Footprints in concrete

I wonder how long these footprints have been on the sea wall in Rhos on Sea. The sea wall gets quite a beating there now and then and the wall has to be repaired often. One footprint was at one end of the Promenade and the other at the opposite end.

I think I will be having a little digital play with these soon.

Photography_

digital Gran

A rough Conwy Estuary

We had a high tide today and a fairly high wind. This does not happen very often and I've just seen it once before, a few years ago, when the waves were just lapping over the path. I don't think I'd be very happy living in the new houses on the marina if the predicted global warming really happens.
My friend Pearl can also see a little corner of the new cycle/footpath now that it's almost finished.

Photography_ The Estuary_

Mary Celeste and HMS Pickle

This lunchtime we had a high tide and also a fairly high wind, so you can see the estuary in a really rough mood. As I prepared to take some photos, I noticed to my horror that HMS Pickle was not it's usual black and yellow colours, but completely black. My husband then told me he'd read an article in the local paper about her. She was being filmed as The Mary Celeste, and the mysterious disappearance of all ship's hands and crew, when it was found abandoned off the Portuguese coast in 1872.
You can find a report of it here The Mary Celeste in a Pickle

Photographs_ The Estuary

Something different

I was going to post some stitching up tonight but didn't get around to the photos, so instead I took the easy way out and had fun designing.



This is a castle drawn by my grandson Ifan and scanned into the computer and then played with in 'Paint'.
Like Digital Gran, 6 year old Digital Grandson?

Digital Art_

Textile Group meeting

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What a wet miserable day it has been, here is a photo of the estuary this morning. We don't normally have many waves as such, but it was rough this morning and we had some waves as you can see.

Here is a taster of some of the things I will be posting on the SerenTex blog later on this evening.




This is work in progress by Gwyneth. She loves doing Goldwork and making banners for her local church. These gold leaves will eventually become part of a banner.


This is a bookcover stitched by Miriam. The photo next to it was her inspiration, but the photo was rather shiny and does not show up well.



These are Joan's beautiful dolls. Joan has been an embroiderer for a long time, but doll making is a new hobby in addition to her usual work.

Textile Group_ Textile Art_

My latest stitched page

This is the page I was unable to upload last night.
It's a page for my Australian book RR. I chose to use a very colourful beetle for my small creature. It's printed on satin using my Epson D88, which I'm beginning to love using. I then padded the Beetle and free machined around the shapes, auto stitched the borders pulling the fabric this way and that as I was doing it and then digitized three small Beetles and used those on the background. I am using the Artista software with the Bernina 180e machine.


For the back of the image I used transfer dyes and stitched small beetles here and there. It does not show up very well in a photo, but I think I almost preferred it to the page itself.

Textile Art_

Uploading problems

I'm afraid I have been unable to upload any images tonight, but I have had a good a day. I was pleased to open my mail to find a comment from Robin James the owner of the ship HMS Pickle that I have mentioned here more than once, thanking me on behalf of himself and the crew for the welcome to Conwy through my blog. He said "the crew and myself as owner love hearing that people are enjoying the spectacle she provides."
I thought that was a very unusual gesture from a businessman these days. Should you ever read this Robin. Thank you.
I also finished another page for my Australian Book Round Robin. This page was based on All creatures small, the book owner wanted to concentrate on the small creatures of Australia.
Tomorrow I have a meeting of SerenTex, my textile group and I hope they will have brought some work for me to photograph for the blog.

Planet Earth

I have just been watching David Attenborough's Planet Earth on TV. Isn't Nature just wonderful? I also admire the people who go down into these deep caves to film so that we can see the wonders that have taken millions of years in the making.

As today is Mother's Day I have had visits from my sons and family this afternoon.
This morning I went to Rhos on Sea and walked along the promenade, it was nice and warm, but the tide was in and there were not many photo opportunities.
I like the colour of these rocks, it is a beautiful green.




This shelter on the promenade was the inspiration for a design.

Knitting Socks

I had just finished turning the heel of my first sock which turned out really well, but as I looked at the cuff I could see how uneven it was and decided to unpick it all and start again. It had been my first bit of handknitting on such fine needles in a very long time, but by now I'm used to the fine knitting and it looks a lot more even. I think it would probably look even better if the wool was not unpicked and crinkly.
I have also decided to make a cord for my dusky pink jacket. I'm sure I will be much happier with it if it rests neatly on my waist. It looks very loose at the moment and would look much better a size smaller.



Knitting_

Conwy Town walls

You will get some idea from these two photos how complete these town walls are with little turrets here and there. When the weather gets better I will go into the town to take more photos.

Photography_ Conwy_ The Estuary_ Castle

Conwy Castle on a clear morning

This morning it was ideal photography weather, clear and sharp.


I thought perhaps you would like to see what I hide from you every day, the work continuing on the cycle/footpath.

Digital Fun using Gaudi as inspiration

I derive so much fun in creating images from small parts of my Gaudi photos. The idea behind all these images is to eventually create some kind of textile art from them. Unfortunately I enjoy creating the images a bit more than I do stitching them. It's not that I don't enjoy the textile part of the process, just that it's easier to sit here creating more and more images using my laptop.




These two designs used this palm-like design from the wrought iron railings from Park Guell in Barcelona.



This is another photo of the wrought iron railings and that lovely diamond shaped window above it.

Illustration Friday. A Monster

This my attempt at a monster. I used S C R I B B L E R to draw it. He hides in the cellar and is covered with cobwebs.
I wasn't too keen on the topic, but it was fun. I might try again later in the week.

The Scribbler is a very clever fun program where you draw an outline and then set it to do it's work of finishing the image. You can never tell what it will look like after the Scribbler has done it's work, but it is possible to stop when you are happy with the image.

Another design influenced by Gaudi

This design uses more Gaudi inspiration. Designing a spray of flowers was not intentional, but I quite like them. I used this little sketch and a Gaudi window in PSP9.

Gaudi Air-vents embroidered panel

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I just love these wonderful air-vents by Gaudi and I love using them in my work.


This panel used the air-vents and the diamond window as a reminder of a wonderful holiday.

I bought a Mountain

My friend Shirley of New Zealand Dyeing2Design saw my latest photos of Dyffryn Mymbyr and said she had just been reading the book 'I Bought a Mountain' by Thomas Firbanks. His wife Esme was a great friend of my piano teacher Mrs Southall and I read the book when I was young but had forgotten all about it until Shirley reminded me. I Googled it and came across this lovely story from the Washington Post. washingtonpost.com: Style Live: Travel
Here is a photo of a small part of her mountain. I took it becouse I have a thing about walls and take photos of them whenever I can. But that is another post I think.

A juicy meal

This my favourite of all yesterday's photos.


Here is another one I like, just look at the colour of that sap. Some little animal muat have had a juicy meal there. I think it's probably the grey squirrels, but it could be another little animal that lives by the lakeside. All the trees nearby are in a mess with all the bark eaten away.

Yesterday's journey through the mountains

As you can see it's still wintry in Snowdonia. That is Snowdon with a covering of snow in the back. This was taken from Llyn Mymbyr.



Another one of a wintry Snowdon. This was taken from above Llyn Gwynant. Did you notice those fields and sheep folds at the bottom of that photo? I took another one close up.

Gaudi Sketches

Here are some sketches from my Gaudi Sketchbook and the following shows work developed from them.

Missing images

I was going to post a page of my Barcelona sketchbook and some designs I created with them, but I'm afraid Blogger doesn't want to play ball again this morning. I will try tonight. Barcelona is one of the most inspiring cities I have ever visited, mostly because everywhere you turn there will be something created by Gaudi. Gaudi is one of my favourites in the art world.

I like to take parts of the images and develop my own from them, I have a feeling Gaudi would not have minded me doing this.

I will try again to put up some images when I get home tonight. I'm going to pick up my two grandsons from school and as it's a 50 mile journey and probably a few hold-ups on the country roads I am going early and will stop at Portmadoc on the way. There might be some photo opportunities on the way.

I had one more go at publishing an image, but no go!
The surprising thing about it all is the fact that it all works so well in the first place. Just imagine all of us uploading our images at such a rate, it's a wonder the system works so well.
I wish I could understand how it all works. I just imagine the airwaves all around us if we could see them with the naked eye, full of all sorts of images flying here and there. Then all those voices of people on their mobiles. It's so fascinating and I'm so glad I was born at just the right time to take a small part in all this.

Promised Gaudi photos

I promised to put up some of the Gaudi photos that had been lost. Here are the first two to start off with. I still need to scan the rest in.
I love the wrought iron railings with the curved spikes and the palm leaves in these two images and that little window is one of my favourites.

A spot of sun

The sun shone on the snow capped mountains last evening, leaving the rest in shadow and I thought it looked quite effective.

HMS Pickle sails again

I couldn't resist taking yet another photo of the HMS Pickle going out of the estuary on a trip.