Teignmouth Revisited

Yesterday my hubby took me back to Teignmouth, this time for a shopping trip. It was a bit frustrating on Tuesday, having to rush around because of the car, and I’d seen several shops I was keen to visit.

I rarely get the opportunity to go shopping, and I always really enjoy it when I get the chance! It was time my clothes budget got an airing because it’s a while since I had anything new, and I’ve had to get rid of quite a bit of stuff because since losing weight, it no longer fits me.

We had a lovely day out, in beautiful hot sunny weather, and I spotted quite a few shops and little nooks and crannies in the town that had escaped my notice a couple of days previously.

A shop full of vintage sewing machines.

A wonderfully ornate old machine, and just look at that glorious case…

A miniature iron, in what looks like its original box.

A couple of tiny miniature sewing machines, both by Singer.

The shopping streets are narrow and picturesque.

The shop fronts are very pretty, and it’s interesting looking up above to see the architecture of the buildings.

Gorgeous hand-made leather shoes. Very much my style, but too pricey for my budget.

We came across a busker playing gorgeous American Blues music on a variety of instruments – a guitar, a 3-string cigar box guitar and a 3-string biscuit tin guitar! He played pick and slide style. We had a very interesting conversation with him, and I saw him again later on, on his way home. (Left-handed guitarist like Paul McCartney.)

His cigar-box guitar. I love the fact that the volume control knobs are made of bottle tops!!

He was very happy for me to video him.

He explained that much of this music originated from the slave and ex-slave communities and being very poor, they had to make their musical instruments from whatever they had handy. I love this mentality which shows great inventiveness, and which today has ben developed into the recycling and upcycling culture we are all familiar with. (Think of my hubby’s excellent pedestal for our new sundial! We’d never have ended up with this unique pedestal if we’d had the money to go and buy a proper one.) There’s so much satisfaction in making something useful and/or beautiful from what most people would consider rubbish, which driven by need, produces something often unique and quite unexpected.  It means so much more. I loved the vintage look of the cigar box and biscuit tin guitars, with the scuffs and dents, and the general patina of age. Paul said that these all added to the tone of the instrument. I am reminded of the itinerant Klezmer musicians of the old Ashkenazi Jewish world, travelling from village to village and playing for weddings etc., carrying their instruments on their backs and living as best they could.

Now for my purchases. We went back to the jewellery shop – I was keen to revisit Teignmouth this week, because their sale was due to end at the end of this week. I bought two more of the gorgeous necklaces and also a very pretty ring. You wouldn’t believe how cheap everything was – they weren’t over-priced to start with, but at half marked price, you couldn’t go wrong.

Here are the two I bought on Tuesday, for comparison.

I bought a few items in the Pound Shop, mostly stuff to use in the studio.

I visited a shop which sold some lovely unusual ethnic style clothes, scarves, gifts etc. and bought a skirt and almost matching scarf in there.

We also found the ethnic shop I found it so hard to tear myself away from the other day! Their stuff was also incredibly cheap – ethnic and boho-style clothes usually are, and they are generally quite unusual and you don’t see hordes of other people wearing exactly the same stuff. I really stocked up in there.

When we got home we were both pretty hot and tired, so I made us a nice cold drink – lemonade with basil, a recipe I found quickly online, made from fresh lemons mashed up with basil leaves – gorgeous flavour and so refreshing on a hot day!

I then had fun trying it all on and mixing and matching the items with each other and with stuff I already had. Here’s a mini-fashion show starring Shoshi complete with mirror and phone!! (I wasn’t sure how else to take the photos.)

Here’s the skirt and scarf I bought in the first shop, teamed with my navy embroidered waistcoat and red t-shirt to complement the red border around the hem.

Now the stuff from the ethnic shop.

A fun pair of patchwork dungarees. Dungarees always make me look fat but somehow I couldn’t resist this pair!

(Sorry about the bad quality – the sun was streaming in through the window and it was hard to get the photos right.)

I thought the dungarees looked more flattering with one of the scarves I bought at the same time.

I bought a pair of patchwork trousers which are made of heavy-ish cotton. They are much too long so will have to be taken up.

They had a rack of fabulous silk dresses and skirts with elasticated tops and uneven hems with points, which could be worn in a variety of ways. I bought one of the dresses and a skirt. This is the purple dress. It has ties to make shoulder straps but you don’t have to use them if you don’t want to.

You can wear it as a skirt.

Without the straps, and pulled down a bit to make a low waisted dress.

The skirt is greenish-blue.

I thought I could have some fun with this and wear it in all sorts of different ways! Here it is as a head scarf. I hope the length of it down the back doesn’t look too nun-ish! It reminded me somewhat of the Vermeer picture, “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”

As a poncho. I like the way the elasticated waist becomes cowl-like.

The other scarf I bought in that shop. I love big square scarves because they are lovely for tying your hair up in.

After taking these photos, I realised that in most of them I’ve got a really grim expression! I was concentrating on getting the best view possible with the phone camera, and also I was feeling pretty tired after our busy day shopping, and finding it a bit uncomfortable, all the standing to do the photos.

Finally, a pair of green suede sandals with ankle ties.

Recently I had to throw away two fabulous pairs of sandals that had long been favourites – absolutely nothing wrong with the tops, but the soles, made of synthetic rubber of some kind, had completely deteriorated and were crumbling away, and there was no way they could be repaired. This sort of thing makes me sick. I really liked those shoes but they were clearly not made to last. I expect my favourite shoes to last for many years, and at least to be repairable if they wear out!

Anyway, I think you’ll agree I had quite a spree! These clothes may not be to everyone’s taste but I’ve always loved the alternative look and tended to make my own fashion – part of my creative spirit, I suppose!

Walk-In Pantry–Day 6

Yesterday morning, Gary came back to finish off the painting while we were out. When we got back he’d let himself out, and left a note to the effect that all the paint he’d put on the left-hand side had had to come off – this was the melamine surface of the panel on the side of the double oven unit. This stuff is extremely hard and shiny, and even if you sand it to give it a bit of key, it is virtually impossible to paint. I wasn’t bothered about this because it won’t really show once there is stuff on the shelves, but I was sorry for Gary, having worked so hard, all to no avail! The rest of the painting was fine, though, and he’d finished off the picture rail, and everything looks hunky dory!

Now it was my turn. In the afternoon I painted on the first coat of linseed oil, slightly diluted with white spirit to help it penetrate the raw wood more easily. Gorgeous smell!

Today I applied another coat. In the meantime, I’d discovered a good way of doing this online – to rub it in using wire wool, which helps the oil settle into the grain and removes any slight roughness from the surface. They recommend three coats, allowing the oil to dry in between, and finally, after the third coat is dry, to rub it over with a light application of wax polish. Tomorrow I shall do the third coat, and then leave it for a day or two to make sure it’s as dry as possible. Any oily residue can be wiped off with a soft cloth. It’s already looking a nice pale honey colour.

I have also been applying the same treatment to the new quadrant along the skirting board.

For the rest of the time today I cleaned the kitchen, which had got very dusty with all this work going on. It’s now spick and span and ready for everything to go back, once the slab is in place.

I also phoned the electrician and he is going to get back to me with a time when he can come and have a look at the job, and the other couple of things I’d like him to do as well.

Another little job I did today was to clean up Mum’s old kitchen scales, which are a nicer shape than my more modern (but still old-fashioned) ones. Originally I had thought of repainting them and smartening them up, but having seen a programme on TV where they restore old junk, I rather liked the idea of preserving the patina of age and celebrating the vintage nature of these scales. So I followed their advice and gave the scales a really good rub down with fine wire wool, and then dusted it off with a damp piece of kitchen paper. Once I was sure the whole thing was dry and clean, I buffed it up with some wax polish. It now has a dull gleam, and the green paint looks a lot better, but all the scuffs and worn out bits are still there, celebrating its age and vintage quality!

I forgot to photograph them before I cleaned them up.

I shall apply the same treatment to the weights. Once the pantry is completed and everything has gone in, there should be fewer things out on the worktops, and I think these scales will look very nice displayed there.

I’m counting the days now, till I can move back into my kitchen.

New Stash, and Gold Seahorse Masterboard

Today I did some art in my studio for the first time for ages! I have several occasions coming up which require cards, and I need to make some fairly quick ones without too much work involved, because energy is in short supply, and I shall be having my third chemo treatment on Friday and who knows how I’m going to feel after that!!

So I thought I would make a masterboard and cut it up and make several cards from it.

I got some very exciting new stash today! First of all, I’d ordered some thin metal angels’ wings from Etsy, along with some vintage mini-bouquets, and they arrived this morning.

I am intending to make moulds from some of these wings, so that I can replicate them in different materials (polymer clay, Friendly Plastic, etc.) depending on how well the moulds go – the metal is very thin and it might be hard to press it down evenly into the moulding putty. Notice the attached haloes on the larger wings! You can bend the halo forwards so that it hovers above the angel’s head! The mini-bouquets are very pretty and I thought I could split these apart and use them for angel embellishments.

Later in the day, the most exciting parcel arrived. I decided not long ago to get the complete set of Dylusions paints. I am so fed up with ruining decent pens by writing with them over acrylic paint – there’s something that reacts and causes the ink in the pen to stop working, and once that happens there’s nothing to be done – the pen is ruined and just has to be thrown away. I read a review of these new paints and was pleased to learn that they are designed specifically for art journaling and of course writing is an essential part of that discipline, and the paints do not cause the pens to clog. I have watched a number of Youtube videos over the past few days and can see how versatile these paints are, and how you can blend them, and create great backgrounds with them. The colours are identical to the Dylusions sprays but their usage is different, and you an get quite a bit more control with them.

I began my masterboard by creating a background from several of these paints. These are some of the materials I used for this masterboard.

I applied the paints using a baby wipe, picking up the smallest amount of paint each time, from inside the lid of the jar. The card I have used for the masterboard isn’t very good quality – it’s A3 office grade card, so I would probably have got better results with the blending if I’d used better quality card. Layer 1 was done with London Blue.

Layer 2 was created with Vibrant Turquoise. With the blending not going quite as well as I’d hoped, I decided to go for a swirling pattern.

Layer 3: Cut Grass.

Layer 4: Squeezed Orange – just a little, between the swirls where there wasn’t so much colour.

Layer 5: Lemon Zest – a very small amount, just to highlight the Squeezed Orange.

For layer 6, I mixed together some Vibrant Turquoise and some White Linen to produce a paler shade.

Creating Layer 6:

Time for some stamping. I used the water droplets stamp from Designs by Ryn, with Ranger Cobalt Archival Ink.

At this point I felt that the whole thing was much too bright and the water droplets were too dark, so I decided to apply a wash with some White Linen paint mixed with some water.

I applied this with a foam brush over the entire surface of the masterboard, but it left quite a lot of streaks, so I took a fan brush and made swirling brush strokes through the wash, which gave a better effect.

The wash completed. I am much happier with this result. The colour is much more subtle and the water droplets not so obvious.

Time to stamp the shells. I used Distress Inks for this, but they didn’t go down onto the acrylic surface very well, and took quite a bit of drying with my heat gun, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result.

I began with the little starfish from the Seven Gypsies set, using Tea Dye Distress Ink, but this came out quite pale with a slightly greenish cast over the turquoise background.

For the scallop shell I used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink:

and for the other shell, Rusty Hinge.

The shell stamping completed.

Time to add the heat-embossed seahorses. The seahorse stamp came from the same Seven Gypsies set as the shells.

The gold embossed seahorses complete. I completed four at a time.

I think you can see how nice and shiny they are in the photograph. I wanted to add a bit more sparkle, so I applied some variegated copper gilding flakes in small patches, using a glue pen, and stippling them on with a brush, and then brushing off the excess.

Here is the completed masterboard, showing the shiny seahorses and gilding flakes.

I am very pleased with the new paints. If the quality of the card had been better I think the blending might have gone better, but I like the way the colours go together, and how you can control them, and lighten or darken the effect with the addition of white or black, and other colour mixing, giving you the full range of colours. In their raw state the colours are very vibrant and not a bit subtle, and I think for most of the time I shall be mixing them for a gentler, more subtle effect. The addition of a white colour wash certainly improved this piece, I think.