One of the remaining passions from youth is the love of doing creative assignments. As an ART student in the 80's I had the luxury of a degree course through which to channel my creative energies. Up to now, as a mum and foster mum who works full time, there hasn't been the time or space to indulge the flashes of inspiration that have come to me. Most of my creative ideas have remained firmly in the closet of the imagination.
It's been a delight to me that now the children are older they are encouraging me to start projects and are even volunteering their assistance. Encouraged by their enthusiasm and the start of a New Year I have now embarked on an assignment commissioned over a year ago for someone's 60th birthday.
With the best will in the world it has not been easy! I was hampered initially by the fact that when I brought the 3X4 hard board on which to start the project it was placed in the garage to await the moment of inspiration when I would begin. A year on, the rectangle of hard board had begun to warp through being in the cold and damp and the laminate was separating! Undetered I reasoned that I could glue it back and began the laborious task of transferring the design onto a grid through which I could copy the precise image. 2 hours later I stood back to admire the master piece when hubby came in and promptly informed me that there was NO WAY you could glue back the hard board and that it was beyond repair.
The good news is that once in the frame of mind for this sort of thing, determination sets in and there's no stopping me. I immediately left for the timber yard and purchased a new piece of hard board. Happily the transference of the image was a lot quicker this time and the project can get underway. (That's once I have encouraged the girls to do the time consuming work of covering 100's of pieces of broken tiles with sticky back silver, did I mention that?)
The strategic placement of broken tiles is the next part of the process and then who knows, maybe it'll be ready as a 70th birthday commission!
