I've been feeling crafty! I wanted to have a go at making my own paper; with the idea of my librarian character in mind I thought I'd have a go at making paper that included old book pages which I could then use in relation to that project.

Ironically you have to make paper out of paper so I started by ripping up different papers: white, brown paper bags, old books and finally I tore off strands of what I believe is some sort of brown and wirey insulation:

These had to then be left to soak in water overnight before mixing them all together in a washing up bowel and adding a small amount of liquid starch. Adding the starch meant that once I had made my paper, pen ink wouldn't bleed on it.

Using a flat wire mesh that I found in a charity shop I siphoned some of the paper mixture out from the bowel, then squeezed all the excess water out. I then left this to dry on a tea towel.

Here's my finished outcome! I had a go at making aesthetically different pieces of paper, changing the amount of different types of recycled paper in each batch. I'm sure you'll see these being used in part of my librarian project in the near future.

I've taken some time out of puppet making and all of that malarky to do a nice spot of painting for a friend. I've created some 'everlasting sweet peas' that are growing over four pieces of furniture.

It was nice to do some painting, something that I haven't done in what feels like a very long time. However I couldn't have completed the task without the help of my trusty friend Sparks, he was all too keen to wave his big brush of a tail around near the paint!

Earlier on this year, I went a bit bee mad taking hundreds of photos of the bumbling critters going crazy for the spring flowers in my garden.
I've just got round to editing a few of these photos; I'm not the most confident of people on Photoshop so this was a good excuse for me to get to know my way around the program better.

Here's the outcome: