Mirror Carp

Hi all,
 At last the weather has warmed up a bit. For a few days I thought a second ice age was upon us.
A couple of post ago I shared with you the first stages of a mirror carp that I was carving. Well I am pleased to confirm that it is finished.

I'm very pleased with the outcome. It was carved from a piece of lime using hand tools and a Dremel. I then used my pyrography iron to burn in the details. The biggest challenge was the eyes, which I made with some punched card using my wife's leather punch. It worked really well. I glued them on using Superglue and also used that to seal the cardboard. I wanted to keep the painting subtle because I didn't want it to look like plastic, so I used some diluted inks The only exception was the large mirror scales which I did with a metallic acrylic paint.

All in all it was a satisfying process and outcome and I may well do another spiecies. Now that the warmer weather is here I should be banging away at another project but it will have to wait a few days. We have just had some new garden fencing and my wife wants me to make trellis for the top so she can train some roses up it. So she has put an order in for 50 feet of the stuff, which means I'll be busy for a while. Who knows perhaps we'll get some rain and I can get back into the workshop.

By the way, 2 of my books will be free to download from Amazon over the next 3 days. The first is called "Fishing, Learn From The Tips" and the other is, "No Fishing In Here, Just Short Stories."
Please download a copy and have a laugh. All you have to do is, click on the books tab at the top of the page and then on the appropriate book cover. That will take you straight to Amazon for the download. Please enjoy and I will be back soon with another project.

Hip Hip Hurrray

Hi All,
At last it looks like the cold weather is finally going. It's been a very cold and long winter, I'm in my sixties and can't remember a worse winter than the one that is just ending. There may have been of course, but I can't remember weather like we had last week.

The only good thing that has come out of my cold enforced with drawl from my workshop, is the fact that my art work is getting better. I have been experimenting with acrylic inks and pencil sketching.

The image above is a clematis that I did with acrylic inks. I use them like watercolours but find that the colours seem much brighter. The downside is that they dry very quickly and once dry you can't do anything with the pigment because it is permanent. That is why most watercolour artist stay away from them. To me it is a blessing, because once they are dry and permanent I can put another glaze over the top and be sure that the layer underneath won't be disturbed. In the past, when I've done this with watercolours, the bottom layer has mixed with the new layer and the whole thing turned a bit muddy. This doesn't happen with acrylic inks.

Here's a couple of anemones also done in acrylic ink.

I have also been doing a bit of sketching with a pencil.

These are fritillaries and were quite fun to do.

So I have enjoyed the benefits that the cold weather bought, but I am desperately hoping to get into my workshop this week to make some shaving. Please keep come back to see how I get on.