Through the Forest… and WOYWW

Warning – Photo-rich post!

For my WOYWW, there is nothing on my desk at the moment because I haven’t managed to do any art this week, so I thought I’d show you the photos on my (computer) desk(top) instead.

Yesterday afternoon we went with some friends on a walk through the woods near Exeter. I had never been to this place before, and yet again I counted my blessings that we live in such a beautiful corner of the country, with such places within easy reach. To have such a place on our doorstep, we are blessed indeed!

The place is called Mamhead, near Haldon Hill, just outside Exeter. The woodland has been laid out with paths, which are all accessible and easy to walk, with plenty of seats scattered about, some with tables for picnics, and discreet signs, and boards with information. The woodland is mixed deciduous and coniferous with a wide variety of trees, and there are ferns, bracken and wild flowers in the underbrush. I can imagine that in the early spring there would be snowdrops, and later, a carpet of bluebells.

It was a perfect day for an outing in the woods. There was quite a cold wind, so we were largely sheltered by the trees, but the sun was shining, and dappling through the foliage, and providing perfect conditions for photography. I couldn’t believe how many lovely shots I managed to get, and later on in the evening I had some fun manipulating some of them. I am intending to make a video slideshow, and am inspired to translate some of them into Zentangle designs.

Enjoy.

On the further side of the circuit, we were in for a surprise. As the light got brighter, we emerged out of the trees and were confronted with the most stunning and unexpected view…

Right over the sea – as far as Exmouth.

Quite amazing where plants can find a foothold, isn’t it.

The beech has to be the most elegant of trees. Where the oak is the king of the forest, the beech is the queen.

 

Now for the photos that I manipulated, using a variety of effects – desaturating, posterising, creating negative images, desaturating and replacing selected areas of colour, selecting edges, etc.

I hope you have enjoyed your virtual tour through the woods.

Fame at Last!

Shoshi’s in print!

You may remember last year, I was approached by British CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) Jane Marbaix, and asked if I would produce a piece of ZIA (Zentangle-inspired art) featuring my Zentangle pattern Y-Ful Power, to be included in her upcoming book. As the book was to be an inspirational one, she wondered if I could in some way depict my cancer journey. This is the piece that I produced, entitled “Rising Towards the Light.”

You can read about it in detail here, and the story behind it, and also see details of Y-Ful Power here.

The book was some months in production, and last week I received my complimentary copy, courtesy of the author.

I am highly delighted with this book, not merely because I am in print at last, but because it is such a beautifully produced volume, and full of very inspiring ideas, and some techniques that I did not know about. I decided to do a brief review of the book, and to give publishing details because I know that several people expressed an interest in obtaining their own copy when I first blogged about this.

Here is the front cover of the book – the jpg Jane sent me at the beginning, which was the working cover, but which has been used without alteration.

The frontispiece.

I do like this idea of making a design from small rectangles and squares, each filled with a different pattern. This makes a beautiful frame and could be used for cards or other personalised items, with a sentiment or an initial or number in the centre.

In the first section of the book, Jane explains what Zentangle is, and gets us started with “Basic Steps” – the title of the first section.

In this photo she shows various enhancements you can add to your Zentangles, some of which I had not seen before, in particular the dew drop one, which I am very keen to try. It’s extremely realistic.

All the headings, and the tinting of the pages, are colour-coded according to the section. “Basic Steps” is in green. In addition, there is a “watermark” in a slightly darker tone of the page colour, made up of elements of the designs depicted on each page, giving a lovely cohesion to the design of the book. It is very restful on the eye and does not compete with the illustrations or text; so often these days one comes across publications where the background is so busy and too intense in colour and it makes the text hard to read, especially for people with problems with their eyesight. The backgrounds in this book are softer than simple plain white, and they enhance beautifully the subject matter of each page.

On the page in the next photo, Jane shows us how we can use text – letters and numbers – a lovely feature for any card or personalised project.

Still in the “Basic Steps” section, there is a technique I have never come across before, which I find particularly appealing, as a mixed media artist, because I love mixing different materials and equipment from different disciplines in my projects. A stencil makes a very different kind of “string” (the initial lines drawn on the Zentangle tile, making the shapes that you then fill with pattern).

This is definitely a technique I am going to try. I am currently designing and making some new stencils, and will bear this use in mind as I design them from now on.

The next section of the book is entitled “Projects” and the theme colour is pale orange. In this section, in addition to Jane’s own beautiful work, are featured the people whom Jane invited showcase their work – myself included! The following photo shows another technique I want to use, having merely scratched the surface – mandalas. The book has several pages of these and they are beautiful and complex.

Mandalas lend themselves particularly well to Zentangle; instead of filling random shapes created by a string, the patterns are arranged concentrically.

Here is my page!

I am more thrilled than I can say, to see my work in print, and my story published – my greatest hope is that this will inspire others who are struggling with their own cancer journey.

Moving on, here is another example of an unusual use for Zentangle – tangling on found objects, in this case shells and stones. This could be seen as a springboard to the imagination – what else could one embellish with Zentangle?

There are also details of other 3-D projects in Origami, the use of colour, making simple books, and working on fabric.

The sage green section is entitled “Fun for All Ages” and includes the charming “Tangle Folk” – I came across these online some months ago and filed them away at the back of my mind as something to try one day! Loads of scope here for some really fun images! Recently I’ve been experimenting with drawing very simple cat shapes along the same lines – a continuous line forming the head, for instance, and the possibilities for embellishment and colouring are endless.

The final section of the book, themed blue, is “A-Z of Tangles” – an alphabetical list of a selection of different patterns with their “step-outs” (step by step instructions on how to construct them) with some beautiful examples of the respective patterns in use.

My own pattern, Y-Ful Power, features in the “Y” section, and Jane has added some very kind words about me.

Not only is this book a useful resource and beautiful to look at – it is also great fun! Scattered throughout its pages is a series of what I call “motivational birds” with little speech bubbles encouraging us in the right direction! Such a fun way to give advice without it being dictatorial! – gentle reminders of things that make our tangling experience efficient, relaxing and fun.

The final picture shows another “motivational bird,” and an example of a couple of tiles with different tangles, and the watermark background.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this review of a beautiful book, which I know is going to take pride of place in my ever-growing library of inspirational art books, and I am so grateful to Jane for inviting me to be part of such an exciting project. I wish her well in all her endeavours in the Zentangle world and the people she helps, and am delighted that now, even more people will be able to benefit from her first-class teaching skills, and enjoy the wonderfully relaxing, focused, mindful, de-stressing and creative technique that is Zentangle.

If you haven’t done so already, give it a try!

“Inspiring Zentangle Projects” by Jane Marbaix, Pub. Arcturus,

ISBN 978-1-78404-657-6

Physiotherapy Appointment

WOYWW visitors – please scroll down to the previous post.

Following the acute pain of my frozen shoulder, the GP suggested I made an appointment with the physiotherapist. By the time this morning’s appointment came around, my shoulder was so much improved that I had thought of cancelling it, but on balance I decided to go, because I thought she might give me some exercises and some advice to prevent the problem recurring.

As it turned out, I am very glad I went. She said immediately that she thought the frozen shoulder could well be merely a symptom of something else.

She examined me and got me to move my arm in various ways, asking me to tell her when, and how much, it hurt, and measured the amount of movement I was able to achieve. She felt the back of my neck with her fingers and said that the muscles were quite tight and knotted.

She said that both shoulders were affected, and that the pain in my neck was connected, although she agreed that the right shoulder and neck could be reacting to my having used different muscles during the period my left shoulder was immobilised.

She said that medication was fine in the short term, to reduce inflammation and acute pain, but in the long term it was not so good as it affects other parts of the body, and in any case it only treats the symptoms and not the underlying cause, which was her function.

She said that the main problem lay in the anatomy of the shoulder joint – there are muscles north, south, east and west around the ball-and-socket joint, and these should be in balance. Even in repose, they are used to maintain posture, and to keep the joint in proper alignment. There is a connection between the shoulder joint itself, and the muscles across the upper back and the joints where the ribs join the spine, the shoulder blades and the neck, and if the shoulder muscles are not balanced, this can affect the whole of this anatomical area, which she called the shoulder girdle.

Many people get problems with this, if they are using a computer keyboard all day, for instance, and for people who use their arms a lot in an extended position, or carry out activities bending forwards, for instance over a desk or work station. What happens is that one set of muscles gets over-used, while its opposite number becomes under-used, and the brain learns this pattern, which then feels normal.

However, if this state of affairs continues, it puts a strain on the tendons in the joint, causing pain, and it is at this point that people seek professional advice. There can be swelling and damage caused by the wear and tear due to continuous bad positioning of the joint, and the brain needs to learn a new way of holding the posture and maintaining the joint in its correct position.

Since it is impossible to see one’s own shoulder blades, she demonstrated on herself what was happening with me. She said that my shoulder blades were too far apart, throwing the shoulder joints forwards, and that when I was moving my arms forwards, I was moving my whole upper trunk, when I should have been keeping the shoulder blades down, and moving only my arms. The muscles in the “north” position were being over-used, while their opposite number were being under-used, throwing the joint out of balance.

Moving on to my neck, she said that my head was too far forward in relation to my upper back. She got me to stand with my back to the wall and try to align my ears, shoulders and hips as if gravity were pulling me downwards in a vertical line. She said that in a normal situation, one should be able to get one’s neck far enough back that there was only room for one finger between the neck and the wall, but in my case, she could fit four fingers into the space, and I couldn’t get it any closer. She said that for some people, it was impossible for them to get their head to touch the wall at all, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been!

All the muscles across the base of my neck are very knotted and tight and she could tell that the shoulder joints were being pulled slightly out of position because she could feel the “clickiness” that I was aware of. When I asked if this could give rise to arthritis in the long term, she said no, as the shoulder is not a weight-bearing joint, but it would cause soft tissue damage.

As for the cause of these problems, in my case it is not just my activities with my art and computer use (although the latter isn’t such a problem because most of the time when I’m on the computer, I am lying back on the recliner), but mostly it is due to my use of mobility aids. Self-propelling my wheelchair and walking with elbow crutches over several years has thrust my shoulder joints forwards and this now needs to be corrected.

I had thought she would give me exercises involving lots of arm movements to keep the shoulder joints moving, but on the contrary, I have been given only two, and the movement is surprisingly minimal.

Firstly, I have to lower my shoulder blades and hold the position for a few seconds and then release, and repeat, and I am to do this throughout the day. Whenever I reach forward for anything, or propel my wheelchair, or walk with my crutches, I am to be conscious of the position of the shoulder blades and keep them in the down position. This movement brings the shoulder joint back into a healthier position.

The other exercise involves standing against the wall several times a day – she suggested each time I went to the loo, as a good reminder to do it several times a day – and get everything into alignment, and to try and get my neck as far back as possible, so that my chin is more tucked in, without bending my head forward. She said that the gap will gradually decrease, but I should look at at least three months before I notice an improvement in this.

She told me not to go mad with these exercises – a few times, several times a day, is better than 25 times all at once and every five minutes! She was aware that my M.E. gives me rapid muscle fatigability anyway, so I can’t do too much. She said it was very important when carrying out activities which keep one in the same position for prolonged periods, to remember to move around from time to time, and change one’s position.

As I progress with these small but crucial movements, my brain will gradually relearn how my posture should be maintained. Our bodies are designed to be in perfect balance and when we get into bad habits, for whatever reason (in my case the need to use a different method of getting around from that which the body is designed to do), this puts a strain on our anatomy and eventually causes us pain.

I asked her what would have happened if I had not sought help. She said that the wear and tear on the tendons would have become worse, causing more inflammation and pain, until eventually I would not have been able to move the joints at all and my arms would become immobilised (the idea of having a permanently frozen shoulder is appalling!!). I know that many wheelchair users have problems with their shoulders because of this unnatural use of their arms over many years, and without the necessary training to prevent damage, and many manual wheelchair users eventually have to resort to a power chair for this reason. It was fascinating having the mechanics of it explained to me.

On the subject of wheelchair use, I feel very strongly that there should be professional training for all wheelchair users, whatever the cause of their disability. For spinal injured people, the rehab in the spinal units is very good and covers correct wheelchair use as well as all other aspects of regaining a full and independent life, but in most other areas this is simply not addressed. A wheelchair is prescribed and you are on your own, for the most part. There should be training on how to do wheelies, for instance, which hugely enhance one’s independence, and all wheelchairs should be properly fitted to their individual users. A badly fitted wheelchair can do as much damage as badly fitting shoes to growing feet, and on a greater scale, too. Modern lightweight wheelchair design is a vast improvement on the old style (I call them iron maiden wheelchairs!) and this certainly helps reduce problems in the long term, but just as important is the use of correct technique. I thought I was doing pretty well, and I do employ an efficient propulsion motion with my arms, but had no idea what was going on with my shoulder joint position.

What I have to do is really very simple. She said that as the pain decreased, the temptation would be to think, “I’m all right now – I can stop doing the exercises” or to forget to do them, but it was crucial to continue, until my brain has re-learned the correct muscles to use when doing different activities and it becomes automatic, and my new, better, normal.

I found the whole thing quite fascinating. She explained everything very well. Although of course all doctors have to study anatomy, the physiotherapists have specialist knowledge of how our muscles and related soft tissue interact, and which movements are healthy and which are not. I thought my posture was good, but it clearly hasn’t been, and the smallest adjustment can make a world of difference.

She sent me home with a printout of my “homework” with diagrams showing me the correct movements, and said it was in my hands now – the muscles are all there, and they are all functioning properly, and I have now learnt how to use them correctly, so it’s down to me now to work on this and put things right. Unless I have any problems she doesn’t need to see me again, but said their door was always open if I needed them.

At the moment, the pain is worse, after she pulled me around and prodded and poked me this morning, and since I have been repeating the required movements during the day. I expect I shall be stiff for a few days as my body adjusts to the new way of doing things, but I am very optimistic about the future, and am very pleased to have been made aware of what was going on, and to have caught it in good time before permanent damage has been done.

WOYWW 374

I’ve been busy this week working on a project that I’m not yet at liberty to share with you, so the relevant part is blurred out in this photo of my desk!

Also on the desk you can see some of my Daler Rowney pearlescent acrylic inks (gorgeous stuff!), some gel mediums, some Pebeo fluid acrylics, distress ink, ink dusters, heat gun, dirty paint water (yes, again…), palette, and general detritus.

I promise that I shall be blogging about this project as soon as the person has received it! She is going away, so it may be a while.

Faux Mother of Pearl

For this project, I have been working on producing some convincing faux mother of pearl. I have done a blog post about this. It’s taken a long time but by trial and error, and using different materials in different sequences, I have finally managed to produce a result I am happy with.

Cutting Machine

Yesterday the new support tables for Sheba arrived. Since I resurrected my Cougar cutting machine, I’ve been having a few problems with uneven cuts, and following some recommendations from people on the cutting machines forum, I ordered some of the support tables which keep the mat absolutely flat as it goes in and out of the machine. Without this, it tends to droop downwards and this can alter the distance from the blade, making the results unpredictable. I have been given a few other suggestions too, so hopefully things should improve from now on.

The clear plastic support tables have a layer of white protective film on them, and I have decided to leave this on, because it is all too easy to knock the clear tables when you don’t see them out of the corner of your eye. I am glad that there is still room for my Windows laptop in front of Sheba. I am looking forward to trying her with the new support tables.

Health Update

We turned up for my physio appointment last Friday, to find that they had no knowledge of it! After they had dug around for a while, they discovered that I should have gone in on Wednesday. There was some mix-up with the online message, and so they gave me a new appointment, the old-fashioned way, hand-written on an appointment card! It is for 10.30 a.m. today. We may be going out later, depending on the weather, so I may not be able to visit any desks until the evening.

My frozen shoulder is very much better and I now have more pain in my neck than my shoulder! I think this may be due to the use of unaccustomed muscles, and perhaps from tension due to the pain in my shoulder. I shall discuss this with the physio. I expect she will give me some exercises to do, to keep everything moving and to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Have a great week, everybody, full of creativity and fun. Happy WOYWW.

Experiments with Faux Mother of Pearl

For a project I am working on, I need to create a faux mother of pearl effect. I searched online and found a couple of techniques, but I wasn’t able to make my results look convincing, so after quite a bit of trial and error with different materials and methods of applying, I eventually came up with something that I was satisfied with.

The following pictures show the sheets of experiments that I did, and my progress towards a satisfactory result. As usual, shiny and iridescent surfaces are quite hard to photograph, but with a bit of explanation I think you will get the gist of it, and actually the photos came out better than I had expected.

The first sheet

On this sheet, I followed the most widely used technique that I found online, with some variations.

At top left: not having any pearlescent white acrylic paint, I mixed together some titanium white with some iridescent gel medium, hoping for the same shimmery effect, and I applied this with scrunched up freezer paper, which has a waxed surface. Some people suggested this, while others suggested using cling film (I tried this later).

The results were not encouraging. I think the freezer paper was too thick and stiff, and if was really hard not to apply too much of the paint to the paper. Acrylic acts as a resist to water-based distress inks.

I applied distress inks in three colours: Spun Sugar, Broken China and Iced Spruce, using Inkylicious ink dusters and blending them, being careful not to apply too much but gradually building up, especially with the Broken China which was a stronger colour. There was too much acrylic to allow much of the ink to penetrate the paper, except around the edges.

At bottom left, I tried applying less of the paint to start with, but it ended up being little spots which were quite rough, and the colour ended up much too strong.

On the right, things were slightly better. In this case, I applied the colour first, and then added the paint mixture afterwards, again using the same methods of application.

Sheet 2

I found another technique online that I quite liked the look of. Natural mother of pearl is not flat, but has slight ridges as the nacre is laid down by the organism inside its shell. I tried using texture paste for this – at least, my version of texture paste, which is Polyfilla One Fill (known as joint compound in the USA). You can see what it looks like at top left of the first sample, where I have not added anything. I applied it with a palette knife, trying to give it a texture of parallel ridges.

While this was drying, I tried with the second part of that particular technique, at bottom left on the sheet, by dabbing on some gold and copper acrylic paints in small patches with a brush. When it was dry, I brushed on some of the titanium white and iridescent medium mixture. I can’t say I was very much impressed with this, and still less with my experiment next to it, using just the iridescent medium.

Once the texture paste on the first sample was dry, I tried stippling on the gold and copper acrylic paint with a large stencil brush. I used the same technique to add the distress inks, and once this was dry, I brushed on iridescent medium, and when that was dry, the final treatment was to brush on some soft gloss gel medium to smooth it out a bit and give it more of a sheen.

The texture of the Polyfilla, although it is pretty smooth, was a bit gritty and didn’t give quite the effect I was after, which was a lustrous, smooth, pearly finish.

Top right on the sheet is a repeat of the first technique on sheet 1. This really isn’t nearly lustrous enough, and quite disappointing, even when I used less of the paint mixture.

The example in the centre of the page looks as if texture has been applied, but this is just the wrinkling of the paper caused by the moisture in the materials used. In this case, I used the original technique, and then brushed on more iridescent medium, and finished it with a coat of soft gloss gel medium. Slightly better but still not good enough!

Bottom right was not a success. I began by painting smaller patches of gold and copper acrylic paint, and then stippled on some of the paint/iridescent medium mixture with a stencil brush. The distress inks were then stippled on, and more iridescent medium was brushed on, and finally the soft gloss medium.

I think part of the problem with all these test pieces was that the paint/iridescent medium mixture was too thick, and when stippled on, it left quite a rough texture.

Sheet 3

Moving on to the next sheet, I took a different approach, introducing Liquid Pearls and using scrunched up cling film instead of the paint/iridescent medium mix and the rather stiff freezer paper.

At top left, I began by dabbing on Liquid Pearls with cling film, and then the distress inks, using Ink Dusters. Still on the same sample, at bottom left I added iridescent gel medium with a brush, but this made it a bit too shiny. On the right of the sample, I added more Liquid Pearls with the cling film, and the star indicates that I was starting to be a bit more pleased with the result! Definite progress!

In the sample at top right, I applied Liquid Pearls and gold acrylic paint with cling film, and applied the distress inks with Ink Dusters. Still on the same sample, at top left I brushed on iridescent gel medium, and on the right, more Liquid Pearls dabbed on with cling film, and below that, some more iridescent medium. It all looked a bit “bitty” and not what I wanted.

Bottom left on the sheet, I painted small dabs of gold acrylic paint, dabbed on Liquid Pearls with cling film, and added distress inks with Ink Dusters. Still on the same sample, at the top, I painted on iridescent gel medium, and at bottom left, more Liquid Pearls with the cling film. The gold was much too strong.  At this point, I abandoned the metallic acrylic paint altogether.

The sample at bottom right earned another star, as it was approaching what I was looking for. I began by adding some texture again, this time using Finnabair heavy body transparent gloss medium with a palette knife and letting it dry. I applied quite a bit of Liquid Pearls with cling film (with a note to myself to apply less), and then distress inks applied with Ink Dusters. Still on the same sample, at the top I painted on some iridescent gel medium, and really quite liked the look of this one.

Sheet 4

This final sheet was where I think I finally cracked it. All of these had texture added, but not as a base.

Beginning with the left-hand sample, I started by dabbing on the distress inks using cling film instead of an Ink Duster. I found it easiest to do this by smearing the ink pad onto the non-stick craft sheet and picking it up from there. The next step was to dab on Liquid Pearls with cling film. Then came the texture, in the form of the heavy body transparent gloss medium. This gave a translucency to the piece which was not there when the colour was applied on top of the texture. The final step was to add more Liquid Pearls with cling film.

This is definitely usable, and was the more shiny option of the two best results.

Moving on to the middle sample, I dabbed on the distress inks with Ink Dusters instead of cling film, deliberately not tapping the brush onto the craft sheet before applying (as one usually does, so as to produce a soft, blended effect without spots), so that it gave a definite stippled effect. Then came the Liquid Pearls applied with the cling film as before, and the texture layer as before, the heavy body transparent gloss medium, finishing off with more liquid pearls applied with cling film. This was quite nice, but the result was not so good as when the colour was applied using cling film, as it was a bit too uniform.

The final sample, on the right-hand side of the sheet, was done in exactly the same way as the one on the left, but instead of using the heavy body gloss medium, I used Finnabair 3D transparent matt gel medium which really holds a texture. When I left it to dry, I wasn’t convinced that it would be any good because I thought the surface would be too matt. However, on returning later, and dabbing on the additional Liquid Pearls, I was very pleasantly surprised – it had a lovely pearlescent lustre and the colours showed well. However, the texture was slightly too ridgy, so I made a note to myself to smooth it out a bit more in future.

Finally I experimented by adding a final coat of soft gloss medium on the right-hand side of the sample only, for comparison, and finishing it with some additional Liquid Pearls applied with cling film. This came out a bit too shiny, and I didn’t like it as much as the sample on the left-hand side of the sheet, although it did have the effect of smoothing out the ridgy texture somewhat.

Now for some closer shots of the final sheet. First, the left-hand sample, which is my final second choice, if I want a more shiny surface.

The middle sample, which I rejected on account of the colour application method not being so satisfactory.

Finally, the right-hand sample, definitely my final first choice. I wish the photo did it justice because it does look quite realistic!

Once I have finished working on the project for which this experiment was designed, I will be blogging about it and you will be able to see an application of this technique.

I hope it has been interesting, and helpful for anyone wanting to try to create a realistic mother of pearl effect.