Monday, June 27, 2011

If all else fails...

...revert to black and white:

Making minis

Fred laptop's resurrection from the dead on Friday meant I could finally print out the cushions I'd planned to make almost a month ago.Guess I'll be spending tonight turning and stuffing...

I wasn't completely absent from my studio over the past few weeks. I spent quite some time clearing things away(although I wonder how long it'll be before I can no longer see the desktop again...)

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Purple? Painful.

While I was offline I received a mini mini swap parcel from the fabulous Call of the Small

She knew I was after the Bandai clock she showed in this post and managed to pick one up for me, including a few added extras in the parcel:So, the weekend before last, I decided to create a scene using the clock and the lilac seagrass paper she'd included. Things did not go well: and I gave up in frustration after half an hour.

Perhaps the problem is that I don't actually have much in my collection that's purple?(The perspex table in the trials above was ordered as cerise but they were out of it and substituted the purple instead. I figured I could always give it away if I didn't find a use for it...)

I've had purple on my mind ever since, mulling over how I could make the scene work at odd times of the day (and night). Yesterday I picked up a ball of
Fairy Floss at the Lincraft sale. In purple. Perhaps a purple flokati might help things along?

Friday, June 24, 2011

Fred* Sir, in bed Sir, not dead Sir**

How was your Friday night? I spent mine in the back streets of Fyshwick gaining much satisfaction from Jamor who did magic things with Fred's hard..... drive.***

The PC Professional gets top marks from me for going above and beyond the call of duty (folks, they supposedly close at 5pm on Friday night: I finally left with a fixed laptop just after 8pm!) And for reasonable rates, straight forward explanations and selling you what you need not what you think you want.

I discovered that they do house calls, which made me start plotting the idea of "PC parties": grab a group of girlfriends with computers and laptops that need cleaning up and who want to learn more about them. Gather with snacks and wine (and a chap from The PC Professionals) then share the hourly rate: while one computer is upgrading he can be working on another or explaining the basics of what exactly all those programmes your computer came with actually do and why (and how) to safely delete them.


(* My laptop)
(** With apologies to Spike Milligan)
(*** You probably have to be a local to get this)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Postal problems

You may have noticed it's been a little quiet round here this week. That's because my computer died during a Windows update last week and I'm waiting to get it to the computer chap to suck the data (no, of course I don't do regular backups, but will from now on) out of it before we reset it.

Oddly enough, a long weekend without a computer wasn't as painful as I thought it might be: mainly due to the fact I now own a smart phone so could still access the internet when I got too twitchy...

Monday, June 06, 2011

Parcels and letters

It was a good mail day: a swap package from Call of the Small (the contents put aside to use in a scene this weekend) and a collection of pop bead letters, which I bought solely (of course) for the letter As. I had fun sorting them out as a reward for finishing filling in my very first grant application.

Anyone after any other letter of the alphabet for their mini scenes? They're just under 1.5 cm tall and the sticky out bits cut off easily with scissors...

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Then sometimes, when you stop thinking...

it all just clicks into place. As I was tidying up, the light fading fast, this scene popped together with a number of items I've picked up in the past few weeks. (Credits over on FLICKR)

A grey day

When I got up this morning I wondered if there was going to be enough light to shoot the mini scene I'd planned to make this weekend. But, by the time I'd spent the late morning going to buy more black spray paint, made lunch and shared it with a friend, the sun had come out and I was good to go.

Except there were problems. The original plan for
the grey and yellow kitchen which I sketched last week looked like this:I wanted to play with the idea of working into a corner. Except I only had one sheet of the grey scrapbooking paper and really couldn't face a trip to the mall for one piece of paper. Just as well, really as I realised that, although the Miele kitchen sink worked rather well, there weren't any more bottom cabinets in the set and I didn't have the brain space today to muddle bits into something appropriating the bench return I was after...

Feeling most disheartened, I threw together a couple of pieces anyway, including a set of flying ducks I'd painted just for the occasion, and noticed that the sun was hitting the space I was working on rather interestingly. So I placed my cardboard window wall across the side of the scene to see what the effect was with the sun shining through it:and decided it was worth working on the scene further.
(Still not happy. Very sterile all round. And I'm also bummed that it would seem that the lovely fat jugs aren't going to make it into the scene)

Taking a moment to step back and review the photos I've taken so far, I realise there is no story to the scene. It's a kitchen, it's morning. Maybe the owner has just returned from the Farmers' Market?Better, but the tulip chair is ruining the view of the table and flowers so it gets swapped out:
And, since the scene is now very top heavy I add a crate of purchases to the floor
(which doesn't work, much as I like the idea.)A straw shopping bag? much better, but the scene still isn't really working for me so I give it away as an idea that just didn't come together the way I'd planned. That doesn't stop me taking some detail photos before I dismantle it.
And, just as I'm about to rip it apart, a beam of light shines through the window and I capture a shot I'm happy with:
(Time taken: 20 minutes, not including putting things away afterwards)

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Yellow, hello!

A little package of goodness (from myself) arrived in the mail yesterday: And I thought I might try to share the full creative process in putting together a scene.

Again.

After I got home I popped them on the pile of "things to play with" and saw this:which made me think of an interesting juxtaposition of natural and man made.

Then I thought of a rug I made last week:Hmm... maybe I should go with the whole 70s retro vibe...

Then I remembered the grey paper I bought last week:and liked what I saw. So I explored the idea a bit further this morning over breakfast,and decided that I wanted to try a room I hadn't worked with before:
and likedwhat I saw...
(Time taken: 50 minutes while doing other things)

(To be continued...)