Recycling

(images are clickable)

 

Last week I found a necklace at the charity shop in our village. I saw possibilities in the disc...

 

as I prefered a more reddish copper tone to the yellow brass, I decided to paint the disc with acrylic. But first I used black, to emphasize the details. Then the dismantling of the old necklace began. Over the years I have gathered many, many beads and that came in handy when I made them into a new necklace, the one in the last picture:

 

 

Sometimes I still feel like a little girl, so happy with a new adornment!

 

Do you recognize this feeling? Let me know if so...

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Regina

 

 



Experiment

(click for details please)

 

It has been such a long time since I have done something like this!

 

While I have been sewing a lot of new clothes lately, there were some fabric leftovers that inspired me to sew a simpel white t-shirt. Ready for some experimental dying. I hope I still know the most important things when using soda-ash, procion and sintrapol!

 

We'll see, nothing wrong if it turns out ugly, yet hoping that this shirt will be another extension of my wardrobe. Will blog the results asap...

 

Thanks for visiting.



While potting some plants in the garden this afternoon, I spotted this young fellow or 'lady'.
It felt like a present and never ceases to move me: young animals (or whatever...)

In love with blue

I really love this kind of blue. It reminds me of the fields of corn when I was young. We lived in Amsterdam back then, but always spent the summer in Zeeland, with is one of Hollands most southern provinces. It was the time when agriculture played an important role, more important than these days it seems. Cornflowers can hardly be seen in the Netherlands today.

 

 

(click for details)

 

The flowers above are related to chicoree, it is a wild variety. This field is near the vineyards at the end of our street, where I walk daily. This morning I did not forget to bring my camera and I was lucky that the weather was cloudy, good conditions to capture this lovely blue.

Happy days in Spain...

 

Enjoy the weekend!

 

Regina

 



Back, finally

Hi!

 

I have been away far too long, I know that...

What exactly was the reason for this period of silence, I don't know myself. I had the time to blog, but preferred not to, did not know for the very first time what to write about. Can you imagine?

 

So, what else did I do? Help finishing our renovation, painting doorknobs, sewing curtains and reading, lots of that too.

Since a few days I am feeling more energized and I slowly feel the inspiration get back to my life. I feel it on my daily walking tour, when I see the flowers and grasses, while crossing the vineyards near our village. I feel it when I walk the rocky path that runs beside the sea, all that natural beauty seems to help and direct me back to creativity.

 

 

 

This piece of textile is from a book about Indian decoration

I am planning to make some brightly coloured cushions for our naya (veranda) and this style attracts me at the moment, not for the first time though...

This time I won't make use of shishas, but the cowrie shells will make a nice accent border on these pillows.

 

 

For the cowrie shells I had to visit an unusal place: the thriftstore. We have three of them in our village and this morning I was lucky too find two necklaces that offer these shells!

 

 

So my next job will be to deconstruct the necklaces and then the creativity can take place. Fabrics are neatly stacked in piles, so it should not be too long before I can show the results.

 

Till next time, thanks for your patience!

 

Regina

Land between the Lakes

During our last camping trip in the USA, one of our fellow campers suggested us to visit this area that was unknown to us.

It is called 'Land between the Lakes' and is situated right on the border and between Kentucky and Tennessee. Since I had Paducah on my wishlist anyway, we decided to give it a try, and we have not regretted it a single moment.

 

We found a great campground that was run by the Civil Corps of Engineers and managed to find a nice site where we could stay a few nights. The view on the second picture is exactly how I remember the view from our site, it was so wonderful and peaceful...

 

 

The Golden Pond Visitor Centre housed an interesting exhibit of life before modern times: the words on the panel describe this andmy not so young readers maybe remember similar circumstances where they grew up, at least I do, having grown up in the post war years in Amsterdam...

 

 

 

Although the picture is somewhat yellowish due to the artificial light in the visitor's centre, it reflects the mood of those days, the old fashioned fabrics of the quilt included!

 

That was it from me today, we are off to have lunch (almuerzo) in one of the lovely Spanish restaurants and a musical meeting at our club afterwards.

 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day!

 

Regina

Our Jacaranda tree

 

 

When we bought our house in Spain one year ago, we were very surprised that one of the trees in the garden appeared to be a Jacaranda tree. Allthough there were not many, the lovely purple flowers made me quite happy. When autumn came, I collected the pods and made this picture tryptich. Like the pods of the tropical flamboyant tree, the shells are of a hard, wooden material.

 

 

When we spotted the neighbors pruning their tree, we did ours too, for we did not have any experience with this kind of tree nor did we live before in this mediterranean climate...

 

Until today it looked like our tree had not survived this operation, for the branches are still completely bare despite the soft winter and many other trees that have already blossomed. But, upon a very close look, I discovered one (ONE) tiny pair of leaves and maybe it will have a happy end.

 

Though this Jacaranda is growing on the very spot of our future pool, I will do my utmost to get it back in a healthy shape, starting with watering as of tomorrow!

 

That's the latest, I will get back with a renovation update one of these days.

Have a great evening!

 

Regina

 



Weavings from nature

(clickable image)

 

Hi!

 

While playing with storyboard and dyptich frames in my photo editing program this morning, something unexpected happened!

 

I wanted to make a dyptich of two pictures with weavings from Mother Nature. Apparently the frame that I wanted to use had been damaged in some way, for instead of the two pictures next to each other, the second one appeared IN the first one. However, I was quite surprised with the result, so I decided to show it on my blog.

 

The big shot is of a spider web and in it is a detail of coconut tree bark.

 

That was it from me today, enjoy your Monday,

 

Regina



America dyptich

(click to enlarge)

 

Finally I finished my travel journal of 2012, the last time we toured the USA  in our motorhome before moving back to Europe. In this trip we went from Buffalo NY via Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina to Florida where our car was shipped.

 

Fortunately I kept a handwritten journal during our voyage, so it was not just memory at work...

 

In the journal I have added pictures too and while doing so, I once again browsed through the many visual remembrances and they really help to bring back other facts and especially the details.

 

These images led to composing a series of dyptichs that I call 'The Americas' and above you can see  my first one. We saw this very strange western grill fixed at a car in a museum in Nashville. I am curious how many of you recognize it and know its former owner?  Answer in my next issue!

The second image is made in a shop in Cherokee, an Indian, rather touristic village just South of Smokey Mountains Nat'l Park.

 

Nothing spectacular, just images of peculiar (to us foreigners that is) things we saw on our way... that together with the people and the landscape gave us an overall idea of America.

 

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Regina

 

Btw: the dyptich action is one of many action and storyboards that can be downloaded free from this blog

 



Dyptich

 

 

(click the image!)

 

Hi!

 

On the few cold, grey winterdays here in Spain, I love it when I can just stay inside and play with my pictures. This dyptich I made yesterday consists of details of journal pages I made years ago.

 As usual(with me)  the circle is present and remnants of words, sparingly.

 

That's about the only creativity life brings me at present. But no complaints, renovation works are still in progress and the end of this 'upstairs' phase is getting near! Then: working in my studio and maybe a little vacation, a break at least I suppose...

 

Stay warm and cozy!

Regina

Back to collage

 

Remnants of Red

original collage,

 

magazine rippings on cardboard

 

appr. 6.5 x 9"

 

 

Hi!

 

Finally, I am back in the creative mood a little. Last Sunday I took out my papers and gluestick and made four collages!

 

This is the first one. I chose this title because the faces of the Chinese people seem to remind of a time when this huge country was very closed up to foreign influences. This collage is made from an auction magazine of Christies. We have a Christies real estate agent in our village and sometimes when I come along this business, I notice a new magazine in one of their outside boxes. The first time I went inside and asked if this could be taken home by me, I simply could not imagine that it was for free, with all this great art pictures inside...! Since that time I have gathered three and they hold a wealth of collage material. The red part is symbolizes the red communistic period. And the bottom part is just that: the bottom, not meaning anything more than that I liked the result and it seemed to form a stand on which the man and woman seem to be positioned.

That was it from me today, I hope you like my new start of collages!

 

Regina