my dressmaker’s curve underneath in the floor unit. The curved metallic object just below the power point is the last remaining part of a lamp that Mum had for embroidery – it was in a seriously dilapidated state and had to be disposed of, but it had a magnifying lens (in the white bag) on a gooseneck. You can see part of my second retort stand with it, and when I find the upright for this, I will be able to mount this lens for fine work. I also have my dad’s glasses with telescopic magnifiers which he used to use for ophthalmic surgery before the hospital introduced their first operating microscope. Maybe I will be able to do my ultra fine 22+ stitches to the inch again!!

Finally, the storage zone, along the wall dividing the ARTHaven from the office.

This still requires considerable re-organisation but at least it’s a bit tidier than it was! The cabinet on the left was in the original bathroom, and was moved through into here when the builders started the bathroom renovation – in the nick of time, actually, because after this, my hubby asked if he could have it for the garage, and I told him no – I’d already snaffled it up for my ARTHaven! (Considering that he grabs all the plastic Chinese takeaway boxes for his Man Cave before I get a look in, I felt justified in taking a stand over this cabinet!!) The cabinet is brilliant because the central, open part, has shelves which exactly accommodate that size of Really Useful Box – unfortunately these won’t go in the cupboards because the door occupies half an inch of cupboard space when closed, but it doesn’t matter because when they are closed you can’t see what’s n them anyway – which is probably a very good thing, given how crammed with stuff they are – bits of fabric, loads of old sheeting, rug wools, etc. etc.!

On top of the ex-bathroom cabinet, and running the whole length of the wall, is a huge deep shelf for storing large flat things like mount board, cutting mats for Sheba, etc. This is often a storage area lacking in studios simply because of lack of space, and I feel very fortunate to have such a lot of good storage for all sorts of things!

Even though there is still a lot of work to be done to get the room how I want it, it is now certainly a workable space, and having got on top of most of the rest of the house (apart from some odd bits of painting etc.), I can now start being creative again!

With this in mind, here are the art deco doorplate replacements I am working on – at present in the Heat Zone, but there is a certain fluidity between the zones, and I shall need to use this area for mixed media as well, I think.

You can see the mould at top left, and the two I made from Friendly Plastic at the top. I have been experimenting with Polyfilla One Fill as a substitute (being very much cheaper) and although they are extremely light and feel fairly fragile, I think this will be a good option – they do not require any strength once in situ, and if I have any failures at the painting stage, I shan’t shed any tears over wasted materials! I shall probably melt down the Friendly Plastic ones and use the material for other projects.

The mat which they are sitting on is my new Presspahn ultra-heat proof mica mat – my original one is only A3 and not really large enough for my heat zone, so I bought this one which is approximately A2 in size. (For details of these amazing mats, please see the description in my sidebar.) You can see my melting pot just in-frame on the left. In use, this radiates quite considerable heat downwards, and was the cause of one of my (too many!) warping accidents to my self-healing cutting mats! I will also be able to do work with the soldering iron and other heat tools on this, and if I want to prevent the build-up of material and stains on it, I can always put a non-stick craft mat on top. The smaller Presspahn mat is now back under the non-stick craft mat in the Papercrafting Zone, protecting the surface underneath from my heat gun.

In the main work area, I have today resurrected the album I am making about Dad’s life – I opened up the box and showed the project to my cousin, and thought I would leave some of it out so that I can start working on it again.

Having the large moveable floor units will be great when working on this project, as they will provide me with a lot more surface to work on, and to spread out the materials.

When the room is properly organised, I propose to do a video tour.

My New ARTHaven–Free-Standing Storage

My second of two posts for today. Some more work was done in my new ARTHaven. Chris has assembled the last remaining section of my big black shelving unit – I had gradually reduced this from three sections to one, and I gave the two redundant sections to Wonderwoman, my home help. It’s not the most beautiful object in the world, but it’s strong, large and functional! I am putting the free-standing storage against the dividing wall between my ARTHaven and the office, so you don’t immediately see it until you are actually in the room.

Looking at this, I realised that I had never painted the outside of one panel, but this doesn’t matter because it will be covered by the tall bookcase.

The tall black bookcase, which is part of my black office furniture suite, happens to be exactly the same width as the depth of the black shelving unit, so I have decided to put it in the same position as it was in our present house. The black unit is pretty scuffed and scruffy looking, and I shall probably touch it up with more black paint before I fill it. If you look carefully, you can see one of two diagonal braces that Chris has attached to the back of the unit to stabilise it – when there was more than one section it maintained its square shape. The unit to the left is one that the previous owner left behind in the bathroom. The cupboards contain shelves, as well as it having open shelves.

Amongst my parents’ furniture in storage is a music cabinet which I was planning to put along this wall, between the old bathroom unit and my black shelves, but there isn’t room for it, unfortunately – the bookcase can’t be right up against  the doorway because with the curved end of the new work surface on the other side, there will not be sufficient space to access the room. With it set back a bit, the access is not compromised, and there is also a small space remaining to the left of the old bathroom unit, which I had planned for storing my tall cardboard boxes containing long items like loom bits, tripods, easels, etc. The music cabinet is quite an attractive piece of furniture with cabriole legs and a series of fairly shallow drawers with drop-down fronts, and I measured this before it went into store and determined that my 12 x 12 papers will fit nicely in the drawers. I’m annoyed that it won’t fit in my ARTHaven, but it will go quite nicely on the landing.

Above the free-standing storage there will be a deep shelf the full length of the wall, the height being determined by the old bathroom unit, which is the tallest piece. This shelf will be used for storing large flat things like mount board, cutting mats, etc.

This final wall of my ARTHaven is not beautiful like the rest of the room, but merely functional! It will provide storage for my more bulky items, and things that don’t get used very often, or which don’t immediately fit into a designated work area.

Andy went shopping today and bought some further shelves to go between the two wall units on the further wall of my ARTHaven, should I require more storage in that area, and some brackets for the deep shelf, and for additional shelves in the office section for my ring binders and lever arch files etc.

All in all, I shall have plenty of storage.

In addition to assembling the black unit and arranging the free-standing storage, Chris also fixed up my new shabby chic shelving unit that I bought on Ebay, over the blocked-up fireplace. This will be my display area, for recently-completed pieces, and work by other people. I have got some beautiful miniature easels for displaying small pieces. This area will be changed frequently, and will be the focal point of the room.

If you look very carefully, you will see some items that weren’t there before! Bottom left in the picture is my length of white guttering that I bought months ago for my old ARTHaven and never got round to using – this is going to be cut down and mounted under my main work area as a ruler store.

Above this on the shelf in the wall unit, the small black object is my new gooseneck camera clamp. I have tried clamping this onto the shelf above the main work area, with the gooseneck pointing vertically down, and I think with the camera attached, this will be a good height above the work surface for my video camera. I shall have to experiment but I think with the zoom it may be OK.

Beyond the fireplace, on the work surface, is my sewing machine! This was the first thing I brought in. I can’t bring a lot of stuff in yet, because Tim will need room to connect the new power points to the ring main, and he’ll make a bit of dust installing the new spotlights over the work surfaces (six in all) with LED bulbs. He brought over a sample today – very neat and small, and the LED bulbs, although more expensive than other types, are extremely cheap to run, and give a very bright, clear, blue-white light which will be great for colour accuracy and photography.

On the original shelves above the sewing machine, the screwed up fabric is a curtain which will eventually be removed. On the shelf below, on the left, is a Really Useful Box containing decorative yarns. This corner, going right round to the further end on the right, is the area of my room which will be dedicated to sewing, textiles and fibre – my “clean” work area!

It won’t be long now before I can start bringing things in, and also into the office, once the additional shelves have gone up in there, and the power points have been installed. Watch this space! It’s starting to get really exciting!

My New ARTHaven–Shabby Chic Shelving Unit

The second of two posts today – and a brief one, as there is not much to report on the ARTHaven front today.

Andy has put a second coat of sealant onto the worktops, and this morning I painted the shabby chic shelving unit with acrylic varnish to protect the white paint I put on last week. Andy took this upstairs and we decided on its position. He didn’t want to drill any holes and make dust while the sealant on the worktops was still wet, and he’ll install it when he gets a moment over the next few days.

You can see the little drawers from the unit, on the shelf beside the fireplace. I have now replaced the china knobs on them.

When my hubby was in Exeter today, he collected something for me which was on order – a goose-neck clamp for my new video recorder.

This is the web image of it (not my camera). It is extremely robust and well able to support the weight of my new camera, I am sure. I have got to organise the best way to hold my camera and think this will be a better arrangement than my previous one, or having a tripod on the desk.

No more news from my ARTHaven today, I’m afraid. It’s nearly finished now, anyway – just the free-standing storage units to go along the other side of the office dividing wall, the high shelves for the office and for storing my large flat materials, and the electrics to be connected up once Tim the electrician returns next week.

WOYWW 215

Well, better late than never, I suppose. This heat is doing my head in, and it was 7 p.m. before I remembered it was Wednesday and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday day! For full details of this most nosy blog hop where we all spy on each other’s work spaces, please click the link in my sidebar.

I still haven’t got anything on my workdesk – but I have got a workdesk at least! Work is progressing in my new ARTHaven. This is how it looked on Monday.

Andy was busy putting in the top shelves connecting the wall units, and painting them white to match.

Also this week I’ve finished painting the shabby chic shelf unit I got from Ebay, which is going above the fireplace, as the focal point for my display area. Here it is being painted – I wasn’t happy with the way it had been artificially distressed in places where distressing wouldn’t naturally happen – a mistake, I think.

It has now had several coats of white paint, and once it’s had a final coat of matt acrylic varnish, I shall ask Andy to put it up for me.

Today my new video camera arrived. For a long time I’ve been far from satisfied with the old one which was second hand, and used tapes. It worked OK but it made my computer crash, and when the interface was achieved, it kept cutting out. It also saved video in a format that my video editor didn’t recognise so every video had to be converted. The whole process was a nightmare, and adding to the equation the pathetic “broadband” speeds we suffer here, uploading to Youtube took hours. When we move, we will have decent speeds, and I shall be well away! The camera is very compact, smaller than the old one, uses SD cards, and is very easy to use, and the quality of both picture and sound seems excellent. None of my loyal Youtube subscribers will know what’s hit them once I get going with it!! Thank you Lindsay the Frugal Crafter for recommending this camera to me – she recently got one and has been singing its praises. She’s doing videos practically every day now!

I am going over to the new house again tomorrow and I expect great progress will have been made since Monday! Watch this space for more photos.

WOYWW 118

Ooops – a day late this week! I always wonder where the week went…

Anyway, this week I’ve been busy catching up with stuff I haven’t had time to do all year. Last week I was tidying my ARTHaven, and I finished this week in time to do a video tour of my ARTHaven, and especially of my new video camera rig which my hubby’s friend made for me – I’ve been using it, but not properly as I hadn’t finished setting it up properly, but this is now done and I’m really thrilled.

Yesterday I did a video tutorial on using Inkylicious Ink Dusters to blend distress inks – nobody’s done anything on Youtube about it so I’m the first! When I’d finished, I gathered most of the stuff I’d used, and lined it up on the table for my WOYWW shot.

You can see all the distress inks I used, the actual Ink Dusters, my heat gun and my tub of clear embossing powder, and the four sample pieces I made. The only thing I didn’t put out was the stamps I used.

I’ve done blog posts on both this video tutorial and the tour of my ARTHaven. Happy viewing! – and happy WOYWW (or T!)!

Tour of my ARTHaven

A while back, I said I would do a video about the video rig that my hubby’s friend made for me. When I set up my ARTHaven, I wanted to find a satisfactory way to arrange my video camera to record the work I do on my table, and discovered that although many people record their work, they do not tell us how they support the camera! Eventually I found a video on Youtube by Linda Israel which told me exactly what I wanted to know. She has got a marvellous rig over her table which also supports two lamps which shine down on the work.

I knew this was exactly what I wanted, so I made a drawing based on her video, and asked a friend of my hubby’s whether he would make it for me, and he did. I’ve got my two lamps, and I’ve also attached a 4-gang extension socket to one end, which has cleared a lot of the cable clutter off my table and made the work run more efficiently too.

As I was between projects, I decided to reorganise and tidy my ARTHaven as it was starting to get very untidy again, and when it was done I thought it was a good chance to video not only the video rig, but my whole ARTHaven.

The video is a bit shaky, I’m afraid, as I had to hold the camera in my hand as I went round the room. I used my normal digital camera in video mode as the video camera is set up on the rig, and the sound isn’t quite as good, unfortunately, but you can get an impression of the room, and all the space I’ve got for all my equipment and materials.

I feel very blessed to have such a lovely space for my ARTHaven. It really is my special place, and when I go in there I have a lovely upbeat feeling, and so enjoy being creative in such an atmosphere. When I look out of the window I can see our garden, and with the window open I can hear the birds singing. I’m so grateful to my hubby and Wonderwoman for helping me rearrange the room where I can feel so fulfilled and happy.

ARTHaven in Operation at Last!

I finally got down to doing some stuff in my ARTHaven today. I spent quite a long time setting up the video camera on a tripod, so that I can record my work in progress when I want - if I leave this set up permanently it will save a lot of time.

Here is how it looks now:

I am highly delighted that my clip-on spot lamp will clip onto the camera tripod, so that I can direct the light exactly where I want, right onto the work. I was unable to buy a daylight spot bulb for it today, but will look on the Internet - this will give better light than I'm currently getting. I also want to put daylight bulbs in the floor-standing Anglepoise and the overhead light.

It is so thrilling to have my ARTHaven in a state where I can actually start creating in it! There's a long way to go as far as organising it is concerned - I am still at the stage where things are pretty chaotic, and I still can't find everything, but as time goes on, I am sure this will improve.

I've got a cassette player set up so that while I work, I can be converting my old tapes to mp3s on the desktop computer. There is room on the old computer table to have my large laptop set up so that I can do any graphics work on that - when I get my Cricut machine, it will be easy to connect it up to that computer.

The left-hand corner of the work table seems to have designated itself as my "hot" area! I have the iron there, and the heat gun, and on the floor between the 2 tables, there is room to prop up my glass heat-proof mat out of the way when it's not in use. I have found that ironing on the table with the heat-proof craft mat does make the green cutting mat bulge a bit with the heat, so putting the craft mat on top of the glass mat helps prevent this.

I now have rolls of cling film and baking parchment to hand, for my experiments in fusing and melting - the baking parchment is essential for protecting the iron! See more on my "Meltings" post.

I went shopping today and bought quite a few embellishments in the cake decorating department of our local hardware store. I am keen to try Penny Duncan's various flowers (see her blog: http://pennyduncancreations.blogspot.com for details.) There has been a lot of discussion on the Creative Inspirations forum on what to use for the best for the centres of the hibiscus flowers, and I found these today:

I bought a couple of bundles each of white and pink. I also found these jewelled ones in bundles, so I bought one of each:

Here they are slightly more in close up:

Perhaps we are sometimes we are a bit limited in our thinking when it comes to finding materials and embellishments for our creativity, going only to crafting shops or websites. I have found that by thinking "outside the box" a bit, there are plenty of gorgeous materials to be found in other places, like kitchen shops. Cake decorating can provide us with beautiful stuff - I've bought little jewelled stems, plastic wedding rings, and very pretty ribbons in the cake department, which I couldn't find in the local papercrafting shop - which does have an enormous stock of fabulous things - so much so that I usually have to tie a knot in my credit card before I go in there!!! There is also an embroidery and general craft shop in our town, which has different things again, and right at the top of town is an art shop which stocks all sorts of artists' materials, paints, paper, easels, you name it! They also sell a lot of general stationery. So we are very well provided for!

I also bought some little cutters in the hardware shop today, officially for cutting shapes in sugar paste for cake decorating, but I am going to use them for friendly plastic. I bought a butterfly, and a couple of flower shapes. I also found some very pretty organza butterflies which I bought to add to my collection of embellishments, and my hubby found a pack of 12 die-cut cup-cake wrappers with a very pretty design of butterflies - if I wanted to, they would be very easy to separate into their component parts, and there are literally hundreds of butterflies in the pack, all ready to be inked, painted, embellished and applied!

My hubby gave up quite a bit of his time today to help me. The hardware shop in question is almost inaccessible with the wheelchair unless I have help. I can get into the first bit (china and glass) but the main part of the shop is up 3 very steep steps, so my hubby had to drag the wheelchair up while I staggered up on foot! (There is an upstairs as well, but I didn't need to go there today - it's mostly tools and decorating stuff.) The main part of the downstairs is all kitchen stuff and it's a really really fun shop to look around! They've got gorgeous coffee pots, every sort of cooking equipment, and of course, the wonderful cake decorating department which seems to have everything! You can hire tins to bake large cakes, and stands for wedding cakes etc. and I believe they also organise cake decorating classes.

The only drawback apart from the immediate access is that the aisles are quite narrow, and they will keep boxes of stuff on the floor, making it quite impossible to get round in the wheelchair. I have discovered this in other shops too - I appreciate that in our small, old-fashioned town, they are constrained by the ancient buildings and probably lack of storage space behind, but generally in the town, very little concession is made for disabled access. This is not helped by the town being on an almost 45-degree slope!

There are lots of gorgeous little shops with real character, on the quaint steep and narrow High Street, and you can buy things that you wouldn't find in the big cities. The town has a very friendly atmosphere, and I usually meet at least one person I know when I go shopping. I really love it, but it isn't designed for disabled people!!!

When we got back and had lunch, I couldn't wait to get up in my ARTHaven and go through my new goodies, and start creating!

Video Camera

Everyone on the Brainfog forum has been thrilled by the Explosion Box and my video. One member remarked on how lovely it was to hear birdsong in the background of the video. I had the patio doors open and the birds always sing in our garden. We've got a blackbird who sings his little heart out nearly every day!

I had mixed feelings parting with the Explosion Box, even to my special friend. When you part with something you've made - especially something you've put a lot of effort into - it's as if a part of you has gone into it, and it goes away with the gift. It's like a mini-bereavement when it goes. Doing the video and photos was initially as a record so I didn't forget, but they have had another effect - it will be with me always now!

I was surprised how easy it was to do the video. My first attempt didn't work because I hadn't pressed the right button and I didn't realise the camera wasn't actually recording!!! Doh... I had thought of doing the first bit so you could see my face, but yesterday I was in full Medusa mode with my Benders in my hair and I didn't want to turn the whole Youtube community to stone at a single stroke! My friend said I should have gone for it and let them all see me in my Full Glory!!!

I've watched a lot of videos of card making etc. on Youtube, and I didn't think it could be that hard, setting up the camera on a tripod over the table, but when I'd done it, I discovered the whole thing had come out upside down! However, a quick google search on video editing forums showed me a quick way to turn it the right way up using Windows Movie Maker. After that I edited it in Pinnacle Studio which I'm more familiar with. I had great fun designing the title pages in my photo editor, using a graphic from my blog and my signature platypus to provide continuity across my "online presence." I shall save the title pages for use on other projects, probably keeping the same music (the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, if anyone's interested).

My friend absolutely loved her explosion box, and said several times, "I can't believe you did all this, just for me!" One of the things I love about her most is her humility. She just can't see what an incredibly special person she is, and how much her friendship means to me. She reminded me today that we've been friends for 22 years!! I couldn't believe it.

We've had a lovely, lovely day together today. I've done a separate post about that.