And now for something completely different!

20 Sept

Is everyone Yorked out yet? If not, don't worry; there are more posts to come. But just for a change, I thought I'd share a couple of things I've done this week that have been creative in a non-wordy way.

My first creative endeavour was all about spreading some lurve. I found The Lonely Bouquet scheme after reading an article in a flower magazine (whose title escapes me - apologies to the editor!). The idea is that small bouquets of flowers are left, in public, with a label attached to them inviting someone to take the bouquet home.

Now I really liked this idea.

You're supposed to use flowers from the garden, but I cheated this time and bought a couple of mixed bunches from the supermarket instead, as my garden is mainly green (weeds). Result: 3 bouquets in a variety of recycled pots.

While the kids were at orchestra, around 4pm, I found places to put them in a small area of my town. Here's where one of them ended up - the others were left on the steps of a church and a bench.

By the time I got home at 5.30pm, two of the three had already been found and were posted on Lonely Bouquet's facebook page to say where they'd ended up! Both had made a difference to their finders days...and it made me feel so good to have made that difference. I'm going to make some more - officially, Lonely Bouquet Day isn't till next June, but why wait to spread a little happiness in the meantime?

The second creative session I had was a long awaited birthday present - a stained glass workshop, bought by members of my family. The session was run in Belper by the lovely Jo Cuffley, who designs and makes the most amazing stained glass panels. We weren't making anything that ambitious - but I did come away with two beautiful light catchers.

First task was choosing our colours. Just look at the choice! Fortunately our first project needed just four rectangles...

We were encouraged to play with different mixes until we found the one that grabbed us. I kept saying things like 'I need it a bit bluer/greener/turquoisy,' at which point Jo looked at me over her glasses and said 'You're an artist - they have more trouble because they want to mix just the right colour!' You can't see too well from the photo, but the glass is also textured, or streaked with darker hues, or has air bubbles in it.

Copper foiling came next - edging every piece of glass so that the solder would stick. Quite fiddly to start with, but once I got the hang of it, pretty easy.

Next - soldering. This was flippin' hard, and several times I got the solder stuck to my suncatcher! Here's the finished square...

Then we moved onto a bigger piece - I loved the swirlyness of this shape. As you can see, I played with a rainbow, but as I have so many in my house already, decided toplay with colours that are in my bedroom as well.