“We Are All Made of Stardust’ | The Contented Crafter

It’s been almost a month since I last posted – did you notice? I’ve been enjoying some lovely Autumnal weather, kicking my way through carpets of brown and gold spread across damp green fields in my pink ‘bovver boot’ gumboots with my happy puppy gamboling alongside. It’s turning cooler now and the days are noticeably shorter. Serendipitously, I decided to change ISP providers and got ‘LightBox’ free as part of the deal so it’s time for me to catch up on some TV programmes.

My tiny courtyard has been half demolished as a new fence had to be built. My lovely neighbour went to hang a piece of garden art on his side of the old brick wall and it wobbled alarmingly. So it was decided it needed to come down before major damage ensued. As the replacement is a lovely white painted solid wood fence the garden that was built up against the brick wall (and which was probably the only thing holding the wall up for the past twenty years) also went. I get a tiny bit of extra space and now want even more…. It’s a work in progress.

‘We Are All Made of Stardust’ stands on my dining table, leaning against the wall – I’ve grown quite fond of it.

With the big painting finished, and when time allows, I’ve been playing quietly in my art room. Nothing big and bold – just playing with paints and inks and shapes and colours.

I’ve learnt a lot. I turned most of my experiments into cards and have photographed none of them. Oooops!

I finally scanned the painting I made in the dying days of 2016 which bears my mantra for this year: ‘Create Beauty; Cultivate Kindness; Expect Miracles’ I’m practising living it, I fail every day but it’s an excellent challenge.

2017 Mantra

Most recently I laid out four sheets of yupo paper and played with alcohol inks and metallic mixatives

Set 2 Brown cropped

Set 2 Green cropped

Set 2 Blue cropped

and my personal favourite:

Set 2 Pink cropped

I may or may not doodle on these, but I do have some interesting plans afoot for them which involves a largish art board and scissors and glue ……

This month I also finished a collage and mixed media painting for a special friend which I’ll show you when she has received it.

Just a heads up – Siddy is apparently considering moving to Canada

16 4 17 Canadian bandana

It was a gift from the delightful Ms Boomdee. He’s a boy who likes a bandana!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

It is done – and what a marathon! I have to thank you, my dearly beloved regular and loyal readers – or in this case, viewers – who came by with so many thoughts and guesses and questions and who inspired me to tweak a little here and adapt a little there until the final version appeared.

So here we go folks, for the last time let’s recap and see where it did end up

Phase 1

Phase1

Phase II

Phase 2

Phase III

Phase3

Phase IV

Phase4

Phase V

6 Phase 5

We Are All Made Of Stardust

8 Phase6 cropped

Detail pics

9 Phase 6 detail1

10 Phase 6 detail2

I always knew it was going to be a dream catcher drifting in the wind. I did not know until you interacted with me that it would become a dream catcher drifting through the cosmos, gathering stardust and starlight. Carl Sagan’s words came to me as I began the final work on the many little galaxies and universes scattered about:

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
― Carl Sagan – Cosmos

And having mentioned Mr Sagan, how can we not end without going there, to his Pale Blue Dot