January 11,2014 Life Is A Journey

Life's journey has many possible Paths

Thought For Today:  "A person often Meets his destiny on the  road he took to avoid it."
Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695) French Poet

        I do not consider myself an artist. I would certainly like to consider myself that but it is seriously doubted I could qualify. That said, I do what I can. Today is the day I show my efforts at artistry for your amusement. It is OK. My reaction to my own efforts is "What were you thinking?" I've tried so many things I've lost count. Some were acceptable, some I would be embarrassed to share. For now we will avoid the embarrassing. Groan! Maybe at another time.
        Every now and then we all try something different. In the past I created many different things. (Accent on things). Unfortunately but happily no picture or scanned image exists of those efforts. I do, however, have an example of a cross created using brass brazing wire. JD from ribbonchallenged.bogspot.com made a card from it. How convenient.

        To create the cross a jig had to be created using a board and doweling cut to about 1" lengths. Hole were drilled to get the desired pattern and the brazing wire wrapped around the resulting pegs. Since the wire was not long enough to do the entire cross, only half the cross was created at a time. A solder bead was used to tie the two halves together. Two more beads were used to keep the two halves from separating, one at the junction of the beams and one half way down the vertical beam. Simple!
        Want another example? Below is basically the same cross done a little differently.

        The cross form was created in the same way as the one on the card above. The only difference is that after the two halves were created and put together, another piece was created to add to the cross bar. It is passable for the first (and LAST) attempts. It was a huge amount of time and effort to make it work. Two days, several hours of mumbling and gritting teeth, not to mention the walks around the block to cool down when things didn't work out, were needed to finish both crosses.
        The next example of attempted art was with drawing. You must understand something. When you attempt to do something like draw, you need art supplies that other professional artists do not need. The most important is an adequate supply of erasers and an ample supply of paper so you can change paper as you erase holes in it. After several nights and a few sheets of paper the below image emerged.

        It is supposed to be a Saw Whet Owl. I colored it so the mistakes would be hidden. It was supposed to be a line drawing. Smart HUH? On that note, comes the next image.

        It is supposed to be a Great Horned Owl with it's ear tufts laying back.Can they even do that? Oh well, here it is.
        

It does get better...I think! Believe it or not I did do an owl that turned out pretty well. Rosy Greer would be proud. It is a cross stitch image that now hangs in the media room of the Feathered Nest Inn in Woodstock, Virginia. Th proprietor, Iris Karl, fell in love with it so I gave it to her. It was not completely finished but it was the way she liked it.
        Let's see Where do we go from here? How about two more  entries for today. One is a crewel (Hope that is correct) picture of butterflies.

        This took 3 years to do. No not two years straight but off and on. I broke both major shin bones and a socket in my right leg. had a cast from mid thigh to the end of my toes for three months. No walker for the first month because of the socket. Bummer. I am still married to the same person even though I drove us both crazy. Enough reminiscing! Hope you like the image.
        Much of it was done with a magnifying glass. Some of this required quarter stitches. you sewers out there know how tedious that can be. I do not remember the Aida cloth count but it was small. Love the image. Some day if I find another and can still see well enough I will do another. Riiigghht! Don't hold your breath! I want to stay married.
        I'll stop boring you and get to the final image. This is a bit of photography.

        Pretty isn't it? This was an adornment atop on of my wife's storage boxes. The light coming through one of the skylights in our dining room hit the arrangement just right. I couldn't resist grabbing my camera and snapping this picture. It is called grabbing the moment. It also makes the perfect ending to this post. Hope you enjoyed it. Next, we are back to the Copics again. I'll try not to bore you too much.  LOVE THE DETAILS.