Mini Fun...

 I've been playing around with patterns from a couple of books by Sachiyo Ishii that I bought recently.  Right up my street!  The gull is about an inch long.

I don't know what to make next, so much to choose from - more wild animals or possibly the group of teeny tiny fishermen...

Box & Bears

Since Christmas I have been struggling a bit with artists block - I've wanted to paint but inspiration has been hard to find.  Last week I needed to paint something, anything, so dug out this wooden box that has been languishing in a corner for far too long and painted good old Otis the bear on it.

 First I painted the whole thing black using acrylic paint, then mapped out the picture with a light blue pastel pencil.  Originally I intended for the picture to extend over the bottom of the box as well, but as the work continued, I realised this would have been too much.

 As the background was black, the light colours had to be gone over a bit more than usual but I like the shadows & mood having a black background creates.

Also discovered that the white acrylic pen I have writes beautifully over the background - must remember that for signatures in future.

Once the box was painted and varnished, I lined the inside with a quirky little cotton print covered in a fish print - well, a bear's gotta eat!

This didn't last 24 hours - sold!

On Friday I went to Unravel, the yarn & knitting show - not been for a couple of years as my yarn stash could be used for a stall in it's own right, but after weeks of working hard at home I thought I could do with a day out.  Whilst there, I bought a cute book, Mini Knitted Safari, with patterns for teeny tiny wild animals.  Of course the first one I tried was a bear....

Little White Dog...

 Amongst the ton of knitted stuff I can't show (there's going to be a book!) I have knitted this little dog.  She's part of a commission - thankfully the lady I'm making things for is being very patient with me!

As this is kind of a replica of the lady's own dog, I had to find the right yarn combination for the fur - this is some alpaca boucle, which is quite fine, mixed with white baby yarn.  I brushed the ears to get the fuzziness required.

Once the book work is out of the way, I shall be free to knit other mini dogs - if you'd like your pet replicated in wool, just let me know!

New Website

I've spent the past week or so getting a new website up and running - find it here .http://carolinebletsis.com/

Peanut & A Lily...

It was a wet and blustery day today, the kind of day you stay in and get on with some painting!  Here is the bear 902 aka Peanut/Fifi when she was a cub.  I've painted her a few times, mainly because she was just so cute but also because she defied the odds and despite being the tiny, skinny runt of the litter, survived and thrived to adulthood.  Last seen in the autumn of 2018 at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, looking very fat and ready for hibernation.  I can;t wait to see her return in the Spring!

I have also re-vamped the lily painting - I like using paint dribbles on my paintings but this time it didn't work at all.  So I painted the whole background gold and am happy with it now.  Once I can photograph it in the daylight (there was not much of that today) it will go up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Website & Work In Progress...

Just a quick note to say that I am in the process of re-furbishing my website so it will be off-line for a few days.  The web host I was with for years could not solve the problem I had of not being able to upload all the photos I have of my paintings - some loaded, some did not - which after a year was getting very frustrating indeed.  So I have changed host, which means a transfer of name, complete overhaul of my site using a new template and generally a minor nervous breakdown as I am not tech savvy inthe slightest!  Hopefully all should be back up and running soon.

In the meantime, after a few weeks of crippling artist's block, I am back and working on a bear cub!