The muse is back!

Honestly, it/they have been gone for a bit more than a year this time! I began to lose hope. I did lose complete belief in my ability to create anything beautiful ever again in this lifetime. I've been living a 'crisis of faith,' though my other faith (spiritual) has been stronger than ever so perhaps the two faiths have crossed paths this time. All I know is that I am bursting with ideas and belief in my self. I embrace the Universe creatively these days. No complaints here...but I'll say that there seems to be not enough time in one day to do all I want to do. It's all good...

Those of you who know me know my love/passion for using used tea bag paper as a ground. And of my love/obsession [it's in my blood] with making wee books. Say an inch or so by an inch or so~in that category. And so I work small. If I fill a whole tea bag then that is a big painting for me. My books are filled with little drawings and paintings of things. A lot of birds. You'll see from my last post that I've been working on a new design little book and had plans to make more. I have. And while making them the muse arrived into my life again. Ideas abound. Belief in myself impregnates me. I rediscovered my original love for things calligraphy, illuminated letters and small painting and I am designing pages of illuminated letters/miniature painting to adorn the front inside page of my little books AND stumbled upon the idea to do the illuminated letters/miniature painting in a pendant format as well. That way I don't have to make a complete little book to feature one illuminated letter and can just (well 'just' is a bit of an understatement but you know what I mean) pop the drawing into a bezel and cover it with a protective layer of resin. This is where my expert daughter Jennifer comes to my rescue. I'm not about to enter a learning curve of working with resin. There's only so much I can ask of the muse.

Anyway, I'm enthused and that rhymes with muse and not wanting to confuse (forgive me) I'll show you an illuminated letter I did and posted three years back this August.



You can see the teabag paper [used] clearly here. I work mostly with watercolor but sometimes venture into the acrylic realm. It's a mystery to me. I did one complete acrylic painting which is a COPY stroke by stroke of what I saw in the original painting [a post card.] I thought I might learn something during this process. I didn't. When I ventured into trying to do something of my own with acrylic, it is a dog's breakfast. I think I will stick with watercolor. Anyway, here is my acrylic COPY which taught me nothing.

Starting out. 


 Coming along.


Ready for my close up. Meow! (note: I didn't get a photo of the finished piece. I painted LONG whiskers right on top of the painting where they should be located using a dagger paint brush which is used by sign painters to get a long long clean line.)
 

 A watercolor folly. Bwaaaahaaaaa.
 

 A real mummy. His lips are kept closed by a pine cone spine I think it is.

 Coming along. Oh my what nice eyes you have!
 

 So as you can see, watercolor(especially on used tea bag paper) is my thang. I'm just trying out doing calligraphy [script lettering this time] directly onto the paper with a mapping pen. Pointed steel against fragile tea bag paper. A day in the life... Lovely chatting and who knows, I may post more often now that the muse has returned. Good day to ye' and wishes for a great day. Norma, x