Getting started - Module 1

Friday 13th March 2009

I've been working on Module 1 for a few weeks now and at last found the courage to set up a blog. I've been enjoying the work. It is nice to do something just for me. The first difficulty I found was that of materials. I had some things, but all very old (some of the paint was so hard I couldn't squeeze it out of the tube) and incomplete. I had a lovely time shopping for materials and I'm now fully equipped. That led to the second difficulty: where to work, where to store everything and trying to keep it all in some sort of order. A re-organisation of the study was needed. I still will have to get some storage. At the moment I'm working on an old dining table and all my materials stored in boxes and bags sitting around on the floor.

Everything has been put on hold for the past couple of weeks. My elderly and much loved aunt was rushed to hospital, which meant a 60 odd mile round trip to visit her. Since work was pretty busy too, I had no time to spare. Fortunately, she made a good recovery and is now home - weak and wobbly, but definitely on the mend. Next I went down with one of the most memorable colds I've ever had: runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, sore ears, swollen glands, cough, the lot. I lost the best part of a week and didn't even think of City and Guilds.

However, now Auntie Dodie is fine, I'm fine, the study is (sort of) tidy and I'm raring to go again.

Here's what I've done so far:

I went around the house and garden, taking digital photos of all the crosses I could see. I've put some of them together left.

I played about with some of them on Photoshop.

I looked on Google Images for pictures of crosses, some of which I printed off. I also drew some crosses from an encyclopaedia and put them in a sketchbook along with the printed images from Google.

Here are some pages from my sketch book:

Well, now it is late and it takes so long to get the pictures in the right place. My head is starting to thump and my shoulders are stiff with being on the computer so long, so I'll stop now and post the rest tomorrow.