Fishing Bear & Tweed Triceratops...

 This is my first attempt at painting a bear using one of the reference photos I took from the webcam in Alaska.  There was not much colour in the photo so I had to do a lot of it from memory plus some guesswork!  I think if I was to do this again, I would omit some of the background, but onthe whole I am quite pleased with it. 

I nearly ruined it in the final stages however - I wanted to use my new diffuser to spray white acrylic ink over to give the effect of water spray.  This was not as easy as I thought, as the ink clogged up the tube a little and I ended up hyperventilating to get it to work.  There was some strategic placement of kitchen paper to prevent it going everywhere as it is quite hard to control.  Just when I thought it was done and dusted, I picked the diffuser out of the ink bottle & reached across my painting to put it into the water pot....and dripped huge gobbets of white ink all over the bear!  Argh!  Luckily I managed to get it out very fast.

I'd like to try another one using what I learnt here, but next up is a dog portrait.

I also finished this triceratops today - he's made from some fancy Harris tweed that I bought at Thread the other day.  It is a nightmare to hand-sew as it frays very easily, but once it is sewn, the end result is sturdy enough.  This was using a Japanese pattern I have.

The horns etc. are from orange felt.  This took a while to assemble, but always worth going the extra mile as the detail are what makes it special.  He is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Who's This?

Deep in the undergrowth, something stirs and peeks out between the leaves.....


....it's another one of those flowery dinosaurs! A triceratops this time, sewn in a lovely pink and green upholstery fabric with a pattern of leaves and roses.


This fabric (and I have quite a lot of it) has been lurking in my craft supplies for years - so long that I am not even sure where I obtained it from. It's been used for cushions, lampshades, bag linings, and now a dinosaur. The horns, spikes, belly and soles of the feet are green felt and she has safety backed green eyes.


The legs are sewn in place - until I get a really long needle (Do they make them about 4 inches long? Do tell me if you know!) all the legs on these dinosaurs will have to be fixed in place, but that doesn't detract from their appeal.

This young lady will be going into my Etsy shop very shortly.

Whilst in the garden, I realised that with the nights getting chillier it was time to pick all the grapes from my vine. After getting the step ladder and picking through all the leaves to get every last bunch, I was amazed at just how many there were.


I weighed them, and with taking off a bit for the bowls, there are approximately 10 lbs (5 kilos) here! I've decided it's going to be grape jelly, not the wine with this lot - at least with jelly I know what I am doing.

While I was doing this, someone was watching intently.......


....I actually caught him sitting on the top of a mound of grapes picking out the bugs, but when he saw me and my camera he flitted on to the washing line.

- O-

For the past fortnight, my son and his girlfriend have been in Borneo. I've tried really hard to be sanguine about this and not worry, but I can't deny I'll be glad when they get home tomorrow. I wonder if he managed to find any beads..........

D'yoothinkeesaurus?

Well, this is one Tyrannosaur you won't hear crashing through the undergrowth - I think he's a bit light in the loafers if you know what I mean, what with his floral pattern and the natty polka-dot green bow tie. But he is rather cute and cuddly which is not a bad thing to be, so you can't be afraid of his gleaming white teeth, no matter how hard he gnashes them.

He has been made from a piece of vintage floral fabric, with pink felt for his tummy, inner mouth and soles of his feet. He has yellow safety backed eyes, and button-jointed forearms. He has buttons on his hind legs too, but it was impossible to make them jointed as the body was far too thick for any needle I possess to go through, so they are sewn in place.

I'm really pleased with how this experiment turned out - I think there will be more of these.....I have patterns for a stegosaurus and a tricerotops too.

He is now going up for adoption on my Etsy shop.

I've just had to have a bit of a sit down with a cup of tea in order to recover....we went blackberrying with the dog and while we weren't looking, someone across the field flushed out two deer. Next thing we saw was our high-powered saluki racing towards a main road at full tilt after them. Thank the Good Lord my dog comes back when called (bellowed at several times) even with such an exciting prey racing ahead. Shame the camera was at home this time - now that would have made some photo!

Stufflessaurus.....

A break from painting horses today - finished one, need coloured paper to start the next - so a complete change. I'm using a Japanese pattern for a felt mascot, but using floral fabric instead. Who wouldn't love a flowery Tyrannasaurus Rex? Trouble is, it's quite a bit bigger than my usual toys and I've run out of stuffing.......

I'll just have to sew all the bits and wait until I can get to the craft shop tomorrow.