Being brave.

When I started this blog I intended it to be a mixture of stuff about the shop, my creative pursuits and the places I like to explore. 

Looking back over posts so far, I can see that I've barely mentioned any of my art, so I've had a big think about why that should be.  I reckon it all boils down to confidence.  I'm always very nervous about putting my work out there for people to see, especially when it's something completely new. 

So today I'm being bold and brave and am going to show you something I've been quietly working on for a while.  I'd really appreciate your thoughts - both positive and negative (now I've taken this big brave step I have to be able to accept criticism!).

For a long time I've been fascinated by the work of an American artist called Sandy Steen Bartholemew.  She is an amazing artist and illustrator and (amongst her many projects) has written a number of books giving advice and suggestions for the incredibly relaxing and enjoyable art of zentangling.

Using just white paper, a good quality black pen, and a pencil for shading, you can create some fabulous zentangles.  I've done several small test pieces but, never having any use for the finished product, they usually just ended up in the recycling! 

When we were on holiday at Easter I bought a small sketching book in which I did some silly sketches of the things we got up to on holiday, and I plan to keep adding to this every time we go away.  On the cover was one of those really annoying stickers which ripped the fabric when I removed it, so I decided I'd recover it - and my first zentangling 'project with a purpose' was born!

I was really pleased with the result and had a think about what else I could do, eventually coming up with the idea of greetings cards.

This final one is a work in progress...

It's a scary step to take to commit to having some printed - what if no-one likes them?  - what if I'm left with boxes and boxes of the things?  I do need to have some of my other cards (from paintings) reprinted as stocks are very low, so at least I can combine different designs into one big order which makes these new designs a bit less of a financial gamble.

Decisions, decisions....